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Audio&Games

Garden 8

This Gabe Newell interview is making the rounds these days. Because he said:

We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It’s a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.

So right, it’s FUD time because Gabe has a lot to lose with the Windows 8 store (also, Xbox Live integration). No one is pointing this out? In the interview he also says that touchscreen is a short term fad. I wish people would debate around this -it’s a big statement and very interesting- but no, people are focusing on Windows 8 being a catastrophe for Valve and everyone else.

Don’t you think it’s not that surprising to have digital distribution’s leader talking trash about upcoming competition? Don’t you think that Gabe could have started and invest Linux way before store competition forces him to do so? Don’t you think that knowing that Gabe is an ex-Microsoft employee who built his empire on top of Windows, you can take these declarations with a grain of salt?

Why am I in an industry that wishes new distribution channels to fail? Why wouldn’t you be interested in a new platform, touch more users, when making games is so hard and unpredictable as for the outcome’s success? I don’t get it. More options, what’s so bad about it? Unless they really screw us, there’s no need to wish them the worst when they are not even available yet. It just doesn’t seem professional at all.

Here’s the news: there is no perfect platform and there will be no perfect one. The only way for platforms to get better for developers is them competing to get us. We, developers need to push them to compete (by doing this p 58/66), this is how we can get leverage. Ouya is on its way to allow us to change the console area and that’s good. I don’t wish them to fail even if I see many obstacles on their road as well if not more than Microsoft’s Windows 8. They’re both shaking competition. That’s good for us. Apple disrupted our world, punched Nintendo/Sony’s handheld businesses. Now they’re sitting on their ass. Google didn’t change the market as deeply neither Amazon but whatever, let’s encourage players to play shall we? It’s Microsoft’s turn, no need to be a dick we need this competition. For example, it’s great that they included a trial mode in their marketplace for apps and games, a thing still missing in GooglApple ecosystems. That’s good for us. Let’s take advantage of this dynamic.

Platforms are gardens and we create seeds. No seeds, no garden. No garden, no people. Then, how creating seeds in an overcrowded walled garden where they will slowly die is better than creating seeds in a new, relatively more open environment where they can grow? And when your seed (game, IP) is strong enough port it in a crowded garden (I never thought Minecraft would come on Xbox AND be a massive hit on it).

At the end, you never know which one will succeed. So keep an eye on all of them and be honest about what they are/can do.

Categories
Me Myself&I

WolfBANG

Another truth imho is that we all watch too much TV, and that’s what really makes us crazy.

I feel it. I’m completely Breaking Bad’s bitch, jumping and cringing in front of my monitor once a week. I started  the show over just by watching the pilot again.

And it’s violent, I had forgotten about it because I’m sedated like most of you guys. It’s violently “real”, there’s something terrible about the fact that if drugs were legal, there would be no critically acclaimed show (same with Weeds). There would be probably much less violence in Mexico too. I’d be good with that.

Our global society  is not handling well endemic problems (unemployment) and people’s solutions (I’ve been told that dealing drugs is very lucrative). Meanwhile, a TV drama shows us exactly how we can justify death to provide for our families and my family deserves more than yours. It feels plain wrong. Back to Scarface. At the same time we try to be more humans and caring (gay marriage and goose loving and whatnot) but it’s totally against what we value out there with our minds and our pockets: violence, aggressiveness. Dexter, Call of Duty, Steve Jobs, Skrillex. Mad Men is like a new genre I call “Quiet 60s Conservatism Aggression”.

We’re angry too. I understand “getting it out” through violence: sports, playing punk rock or slapping the bass are great activities for that. But this aggression towards others, everyone, wholly and fully against anything for your little clan is a little too primal.

Simply put, we ain’t no fucking wolves no more.


-Courage +Wolf

Categories
Me Myself&I

Listen and solve (echoing)

It’s always good to think about something and see articles echoing my thoughts.

The dangerous gap between those who make software, and those who use it.

