News: John Carmack: Mobile Games Are More “Pure”

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June 25, 2013 - 1:34am

John Carmack is known for developing some of the world’s most advanced PC graphics engines, but that doesn’t mean that he is blind to the merits of mobile games and their “pure” gameplay.

"I was really happy that when mobile came along with the more 'pure' games, they didn't have to be a $50 game that had man-centuries in them," he said. "You can have these small things that cost people a couple bucks."

"I don't have a lot of free time and I don't have 50 hours for Skyrim. That's not to take anything away from the massive titles, but it's great to have this broad spectrum of gaming," he added.

John Carmack is known for developing id Tech 3 graphics engine which powered Quake 3, id Tech 4 which powered Doom 3 and id Tech 5 which powered Rage.

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well he is right. but it's

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 2:23pm

well he is right. but it's the same as saying arcade games are purer games than console games. the only reason mobile games are purer is because they don't have or have a minimalistic story and cutscenes I.E. mobiles cant story, only gameplay.

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Mobiles can do story just

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 1:03pm

Mobiles can do story just fine, the thing is that deep stories aren't a trend for mobile games right now. But if you dig you'll find jrpgs out there that do just that.

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oh you mean those grindfests

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 11:12pm

oh you mean those grindfests that masquerades as secret of mana style games? more like a singleplayer mmo with story like "go into woods and kill 50 rabbits". the only story mobiles can provide right now i trough an e-reader app.

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This guy has never played a

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 3:40am

This guy has never played a mobile game in his life

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what a dumbass

Submitted by truth teller (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 8:30am

Carmack : quake,wolfenstein,doom,great games...mobile games are more STUPID and simple and not want advanced graphics......poor old man....

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doom 1 and 2 was good, quake

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 10:24am

doom 1 and 2 was good, quake one to 3 was good, the first wolfenstein was good, commander keen was good. Everything after that was pure crap.

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People are a little too hard

Submitted by Pancake Areolas (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 2:17pm

People are a little too hard on Doom 3. It wasn't breaking ground and had some serious lighting issues (there wasn't any), but it's still an enjoyable game, at least once properly modded.

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i bought doom 3 at launch,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 9:51pm

i bought doom 3 at launch, looked great, but it was such a boring game and repetitious and was no match for Half life 2 which was released around the same time. I actually played half of d3 and traded it in for a discount on hl2. Much better choice since hl2 was absolutely amazing at the time.

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Half life 2 was *******

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 6:58am

Half life 2 was ******* terrible at the time, what are you talking about? Hollow plot, poor gunplay, dumb AI and annoying AI companions. Let alone the 1995-grade level design and substandard graphics. The only people who think it was god are people who hadn't played any games except HL1 until it. And there were HL1 mods that were better than it.

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The reviews disagree with you

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 2:03pm

The reviews disagree with you ***. And the graphics were top notch for the time, i bet you weren't even old enough to understand the concept of games when it came out.

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I was 16, and I'm glad some

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 3:45am

I was 16, and I'm glad some guy paid by valve disagreed with the vast majority of PC gamers at the time? The only people who think it was good are the same people who get every single opinion from other people on the bet because they're incapable of making their own. Seriously, it came out way after Escape from Butcher Bay, had much, much worse visuals, a story that could have been written by a six year old and a character they hoped people would care for because they had *****. If that's "the best game ever" then they've set the lowest possible bar for the rest of time.

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OMG, HL2 was amazing, I've

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 2:00pm

OMG, HL2 was amazing, I've never played a game so incredibly awesome, were you under a rock or something. HL2 was 1000X's better than doom 3.

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Not to mention the crippling

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 7:01am

Not to mention the crippling launch issues - there were months where nobody could play the game they'd spent $120 on because Steam refused to actually work. It was an atrocity compared to the nothing that was the Sim City launch - and people were threatening murder over that hiccup.

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Troll.

