Why the Gaming Industry needs to implode

[CptStern]

"There is no room in this industry for niche product. There is no room for creativity or quirky vision. It's hit big, or don't try."

"The machinery of gaming has run amok... An industry that was once the most innovative and exciting artistic field on the planet has become a morass of drudgery and imitation... It is time for revolution!"


very interesting article here about what needs to be done to re-invent the gaming industry




it all comes down to getting rid of publishers

 

[CyberPitz]

Yeah, its not about appeasing the public with a great game, *well as much..there are a few games that are great fun* but it's about the extra buck in their pocket. Greed...one in hundreds of reasons I'm going to kill everybody in this world O_O

 

[Kangy]

I think it also comes down to people expecting "less" too. Right now, budgets are being poured into a bottomless pit to try and somehow create the best looking engine. Well, it's either that or as Stern suggested not even trying to make something interesting, just focusing on making movie knock-offs, celebrity appearances or EXTREME content.

The solution is in something like Steam, where people who make unique content can quickly and easily market it for whatever price they believe to be worth the product they've made.

 

[CptStern]

Steam is the exception ...Valve had the luxury of creating their own content delivery system and could bankroll themselves ..yet even the biggest developers rely of publisher to fork over the money. A recent article about EA stated that only one in 28 games coming out in 2006 (guesstimate, I cant remember the real figures) was a new IP ..the rest were sequels

 

[Solaris]

Yup, if valve could patent steam.......

I'd be against that sort of thing but cummon....its valve!

 

[alehm]

Although publishers are a big piece of the puzzle. The buying public has part of the blame as well.

The gaming public has been crying out for more origanl games for years but when publishers do take a chance and release a game that is not a clone of others and has more originality, they often bomb financially because the public isn't buying it.

Also- I found it interesting the author talked about publishers wanting all games to be like sports games where new releases are the same old game with updated graphics and stats then a couple of pages later was praising Sims. When Sims is equally guilty of releasing expansions that are essentially the same just different enviroments.

Overall though, good article.

LONG LIVE STEAM!

 

[DeusExMachina]

The movie industry needs to implode, forget the gaming industry. If they keep pumping out entertaining gameplay with good plots, I really could careless about innovation. I'm a simple man pleased by simple things.

 

[Noobulon]

The solution is in something like Steam, where people who make unique content can quickly and easily market it for whatever price they believe to be worth the product they've made.

Exactly.... Ragdoll Kung Fu ftw

 

[CptStern]

The movie industry needs to implode, forget the gaming industry. If they keep pumping out entertaining gameplay with good plots, I really could careless about innovation. I'm a simple man pleased by simple things.

I have a ball ....would you like to bounce it?


the movie industry is lucky in that they have a very strong independent market ...although the recent trend towards style over substance needs to change ...I havent seen a big blockbuster in years ..cuz they're all hackneyed crap

 

[DeusExMachina]

Bouncing balls are quite entertaining...

Hollywood has been pumping out shit after shit. I refuse to pay 10 dollars to see a movie in a theater. Ridiculous. At least videogames are pumping fun titles that are worth the 50 I paid for them. And I can play them whenever I want. And such. The last blockbuster worth seeing was Batman Begins. I saw it three times. That's 30 dollars. The last movie I saw 3 times from that was Sin City. 30 dollars. 60 dollars in all.

 

[CptStern]

Bouncing balls are quite entertaining...

Hollywood has been pumping out shit after shit. I refuse to pay 10 dollars to see a movie in a theater. Ridiculous. At least videogames are pumping fun titles that are worth the 50 I paid for them. And I can play them whenever I want. And such. The last blockbuster worth seeing was Batman Begins. I saw it three times. That's 30 dollars. The last movie I saw 3 times from that was Sin City. 30 dollars. 60 dollars in all.

gah!! you could have bought the dvd for that price



a summer blockbuster would have have to be Matrix quality good (first one) for me to see it in the theater

 

[DeusExMachina]

Yes, sometimes I regret seeing them more than once...

 

[Fat Tony!]

Your right, I don't buy games much anymore most of my favorite games are valve spawned... Hl, TFC, op4 etc...

 

[mortiz]

It's not just a case of going out and inventing something innovative. To think up something completely new and different is difficult, and that's even if you forget the risks associated with such a product.

 

[poseyjmac]

lets not forget about piracy. what are the most successful games right now? online games. yes they are addictive, but why else are they successful to a company? because basically if you want to play it, you need to buy it. this is true to a slightly lesser extent to CS and battlefield games. someone could get cracked versions, but most buy because they want good servers to play on.

as a company, why make a quality single player game, when its just going to be pirated very easily. as a gamer, whats the incentive to buy such a game? there is not much for a typical gamer. lets face it, many gamers buy game such as WoW, because they have to. if they could get it fo free illegally, they would. so i do think its a consideration that the publishers take into account when they choose which games they publish nowadays.

so i think this does help stifle the production of potentially innovative and creative games, and it leads us to a pile of guaranteed money making mmorpgs that hardly stand out from one another.

 

[Absinthe]

While I agree that piracy is an issue, I also believe that much of it is a byproduct of the current state of the industry.

The publishers want to charge you 50 or more of your hard-earned bucks for an imitation, a carbon-copy sequel, or an unbelievably crappy movie tie-in. The result? Joe Blogg flips EA the bird and downloads their "awesomely rad and x-treme" title and the only money he coughs up goes to his internet bill.

I personally don't condone such a thing and there are inherent faults in such an argument. But I can completely understand the mindset.

 

[Ennui]

Valve ftw, in response to the original post.

 

[poseyjmac]

While I agree that piracy is an issue, I also believe that much of it is a byproduct of the current state of the industry.

The publishers want to charge you 50 or more of your hard-earned bucks for an imitation, a carbon-copy sequel, or an unbelievably crappy movie tie-in. The result? Joe Blogg flips EA the bird and downloads their "awesomely rad and x-treme" title and the only money he coughs up goes to his internet bill.

I personally don't condone such a thing and there are inherent faults in such an argument. But I can completely understand the mindset.

its just so unfortunate. imo, the only PC games should be online games like CS, BF2, and MMORPGS. the rest should be games for consoles. that would solve the piracy problem.

 

[ricera10]

I read the Scratchware Mainfesto, and I'm going to quote this line:

why are the games we play today just like the games we played 5 years ago, with better graphics?

I'm going to apply this to CS:

Denotation:

This line was practically developed for CS. It's the world's most popular on-line game, yet they create a new version after a few years, and all it has is better graphics. Yep, better graphics. No new gameplay types, no new weapons.

Counter-Arguement:

If you think about it, Valve didnit change a wildly successful gameplay formula. When someone makes a thread about adding new weapons/gameplay modes, it's eventually shot down because the CS formula is perfect as of now. I could use new skins and etc, but that was already in the previous game, so it can be disregarded.

This just came into my mind after I read it...

 

[Tr0n]

Microsoft needs to implode also.

 

[kaf11]

oh if only threre were a company bold enough to cut out the big busines aspect of game distribution and distribute their quality work directly to loyal fans in an efficient manner. they could even stay in touch better with the community by issuing news updates, patches, and technical surveys! woe is us, i fear we shall never see such a company...