“A fresh set of fascinating insights into the mind of Steve Jobs have emerged, this time from John Carmack (the man behind Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D) in a newly-published set of memories about the Apple co-founder,” Jonny Evans writes for Apple Must.
“Carmack loved NeXT computers,” Evans writes. “At one stage, he asked Jobs if he could put a ‘Developed on NeXT computers’ logo in the beginning start-up sequence of Doom. Jobs declined, only to put out feelers to achieve just that once the game became succesful.”
“Despite his place in helping Atari’s breakout game, Breakout to happen, Jobs wasn’t so into games on the Mac, says Carmack,” Evans writes. “‘Several things over the years made me conclude that, at his core, Steve didn’t think very highly of games, and always wished they weren’t as important to his platforms as they turned out to be,’ he wrote.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hence, gaming on the Mac has always been second-rate.
A funny one that rings so true is that Jobs wanted Carmack to cancel his wedding to appear at an Apple keynote. (It didn’t happen.)
I can understand SJ from one perspective. Early on I liked the first few “personal computer” games and then I found what “text editors” were. Probing into “programs” (now called apps) including games, I discovered that games were basically a battle with the programmer and his intent and design. Make it easy or make it hard, the battle wasn’t on the screen, it was in the mind of the programmer.
That killed all the joy of games for me and I rarely saw them in an enthralling light after that. 🙁
I think that it really depends on the intent of the game developer (and/or game development company). If their objective is to produce an interesting, challenging, and engaging game, and the developers have the skills and resources to implement their gaming vision, then the results can be wonderful. Early game developers loved video games and wanted to share their creativity with others. It was a passion, not a job.
If the gameplay is crippled in order to maximize monetization of the game, as is so prevalent now with “freemium” crap that is designed more around pushing the player’s behavioral/additction buttons than entertaining the player, then the results are dismal. Nowadays, dismal seems to be the norm. Most games involve either a never-ending series of in-app purchases to more rapidly advance a player’s progress, or a long and painful slog of increasingly slow steps until the player quits out of frustration and boredom.
I am willing to pay good money for a good game. I am not willing to shell out a series of $9.99, $19.99, or even $99.99 in-app purchases for a cask of gems or whatever. Most of the games are designed to be endless – new areas or levels can be added to perpetuate the game without limit. You can easily pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to advance to the elite levels of these games…only to achieve nothing.
I will pay $50 for a good game that offers many hours of entertaining play. And, given such a game, I would be willing to pay more good money for an expansion set to extend the game to a new level and a new end. But I absolutely refuse to pay tens of dollars for some worthless game currency (gems, gold, platinum, etc.) that you can spend in ten minutes and be left needing more…and more…and more. To me, freemium games are free, because I will never pay for crippled, crap games. Never.
Games are Moving Art. Funny how Jobs never realized that.
Moving Art, yes, OK, but still a whole load of wasted time and human resources.
Don’t get me wrong, I love wasting time playing games. But it doesn’t push the human race forwards. Designing games definitely pushes the world forward. Unfortunately, playing games does the exact opposite. I think that’s what Steve hated.
I think Jobs was anti-war. Games are war because they are shoot-em-ups, dangerous combat-style missions, and fights. People are willing to pay for real wars and game wars. I suppose Jobs did not want to promote them via his baby.
My millennial son in law is an avid gamer with the latest hardware and gadgets. I’m the opposite, and never saw much use in pong. Now here is what I don’t understand, the guy “kills” hundreds of people and things in his hours of “fun”, literally blows them to pieces. Ask him about the military and guns and he will rant about how they are both evil. WTF?
Gee. I suppose then he shouldn’t have wanted to see his “baby” used to create movies about war or violence. Should have kept it strictly in desktop publishing… oh but wait… OMG someone might use it to create plans for war, or draw diagrams of weapons or…
stupid nonsense.
Apparently, Jobs couldn’t see the connection between technologies developed for games being connected to other aspects of creative “workflows.” Hence the Mac is becoming “second rate” just about everywhere these days.