Warren Spector discusses the biggest lesson he's learned, the biggest problem gaming suffers from

A portion of an MTV interview with Warren Spector…

MTV: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?

WS: Experience counts for very little, especially as you rise through the ranks. I know that sounds crazy, but I really think it’s true. Unless you’re just doing the same game over and over, or each game you work on is an exercise in executing a little better than before on well understood problems, the fundamental fact of game development is that no two games are alike. No two teams are alike. No two genres have the same constraints. No two platforms offer the same challenges. Basically, I always say that the goal with each new game should be to make different mistakes than you made last time. That’s about the best you can hope for. Okay, having said that, I know I’m being a little flip here – of COURSE experience is a good thing, usually. But it’s really overrated in a business, an art form, where the hardware changes radically every five years or so… design is advancing at a ridiculous rate… and we’re still inventing new genres and distribution methods and so on. It’s just crazy. But crazy is good. Constant change is fun!

MTV: What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?

WS: The answer to this question depends entirely on your perspective, as a gamer and as a developer. As a guy who makes singleplayer, character-driven, story-based games, the biggest problems we face are really crummy non-combat AI and conversation systems that haven’t evolved nearly enough in the last 15 years. Oh, and the level of interactivity we allow in our game worlds, even when we’re at our groundbreaking best, is just pathetic. But if you’re in the social media games space or the iPhone games space or in the MMO space, your answer is probably totally different. And that’s pretty cool. It speaks to the incredible variety of game types, distribution methods and business models available today. Can you say “golden age?”