Haven’t done this in a while: responding to some of your comments (or ‘not really a Q&A, but let’s call it that anyway’)
Wow. Jaffe’s “review of the reviews” is pretty lame. It just seems disrespectful when you accept the credibility of relatively high scores, but then question the low scores.
Why is that? If you genuinely believe you’ve made a good game, why not question and challenge the scores that don’t match your own perception and expectations? I was in absolute agreement with GameSpot’s 8.1 and GameSpy’s five star (“outstanding”) reviews of Dreamfall, but I didn’t agree with the 7.5 from IGN, and I thought 1up’s 4/10 (“bad”) was incredibly unfair: regardless of your subjective opinion of Dreamfall, it deserved better than that, simply because of the work, passion, and care put into it. Even if you think we failed, at least we tried. A lot of the shit out there that gets 5 or 6 or 7 out of 10 is just soulless trash, mass produced, licensed tat with no ambition or purpose. Love it or hate it, Dreamfall had soul. How dare anyone give it such a low score?
Or at least, that’s what I could have said back when the game came out. I didn’t. I’m a bit less humble now than I was back then, because I think time has treated us well and proven us ‘right’ (in as far as a subjective opinion can be right). But the fact that Jaffe speaks up against what he perceives as unfair criticism – more power to him, man. It’s great to see designers speak up when their games are under the microscope. That doesn’t happen. Ever.
where’s Dreamfallen part 3? :p
God knows I’ve been working on it.
I am, unfortunately – and to the chagrin of the people who paid the bills for The Longest Journey and Dreamfall – a perfectionist. Not only that: I’m a perfectionist with OCD1. And I’m a stubborn bastard. It doesn’t matter what it is; anything from a multi-million dollar production to a freakin’ e-mail or a blog post. It has to be perfect, and I’m not letting it go until it is.
Part (iii) of Dreamfallen is the most difficult one, because it chronicles the production of the game, and I’ve honestly been going back and forth between how to present it. Some days I lash out left & right for all the problems we had to contend with; other days it’s all a big lovefest about how much fun we had making the game. Getting it balanced is a bitch. And I have to watch what I’m saying, because, y’know, people read this blog. People.
It’s coming, it’s coming. Parts (iii) and (iv) – that last one should be the easiest one – are both on the way. I usually deliver, but not before I absolutely have to.
Very cool new banner, Ragnar! You should put the fan art with April and the mirror at some point too. This one is really cool too. Thanks for a great thing!
I would use fan art, but only if I got the approval of the artist(s) in question. I’ll try and do something cool with the next incarnation of the banner.
Interesting new banner, but just wanted to mention that it makes it difficult to make out the ‘Contact Me’ and ‘Archives’ links unless you mouse-over them.
I know. I knocked it together in a hurry just before leaving the office, and only realised the problem as I was running out the door. It’ll have to wait until next week, I’m afraid, but I’ll take care of it.
- I should add that this isn’t a clinical diagnosis; I just have a major tendency to get hung up on stuff, and I have a hard time letting go until I feel totally comfortable with the end result. So I’m a light obsessive-compulsive. ↩
There will be a (iv) part too?
Nice.
I think it’s a good thing that you’re so concerned with perfection. I’d much rather wait longer for a polished product than have something subpar pushed out.
I’m a little surprised to see TLJ has been put on Steam, by the way. I wonder if Dreamfall’s appearance on Steam generated more interest in the series.
Not only that: I’m a perfectionist with OCD. And I’m a stubborn bastard. It doesn’t matter what it is; anything from a multi-million dollar production to a freakin’ e-mail or a blog post. It has to be perfect, and I’m not letting it go until it is.
Hey, me too!
Well, the exception is that I let myself go with incoherence and rushed jobs on forums & comments… Out of curiousity, what are your main OCD habbits? My main defects? My hands are of utmost finickicity. If I have moisture in any real level, if my hands are sticky, if they just feel rugged from lawn work, if anything is different from the “standard” feel of them to any degree, it decreases my performance. I can only play piano at optimum performance levels if I haven’t yet showered that day. Yes, really.
