Denial, The Games Industry is lying to itself... and to gamers!

[Kschreck]

I don't know if theres anyone here interested in this but I figured I would check. A friend of mine did a goliath writeup that does not fit on these forums as it is (76,000) characters long. The article is about the failing game industry and what he believes can save it. Since the article was meant for my site it is rather geared toward Nintendo fans. Anyways if anyone is interested you can check it out here:


http://theboard.zogdog.com/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=480 (Part 1)

http://theboard.zogdog.com/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=479 (Part 2)


You can also view this story on my site: www.therevolutionlifestyle.com

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Next-gen gameplay, not graphics, will help the industry

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Bah let the industry crash. Destroy it all then rebuild it.

They'll just keep making quake 16 and mario super underpants party until they go bankrupt. We can yell gameplay gameplay gameplay until the cows come home but big businesses like EA just do not give a two hoots.

Let it crash.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Its an interesting read, but when people start talking about this indutry failing (or any industry for that matter), my ass begins to twitch. Yes, there are many folks who only look at the almighty dollar, but there are also a good number of peole for whom creativity is not a four-letter word. Look at recent games like Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, Animal Crossing, NintenDogs, the upcoming Okami and many others--they may not sell millions of units, but they get the industry talking a lot and with good reason--these games demonstarte that creativity and imagination are certainly not dead in this industry and hopefully all of the positive talk from gamers and developers themselves will encourage more companies to take a look at why they are making a super slick FPS with almost no innovation at all.

But just because its imaginative and different doesn't mean it won't sell: Look at Resident Evil 4--it just passed 3 million sold and started generating big profits for Capcom and its gameplay was far different from the first few entries in the franchise. The devs went out on a limb changing up the gameplay and it paid off in spades! Sure, it had a franchise history behind it, but just because its part of a franchise, doesn't mean it can be schlock and people will buy it because they won't.

All I am saying really is that the same talk has gone on recently in the movie industry and the music industry and it is as simple as adapting your business model to meet the coming trends. Because they are having trouble doing that, these people complain and give bleak predictions about the state of the industry as a whole. This kind of talk is pretty worthless in my book, but I suppose it will get people thinking more creatively about how to address the "issue."

 

[Gargantou]

If one is interested in this, one should read the Scratchware Manifesto if you haven't already. It's written by people in the industry and it's a very good read imo.
Oh and thanks for the link, good read..

 

[VictimOfScience]

If one is interested in this, one should read the Scratchware Manifesto if you haven't already. It's written by people in the industry and it's a very good read imo.
Oh and thanks for the link, good read..

This is interesting too, but this statement (unfortunately near the very beginning) kind of irks me:

Walk into your local bookstore; you'll find tens of thousands of titles. Walk into your local record store; you'll find thousands of albums. Walk into your local software store; you'll find perhaps 40 games.

First of all, you just cannot compare printed books with videogames. The costs are totally out of proportion. Its just payments to the author, the people who worked on the book--editor, proofreader, production/art people, subsidiary rights people, marketing people, PR people--and that is if its a big book! The marketing for book is absurdly less than the marketing for most videogames. Also, the development cycle is all but finished by the time the publisher gets the book--usually just a little clean-up or smoothing out, but that's about it. I am not sure what sort of costs prohibits game stores from keeping older titles on the shelves, like bookstores with re-prints of texts from 100s of years ago! I wish it were that easy to get my hands on old software!

The comparison to a music shop is terrific though when you think about it. You walk into a game store nowadays or a large music store and the most interesting section is relegated to a small shelf or corner of the huge floor. The music that you want to find is much more intelligent/talented than the mainstream schlock and yet its hidden and you must search long and hard to find it if indeed you find it at all!

And so it goes that the PC areas of game shops tend to be shrinking and if you ask the proprietors why they will tell you its to make room for the new console games. Not like new PC hardware and games are coming out all the time or anything(!), but once a new console comes out, everything else gets pushed aside. This is because more and more kids these days have these systems that will run all of these games and the advertising is rampant and they don't have to worry about hardware requirements or system configuration or anything else that makes PC gaming so interesting.

Its like any other industry though--slop sells because the masses lap it up into their greedy piggy mouths because they are simply starving for the next new thing. I use the Madden football example of churning out virtually the same title every year with maybe one or two new features added and yet people buy it every friggin year! This only gives the publishers the OK to do this time and time again! If people just wouldn't buy it, then they would be forced to improve and innovate or face the consequences!

 

[boglito]

I don't know if theres anyone here interested in this but I figured I would check. A friend of mine did a goliath writeup that does not fit on these forums as it is (76,000) characters long. The article is about the failing game industry and what he believes can save it. Since the article was meant for my site it is rather geared toward Nintendo fans. Anyways if anyone is interested you can check it out here:


http://theboard.zogdog.com/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=480 (Part 1)

http://theboard.zogdog.com/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=479 (Part 2)


You can also view this story on my site: www.therevolutionlifestyle.com

People want repetition, people want evolution, people fear change.
Oh, and in case you and your 76k char buddy didn't know this; people buy videogames.

.bog.