I can see things from Jeff's perspective... my work on my vintage CRPG is no less difficult than a modern one, in some ways even harder.

What always made CRPG's attractive to me was the enigma that they held. The thrill of searching the unknown, discovering new things, and so forth. When you're on the other side of the divide, everything is obvious, clear, and well documented. So the magic is gone.

I suppose you can re-capture a bit of that magic by living through others, but it's a watered-down feeling. Also, like any game genre, CRPG's have that mold that can get a little tiresome.
 

Is it just me, or does Jeff Vogel always seem to come off as trying to let everyone know how horrible it is to make games? It's always depressing to read about how innovation in indie games isn't profitable or how he doesn't actually enjoy making games.
 

Is it just me, or does Jeff Vogel always seem to come off as trying to let everyone know how horrible it is to make games?

The ol' Brier Patch defense? I don't know. But yeah, he does tend to comment a lot on how much his job sucks. Maybe he really hates it, and maybe he's just trying to ward off the potential competition. Who knows? But he does a dang good job at what he does, and speaks plenty frankly about it, which I appreciate.

When you're on the other side of the divide, everything is obvious, clear, and well documented. So the magic is gone.

True enough. I always get to a point where I - in part - hate my own game. That's true of any game, not just RPGs. But I find I can usually love it and hate it at the same time. :) I don't just love RPGs, I love the creative process.

But part of the reason I'm so excited about indie RPGs is that thrill you mentioned - that magic of playing games by other "real people." Not big committees or anything - just other creative and driven people. There's some energy and life and personality there that I think shines through.
 

I'll pretty much quote myself from the Codex :

Game dev is a hell of a lot of work. I go through periods where I am disheartened and wonder why I'm bothering. Where I look at what I have done so far and go "meh". How many people have played a single game, every night, for a solid year or two? And that is playing, not working. It is easy to get sick of it, no matter how cool it seemed in the start. You get burnt out. The best thing I've found is to just leave it for a week or two. Enthusiasm levels recharge and after a while I find my passion and excitement returns. Honestly, having done it for so many years, it sounds like he just needs a good long vacation. Overall I'd say game dev isn't really "fun", but it is satisfying. Fulfilling. And sometimes you have cool moments which make all the crap seem worthwhile.