Okey, it isn't new, but I never read this article before, while thinking that one should copy this Dogma thing from the film business, because it actually was a clever idea to get specific recognition to low budget movies!

Dogma 2001

I completely disagree with the values in that article. There is too much extremism now adays its sickening.... thats like my saying "hey, I've been using too much toilet paper and its clogging the toilet, from now on im not going to use any"

good point lostclimate, good point. i bet that dogma 2001 is created by some guy that is superfan of quake, doom, and all those "classics". i dont say that those games are rubbish, they're great and they started gaming industry but come on, they're old. true, graphics in games is not the most important part but just dont tell me that we dont have new and inovative gamaplays nowadays.

take for example that new game "Spore". that's more then inovative gameplay, but those superfans will say that we cant compare spore to quake. but i say, oh yes we can...

Ah, it was already in the making, 2001? Nonetheless, it is still an exception.

lostclimate, sorry, you didn't get a glimpse of what the dogma thing means. "Dogma" as started from the filmmaker Lars von Trier was a big 'invention' to give low budget movies a high recognition and publicity, and thus it was a chance to small companies to make money despite the fact that they didn't have much money to invest.
The definitions of the dogma have to be qualities which make a difference to the main stream to be worth the effort.

I don't know whether you believe that you can compete with any of the triple A titles within one of the next ten years.
If not, 'dogma' could be the way to go to give independent developers an extra portion of public interest.

This doesn't mean that one has to choose the same catalog of principles that he suggested, of course. Some of them are most probably made because it was 7 years ago, when wrote the article...

He definitely is taking things a little far, and the whole derogatory method in which he writes is rather off putting. This doesn't mean that I don't agree with SOME of the points brought up.

I especially like point 9. I think dropping that sort of ilogicality from game worlds would, as mentioned, open up games to a wider audience and also make them more absorbing.

cartoon_baboon

Okey, let's take it the other way round.

Have a look at the Wii and the DS and their games:
Can we say that within the few years that they entered the market that they conquered as much new audience as no other games?
And, then have a look at the principles - don't know what he called it exactly - how much of his principles are applicable to the new games of Wii and DS?

Is nintendo a clandestine 'dogma' follower?

"All cinematics, cut-scenes, and other non-interactive movies aren't allowed.
If a game requires any introductory or transitional material, it must be provided by scrolling text."

Well this for a start would definately need updating!
I hate scrolling text in games, it usually goes forever

Well some games like the Zelda game for DS apparently has no text whatsoever (or not much?), but a strong use of symbols instead, but some games have a more complex storyline that needs explanation by something like a cutscene..
although i suppose they could be made in such a way that the storyline is picked up as they play

Darn i've ruined my own point! Oh well, no scrolling text whatever the case - all the text in, eg: the older gameboy versions of zelda, took forever to get through

It was awesome in the first released Star Wars trilogy back in the day, but since then it instantly makes a game feel old somehow. If that's what they are going for... by all means, but I agree that it's off putting.



It's difficult to say actually. On one hand they seem to be doing whatever they want to do, on the other hand they seem to copy the casual game market realizing there's a lot of money there (or at least they seem to be inspired by it if you will).

When it comes to their games in general, the older stuff is legendary.. the newer stuff tends to be more suited for a broader audience. Depending on your own point of view that's either a brilliant or a disastrous thing. :p



... actually, what really happened was they realized they could never compete with the industry standards without having an equally insane movie budget. Change was inevitable and so will be change in games.



Yes, I've always wondered why designers from the very first few games that had collectible items in it decided to go that route.

On the other hand, crates theoretically could have anything inside... hence why from quite early on crates started to pop up in just about every game.