I never hated the guy, but he never struck me as a guy with a great sense of humour and often wondered why he was a creative director of a whole bunch of studios. The creativess or indeed, passion for the job, wasn't shown in the interviews I saw of him, nor the words that he spoke.

This keynote though, changes my view of him completely. Yep guys, it's long and talky and requires attention but offers a great insight into skyrim, bethesda, game creation and has a load of humour:

http://uk.gamespot.com/shows/gamespot-live/?event=skyrims_todd_howard_dice_keynote20120208

Well, I never doubted that he can present himself as a nice guy ... but so far he hasn't given me the impression of having any creative _vision_ whatsoever (beyond riding horses and swinging swords). Thanks for the link, I'll check it out and report back if it has changed my opinion. :)

Ah, the man behind soil erosion. A true landmark in gaming.

Well, I'm 15 minutes in now. So far, he's presented a couple of really lame "jokes", took a long time to mention some very basic product management techniques that he could have easily explained in three seconds by saying "iterative approach to design", and presented himself (as expected) as a decent executive producer (but not as someone who might be involved in game design in any creative capacity).

Does it get better towards the end?

I mean, it's really not only that I see his influence at Bethesda very critical and therefore couldn't appreciate a good talk by him. It just isn't a good talk so far. You can tell by the deafening silence in the audience after most of his "jokes" that he doesn't reach them either (the only exception was the newspaper slide, which was pretty funny, and the two minutes after that). So far, it's a bit beyond me how someone could label this talk as "super entertaining" ...

He also (so far) didn't present a single interesting fact. Most of his statements are very vague and general, and so far there's been nothing new for anyone who has spent more than a day educating himself about game design.

I'm taking a break now since I feel really, really bored by it, but I'll give it another chance later.

Okay, I saw the rest of the feed now, and it _does_ get better. Even the jokes. If someones's bored by the beginning, I suggest fast-forwarding to the 19:20 mark, that's when the more interesting stuff starts.

The video presentation that starts at 20:00 is very interesting for Skyrim players, as it may hint to the content of future DLCs or mods. It's also pretty well done.

Howard's statements also get less generic as the talk progresses.

Still, the talk doesn't offer much substance. Attempted jokes aside, the whole talk can be summarized in four points:

1. Bethesda uses an iterative approach to design, meaning they don't specify everything explicitly from the start, but reserve a lot of time for playtesting and for design changes as a result of the testing.

2. Since team members now have a lot of experience, it paid off to have them run wild for a week and give them the freedom to implement one feature that they wanted.

3. While playing a game, players repeatedly progress through a loop consisting of the phases "Learn", "Play", "Challenge", and "Surprise". Bethesda's games typically offer players choices to enter or leave each phase as they want.

4. The unique thing that games can achieve (and other media can't) is to make the player feel proud of what he has achieved.

I still wonder how this talk could change anyone's perception of Howard as a game designer though. I think it actually reinforces the idea that he's rather an executive producer / manager, and not a creative designer. The talk also seems to be somewhat cobbled together, there is no clear central idea that runs through it or even connects the different parts. For anyone who knows a tiny bit about gamedesign, the talk is very lightweight.

Conclusion: The "Game Jam" part in the middle is worth watching, the rest of it only if you're either very new to game design or a big fan of Skyrim or Todd Howard.