Mdickie Interview

http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2007/12/mdickie-interview.html

It's a long interview but gives an interesting insight into the guy + a photo, oooh!

I say respect to the guy for his "scattergun approach" and also his dedication. Interesting how he thinks exercise is vital to achieving the long hours that he puts in - I agree of course, it's why I took up Aikido 10+ years ago.

He's got crazy staring psycho eyes in his photo.

He compares himself to Michelangelo and Woody Allen, which seems rather egotistical to me, but with those spookily piercing eyes, who'd be brave enough to disagree?

..well..he didnt actually compare himself with Michelangelo, it was just example of similar situation, regarding way of doing things(alone)...but even then I do agree Michelangelo is a big bite to take :)

Well, yes, but it's difficult to take him seriously in general. Don't get me wrong, I admire his productivity, but his games are generally a bit, um, shoddy and amaturish, and he certainly seems to be his own greatest fan. In many ways he reminds me of Xylvan. Plus he has crazy staring psycho eyes, which, I feel, can't be emphasised enough.

I guess his drive is what's admirable, his self-belief has clearly got him somewhere. "Reach" won a Sport Game of the year award for example.

He comes across a bit haughty to say the least, but I think he has some valid points.

I really hope he doesn't really believe all the self-help drivel he keeps saying in interviews and in his blog. He's like one of those guys that can't stop talking about himself and bores anyone he meets to death. For an interview with a game developer it's amazing the amount of time he spends not talking about his game or features it's all about him. I wonder if he's ever had a girlfriend for any length of time...

He doesn't seem to have a clue a about what's really important and suffers from SEVERE delusions of grandeur. Face it MDickie, you make graphically inferiour games that are generally sub-par but happen to have found a small niche market, comparing yourself to any of the famous people you mention makes you look silly. The public buying games do not give a rats-a**e about who made the game or what their motivation was, whether the game took 3 years or 3 minutes to write or how many people made it. GET OVER YOURSELF.

I also think this rubbish about having a retirement letter written is just arrogance, simliar to Jeff Minter throwing a tantrum and threatening to quit the business. The fact is if both of them and 50% of the indie game community with them quit the business tomorrow 99% of the public wouldn't even notice, much less care.

Kudos to him for taking it as far as he has and what he has achieved but it's impossible to take him seriously. I think his media averse policy is actually his best idea, play to your strengths. I just pray I'll never get stuck in a lift with the guy.

Darkheart

LOL

And now here's Tom with the Weather!

I much prefer Darkheart's games.

What games has Darkheart made?

Here is a summary of Darkheart's post:

"self-help is nonsense, he is boring, he probably has no girlfriend, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing, he has a big ego, his games are ugly, he doesn't need a retirement letter if he's self-employed (true), he's been successful but I don't take him seriously, I don't like him at all."

Pretty nasty! Did you have a bad day Darkheart?

Er, I think that was Brucey's point.

I think MDickie has an interesting viewpoint and I appreciate that he is philosophical and tries to be visionary, including spiritual concepts in his work. I disagree with DarkHeart's analysis. You only see in other people what *you* put there, so if you don't like what you're seeing then change *your* mind about that person. I choose to see that MDickie is an interesting guy and is obviously enjoying some success. His passion is inspiring and although I've never played any of his games there obviously are many people who have.

Markcw: I don't need anyone to dumb down or mispresent my posts, everyone's here's quite capable of reading what I wrote and understanding it in it's original form.

Brucey: There are other ways to measure success beyond counting the number of homebrew games you've written in a hobby language.

ImaginaryHuman: Did you read the whole interview? I also disagree about what you see in other people; people are quite capable (and do) represent themselves. I have no axe to grind with MDickie but after looking at what he says about himself those are my conclusions on what HE says.

Compare and contrast that interview with an interview by someone who really is a leader in their field and has been for a long time who is also extremely talented, you'll see what I mean. I could take apart that interview line by line with the numerous sweeping statments, arrogant presumptions and innaccuacites but anyone can do that because it's so baltent, read the interview and it just screams unprofessionalism.

