Topic: Whoa! Ouch...A little harsh there Chris...

[ryancoke]

So this guys is working on spore. This game is coming out for PC and DS.  If the DS is powerful enough to handle the AI, I don't think he has anything to complain about with the Wii.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: UncleBob
Just wondering, besides the unproven-on-the-market Spore, what has Chris Hecker created?

A lot of CO2 and 5 metric tons of feces since birth.

[couchmonkey]

Does anyone have a full transcript of Heckler's comments?  I've seen this raging across all Internets, and I think the guy is being taken out of context.  I hear the "two GameCube", "Nintendo doesn't care about gaming as an art" and "Wii is s**t" bits everywhere, but of course the media chooses to post the most controversial comments and we're left to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, I understand what he's getting at, but I think Nintendo realized that if it wanted to appeal to the mass market, it had to give up some of the power that everyone loves to  bandy about.

[GoldenPhoenix]

The point about Chris is he came accross as unprofessional and petulent. In regards to Hudson saying Dead Rising can't go on Wii, do you have any facts? You realize that games with tons of characters on screen has been happening since the PS2 days right? Dynasty Warriors and State of Emergency being two.  

[Ceric]

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Originally posted by: UncleBob

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
Just wondering, besides the unproven-on-the-market Spore, what has Chris Hecker created?

Anyone?

Wikipedia Entry

It seems to me the most notable thing he has actually done that effects my life is writed 3D Graphic drivers for Windows.

[Khushrenada]

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Originally posted by: Strell
Man, I gotta tell ya - I am really sick of the "Wii is so underpowered it can't do good AI" jazz.

Someone please show me one game with good AI.  Please?

I have never seen one in my life.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Battalion Wars has the best A.I. I've seen in a game. And that was GameCube game which makes his rant look worse.

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Originally posted by: Infernal Monkey
I should punch each and every one of you in the vagina for making this joke thread about a joke quote from a joke developer spawn four pages. IN THE VAGINA. There's no escaping. Not even for Infernal.

Wait! I have a WHAT? When did this happen?

[hudsonhawk]

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Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
The point about Chris is he came accross as unprofessional and petulent. In regards to Hudson saying Dead Rising can't go on Wii, do you have any facts? You realize that games with tons of characters on screen has been happening since the PS2 days right? Dynasty Warriors and State of Emergency being two.

Because you're talking orders of magnitude more enemies in games like Dead Rising.  Where DW and SoE have hundreds of (identical looking) enemies on screen at once Dead Rising has thousands of different looking characters, all with independent paths.  A better analog would be Dynasty Warriors to 99 Nights.  Where DW5 on the PS2 could do something like 100-150 characters on screen, N3 can do 2,000.  This isn't because the PS2 developers were lazy.  Nor does it inherently make N3 a good game (it is, in fact, a terrible game).  It's just the kind of thing that plays to the strengths of the multi-core machines like the PS3 and the 360.

Look, you're obviously not capable of accepting the notion of the Wii being low-powered as anything but a myth, but it's true.  Hopefully, in the long run, it won't matter because developers will find other, more fun things to do with the Wii's hardware.  The Wii has a lot of strengths and will have lots of great, new, exciting gameplay experiences on it.  But games like Dead Rising won't be among them.  They aren't feasible, they don't play to the system's strengths and wouldn't be worth the level of effort necessary to make it happen.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I would like to hear from those here who know what is feasable and what is not with the Wii instead of only HudsonHawk. Not capable of understading? Don't make me laugh, not sure what you felt the need to say that besides being condescending (You and Pittbboi should get around well). I understand the Wii isn't as powerful as Xbox 360, but I also think people can underestimate what it can do as well. The AI in Dead Rising is dumb for the most part, and you don't need to have as many enemies on the screen which can be taken down while still maintaining its gameplay. We had a big discussion about the visuals in a thread here

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well I have no problem with how powerful or weak the Wii is, the only important part about a videogame console is the games on it since games sell hardware. Anyways the whole AI debacle sure the processor is important to keep up with calculations and what not but whats the point  of a good processor if the team throws a ho hum AI logic that could tarnish the end product.

As for Dead Rising the zombie AI is dumb during the day cycle and more vicious once they "wake up at night" but don't get me wrong its a fun game but the save system in Dead Rising is one of the most frustrating ever made.

[capamerica]

Looks like Chris Hecker got in some deep sh!t over his Wii is a "Piece of Sh!t" comment.

