Collaborative Development

[Holy_Diver]

I collaborate a.k.a. "work with" my boss more than I work against him.

Feel free to use the word "hire" loosely. ‎  The term is not synonymous with "payroll".
For instance, even thought there was no contract involved, Todd "hired" me to do the soundtrack for Shadow Edge.

Then Todd commissioned music from you, which is quite different. Like special ordering a product. Nonetheless I did not receive your comment as well meaning and only rebutted it in so far as to assert my intentions / self so I'd rather not mince words.

Todd is planning on selling Shadow Edge on Xbox Live so you're talking about a completely different social domain. In the past I've encouraged people to sell their Som games if they feel like / think they can get a way with it, but I have no plans myself of ever developing or even working on a for sell Som game. Though I do ask that if anyone ever pulls that off in terms of real figures they pass some of the profits on to me assuming they're taking advantage of SomEx (which would be a must if you want to reach a wider audience than Som sympathizers)

I also want to add when someone remixes or samples from some production everything new in that remix is no less original than the original work. And furthermore quality is a far more valuable product than originality. You do have to distinguish between originality and novelty. My bet is your toilet sees it's share of original crap every day. We all presumably have at least that much in common with hollywood and the video game industry etc.

I find DoM compelling for a number of ideological reasons. My idea of what process will ultimately produce good games/movies/pop art is very different. If you have something that's pretty good it can always be made better, and why the hell not. And even if it takes 1000s of people all doing their own twists on it, that's ok. Take Dune for example. Best selling science fiction books of all time. There have been about 4 attempts at films, and there is probably a new one on the horizon. It's very difficult subject matter to adapt to film, but you can't argue it should not be done... you just hope one of those adaptations will at least do justice. Lynch's Dune is solid in and of itself, but it's really not Dune, the other attempts (I think Mtv is working on a new one) have been pretty dismal, and it's safe to say if the Mobius/Jodorowsky project had not petered out it would be less Dune than Lynch's... but it's interesting for taking the original (good) premise and going in a completely different direction. But ultimately my point is, if the world waits for this approach to produce something really fit for unbridled consumption in Dune form (other than the original books) we may be waiting a long time. What if on the other hand everyone and their brother were all spinning out their unique take on it from a synthesis of the original subject matter and everything to succeed it... then you start to develop something like an ancient mythology where unique visions struggle for dominance (eg. the audience's attention / our collective cultural memory)

So my hope is instead of waiting for a bunch of over payed buffoons to produce satisfying media, the people will be able to serve this function for ourselves and transition into a more hedonistic futuristic society with less emphasis on intellectual property rights and more emphasis on may the best man win (the minds of his peers)

Everyone agrees Shadow of the Colossus transcends the immaturity of the contemporary video game landscape. But that game was years ago, and even if that team's next offering (Trico) proves a comparable offering the game will be virtually peerless and people need more than a couple games with that kind of artistic integrity per decade. I can't imagine the game industry filling that void, in fact I can only imagine the game industry somehow becoming collectively more and more immature. So again, I reckon even something like Som has a better chance of producing something comparable to SotC.

Finally I think it's even better if you're opposed to the idea (just not actively standing in the way) because it plainly illustrates people should have the freedom to enjoy and rework (and tinker with) games even if everyone involved does not like one another. That's very important.

So in other words, for everyone reading, my primary aim is to bring attention to Som and to set a kind of political precedent of open game development. I'm not interested in making a game for the sake of the pure giddiness of making a game or in any kind of originality purity test. I chose DoM precisely because it was first and not so over defined as to be immutable. Not to mention it's complete and has a built in soundtrack. You should not think of anything I do with DoM as upstaging it. It's a pure and simple mod. I won't even go as far as to give it a proper title. And even if someone's intention was to transform it into a noncommercial Wisdom Tree-esque game I think the better man would not stand in the way of that