I’m a high end user comfortable with anything on a computer, knowing how things work to a ridiculous level. I’m not saying that to brag, I’m saying it by helping my mom on Office 2010 or reading this article above or how some people really still love a decade old XP’s interface and violently express it on the Windows 8 blog.

The truth is we, high end users developers and designers are fighting over stupid shit that 99% of people don’t care about and we live in a masturbatory bubble.

This is what I said about game programmers not listening to what’s going on outside that bubble, what players, users clients whatever you call them, really want. You guys should not just be listening to the hype or what would make your app, service and yourself cool but you should listen to people who are actively expressing some needs even if they seem to suck. Because these people have a problem that you can fix, and might even charge for. You make him happy, you earn some income.

Other echo on my reflections about race, black people and computer games.

We’re not saying that this stuff exists because of some hidden malice or secret industry-wide conspiracy to keep minorities in America down. The much sadder truth is that all this bullshit comes from simple, old-fashioned laziness. There’s no good reason video games can’t be infinitely smarter, more responsible and better than this — it’s just going to take time, thought, hard work and a bit of empathy.

And shit, who has time for that? Game developers have got to get another Callfield: Dutybattle out the door by Q3 or the EA monster will devour their children.

See the pattern? People so into their own power of creating apps and games that they don’t care or respect people at the other end. Seriously, stop this shit and please reconsider your position on this.

Oh you have to watch this 8 minutes Call of Juarez video it’s just… How the hell can they get away with this.

Categories
Me Myself&I

Frightening

2012, we live in a world where it’s forbidden to post a nude picture on pretty much any social media service but where you can buy assault riffles easily.

I know it will probably not change in my lifetime but you people spawning kids jesus fuck you’d better invert the trend because maybe that’s just me but I’d rather have a 16 year old daughter taking pictures of her body than dead (yeah it’s a stretch to see it this way but that’s nothing compared to more-gun-control-is-reducing-my-freedom people’s insane arguments, nothing).

Categories
Audio&Games

Fezlash

Ouch, comments.

So what would you do: release a game on PC, deal with multiple hardware but getting more money while being able to patch whenever you want for free or release a game on console, deal with one hardware, getting less money while paying to patch and release?

The answer always has been release on PC and keep the IP but as pointed out recently, developers don’t listen, don’t want to listen whatever. How many people saying “I don’t have a console but I have a computer and I’d gladly pay for this game please?”. I’m not the only one reading that all the time and it’s not new. When I read that “XBLA was THE place to be in 2008 because yay Braid” I’m like no, you wanted to think that but a lot was going on at that time and the iPhone was as much of a place to be as Steam and the PC were. Jon Blow himself wasn’t hiding the problems with XBLA so there’s no excuse, only choices.

But developers don’t give a fuck. Releasing a game on console is like the supreme achievement. Releasing a game that people love is, the platform’s coolness is so irrelevant to me. Phil stated it:

It’s made to be played with a controller, on a couch, on a Saturday morning. To me, that matters; that’s part of the medium.

So here’s the thing, you don’t tell me how to play your game. If I want to play it in my bed on a laptop this is none of your business and your game will not fucking change, dammit. Stop this nazi-signer you’re-holding-it-wrong Jobs like bullshit.

I would not be surprised if this corrupted saved game bug was easy to fix on PC if existing at all (the save system on consoles is a nightmare of complexity).

So remember young game developer: Release on PC and keep the IP.

Categories
Me Myself&I

Real design is useful and lost battles are lost

Screw you, I love my Prius.

My dad has one. He never gave a shit about cars (you wouldn’t believe at how he throws his rusted tools or kick some stuff in the trunk of a brand new car) but after using French cars -yes, PSA- for decades and having problems with them, he thought he would try this new thing and save the world blabla.

He just gave his old Prius to his brother and got a new one. He drives a lot, never had a single problem. Not once.