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Remember Maxis developer Chris Hecker calling the Wii a "piece of sh!t"? He has an apology for you.

  "I don't know who has read the internet, yesterday. In a [unintelligible] panel I said a bunch of things. I was trying to be thought provoking and entertaining and fun and a lot of the stuff went too far over the top—on the entertaining and fun side, so that it was no longer thought provoking, just inflammatory. And in the process I hurt a bunch of people I care about. And so, I want to apologize now.

   When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis.

   I want to make two things perfectly clear.

   I do not think the Wii is a piece of sh!t. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford.

   Secondly, it's totally obvious—and I'm sorry that I implied otherwise—that everyone at Nintendo is passionate at making great games. Some of the games give me hope that we will be seen as an art form on par with movies and books."

Whether or not he was made to apologize by his bosses isn't clear, but it's a good gesture nonetheless.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/wii/spore-developer-chris-hecker-apologizes-for-calling-the-wii-a-piece-of-****-242822.php

I bet EA gave him two options;
Do a public apology or clean out his desk

[GoldenPhoenix]

I really hate backtracking to be honest, if you believe what you said, don't freaken apologize! It comes accross as forced, especially him since his apology doesn't seem to make alot of sense.

[Pittbboi]

GoldenPheonix - I agree.

It would be one thing for him to say, "Look, what I said yesterday in regards to Nintendo being a piece of sh*t was definitely overboard and I apologize. However, with that being said..." and then construct an intelligent argument defending himself. It would have been more believable than this. Those comments yesterday didn't come from thin air. He may have been trying to entertain but it was obvious that behind his immature remarks there was some genuine dissatisfaction with Nintendo; and for him to just completely take back everything he said in a "oops, no! I really LOVE Nintendo and don't disagree with anything they're doing!!" manner is just spineless and makes him look worse.

[WuTangTurtle]

its simple he was forced to apologize.  EA is putting a lot of development into Nintendo's console, ridiculing Nintendo could upset many people.  I'm still surprised that Mark Rein never issued a apology from his comments, then again Epic Games hasn't ventured to make games on a Nintendo platform.

[Adrock]

Mark Rein isn't as publicly critical of Nintendo nowadays either. Still, highly critical, but not as critical. He used to fly of the f-ing handle. Maybe he toned it down just in case. I'm not expecting anything to change anytime soon, but it's always better to not to say anything bad when given a choice.

[Ian Sane]

"I really hate backtracking to be honest, if you believe what you said, don't freaken apologize! It comes accross as forced, especially him since his apology doesn't seem to make alot of sense."

When you're only representing yourself that makes sense.  That's sure as hell what I would do.  But when you're seen as representative of an organization that does not share your opinion then you kind of have to apologize, just to protect that organization.  It isn't fair for them to get negative publicity because of things you said.

If I said something controversial on the news or something where I'm just identified as Ian Sane, local citizen then I wouldn't apologize if I didn't mean it.  But if I made a controversial statement at my employer's annual conference and was identified as Ian Sane, employee of Company X then I would apologize.  In that case I would consider that the right thing to do.

Chris Hecker looks like an idiot, but not Electronic Arts or Maxis.

[Dryden]

I don't think he would have made a public appology had his comments not been made public by the gaming press in the first place.  He's at a conference for game developers, not the gaming press.

That's not to say that the appology isn't warranted - just to say that his original comments should have been put in better context.  Anyone have any idea what else was said by anyone - anyone at all in that hour long panel?

[BlkPaladin]

I can see where he is comming from, but the comments were worded poorly. Especially when almost everything makes it online when you dribble from the mouth.

We must remember he is progamming a simulation and their AI's are known to eat a lot of CPU power and memory. And spore was considered to be a very ambicious project when it was origanlly announced for the PC where the amount of RAM and the processing power can be set by the developers. In a console setting were the processing power and availbe RAM is decided by the manufactures it can be a major hurdle for developers to port to such machines it is especially disheartening when you have to cut features that may have been "your baby".

And the stuff about the "art" of video games is just pretensious. True there is an art component in any game but games don't sell because they are consider artistic. (ICO comes to mind it a beutiful game but the sales were bad and I found the game play lacking.) The fun aspect is what gets games bought (for the most part) not just because they are considered works or art. If I want art I can go any of many museams in Milwaukee or Chicago. If want want a compelling game experience I go up into my room ploop my but down and play a game.

[Rancid Planet]

Someone give him a Tootsie-pop. He misses his mommy.