Submitted by Eatinladyfeces (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 8:01pm

Poor gunplay & AI? Yeah battling those gunships with laser guided rockets was only the coolest piece of VG combat ever. The gravity gun that no one had ever seen before was so poor that Id decided to rip it off for the D3 expansion. I dare you to find a best video games of all time list that ranks D3 above HL-2. I'd actually be surprised to even see D3 on the list. People are definitely too hard on it, but Id softwares products back to & including D3 consistently fail to meet industry standards for their respective time periods. Both HLs shattered par when they dropped. The launch of Steam has nothing to do with the quality of the game or the enjoyment of the experience. I got mine free off TPB & it was totally worth my while. Furthermore, those greedy copy **** a$$holes at EA don't get the slack that Valve does with Steam because like everything Valve has done so far, Steam was breaking new ground too. Whether you're a troll or just an idiot, **** off.

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So, you were born AFTER HL2

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 3:47am

So, you were born AFTER HL2 came out and never played it? Great, thanks for letting us know :)

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yeah well HL2 didn't

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 11:18pm

yeah well HL2 didn't incorporate heightmaps or lightmaps or bumpmaps or whatever they're called, which is now the industry standard. That's a huge reason the source engine was able to have larger areas. So in the end it was the Id Tech 4 engine that shattered par.

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Are you stupid or just dumb?,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 11:28pm

Are you stupid or just dumb?, you're ******* right it has bump mapping, did you play it on a dx7 machine or something? The one person who cant look up **** on Google happens to be on MG

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it does not have bump mapping

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 5:17am

it does not have bump mapping ******* moron

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Bump mapping is old, they

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 11:33am

Bump mapping is old, they used a better mapping tech for this.

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ever heard of Normal mapping?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 10:41am

ever heard of Normal mapping? and are we talking just hl2 or the expansions also? Although not graphically as impressive as d3, still somehow looked better.

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Oh and......

Submitted by Nowiminyomomsass (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 8:05pm

Id Tech 5? Piece of dog ****, anyone? Ya word? Who uses that loaf of kife? The texturing problems in that hunk of **** load were hyped by Carmack as some kind of big deal like it was a good thing.

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Never had that problem, i

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 2:05pm

Never had that problem, i bought my copy a week after. derrrrrr

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A week after what, it came

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 3:50am

A week after what, it came out in Hungary? It's the reason people STILL hate steam so much after nine years. They were selling so many copies they didn't even fix it until eh discovered how easy it was to pirate it.

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So you must be dumb, if you

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 11:23am

So you must be dumb, if you couldn't put that together, than all hope is lost for you.

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whoa, you just wont give up.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 10:43am

whoa, you just wont give up. you probably cheated your way through the whole game, so the experience was ruined for you. doom 3 had no chance against hl2, sorry, but it's the truth

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Talk about a straw man

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2013 - 6:12pm

Talk about a straw man argument! I never said anything about Doom 3, why are you bringing it up to counter my point? Amateurs, honestly.

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Carmack : quake,wolfenstein

Submitted by mikem (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 4:54am

Carmack : quake,wolfenstein,doom,great games...mobile games are more STUPID and simple and not want advanced graphics......poor old man....

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I don't think you understood

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 6:19am

I don't think you understood him at all :/ or you're just angry that your mum won't let you have a phone?

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What a dumbass

Submitted by War on June 25, 2013 - 2:22am

Bet he didn't know you can play skyrim on a tablet right now, and for very cheap too.

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streaming doesn't count.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 10:48am

streaming doesn't count. and laptop hybrids don't count either

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I bet he knows a lot more

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 9:22am

I bet he knows a lot more about computers, mobiles and games than you ever will. Also you completely missed his point, talk about failing hard...

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Natively? Or using a

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 6:17am

Natively? Or using a streaming service?

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Both

Submitted by War on June 25, 2013 - 9:14am

Both

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Well, if a tablet that can

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 25, 2013 - 9:47am

Well, if a tablet that can run Skyrim natively is "very cheap" I'd love to live on your paycheck. The cheapest tablet I could find that would run it is a hassle core-i5 equipped tablet with discrete graphics for $1,500 USD. And it would play it terribly. Even beside that, how does that make Carmack a 'dumbass'? Something along the lines of Skyrim wouldn't even be possible on top-of-the-line hardware if it weren't for his influence.

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You can probably run it on

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 26, 2013 - 12:59pm

You can probably run it on razers edge tablet which costs $1000. Thats about the same price you'd pay for other i5 w8 tablets except razers has an nvidia gpu.