Darkheart

Darkheart, yeah I guess that wasn't a great idea but I enjoyed it, hehe.

Anyway, nobody is perfect! MDickie is talking from his own experience, so what if he's wrong about some things, it's just an indie interview. MDickie isn't a professional and doesn't think he is, he's an indie developer, so it's unfair to compare him to a professional.

Well he is a "professional Indie developer" and he'd probably take umbrage at being called non-professional ;-) I'm a professional Indie developer, because it's my profession. It's your profession if it's your main job, even if your games don't sell and you only make £1 a month. If you have a "day job" and you make Indie games for a hobby then I guess it's not your profession. However, whether your games *look* "Professional" is an entirely different matter and is not related to if it's your job or a hobby. Hey I think we had this debate before sometime in the past...Sorry to be a pedant ;-)

Maybe people view "professional" as someone who works for a big company and makes AAA games?

Yes, by professional I meant someone who works for a game company that sells stuff in shops.

thought so. I wonder if any of his games are sold in shops? (actually I think his blog says one is on a collection of games sold in a shop) My Oz game is. But you mean BIG budget mega-titles for PC/console right?

I have no doubt there's a niche for this kind of style. And if you think he's got crazy eyes, then you better don't see mine °_o

Yes I did read the whole thing and no people do not represent themselves, it's entirely made up in your own mind. It's YOUR perception that you're perceiving with and believe it or not your perception creates what you see, not the other way around.

Dickie gets my thumbs up...oooerr.

David Brent?

@Grey Alien


As far as I have seen, his games are sold via Cafepress, see the boxed version of: http://www.cafepress.com/mdickie

I don't think his games are retailed in shops, unless they are independent shops.

You got to admit the guy has alot of passion, and looks like he is going well, so good luck to him :-)

Yes, big budget not necessarily on console, but working with a team of guys from 9 to 5 in an office everyday makes you a professional, strictly speaking.

I got the impression that Darkheart was comparing MDickie to famous professional developers like Hideo Kojima, Will Wright, etc.

Finally, someone says what I've been thinking all these years!

What - like this???

.rethink
If date() < 1/1/2009
think (" Aaaah...David Brent....sigh")
;;; say( "Shower me with flappage!!") ; remember what policeman said to me :(
goto rethink
endif

That's called focus and determination.

Don't be a Hater! There's too many of those around here...

..you should see my eyes when im in toilet and shi**ing :) scary man, scary .. :)

Excercise is vital ...

There sure is. Like that guy who chases Jake around trying ( and failing ) to find fault and needle him at every opportunity because he's green with envy that Jake's getting paid by BFG to make games and he isn't.

Yep, I agree with Chroma. Who needs haters?

I don't think anyone hates Mdickie.

I nearly replied to this. Then I thought sod it.

He makes games he likes; he enjoys doing so; he makes a living off of it; he makes games other people like; he makes a lot of them; he thinks he's quite good at it and is proud of what he's done.

What's the problem? o_O

lol! That was more information than we needed.


They're out there.


Most likely they're jealous of his success.

Gabriel: As they used to say in the 60s (not that I was there): "Right on, man!". This forum is for people that use Blitz and so we should all be comrades and support each other and BRL, yet it seems that some people (how easy it would be to name names) seem to have a chip on their shoulder or perhaps just enjoy being negative for the sake of it. Shame on them really; we can either co-habit these forums in harmony and learn from each other or bicker like fools - which one sounds the most logical I wonder? Here's to a more postive 2008! :-)

It's just that everyone praises him (especially himself) for being successful, when by his own admission is barely scraping by, working 12 hour days. When did the definition of success change? You might find his work inspirational, and it's great he can finish so many games in such a little time, but I certainly wouldn't want to be him.

What exactly is your measure of success? Is this guy doing something he is passionate about on his own schedule for himself and making enough to get by? That sounds a hell of a lot like success to me.

