Like a Phoenix.....

[ComradeBadger]

The gaming industry as we know it is dying a slow and painful death.... the only development teams able to stave off publishers messing with their game are teams like Valve (Most recently with Vivendi telling a team to make their LotR game look more like WC3). There are other reasons too..... the industry is suffering from 'pre-pubescent' syndrome..... very few games have portrayed women as people as opposed to objects for your leers, and those that have have sold badly..... becuase the industry is geered for the 11-18 age bracket and focus groups etc show that that is what they want, they don't want games which portray women as PEOPLE...... I know many of the more 'mature' members of this forum believe that stereotyping is bad...... yet there are threads about whether breasts wobble in Source engine. Really. And they get replied too. Nuff Sed.

However there is a solution..... the gaming industry can rise again from the ashes of it's bigoted, money-driven, franchise-heavy, origianally-starved current self like a phoenix, and be stronger and more acessable for this.

But how can we do this? No, put the petrol down... the clue lies in Doom and Wolfenstein. How were they released?

Think hard kiddies

Shareware. Although this side of the gaming world has been happily plugging away recently, under the name of 'Independant Games'... since they do not need greedy publishers to get released, and to make money, and most of the time, they are a labour of love, not some cheap knock-off..... as PCGamer said

You can be sure that these people really want to make games

Too lazy to code a propriety engine? Well guess what engine is now available FREE to us all?

Think hard kiddies

Quake 3 Arena. OK, so it's not the latest tech, but it's a solid engine, and can now be used by the Independant industry, and they can make money from it. This can only be a good thing.

I have ideas for many games, but they can all wait until OES is finished.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Interesting......
Speaking of wobbling i wonder if Gordons......you know......wobbles.





Anyway. What you are saying sounds very true I'm sad to say. Ive seen this coming for a long time, its simply the society that we live in. Its driven by money which doesn't have to be a bad thing but almost always ends up being.

I think a great deal of the problems have come from something that affects most large corporations. That is they are always out to make even the slightest profit and they try to please the customer at every turn. Now then that may not sound like a good things but notice how the staff isn't mentioned. The businesses that do really well are the ones that look after their staff. Take Virgin for example. Richard Branson bought an island specifically for his staff to take holidays on. EA has become a nice example of how a publisher loses its way. They are now more concerned with making money, buying out other people and people pleasing than they are with publishing really quality games. They pump out new sport games almost everyday and each one of them is the same cheap crap with touched up graphics. Anyway i can feel myself moving into rant mode so I'l try to stop there. Hopefully you know what I'm saying.

By the way one publisher which still seems quite in touch "with the people" is Sierra, Ive always liked them. Perhaps I'm bias because of Half-life but they seem to be a good publisher.

The thing about the Quake 3 engine could be quite interesting. i hadn't heard that we could get that. That gives me even more reason to do more programing. Who knows in a few years time there could be an influx of games into the market.

 

[Stone]

I would write something, but I think its all be covered...
The game industry is just slapping together crap for a quick buck...
They should take their time... and to be honest at the moment the only gaming company that I would work for if offered to is Valve... I would never ever put my name to EA, although when younger I would of in the days when they put stuff into their games..

 

[Sirius]

Suprise, suprise game companies are out there to make money. It takes money to make money. I know everyone would like to think that companies are here only to make fun, entertaining games for all of us, but the bottom line is for cash. That's the way the world works. As far as EA goes, they've done everything right, in a buisness sense. That's why they're the largest game publisher on the market. They've got titles like Madden, that consistently sell millions of copies every year. Titles like Medal of Honor and their Xpacks, Battlefield 1942 and it's Xpacks, The Sims and it's XPacks, Simcity 4 and it's Xpacks, etc, etc, etc. We're talking some of the best and top selling games on the market. So from that perspective they're publishing top quality games. Doesn't that mean they're working for the people? Looks like it.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Ah... the good old not-so humble expansion pack....... revamp some AI.... re-skin some things... and whack a nice fat £20 sticker on the box. People buy things like that becuase they remember the origanal game was good.... and all expansion packs are 'more of the same' and therefore people buy them. EA is the worst publisher for milking things.... the FIFA series. People buy that so they arn't out of date. This isn't primarily a rant about publishers and their increasingly cynical design philosophies. But the fact that it is nigh on impossible to break in the industry.

 

[Sirius]

Has anybody ever considered blaming the consumer for shotty publishing? If people would speak more with their wallets, and choose not to buy as many games, companies and publishers alike would be forced to devote more time into "quality" games than rehashing current ones with expansion packs.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Originally posted by Sirius
If people would speak more with their wallets, and choose not to buy as many games, companies and publishers alike would be forced to devote more time into "quality" games than rehashing current ones with expansion packs.