…This is of no consequence, but I just played two of my vinyl Chicago albums for the first time right now, and I realized that my repeated 25 or 6 to 4 version is actually an entirely separate variation… Now the world is balanced again.
Another primary defect is the inability to use “imperfect” things. I want all things I use to be in the exact condition I bought them in. I once bought a new N64 controller just because somebody used it with sticky hands & I couldn’t get the feeling to go away fully. Nobody ever uses my keyboards or mice. Ever. And all things must be stored in the exact same way (preferably in a symmetrical, squared way – diagonals & assymetry are for… well, everyone else) every time they aren’t in use. Furthermore, I leave other people’s things in the exact position I found them in – including inside packaging if that’s where I got them from.
My personal favorite: Inability to leave the TV volume on any number I don’t approve of. Approved numbers consist of: “Round” numbers & multiples of 5. (0s & 5s are generally the only things used – anything immediately next to one is out for sure) The numbers 1, 2, & 3, just because they’re common. 7 & 8 for reasons I don’t understand. 12, 22, 32 & 42, each for entirely unrelated reasons but they make a good sequence. 13 because it’s my favorite number. 17 & 18 because I have a thing for 7 & 8… That’s about it for approved numbers. I’ve made significant progress in the past few years. If you had asked me in the year 2000, the list would only be numbers that end in 0 or 5.
I had a really good fourth one that’s also a major part of my day-to-day life, but I seem to have forgotten while typing the third one… Oh well – there are many others beyond that one too. I guess all I can conclude with is this: Perfectionism (even acknowledged & semi-compensated for perfectionism) & German-level stubbornness do not mix well with minor OCD.
Eh, like I said before, Dreamfall is an entirely different beast, and defending it is much different than defending a short, simple, $10 game. There isn’t much to a $10 game. You know what you’re getting. What value you get out of it is up to the person, thus the variance in reviews.
But Dreamfall is bigger, more complex, and has a far less approachable game experience. I found it very hard to get used to for the first few hours, because its purpose wasn’t clear and it didn’t have an immediate hook. I think its fair to say that many people wouldn’t, and don’t, “get” Dreamfall, which justifies defending it. Defending Dreamfall and defending Calling All Cars! is not the same thing at all.
Besides, the GameSpot review of Calling All Cars! called it a “frantic good time” and was overall fairly positive, so saying that’s “unfair” doesn’t really make sense to me.
I think it’s intellectually dishonest to compare 1UP’s 1-10 scale to the rest of the industry’s 7-9 scale.
I liked Dreamfall, but I think mainly for nostalgical reasons. As a game on it’s own merit it isn’t a 9 or a 10. It’s more like a 5 or 4.
And calling a review unfair because you worked hard on a game and put in “soul” is childish. Nobody’s going to like the ugly painting I made, just because I worked hard on it…
Can anyone help me with this question, what’s OCD?
And, by the way Ragnar. Being a perfectionist is not a bad thing. I wish I was a perfectionist too! Maybe I would get better grades in school then.. *sigh
OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It’s basically an anxiety disorder.
“I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.” – Kurt Vonnegut
I think it goes without saying that the same can be applied to a video game.
Calling all cars only cost 10 USD and therefore the reweiwers should be nicer to the game. of course the game would have been slaughtered if it came out at a regular price, but gamespot should have given it at least over 7. But I also think that gamespot have been unfair to games before.
Anyway, I think it is great that David say what he wants, even though I sometimes disagree with him, like in that bonus round show. But it is normal to disagree with a person about one thing anyway, no matter who it is.
