What all those games had in common, however, was that they were the product of a strong vision of an individual, or a small passionate team.
Personally, I think that is the reason right there.
How many truly collaborative works of art are out there? Art that will be remembered beyond its time and not just as filler in a contemporary gallery or as a kind of 'tech demo'. Many of the old masters had 'collaborative' workshops. One person who oversaw a team of skilled
craftspeople (because they weren't all men). A studio of people who were technically gifted enough to pretend they were great artists, as long as they had a great artist directing every canvas. 'Collaborative' studios exist today and their role is the same - to put out a high quantity of work under the name of one person or to realise grander artworks that would take a lifetime (or more) for one person.
How many film directors spend half the shoot on the beach sipping Martinis? I'm sure many do, but I'm equally sure almost every single film (commercial or indie) that has left an impact had a director in the truest sense of the word. Some may have made the shoot seem like a collaboration, but they're just incredibly clever at getting other people to do what
they want to realise
their vision.
Music is another one. Skilled musicians are relatively plentiful. Skilled artists who express themselves through music are a rarer breed. Most of them will be in a band and, if the band is any good, they will most likely be the focal point. I watch a lot of live music across genres and I've seen some future mega-successful bands/musicians in a room with fifty other people. You just know, such is their ability to communicate. They're not all incredibly skilled musicians, either.
You can take this argument to almost any field - even scientific. Most ground-breaking work is the vision of a small team - usually one person, sometimes two and rarely three.
Having been (un?)fortunate to have been working in the gaming industry over the past year, filling any role as needed (from web designer, programmer to technical design), I have to say the biggest problem is that nobody
creative ever seems to be in charge - I find such a situation ludicrous in the realisation of a creative vision. Nothing creative ever really gets done in a corporate environment where the 'director' wears a suit and attends board meetings and everyone else is subservient. You think Martin Scorcese or Woody Allen put up with that crap (especially Woody Allen who struggled for commercial recognition for four decades)? If they wouldn't, why would any potential 'artist' be attracted to or feel welcome enough to stay in the industry? That's another massive problem - turnover. Imagine if the Rolling Stones broke up after two years or changed their lineup every few months and Mick Jagger left to sing songs for bank adverts. Welcome to the gaming industry!
Finally... *deep breath* and I don't want to touch on this too much because I had a rant about it in another thread 6 months ago? But the whole "put the artists" in charge philosophy doesn't sit well with me at all. First off, the artists get paid less because there are more of them and they're easy to find. Secondly, that's because the term artist is a bit misleading in the gaming industry. What it should be is "Person who is technically gifted at drawing, or modelling or etc." See my paragraph on the old masters' studios. Few of those craftspeople went on to demonstrate great artistic ability relative to the number employed in those studios. It takes a lot more artistry than a good eye to direct a video game - there, I said it. Artistic inspiration or expression is not limited to one medium or discipline. Games are unique in that you can find beauty and expression of various different kinds. I don't want to pigeon-hole groups of people in retaliation to pigeon-holing people into groups, so I want to simply put forth the bold suggestion that artistic direction can come from anywhere (including those overpaid programmers who won't just churn out Arabic style mathematical and logic driven art - although that's just as valid an art!)
