MIGS 2007: Jonathan Blow

By: Derek Yu

On: November 29th, 2007

Some news from the Montreal International Games Summit (of which Gamma 256 is a part): Jon Blow apparently spoke there today, and, as one would expect, he had some insightful words to say about games.

He continued, “Games create a low-stakes subdomain that create a â€˜meaning of lifeâ€™… you know why youâ€™re there, and you know what youâ€™re trying to do.” For Blow, this created a shift in his viewpoint. “The meaning of life in this existence is something that I really care about â€“ I think Iâ€™m not alone in this. This is part of why games are compelling to me.”

I think a lot of us, both players and developers, ask ourselves “why” – why do we play games, why do we make them? These are important questions and Jon has an uncanny ability to put them into perspective. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do so!

And regarding Braid, Jon announced a couple weeks ago that he’s planning to release some preview videos, but rather than just showing footage of the game in action, he’d like to tie them somehow to concepts of game design.

EDIT: Jon, whose comments are like delicious sweetmeats for our spam filter, posted suggesting that you download the audio and slides from the talk, if you are interested.

Posted in Community, Developers | Tags: JonathanBlow

Eden

“We donâ€™t feel like we can do things we can be ashamed of yet,” he added.
It’s not that they’re just entertainment, it’s that most people seeing them as being “just games”. Just one type of entertainment which many people sort of put on a lower tier than say, movies or books.

Anyway, I agree with him 100%
frosty

Great article. I especially agree with his points on MMO’s, though I don’t think you should overlook the social aspect of it, which is what draws a lot of people in.
duh

wow, this guy seems to know everything there is to know about anything around game making.
if his game isn’t the best game EVER made, then i’m going to be very disappointed.
Jonathan Blow

For anyone interested in this talk, I would recommend downloading the original audio and slides, which are here:

http://number-none.com/montreal2007.zip

I am probably going to put up a full movie version soon, so that you don’t have to figure out when to advance the slides yourself (or have something installed that reads ppt’s).

It’s cool that people did liveblogs of the talks but at the same time I think they don’t really communicate the important points in the way that I’d like.
PHeMoX

“Games by definition teach”

Not so sure about that, because will any of the virtual solutions games demand you to come up with ‘useful’ in real life? I don’t think so, because the gap between real life and virtual realities as we can find in games is simply too big.
Eponymouse

If that’s the definition of teaching then history and algebra don’t count either!
PHeMoX

Lol, I suppose that’s true.
Del Duio

Wow, nice.

Down with MMO’s,

You go, girl!
JP

> wow, this guy seems to know everything there is to know about anything around game making. if his game isnâ€™t the best game EVER made, then iâ€™m going to be very disappointed.

So what exactly does a person need to have done to “qualify” to offer such opinions? Should we all shut up and accept that WoW is the pinnacle of game design?
Robert

He now has a recording of the speech plus an accompanying PPT file on his blog: http://www.braid-game.com/news/?p=129
PHeMoX

Thanks Robert!

@JP: WoW is definitely NOT the ‘ultimate culmination of game design’ if that’s what you’ve meant there. The gane is flawed in a lot of ways. A lot of players were attracted basically purely by the hype (ow, it’s Blizzard so it must be good) and also because of the social aspects of the game. WoW features some of the most boring and repetitive quests ever seen in a game and it can learn a LOT from it’s direct competition, like Guild Wars and even Everquest II. I think what Jonathan Blow meant to say was that World of Warcraft is sort of like the McDonalds of game design… with the minor exception that it’s not really cheap to play WoW.
Neon

Canada strikes again!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

I finally got a chance to hear him speak…

Jon is a real good guy. :)
Derek

Brandon, make a post about MIGS and GAMMA256, STAT! <3
JP

Phemox, I didn’t make it clear enough that I was being snarky. I don’t think WoW is the pinnacle of game design, far from it, and I agree with Jon’s criticisms of it.
http://akktivecarbon.uw.hu !CE-9

“We donâ€™t intend to harm players but we might be harming them. When tens of millions of people buy our game, we are pumping a mental substance into the mental environment â€“ itâ€™s a public mental health issue â€“ itâ€™s kind of scary, but itâ€™s kind of cool because we have the power to shape humanity.”

if he hasn’t been my new god already, he’s definitely that from now on. full stop.

I really wonder (in the genuine, not the bitter troll way) how much can he realize these principles in Braid. I’d love to give him money – at least a helluva lot more than to Blizzard or Nintendo.
http://www.shotbeakgames.za.net/niche Tr00jg

Johnathan Blow is now amongst my favourite designers… But he won’t top Fumito Ueda. Not yet, at least.
Matt

He doesn’t have to make a great game to be intelligent and well-spoken. How many teachers and professors would still be employed if that was a requirement. I know I had at least one English literature teacher who would never be able a work comparable to the works they analyzed for class.