SpaceAce

Ok it's official, Gabriel is stalking me. It's ok though I like the attention. :)


Eh, totally not true. I just did a big unit on what constitutes a profession in the military. There's certain criteria you have to meet in order to be called a professional or have your job called a profession...But, no one can stop you from calling yourself a professional if you really feel the need. It's a free world...well mostly.

Here read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession

I don't think MDickie would feel very welcome by this thread and I'm surprised that we're even allowed to make threads which basically amount to a string of judgements about a person's character. I hope I don't get my own thread someday with everyone talking about me as if I'm not here.

mdickie rocks, I think he'll do alot of big things in the future ! ...

ImaginaryHuman: I'm not sure if your living in the real world; he gave a public interview to an internet journalist and people are discussing it. Different people have different points of view on what he said, what's wrong with that?

I don't hate Mdickie at all, this issue simply doesn't move me enough to get anywhere near as strong an emotion as hate. I do wonder about the wisdom of pandering to a delusion narcissist.

There are a lot of really silly things said in that interview that illustrate my points but I think my favourite is this, purely for the breath-taking arrogance:

"When Wrestling MPire 2008 drops next year, you bring me one human being who could even begin to make anything of that size and sophistication. He doesn't exist - not at the independent level or even the mainstream level. I don't take any pleasure in saying that. My fondest wish is to create an army of people who ARE capable of that. At the moment, that's simply not the case. And until it is, I'll be bridging the gap between independent creativity and mainstream success - proving that the impossible is possible and the unthinkable is thinkable...".

Mdickie may or may not rock; but I severly doubt he will budge much off his status quo, serving his niche market until eventually interest in that dies out. I highly doubt we can expect "great things" from him.

Darkheart

ImaginaryHuman, I disagree, MDickie knows he has a lot of critics here on bb.com, what may surprise him is that they are in the minority, at least going by this thread.

Darkheart, I appreciate what you are trying to say but I take issue with your attitude, take for example this:

Would you like this to be said about you? It's not a nice way to talk so lighten up dude. There's no need for it.

Anyway, back to MDickie. You accuse him of being narcissist and arrogant. Okay, if he was narcissist wouldn't he be posting here all the time telling people how great he was? Yes he would. Secondly, yes I agree he's arrogant, that's just something he's got to work on.

the reason he sounds like that is because he is trying
to sell his game, its marketing. In reality he's quite
down to earth and humble ...

Well, different from person to person, but I'd say it would be living more than comfortably while working average to less than average hours.

I'd say success is when you're happy with yourself and what you've done...seems like MD has it in spades...which explains why he feels no need to defend himself here at all.

But if you love what you do, then working 12 hour days can be a pleasure. I often put 12 hours in and the satisfaction of seeing my game progress in a single day is a much better feeling than sitting by a pool sipping cocktails (although that is nice too).

OK I read the link. Appears that it's not valid to say Indie development (or in fact ANY computer game development, even AAA games) is a "profession", it can merely only be called an "ocupation" haha. However, I believe it is valid to say that someone does something in a "professional manner", be they Indie developer, AAA game developer, or toilet cleaner, or killer - because it's just a comparison when used like that.

ImaginaryHuman: Yeah what amazes me is I posted an interview of a fellow Blitz user as I thought people might find it interesting and now this thread is in danger of being shut down.

Hujiklo: 100% agreed. Success isn't all about money and working not many hours (that's ONE measure of a certain kind of sucess). It's about FEELING like you are a success due to your achievements no matter what the naysayers toot. There's also success in relationships/family, or spiritual practices etc.

Success is difficult to define. I'd say it consists of "excelling in one's field of expertise" and "personal happiness", but the balance varies from person to person. In this respect, Mdickie could by some standards be called a success, because he has clearly achieved a certain level of happiness. However, the arrogant, uncharismatic and narcissistic attitude that he exhibits in the interview still sucks. Note: I say that his attitude in the interview sucks, not the guy himself - perhaps he just needs to work on his internet persona.