Are You Smarter Than A Dev?

[avitush]

You don't have to be a chef to know when food tastes like shit. Same applies to video games. I can probably point out flaws or mistakes (and even suggest fixes) in just about any game I've ever played.

I still don't claim to be anywhere near an expert game developer.

[Muajin76]

Next thing you know..there will be a game show called *Are you smarter than a mythic raid member?*

[jackofwind]

It doesn’t help matters that new games are less “serious” and more like trashy erotica pandering to “weebs” and the like. Old games didn’t have bunny ears and swimsuits, I’m pretty sure.

Leisure Suit Larry says hi.

[Wildmoon]

Extremely intelligent people can hold seemingly stupid beliefs. What stands out is their ability to rationalize them. Being responsible for a good game does not suddenly make you smarter either. There are a lot of factors.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

You know this is a nice snip, sorry that I have to detonate it in 5 seconds...

Since you would do such a great job where is your award winning game at?

You sound like that kind of person that would trust someone in alternative medicine just because they can show you some fancy diploma - or join the Scientology.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Could I make better artsy-fartsy stuff? No.
Could I see if a system clearly won't work out because of basic math? Absolutely, yes.

There is also plenty of stuff that everyone who played the game could point out, and in turn clearly indicate that the dev(s) did not.

[Coombs]

Devs are given blueprints for how a game is to encourage micro-transactions and compulsive loops. They then have to be creative in how they make the rest of the game to the parameters they have been given. Back in the 90's when video games were still niche people could do whatever they wanted, but not anymore.

[Poppincaps]

It is far far easier to critique something that it is to create something. Then you have to factor in the scope that you can reasonably achieve. Anyone can envision a massive MMO with a thousand worlds, 50 classes, and 100 races, but executing on that would essentially be impossible, at least doing so in a reasonable amount of time. A great game developer understands their limitations and maximizes their resources to achieve the best product possible.

Game devs are generally pretty smart. They don't always make the best decisions, but that definitely doesn't mean that you could do a better job. Maybe you could, who knows, but you definitely shouldn't just assume.

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You sound like that kind of person that would trust someone in alternative medicine just because they can show you some fancy diploma - or join the Scientology.

And you sounds like someone who has no understanding of how game design and development actually works. Anyone could write a game design document that sounds like the greatest game ever, executing that is what takes true talent and is what usually results in most games having flaws.

[Freshouttajail]

I remember when I was young and didn’t think about things like who made the game, etc. Now that I’m older, I perceive flaws within games, which makes it hard to dedicate hours to them. It’s like I’m playing the creations of people who don’t know 2 + 2 = 4, and that makes it easy to blame my perceived flaws on the game rather than my own distaste. It doesn’t help matters that new games are less “serious” and more like trashy erotica pandering to “weebs” and the like. Old games didn’t have bunny ears and swimsuits, I’m pretty sure. Anyway, I can’t be totally wrong, as everyone talks like they know better than the devs, who play mobile games.

You're generalizing a lot. Not only that, but you think you know something just because you played. That's like saying that because you drove in many different car you now know how to build one from scratch. That's idiotic at best. All you have now is more knowledge of what a good game feels like so you see the flaws in shittier games but you still have no clue why there's flaw, you just think that because you heard about some devs playing a mobile game, they must all be like that and it's enough of a reason for you to think that you know better.

The first thing you need to do is quit this simplistic identity politic mentality that makes you think all devs are the same. The second thing you need to do is probably watching GDC talks and stuff like that where actual devs talk about anecdotal problems in productions and stuff like that to have a (slightly) better understanding of what's going on. That being said, it will only open your eyes to how much you don't know but most likely won't teach you anything about game developping. For that you would need to actually get hired and make games. Even game design classes don't teach much, it's just the basics but when you get a job you realise that the classes showed you less than 10% of what's going on.

It's just easy to think you know something when you're never made aware of what you actually don't know.

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I feel like its fair to say lots of us have significantly more experience with playing games for ludicrous amounts of hours than devs these days which makes "flaws" with games stand out tremendously more than the devs who are likely working crunch time hours for ridiculous stretches of time and are at best playing pretty "casually" by comparison.

Don't think intellect is really a factor vs the myriad of other things.

Being a dev means you have a job, it means you mathematically have to play less than the no-lifers crying about WoW.

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Devs are given blueprints for how a game is to encourage micro-transactions and compulsive loops. They then have to be creative in how they make the rest of the game to the parameters they have been given. Back in the 90's when video games were still niche people could do whatever they wanted, but not anymore.

Maybe for some mobile games or some shitty grindy korean mmo but for most game this is nowhere neat the case.

