Gabe Newell and J.J. Abrams to host storytelling keynote at DICE
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Valve co-founder and Star Trek director to open DICE summit with keynote address.
Gabe Newell and J.J. Abrams will helm the opening keynote address at next week's D.I.C.E. Summit. The Valve co-founder and Star Trek director will present “Storytelling Across Platforms: Who Benefits Most, the Audience or the Player?" on the show's first morning.
Newell will also host a keynote address on Thursday titled "A View on Next Steps," which will detail the Valve mastermind's thoughts on where the games industry is heading and the kinds of advances Valve is making. The company recently announced a partnership with PC maker Xi3 to develop its own take on the long-rumoured Steam Box.
"J.J. thoughtfully weaves together suspense, action, emotion, and fun into every one of his projects -- elements every game developer aspires to capture as well," said Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Martin Rae.
Abrams' latest film, Star Trek: Into Darkness, will be released in May. He has also been lined up to direct the next Star Wars film.
"Each year, the D.I.C.E. Summit sets the tone for the year ahead in games and adding J.J. and Gabe’s shared insights is a natural fit as we see all forms of entertainment converge,” added Rae.
The D.I.C.E. Summit will take place in Las Vegas from February 5 to 8.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
86 comments
I swear, at the first hint of lens flare of 'Into Darkness', I'm walking out of the theater.
2 Like My prediction is the announcement of Half Life Forever... A game my grandchildren will get to enjoy.
1 Like Are the majority of article comments on this site always a giant hate fest or what?
"Your" homework for tonight is to think of 5 nice things to say about every article. You don't have to post them just think of them so your head isn't filled only with hate.
it seems that every comment referring to half life 3 and Gabes picture get a lot of likes!
@nutcrackr I've given up expecting it. I figure that way, whenever they finally do release it, it will be a pleasant surprise. Valve marches to the beat of their own drum--and I like their tune, so I am content to wait.
1 Like Sweet. The thing is J.J. is, I hate to say it... a lot like Michael Bay. He does a lot of stuff that's harder to not do, like a (subjectively speaking) actually good lens flare. He does narrative stuff, like Spock's little shenanigan in the first movie if you know what I mean.
Then again, so does Gabe, with things like having a silent protagonist, which, is easier to do in video games.
I should probably shut up before the people who misunderstand what I mean show up and flame me again...
But.....the player is the audience too?? o_O
Gabe's face is my face in response to that question.
JJ Abrams will kill Star Wars just like he killed Star Trek. He should be banned from speaking everywhere, and ran out of the country to live with the likes of Uwe Boll.
@VarietyMage Really? Comparing Uwe Boll to JJ Abrams? Uwe Boll can't even make good movies. I don't even know how he is able to make any type of movie.
Abrams has no respect for movie (or book) history, and as such, has no right to lay a finger on Star Wars. Ever.
You must not have watched any of the Star Trek stuff before Abrams "rebooted" the series, or in other words, the previous 40 years of storyline that Abrams made non-existent, thus taking a steaming dump on Gene Roddenberry's grave, his ideas of the future, and all of his works.
And you must be stupid to invoke Murphy's Law with that last question. If you dislike Phantom Menace (and especially Jar-Jar Binks), imagine how DISNEY will doll it up for kids. It will be worse than Phantom Menace ever was (and I liked it, BTW, Binks notwithstanding).
1 Like @VarietyMage I don't know about Abram's respect for anything. But I do know that I liked watching Lost, Cloverfield, and Star Trek. How bad could this new Star Wars film be? It will at least be better than Phantom Menace.
2 Like @VarietyMage You should be banned from posting anything online and ran out of your country.
When Abrams decided to nuke 40 years of Star Trek history, thus taking a dump on Roddenberry's grave, he lost me forever. Abrams should retire quietly. As such, he is going to kill Star Wars, like he killed Star Trek, all in the name of money. And damn him to hell for doing so.
3 Like JJ shouldn't be lecturing about stories. Ever.
His characters are paper thin. He loses so much in his attempts to focus on large scale events, inserting time travel into everything, and just making up stuff as he goes along. He butchered Star Trek, Lost's ending was awful, and his most recent TV show was just terrible. He's an overrated hipster arrogant jerk.
1 Like @MooncalfReviews JJ Abram helped to create lost... he didn't write or direct any of the episodes but for the exception of the Pilot and a series bible for the writing staff to fallow... he was an executive producer for half of the first season... You need to research things a little, cause you sound dumb when you blame a the person that came up with what started out like a great show, for an ending that, that person had nothing to do with... If you want to blame someone or something for how that show deteriorate you can blame the writers and the writers guild strike... And how did he butcher Star Trek? didn't they kill spok in the second original movie just to bring him back in the third film? Don't they go BACK IN TIME in the forth star trek movie!?!?!? He had to "reboot" star trek in a way that changes everything that we already know is suppose to happen so that future movies wouldn't be opposed to the original movies' canon... And I'd say he did just that.
@DemannameD Not to sound mean but you sound like every JJ fan I've ever argued with.
Yeah I know he didn't write much of Lost, but he made the series bible which means he created the show, which means he was responsible for the final few seasons, which were garbage. Yeah I get the "reboot", "alternate timeline" Trek thing, but the movie was poorly directed, poorly written, and it just capture the character of Kirk at all.
