GDC Keynote address? Booooring!

When John Carmack talks, the gaming world listens. But it doesn't necessarily report.



I say this because of an absolutely horrible article over at 1-up covering Carmack's 2004 Game Developers Conference Keynote address. Calling it an article might be too nice, however, as it barely reports on the speech.



The article's author, Ivan Sulic said that the speech by "id Software's Chief Recognizable Guy" was mostly "of the fairly uninteresting fluffy speech variety," that "I care not to report and you care not to read."



Hey, Sulic, reporting on this stuff is YOUR JOB! I'll decide for myself if I want to read it, and since I clicked on the link to the story, that's a pretty safe bet, you lazy bum! Tell me about the speech!



The one bit of important news in the speech, according to Sulic, was a vague mention that Doom 3 is "'pretty close' to completion." I find that interesting, because GameSpy managed to find two pages worth of worthwhile stuff to write about the speech without even mentioning the Doom 3 date!



A few choice Carmack quotes wisely included by GameSpy author Sal "Sluggo" Accardo:



"Character interaction is hard, and if you start making characters look really, really good, but they still act like cardboard cutouts, it's an open question whether that's a good direction to pursue."



"There's a level of craftsman's satisfaction that you get from trying to do what you do at an extreme level of quality, but I find that's not my primary motivation... I found that I get the most satisfaction when I can tell that the work I'm doing has maximum leverage on the final product."



"Wolfenstein was blocks. There were shipping maps that were done in less than an hour, and they worked. They were fun. But when we look at things now when it takes man-months before a map gets to the playtest stage, and I worry."



Now sure, not every reader is going to be interested in quotes like these, but I sure was. I think any reader who enjoys thinking about where the game industry has come from and where it is headed would love to read some stuff like this. Any reader trying to track down information about the Game Developers Conference would gobble quotes like these up. Any reader who clicked the link to a story about this speech would probably expect to read some QUOTES FROM THE FREAKIN' SPEECH!



Ivan Sulic has simply let these readers down. Sal Accardo has not.



At the end of his article, Mr. Sulic has the audacity to tell the interested readers that "do worship every id word," to "please find a complete transcription of the keynote here, in hell." That link goes to Google and I assure you it was not added by me.



At the end of his article, Mr. Accardo references Carmack's recent struggle to build a small, manned spacecraft, "Somehow, when you listen to Carmack talk, the idea of a small group sending someone into space doesn't sound that far out of reach."



It seems almost amazing the Mr. Accardo and Mr. Sulic were listening to the same speech.



Author's note: Sorry for all the exclamation points and capitalized YELLING, but this has got me absolutely pissed. Feel free to post a comment and tell me I'm out of line, but don't expect me to listen to you.