Precisely my point. Support Indie games. Nuff Said. Exercise your power. Make Publishers think.

 

[csmighty]

I only buy 2,3,or 4 games a year now because the rest of em are crap, i only buy good games with my hard earned money because i dont want to buy a shittie game for 50 bucks because then i know that i was raped

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

The last game i bought was C&C Generals. That series went way down hill at Tiberian Sun. Westwood was bought out by EA and all the games after that had to go through a commity which decideds what is good and what isnt rather than let the makers do it. It wouldnt surprise me if the orginal Westwood team didnt exist.

 

[A.A]

Valve and HL2 is the bright light in a dark tunnel.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Precisely.
Well said.

If you look at Valve's team page.... most of the members have come up through an amateur background. Who is to say a $15 Independant game is not going to be as much fun as FIFA 200x?

Support Indie games. Please. Help the industry boycott the massive money-grabbing publishers. Let talent shine

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Boycotting isnt the way. It didnt work with Nestle and it wont work with this. Even if it does have an effect all it will do is put people out of work. Companys like that work as single entities. Each one like its own life form. All that will happen when you boycott them is that people at the bottom will be laid off and the people in control wont be affected. The company will survive and take on a new strategy.

Of course though, supporting Indie games is a very good idea. So long as they are quality games though. Although ive been wondering how the games would become mainstream. You need someone to Publish them otherwise you would have to pour incredible amounts of money into them to get them off the ground. The reason problems have arisen with companys like EA is that they have actually bought out game makers rather than just taking them on and publishing their games.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Thats just the thing Farrow, Indie games usually have a development budget of $0 . UpLink had a dev budget of 0. And was basically an indie game became great. Indie games follow the classic 'Shareware' model. Download a portion of the game, and if you want more.... pay the Developers and they'll let you download the game.

Say if I released an Indie game.... our team's site gets 24 hits a day, If half of them download it at $15 a dl. In a year I'd earn $65700 a year.... which is not bad at all..... If people like the game then they pass the first bit onto their friends and family... who in turn pay for it.... can snowball in value.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Yeah i suppose. I didnt really think about that.

Its just another referal buisness. Kind of like what im doing when im 18. (no im not going to explain it because it would take to long.)

 

[LoneDeranger]

No, boycotting isn't a good idea at all. You will just hurt the PC game industry as a whole. The key is to buy games which are good and not stupid stpin-offs of movies (LOTR, Enter the Matrix, Tomb Raider, etc).

For example, I recently bought GTA Vice City even though it's a big commerical title and just a silly PS2 port. I don't care about that. It's just a good game, that's why I spent money on it.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Yeah. I like to buy games that are good. no matter who makes em really.
That also works the other way. If these indie games arent any good then im not going to buy them just to support the makers.

 

[ComradeBadger]

I love it when people mis-interpret me

Originally posted by mrBadger
Help the industry boycott the massive money-grabbing publishers. Let talent shine

Look, I mean boycot the BAD publishers, not all of them, Let talent shine, dont buy crappy indie games just because they are indie . Thats what I meant, sorry if I confused you

EDIT: Have a look at the thread I just posted, closely related to this one, but is not simply because of it

An Idea

 

[Fat Tony!]

Wot the hell are u on about ure talking crap - shareware becomes demos on cds, perving up women is natural cos gamers are majorly men lol, dunno wot ure on about engine either. Ill tell u wot really is happening the companies are running out of ideas and/or people seem to like sport games a lot (god knows y) so they just like farrowlesparrow make the same game with better graphics. i dont have a clue wot u on about sorry its probably just cos im stupid . Sorry guys if i annoy u about this

 

[ComradeBadger]

I am not as you so eloquently put it talking 'crap'. Shareware is part of the Independant Games industry. I know a bit about this stuff. Game engine.... what makes it tick etc. Graphics etc. Got it? (thats basically all you need to know if you arn't into making games/modding or are interested in how things work)

 

[Fat Tony!]

that doesnt explain things really i know wot an engine is but well im stupid i dont get it dont worry have ure conversation without me i know where i belong
/me goes back to underground "layer" and plots to kill mrbadger
sorry i always make posts stupid

 

[Direwolf]

How long has the videogame industry as we know it really been around? Since the early '80s? Thats only about two decades. I believe they're still in the process of maturing, and we're really beginning to just see it now. 3D gaming is only truely in its second iteration, and has been around for under a decade. If the industry hasn't moved foward in a decade I'll be worried, but I see that as unlikely. As videogames' mass apeal grows I predict that the material will follow suit.
Oh, and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 rocked.