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Taking the fun out of making video games

I just read an article on Tobold’s MMORPG Blog (link) which is about this comment, made by Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision:

We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games.

This has of course upset a lot of people, and Tobold makes a good point in reporting that this was the effect expected. Such bold statements tend to be quoted everywhere, and if you seek attention that’s the way to go. But Tobold also says that there might be some truth buried in there, and goes on saying:

How often you as a player ended up angry with a video game, because the developers had too much fun making that game, and forgot the decidedly unfun activities of quality control and bug fixing? How many players complain about MMORPGs because some developer was allowed too much freedom, and favored his preferred class or mode of gameplay, making the game unbalanced for everyone else?

And there I have to disagree. Most people working in video games development studios do what they do because they take pride in delivering quality games, because they feel involved in the outcome, because our goal is to entertain people and we love it when players play our games and enjoy themselves.

Of course personal preferences have an impact, but I don’t know anybody who works in the industry to “have fun” making games without consideration for what players will enjoy. Of course we are sometimes wrong, sometimes the budget falls short, ambitions are too high, external pressure do damage, people come and go, technology breaks, and so on.

Quality control and bug fixing are not entertaining, but they are part of what makes a good game, and we are all in here to make good games. That’s our way of having fun, we take pride in the result. Don’t spoil that fun.