I’ve been pretty amazed at the design of this car. It’s more than well thought. Every single detail. It doesn’t look that good from the outside but the inside man. Absolutely nothing is left behind, everything has a purpose. That’s beautiful design. The absolute elegance of gliding on electric power, not making any noise but a little electrical hiss? Priceless. Only this felt more amazing.

It’s painful to watch my country not getting it. The car business is massively supported by French taxes and we’re hitting a wall but we still try to not look at the Prius, the Yaris or German cars that are so popular and of course sell much better than our own production. Our competition is better than us and three car manufacturers who can’t export in a small country like France is more than overkill.

But the worst part is that the industry today, the main industry today is not cars. We lost this one (and we’ll probably lose the high speed train one, we never managed to sell our tech despite having a 30 years head start fuck me). The industry today and tomorrow is happening with software, services and all this high tech where we’re getting absolutely fucked too, by a heavy competition and a terrible lack of support from the government compared to the disgusting amount of money injected in the car business lost battle for years.

Categories
Me Myself&I

Tokyo SMASH

Tokyo Smash from har0ld on Vimeo.

Beat by me, Tokyo by Japan.

 
Beat by me, MC Lyte by MC Lyte.

It’s very interesting to work on a hip hop beat. There’s much more going on than you would think, there’s a lot of work over details changing absolutely everything because it’s pretty straightforward, kick snare hi hat, bass and chords looping. The whole thing has to punch and feel like you never can have enough. Great challenge, it’s really addicting.

It’s been very good to try out and push limits, practice the best design tools for music : EQ & COMP. I love this snare smashing doors opening up for MC Lyte’s shotgun voice and tone killing everything  in the room.

I wanted somebody rapping something more introspective, kind of looking back on life and how to look up and not give up and stuff. Whatever.

Enjoy, yo.

Categories
Audio&Games

Change, skeleton and diversity

Game development started in the 70s, when racism sexism and segregation were supposed to end, or at least they were discussed and people knew they were wrong. To summarize.

Because game development started with personal computers, only rich white people could afford them for their kids therefore game development quickly became a 110% white men. Now 10% of women. About 20% of Asians if not more. 1.5% or 2% of black people and Latinos in 2005, maybe less today. I mean the LGBT community and issues they have are bigger in the gaming internet world than racial diversity is, how is that? I’m not sure I’ve worked with more than 3 black people like me, lost in an ocean of machines and white guys over a decade doing game audio. Trust me it gets on your nerves at some point or at least, a lot of questions come in.

We are now a $65 billion a year industry where apparently in the biggest market that is the US, black people and Hispanics play and purchase more games than any other ethnic group.

You see how wrong all this is?

So post-WWII post-civil rights movement post-feminism generations are allowing the same racism and bigotry as before, only softer (maybe not so soft in multiplayer online games). The system is against minorities (expensive computers were, knowledge and networks are) and education doesn’t shift anything if people are too busy solving crazy game related problems to even think about including change in what they do, diversity is not their problem. They probably think social progress has been done and that it’s minorities’ fault if nothing changes. Game developers understand very well systems (or at least they should) but they are often introverted nerds who really, really appreciate their routines and the coziness of a stable world with no change. Like heroes of their games.

 
Imagine me saying to the 99% white team: “could we have something else than a white dude, just for a change you know? No? Hey come back!”.

Change is a process guys, not a destination nor a light switch. You need to change too. Everyone. Everyday.

Every year the GDC is almost crying for “more diversity, yay!” but the industry is hiring on compatible aesthetics, driven by publishers’ marketing schedule which means that a person like me is not really connecting with the overall white game culture (I’ll never be a Games of Throne D&D board games fan, I come from the play world of musical instruments, 8/16bits and PC games and skateboard sorry). They say designers should be curious and explore plenty of things, I’ve been used to diversity, all my life. It’s the “other side” who’s not despite knowing that they need people like me. It’s just weird.

Where are the black owned game studios oh snap, they don’t exist at all. 30 years in and it’s still not happening? You’d think Hollywood is crazy conservative but they are at least smart enough to understand where the money is how to provide for an audience. The game industry absolutely fails at that, even when the industry has some hints.

