Richard Garriott: "I think most game designers really just suck"

lilyWhite · Mar 20, 2013

In an interview with PC Gamer regarding his new project, Shroud of the Avatar, Richard Garriott expressed his less-than-positive opinions on modern game designers. A few choice quotes from Garriott:

Richard Garriott said:
But other than a few exceptions, like Chris Roberts, I’ve met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am. I’m not saying that because I think I’m so brilliant. What I’m saying is, I think most game designers really just suck, and I think there’s a reason why.

Richard Garriott said:
So we’re leaning on a lot of designers who get that job because they’re not qualified for the other jobs, rather than that they are really strongly qualified as a designer. It’s really hard to go to school to be a good designer.

Richard Garriott said:
I think there’s really very few great game designers. I think Chris Roberts is one of them, Will Wright’s another, Peter Molyneux is another. They clearly exist, but on the whole, I think that the design talent in our industry is dramatically lower than we need, as an industry. It’s a very hard skill to learn.

Gamasutra also has an article on Garriott's words, one which Richard Garriott responded to, criticizing the "sensationalist slant" of Gamasutra's article and clarifying his words:

Richard Garriott said:
My point was, that game design is the hardest, but also the most valuable skill to build in the industry. That every company lives and dies based on the talent of its game design team, and that as an industry we are not doing so well creating the talent we need in this industry, because educational systems have not caught up in this area as well as programming and art. I was not trying to toot my own horn, rather state that game design is hard.

Garriott has definitely made a massive impact in the gaming world with the Ultima series—heck, Ultima IV had a more complex morality system than a lot of modern games. But on that topic...wasn't Humility one of the Eight Virtues? Especially when Garriott has his own share of failures, such as Tabula Rasa.

sunandshadow · Mar 20, 2013

It's not an educational problem. There are skilled designers out there who can't get jobs. The problem is that the industry can't figure out how to evaluate whether designers are any good when the designer hasn't already been hired and given creative control over a project, nor can would-be designers figure out how to demonstrate their abilities without working with a programmer or artist. No one wants to give an unproven person that kind of rank and responsibility within their organization, and they don't have positions for designers-in-training where they could be evaluated in-house. And game writers have very similar problems.

LOG · Mar 20, 2013

It's hard to say whether or not Molyneux is a good designer seeing as almost none of his game have ever been implemented as he wanted them to be . . .

jmare · Mar 20, 2013

The problem with this is that designers tend to fall into two categories: Level or systems designers which is the most common position, and game designers (which is the designer Garriott is referring to) who are responsible for conceptualizing an entire game.

What makes game design so hard is that it takes so much for a game to be profitable that publishers are loathe to try new things, instead relying on the tried and true to make money.

onesecondglance · Mar 21, 2013

I don't get the Molyneux hype. A lot of his ideas that never make it into games sound wishy-washy and undeveloped, and I've never been blown away by any of the stuff that has been finished.

Zach Lancer · Mar 21, 2013

Considering the man hasn't made anything noteworthy since Ultima Online, these statements seem a tad conceited. I also agree that Molyneux is hardly an exemplary designer, as to me a good designer is someone who sees their designs implemented well. Molyneux knows innovation, execution not so much. He's brilliant at building hype for his games though, I'll give him that much.

lilyWhite · Mar 21, 2013

Richard Garriott has written a response to the stir his words created, again complaining about how his words were taken out of context and the "inaccurate representations of the intent of my full
commentary."

Richard Garriott said:
By no means did I intend to disparage others who have led the many great games of each era in gaming history. I was trying to say, and show why finding or growing NEW great game designers is hard!

Umm...that quote =/= "I’ve met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am."

efkelley · Mar 21, 2013

The guy gets the award for Most Creative Backpedaling for this year, no doubt.

Lots of good points brought up here.

It can be very tough for a designer to innovate when we're talking big, big investment cash. Sort of like for writing. Once your series has enough attention, you can't really take it just anywhere. It's got to pay off for the audience so that it'll pay off for your publisher. Designers can be similarly trapped by their own success.

Molyneux has great ideas, but I've yet to see any of his games fully realize them. The vision in his head doesn't match what's on the screen. I kind of feel sorry for him, in that regard.

Richard Garriott: "I think most game designers really just suck"

lilyWhite

Love and Excitement

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

LOG

Lagrangian

jmare

My own worst enemy

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

Zach Lancer

lilyWhite

Love and Excitement

efkelley

ow