If there’s one thing John Carmack knows, it’s shooters. And probably maths. But mostly shooters. I mean, this is the guy who created DOOM, he knows what he’s talking about.
In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, Carmack comes down on “snooty attitudes” towards creativity – or a perceived lack of it – in game design, reminding everybody that people like what they like, and that’s okay.
“That’s one of the things – I’m actually happy Rage is a little bit different in terms of feeling and tone. It’s not just, ‘Here’s your squad mates.’ But that’s still a proven formula that people like, and it’s a mistake to [discount that]. As long as people are buying it, it means they’re enjoying it,” he says.
“If they buy the next Call of Duty, it’s because they loved the last one and they want more of it. So I am pretty down on people who take the sort of creative auteurs’ perspective. It’s like ‘Oh, we’re not being creative.’ But we’re creating value for people – that’s our job! It’s not to do something that nobody’s ever seen before. It’s to do something that people love so much they’re willing to give us money for.”
“So I do get pretty down on people that – you see some of the indie developers that really take a snooty attitude about this. It’s almost as if it’s popular, it’s not good. And that’s just not true.”
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