You know GTA San Andreas the game around black dudes and crime in California? Best selling game ever on PS2. Third best selling game of all time in 2010. Biggest success for a GTA game at 27.5 million copies, something that will probably never happen again (on a side note, gamers questions about which GTA game is the best always end up with racist slurs).

But I guess we can’t do “black-themed” games without crime in them, can we? *crickets*

Where I lose a bit of hope is that even on simple, not complex race-related things game developers fail at providing or nurturing openness and diversity. The pattern is simple: they assume something and/or you can go fuck yourself. Like considering that everybody is right-handed in a FPS (you’re laughing but aiming accuracy is much higher when the weapon is on the side of the aiming eye and yes, I’m a lefty) or thinking that maybe some people can’t use WASD correctly, game developers fail at being accessible, at opening up to people despite having a medium allowing us to make changes like we want, more than ever today. We don’t really take advantage of this malleability, which is not available for any other medium. What a shame to be so stiff.

Other simple change that doesn’t really happen: audio. We all know that the earlier in the process game audio is started, the better it influences and merges with the rest. It’s not even a game feature, it’s been known since Star Wars at least. And yet at the 2012 GDC the two keynotes on audio highlight that audio was -wait for it- started early in the process and helped make the games stand out (Bastion and Ravenwood Fair). Like it’s a discovery for computer game professionals, really? These games are going to be exceptions in a sea of games with bad audio? We don’t change. We painfully crawl without looking around. The GDC becomes Groundhog Day too often these days. We get stuck in loops of inactions.

Even with words we suck at change. Video game is a terrible term for our medium (it has this immature stigmata) I’ll say it over and over. What “video” means for teenagers today anyway? Nothing. But if in the industry you talk about computer games people think you’re overreacting.

I feel down watching a 1988 Chris Crawford talk because it’s still so relevant to us. 88, it shouldn’t be the case goddamn. How people can get butthurt with Raph Koster’s game grammar or don’t understand how AAA studios close one after another, I don’t know. It’s crystal clear to me. Some people explained very precisely how and why the current way games are produced is doomed if you don’t want to hear it, please don’t. But you should stop doing that if you care about computer games.

I mean if you don’t even care about business decisions and trends of your own fast-moving field, if you don’t try to think ahead of that, how can you think of integrating more minorities or even feel that the gamedev community needs to do something about that? At the end it’s not your problem, right? Wrong.

The game industry and culture are a small island shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, mostly because of the lack of openness and diversity (real diversity, not having black hookers in a “lol next gen” Sci-Fi game). It’s an interesting time with the big studios dissolution trend, small teams are back. Will they think of expanding horizons or will they stick even more to the same paradigm? Unfortunately I see the latter happening more often than not (it makes sense though, it’s a protective reflex to stick with people like you when you are in struggle).

The game industry smart people’s inability to actually provide and support change in a 30 year old industry born after huge social progress -the biggest ever- is deeply infuriating, pretty depressing. And I don’t know what to do. Except my own thing, I guess.

Categories
Me Myself&I

CRSP

Cleanness. Ruthlessness. Smartness. Politeness. Giancarlo Esposito’s character in Breaking Bad Gus, is the epitome of that. On Reddit comments show that people dig and are scared of this man at the same time like no other character on TV.

 
*badass poker face*

It seems like when these character traits are of a black man, it triggers simultaneously utter fascination and extreme fear. It creates a sense of scary perfection I think: someone with confidence, who takes no BS and cares about what’s going on, who knows how to behave to any situation with knowledge and experience and who has a lean, firm body that doesn’t age with potentially a big dick or a rounded ass attached to it? Man, that’s scary perfection. Beyond politics, that’s Barack and Michelle. Compared to my French president and his wife it’s not even the same league.

