Hecker and Blow

Edge magazine recently did an interview with Chris Hecker and Jonathan Blow, it should be in the January issue but is now – fortunately – available online. As both of them are well-connected and outspoken veterans of the industry, it is an illuminating piece about everything from the state of Independent games to game design and polish and touching briefly on heavier, mainstream titles. It is opinionated, yes, but critical of both mainstream games, independent games and academia and not built up on the usual “this way is better than that” – arguments.

There was also some controversy as parts of the article was reposted with a different focus, Blow wrote about it and brought up a couple of interesting points on how this matters. He also provided a link to an earlier piece by Hecker who went more into detail about the state of games media. Also opinionated, but interesting anecdotes nevertheless.

I used to be kind of wary about any opinion piece written by Blow as I thought he tended to be a little harsh and self-righteous – brilliant designer, but sometimes a bit too negative and oblivious to the aspirations of other people. I am warming up to his way of thinking though, and I appreciate him being blunt with his opinions. Maybe he has toned the negativity down a bit since releasing a game of his own, maybe I have just been reading the sensationalist pieces that he mentions all this time or maybe I am growing weary of reading articles gushing uncritically over the latest big thing and then promptly forgetting about them.

No Comment

No comments yet

Leave a reply

Posted on Dec 23/10 by Saint and filed under Gaming culture | No Comments »