He came up with the concept for lost... The Hatch, The Numbers, The Anomaly and the Others. The "bible" stated that Time Travel would be an "unacceptable" plot device to retroactively explain plot holes, He also had been explicit in every way that the people on the island were not Dreaming or Dead. Everything he contributed to the series was in the first three seasons, Then they started moving a away from the tracks he laid in the forth season, then the writer strike happened and the 'bible' was just thrown out of a window. Again your just blaming him for what someone else was absolutely responsible for... Is it his fault that ending was terrible? Really? he wrote the Pilot... and then 120 episodes later you think he is responsible for What? Writing the first episode cause if he didn't do that they wouldn't have made 120 more of them? He never intended to capture the essence of Kirk, because Kirk isn't the same person, the original Kirk was raised by both of his parents, his father showed him how to be a strong leader. The new kirk's father is killed while he is being born, and grows up misguided, angry with no direction. If Abrams had just made the new kirk just like the old one.... IT WOULDN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! They had two completely different lives! And as far a Abrams and Star Wars goes, Star Wars is a HUGE universe, but for what ever reason Lucas was content on focusing on ONE FAMILY, in a Galaxy, Far Far Away.... ONE FAMILY, Lucas's vision was so myopic. You say Abrams is all about the Big Picture... GOOD. Its about time star wars was dusted off and saved from Lucas. There is so much material for him to go with, and no reboot required... Just Film things in the Star Wars universe, There are literally shit tons of it. Lightsabers, some force, maybe some jedis, a villain, maybe some spaceships, bounty hunters, one of those big things from ROTJ .... Sounds Awesome to me... ONE FILM is more that Lucas was ever going to do... They are going to make many. I've even heard rumors abouta seven samurai ode to Akira Kurosawa type movie. Awesome.
@Mr_BillGates Wait a minute...3 replies to this post (including mine)...
HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED
13 Like I'm sure Gabe appreciates you using such a candid photo for your news story. Stay classy, Gamespot.
12 Like @wavelength121 but that isn't a candid photo. That is a professionally shot photo that Gabe Newell fully approves of.
@4-Legged-Shark @wavelength121
It's his face when he sees what the internet thinks of him.
Or at least, that's what I believe.
3 Like That's the "confusion with a hint of anger" face Gabe makes every time the McRib goes back into hibernation.
4 Like Even Gabe looks confused and bewildered as to why Half-Life 3 hasn't released in the last 5 years.
4 Like Sorry to piss on everyone's parade, but these two have hardly made a compelling story between them.
JJ first, sure he did Star Trek and aside from the last minute editing it was good. However, time travel is hardly a concept that would put you in the hall of fame. At least these days, Back To The Future did the concept so well, that if it isn't done to the extremes of this film, then Time Travel becomes a useless plot device. Here, it's merely used to reboot an old series. Don't get me wrong, I like the new Star Trek and look forward to the next one, but I wouldn't consider sitting through a lecture with him based off of his current work.
Star Wars is the real reason he is there. What he succeeds and fails to do with it, is not the matter here anyway, so moving on.
Gabe Newell is a man built from pure hype. Not trying to diminish his abilities, but if you actually look at his stories, they're not that great. Many will come to this guys defence, but fact is, the stories in Valve's titles are very lackluster.
I would rather sit and listen to many Japanese storytellers, because looking at western stories are so typically generic and bland that it's an afterthought for a game.
I want to listen to the likes of Kojima, and get him to discuss about things prior to MGS4.
Just so long as that bumbling baboon David Cage isn't one of these storytellers at the keynote, I'm a happy man.
4 Like @JustArtificial The story in Half Life 2 was nothing particularly special, but the manner in which the game guided you through the story was revolutionary. That is probably why Gabe is there.
@JustArtificial Not defending anyone but I personally thought the writing for Portal and Portal 2 was funny and they had enough of a story to drive the humor and explain what was going on. Plus some of the Japanese story tellers are AMAZING compared to the Western counterparts. That is just the nature of the market. West doesnt seem to want story just action. Japan wants story and action.
Just as you said about Portal and Portal 2 I agree. The thing I liked about Portal 1 was it was a mind game. I had no clue what was happening. The second one started to shed some light and as good as that was, I felt that I was learning a lot about the situation(not a bad thing) but I like not to be given all the pieces to the puzzle. What I liked about half-life was the same thing when the G-man would show up. That is what I loved about Alan Wake ( yes yes Remedy made that one) but I love the mind Bloop in story telling. CUBE one of the best movies I have ever seen. I can agree that Valve do not tell the best stories but when you give a little (story) to the western audience, they don't appreciate what was told or that they don't "get it" they need to know about everything. I like when a story ends and it is left for the viewer to decide on what they think. That is what I love about European stories and Asian stories. They look outside of the same idea box.
These are the developers people want to hear from. Not Cliff Bleszniski which gamespot & ign have a love affair with. DICE should also invite Todd Howard again he always gives good speeches.
4 Like And on the fifth day of the second month, the Gaben announced the arrival of our salvation; Half Life 3. The Gaben cometh, and the Gaben willith be done.
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