That’s some creepy stuff right here not only for white folks (but mostly), for black people too because somehow it goes beyond these two’s expectations of what being black mean, which simply means to be proud of who you are and do what you want to do like everybody else. It shouldn’t be creepy but thanks to living in a white controlled world (who is still discussing something as irrelevant as knowing where the president was born in 2012? Not people of color), it is.

Take rappers, prominent black figures of today. They have ruthlessness and smartness, they went from nothing to quite a lot doing whatever was needed. But they miss cleanness and politeness so people don’t think of them around them. They’re like clowns on TV. When Jay Z tries to be the casual dude, you don’t believe it.

Now this bad motherfucker right here who -in the show- can talk his way, is loved by everyone and gets what he wants without no one noticing anything but a polite and charming man, now that’s crazy. That could actually happen.  Of course it happens with white dudes everyday but somehow, they’re off the radar. If traders were black, they wouldn’t steal anything as there would be a cop behind them at all time.

This happened to Giancarlo recently:

Days before the interview, Esposito was stopped and frisked by New York police while walking out of a theater where he was rehearsing a play. After several frantic minutes – with him and officers screaming, and their guns drawn – they realized they had the wrong guy. Their suspect had a hoodie, and Esposito was wearing a suit. When it was over, one of the officers recognized him, from his recent turn on ABC’s "Once Upon a Time."

He doesn’t get upset about it, his entire career is based on race. He stays clean, he ruthlessly keeps his pain for himself because it’s a smart thing to do and he probably was very polite to the police. Like bad mofos do. CRSP.

Categories
Me Myself&I

Shit

It’s not that everything turns into shit but they kind of do though. The last bastion was family but I guess I see it crack more and more. Some people who were so close don’t see each other anymore and so on. It’s weird. I’m so naive. I want to believe! When I was a kid I remember saying to my parents that we should have a huge BBQ thing with BOTH of my families and that it would be the best thing ever. I remember seeing them smile and tell me that it might not happen, they didn’t say why I just had to grow up witness and understand why I didn’t have to be upset about the “aw that’s cute” vibe they sent. Anyway.

Thanks, stupid ideas
Sigh

So before they did this stupid bike lane, you could park in my street (it’s going to be important later). On the right side we had parking spaces. They decided that it was not useful to have parking spaces so they took them off. Then they put a bike lane. Then they put these green barriers on the right so you can’t park on the sidewalk. Then they put these retarded white HUGE things so that people can’t park on the bike lane (they do anyway, btw) and also can’t maneuver something big like a horse trailer.

So first that picture happens everyday with different configurations of annoyances. Cars use their horns, of course. Did I mention that there’s a bus line too so that if you park slightly off the bike lane the bus can’t go? He uses his big horn too. I’ve seen a bus stopped for 25 minutes, you can imagine the concerto.

Second my building has sewer problems, these days it smells super bad downstairs. Pipes are almost a hundred years old, it had to happen. So it’s clogged as fuck. So we need to pump it out. So we need a truck. So we need to park close: you can’t run a big diameter pipe across the street with cars and buses, obviously.

So now it’s a clusterfuck, I had to call the town hall, we have to get the authorization from the bus line (15 days in advance), move the stops of said bus line for a day, stop cars for a day too and synchronize the company doing the job so that we can literally pump the shit out of my building and pay around $1200 for this.

It’s great.

People most concerned by the problem downstairs don’t do much except complain, my dad already tried to unclog it by himself but it didn’t work long. Too many baby wipes too (guys wipes clog, don’t throw them in the toilet, ever)…

So yeah I don’t know, things turn to shit. Sometimes it’s kind of unavoidable (old pipes) but sometimes it really is because of some fucking moron up there who doesn’t have a foot in reality and fucks a lot of people’s lives over. I don’t have a car, I love bikes but I also know that people move in move out, get stuff delivered, need an intervention like us etc. You don’t just decide that cars are now strictly prohibited just like that.

If you wondered why I so much want and dream about a brand new green passive house pretty far from people, now you know.