I used to be a perfectionist before. Back then, I could be way too accurate with my homework than I should have if I did them, and if drawing something, I had to use a lot of time on it. Nowdays I also like to keep my computer clean and simple and I must have pretty high graphics turned on when I play dreamfall, which makes the game experience go down because (stupid me) of the low frames per second (I have a really bad Graphic card), but nothing more like that. That is the only thing nowdays I think. But cant a perfectionist also be called a person with umm, I don’t know the English word, forced thoughts? (tvangstanker) At least that was what I classified myself having.
And GyRo567? I still use to turn turn the TV on 5-10-15-20 and so on.
But that banner, it is April right? Well the hair make it look like Zoe and that the picture is named “dreaming” makes me ting that it is Zoe even more, but my first impression was April. Or is it none of them?
Anyway Ragnar, great that you give this blog you time, we are grateful.
I can certainly understand why you think that Dreamfall should have gotten better ratings than it did (from some game sites) since you have tried your best, and made the game with effort, passion & care.
However, I have had students who had had done just that with a paper and still I had to give them poor ratings, eh grades. Simply because the paper wasn’t good enough for some reason. And while I think it should be commended that you, Ragnar, and Funcom, are trying to develop the adventure game genre, Dreamfall is still a just a game.
And if were you, I’d listen more to sites like justadventure, adventuregamers, and gameboomers and other adventuresites. (I know I’d do…)..
OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It’s basically an anxiety disorder.
As long as we maintain control, we can keep everything else in order through the desires of our disorder. It really balances itself out. Then again, I’m not one of the types who gets afraid of germs… I’m just perpetually afraid that people are going to break my stuff. There’s a reason my NES is still running, my N64 controllers still have perfect analog sticks (they’re finally starting to fail on me though, so sad…) and my vinyl album collection is in better condition now than when I bought some of the records, while most other people don’t even have a working PS2 anymore.
In any case, thanks to Ragnar for the added footnote! Mine technically isn’t diagnosed either, but it stands out pretty obviously among all the other people I know. That’s why I refer to it as very minor OCD.
TLJ Part 3 & 4?
If I rememer correctly there was just one planned sequel to Dreamfall to finish the actual storyline.
Or is this because of the Episodes thingy? Will Dreamfall2/TLJ3 be released in 2 Episodes? Or even more, so that “TLJ4″ means an entire new storyline???
I’m really looking forward to the sequel, I just started playing Dreamfall again, but now via PC (in highest Quality Settings) via HDMI on my new HDTV and sourround sound. It’s really beautiful and a quite different eperience than playing it on a usual PC equipment.
Keep up the good work!
About David Jaffes complaint: Wii play got low ranks from very many, though the game itself costs only like 10Dollars. And the game is not bad either, only short (I actually think that Myamoto complained about the low scores, saying that “they did not consider how fun the game was for people who don’t usually play games”. They’re kinda in the same boat…
Reading reviews is always painful, though it’s a pleasure when someone clearly “gets” what you were aiming for.
Are you involved in this by any chance?
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/fallenearth/index.php
I think the story in Dreamfall is actually easier to get involved in then the story in TLJ, which is good when there are so few puzzles but then maybe that’s why the story is easier to get involved in too, the story gets a better flow with so little puzzles you could pretty much play through the whole game in one sitting if it wasnt for work and sleep, it’s allmost like a really long movie or like a tv-series. It will be really interesting to see how the episodes will work and I hope they will be available to us scandinavians first hehe.
Eventhough it is true that Dreamfall as a game or an adventure game had major mechanics problems. I mean it wasn’t really fully functional game nor a pure adventure since it lacked most of the puzzle aspects. Yet, even with that I wouldn’t grade it anything lover than 7.5 or 8 purely because the story was very well crafted. The character designs to the environment, the detail was astounding. It was bit too short though. I am eagerly waiting for the sequesl but I also hope that Ragnar will listen to the audience and add bit more challenging puzzles and maybe fix fighting mechanics. More interactivity and options throughout the story line is important. I hope that Dreamfall was more of an intro than an actual game.