[Noxx79]

I remember when I was young and didn’t think about things like who made the game, etc. Now that I’m older, I perceive flaws within games, which makes it hard to dedicate hours to them. It’s like I’m playing the creations of people who don’t know 2 + 2 = 4, and that makes it easy to blame my perceived flaws on the game rather than my own distaste. It doesn’t help matters that new games are less “serious” and more like trashy erotica pandering to “weebs” and the like. Old games didn’t have bunny ears and swimsuits, I’m pretty sure. Anyway, I can’t be totally wrong, as everyone talks like they know better than the devs, who play mobile games.

You won’t have a game made to your specific desires unless you are a dev or hire one yourself, sorry.
This does not mean you are smarter than a dev. It makes you more knowledgeable about your own desires than devs because they don’t have telepathy, nor will they make a game catered to ONLY you.

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

It is far far easier to critique something that it is to create something. Then you have to factor in the scope that you can reasonably achieve. Anyone can envision a massive MMO with a thousand worlds, 50 classes, and 100 races, but executing on that would essentially be impossible, at least doing so in a reasonable amount of time. A great game developer understands their limitations and maximizes their resources to achieve the best product possible.

Game devs are generally pretty smart. They don't always make the best decisions, but that definitely doesn't mean that you could do a better job. Maybe you could, who knows, but you definitely shouldn't just assume.

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And you sounds like someone who has no understanding of how game design and development actually works. Anyone could write a game design document that sounds like the greatest game ever, executing that is what takes true talent and is what usually results in most games having flaws.

Please enlighten me what is so hard about designing the game systems such as how you get rep, the Azerite debacle, loot systems, etc.

[Verdugo]

Please enlighten me what is so hard about designing the game systems such as how you get rep, the Azerite debacle, loot systems, etc.

How to maximize monetization without pissing off everyone.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

Its a rather short sighted question.

Its not that simple. We live in a world of budgets and oversight.

We live in a world where developers have 2 year deadlines and incompetent management while being expected to deliver more and more with each update. There an interesting article on destiny 2 where both bungie management and activision leadership made updating the game a hellscape.

https://kotaku.com/the-messy-true-st...iny-1737556731

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

You won’t have a game made to your specific desires unless you are a dev or hire one yourself, sorry.
This does not mean you are smarter than a dev. It makes you more knowledgeable about your own desires than devs because they don’t have telepathy, nor will they make a game catered to ONLY you.

You don't need telepathy to know that players that actually use the gear for progression and compete against other players will find it extremely frustrating when you have super RNG procs or gives a random legendary that is either useless or OP.
You also don't need telepathy to realize players are going to find it extremely boring to go from awesome looking artifact weapons to a necklace you can't even see except a few times here and there when you gather azerite.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

It is far far easier to critique something that it is to create something. Then you have to factor in the scope that you can reasonably achieve. Anyone can envision a massive MMO with a thousand worlds, 50 classes, and 100 races, but executing on that would essentially be impossible, at least doing so in a reasonable amount of time. A great game developer understands their limitations and maximizes their resources to achieve the best product possible.

Game devs are generally pretty smart. They don't always make the best decisions, but that definitely doesn't mean that you could do a better job. Maybe you could, who knows, but you definitely shouldn't just assume.

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And you sounds like someone who has no understanding of how game design and development actually works. Anyone could write a game design document that sounds like the greatest game ever, executing that is what takes true talent and is what usually results in most games having flaws.

They have bosses and can't always do what they want and are told to reboot project half way into the development cycle as well. It sounds like programmers don't run the show when you see what happens at some of these triple a companies.

[Malikath]

probably, definitely in the case of WoW's modern """""devs""""".

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How to maximize monetization without pissing off everyone.

you, you get a solid gold cupie doll.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

You sound like that kind of person that would trust someone in alternative medicine just because they can show you some fancy diploma - or join the Scientology.

It’s actually the opposite, your pointing to alternatives with nothing to back them up and there asking where your actual results are.

[CogsNCocks]

Assuming you take a developer to be a programmer as that's the correct usage for the term. To be a software engineer you don't stand a chance without being at least significantly above average in intelligence with an aptitude for mathematical and logical thinking. The most brilliant developers such as John Carmack, Tim Sweeny, and even designers like Sid Mier who do the groundbreaking stuff easily fit into the genius level bracket.

In conclusion, the average person on this website is not smarter than a dev, but there will be a minority here who may meet or exceed the intelligence of a developer.

[Usernameforforums]

Old games had fan service. In fact the first game to really bring massive fan service to the main stream was probably Dead or Alive 2... and that came out 20 years ago. There are people on this forum younger then that game. Even before that though you had things like Tifa and Laura Croft from the PS1 era that where blatently obvious in big budget main stream games. But sure, let's say fan service is some new trend only in "weeb games".

I'm also pretty sure most developers would know this, which means they know something you don't. That was pretty easy to devise from your single post right here so...

The earliest fan service I can think of is Metroid for the NES. Beat the game 100% within a certain time and you get bikini Samus.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Like I said, there's probably a good amount of info we don't know about that goes in making these games. I doubt it's as doom and gloom as this forum and the internet loves to be.