Carmack Sense

I published this article a few months back in a different blog, it really belongs here.

John Carmack is the perfect example why legends should die young. Well, actually Michael Jackson is the perfect example, but I'd like to rant about Carmack right now.

Quick background. Carmack is the guy that created Doom and Id software. Doom revolutionized video gaming by giving us the staple of first person shooters, networking Deathmatches, and amateur modding. Many gamers believe him to be the god of gaming... A god he is not.

Just as Steve Jobs gives a speech once a year about where Macs/computing are heading, so does Carmack at the annual QuackeCon. The thing is John is totally disconnected from the industry and should probably just shut-up, and let us have fond memories of what he did for gamers everywhere.

The following are some points he made during his QuakeCon speech, along with my commentary.

Artificial Intelligence in gaming
"...If you did throw tons of resources toward the AI, it might not be the best thing for gameplay. For instance, writing tons and tons of code to enable monsters to hide in the shadows and sneak around behind the player would be interesting, but often these types of things could be scripted for a fraction of the effort and - for most players - the experience would be just as cool if not cooler."

Did you miss how crappy and boring Doom 3 was? After about an hour of gameplay, even a monkey knew that yet another zombie was going to jump out of the broom closet when a medical kit is grabbed. Bring on the AI, bring on the varirity.
"...writing tons and tons of code to enable monsters to hide in the shadows and sneak around behind the player would be interesting" Interesting!?! It be frik'n incredible.

Physics
We're a long way off from seeing any major movement in this area... We're still a ways away from seeing deep physics simulations being built into a game in such a way that they have a major impact on the gameplay. We'll see a lot of 'non-interactive' physics in the near future...

You fool, have you not played Half Life 2? Although buggy at times, the gravity gun was great! In Doom 3, by the way, you could only knock stuff off a desk, nothing in the way of Physics. Gimmie Physics man, just for the sake of replays.

Sequels
"There is a strong incentive not to do something nuts," Carmack explains. Which is why we see so many sequels and follow-ups on game shelves.
Er...this coming from a guy that brings us original titles like Doom 3, Quake 4 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Come on and lead with something original if your going to complain about it.
By the way, for original games, see: Beyond Good and Evil or Psychonauts.

Open source
John will release the Quake 3 code next week to open source:
The GPL license will allow people to take the Quake 3 engine and even go so far as to release a commercial product with it - provided that the source code is published alongside. Nobody has done this with any of the Quake engine games yet, but he hopes to see it happen someday.

That's because the home brew stuff is having to much fun creating content for non-ID Games.
Ever heard of:
Counter Strike (made with Half-life), team was later hired by Valve.
Desert Combat (made with Battlefield 1942), Team was later hired by DICE.
Flashlight Gun Mod - (made with Doom 3), Team was disgruntled over crappy Doom interface.

While I'm all for apps going to the GPL license, the Quake 3 code was made 6 years ago (1999). I feel many open engines already out there, will make it look dated..

Cheating On-line
All PCs playing the game could just be dumb terminals, echoing information from the server, with no chance of messing with the data or using a hacked client.

I can't stand cheaters online. In fact, I'll only game with folks I know for that reason. So I'm all for Punk Buster-like apps. But Carnack's idea sounds a lot like Microsoft's Office Server idea, or a next generation of Steam. Do you really want to pay $50 for a virtual game you don't really own? How about try writing your code better, and patch often.
In summary, John, we loved what you did for us, now step down gracefully and go take care of your new kid.