Here’s a submission from regular Three Speech contributor, Anthony Hanses. Must reinforce that these are very much his thoughts (and there’s alot of them), let us know what you think?
If there’s anything that you’d like to submit to Three Speech, drop us an e-mail at: [email protected].
I am but one person. There are those who have played games longer, or owned more systems. There are those who are more involved with the industry, or who spend more time playing video games. I don’t claim to be any sort of expert on the inner workings of the large variety of professions that video game development and sales includes, but I contend that it no longer takes an expert to make the assertion that I have come to recently: the video game industry as a whole is losing its soul, and while it may be able to end-over-end continue to raise profits, it will on the long term lose the respectability and clout that it deserves if they continue on their current course.
Who are they? They are everyone. It’s Sony to IGN. Microsoft to Gamestop. Ubisoft to Gamespot. Nintendo to EA. Joystiq to Kotaku. TeamXBox to PS3Forums. They are the producer, the developer, the retailer and the consumer. That’s right, it’s probably even you, and you don’t even realize it.
In fact, I think part of the problem is that very few people realize it, and those who do profit too much from keeping their mouth shut. But realize what?
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking in large part about how the video game industry is no longer about the product(s). The industry isn’t about giving accurate reviews, or using common sense. The industry isn’t about being realistic or using facts. More than anything, the industry isn’t about having fun.
The games are no longer about the plot lines or the gameplay or the replay value. They are not about the entertainment or the enjoyment, nor are they about the companionship of group entertainment. And slowly, they lost these things among every major group who deals with video games. From the very top level where Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo wear the emperor’s clothes, down to the very bottom where consumers ignore the facts and make decisions based on preconceptions working backwards to justify their previous purchases.
How can every major group in the industry fall victim to such a flaw? Because in a perfect storm of “right place, right time” every single group allowed the bar to fall where capitalism depended on them. As an example, I would use the music industry.
A long time ago making and distributing music was partially about what the consumer wanted. Sure, the studios still held all the cards, and they still made terrible deals with artists in order to squeeze those extra cents out of every dollar. Sure they leeched off of the talent of others and in some ways hampered the creativity and ingenuity of the industry. The difference was at the time the media and the consumer didn’t collaborate with them.
Some time in the last few decades several of the companies in the music industry realized that if they could get the media and the consumer to collaborate with them in maximizing their profits, that they would face little resistance from consumers on forming monopolies or cartels, and that the government wouldn’t be able to step in since the cartel was in large part dependent on the consumer. They figured out how to manipulate the free market using the only thing that a free market depends on getting accurately: facts.
The reality is that without the right facts, or with false “facts”, consumers cannot be expected to make accurate decisions that will result in a free market environment. Every company knows this, and every company, to some extent, tries to use this to their advantage. That’s what marketing is: an attempt to control the facts that the market is aware of.
Just the same, the video game industry has built a house of cards out of the lies that they have fed consumers and themselves in a situation which can only be referred to as “group think”. The term may sound familiar. “Group think” is a sociology principal which is used to describe a situation where a lie perpetuates itself through overwhelming majority. Basically, one person or one group tells a lie that may or may not be based partially on truth. This lie is a “convenient truth”, a lie which is more comforting and easier to deal with than reality. Because of this, several other people don’t speak out about the invalidity of the “fact”, and with this silence comes acceptance from a wider group that this “fact” is actually true.
As numbers grow, and more and more people buy into the “truth”, the people who told the original lie eventually are convinced themselves by virtue of the fact that no one proved them wrong. Surely if we had been telling a REAL lie someone would have said something, right? Over time, the difference between the truth and the “truth” is lost, and those who provide objective viewpoints are ridiculed for departing from the “reality” that the group has constructed. You may have heard of this term, “group think”, when it was used to describe the failures in the CIA and FBI that led to the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States.
The video game industry has been telling themselves and their consumers a lie for almost a decade now, and I think we’ve finally come to the point where the people who told it actually believe it themselves. This lie is progress for progress’ sake. It is the idea that we need to go faster, bigger and shinier, and that these things are the same as value. It is the lie that the platform or the country of origin has ANYTHING to do with what video games are really supposed to be: entertainment.
Originally this lie was told by the big three. First Nintendo. This lie helped them vanquish SEGA, and as Sony caught on, they finished the job with the Dreamcast. The lie backfired though, and Sony turned the tables on Nintendo, using their own lie against them. Microsoft told the lie as well, be it on the PC or on the XBox platforms to overcome the consumer apathy of yet another competitor.
This lie has trickled down to the developers. EA, Square Enix, Konami, Koei, SEGA, Ubisoft… an all star line up of companies that have decided that “progress” is what is required out of games, not entertainment.
But like any lie, this one is easily vanquished by facts. All lies fall in the face of the truth, and they truth need only be told in order to stop the spread of falsities. Consumers, however, cannot be depended on for the truth. Who has the time to search out and tell everyone the truths in every market which they make purchases in? Do you look up government subsidies before your buy produce? Do you check on the workers who grow the beans when you get a cup a coffee? Consumers cannot be the watchdogs, especially in fast moving content based industries such as entertainment or productivity.
Thus the entire ability of the consumer to make accurate choices, the ability of companies to lie successfully, is dependent on the one group who actually profits from being the watchdog: the media. Like much of the media today, media in the video game industry thrive on telling convenient truths instead of reality. The difference is that consumers and the industry let them.
The developers of today hold all of the cards. They have the exclusive screenshots, the inside scoop, the new interview. They hold all of the content, and they beat the media over the head with it. Much of the media is too scared to say anything that matters to the consumer, or say what they really think before a game is released, (or many times after as well), because they are afraid of losing this preferred status with the developers. As a result the video game media becomes little more than a PR hype machine for their respective reporting topics. Playstation sites refrain from saying the things that need to be said about Playstation games for fear that through a trickle down effect, developers would see lost profits and hold them responsible.
Similarly XBox or Nintendo sites refrain from saying the things that have to be said. We’re sorry, Excite Truck is fun at first, but it’s a one trick pony. You won’t remember it six months from now. We’re sorry, Project Gotham Racing 3 is a solid racer, but it has limited gameplay over previous versions and the graphics needed some polishing. You won’t be playing this after a new racer comes out for the 360. We’re sorry, Resistance is a game which is excellent in both gameplay and story, but it’s limited by the genre; as a first person shooter, you won’t play this very much six months from now unless you adore online.
The media utterly failed the industry and consumer. It has become full of “shock jocks” that thrive on telling something that is neither a fact nor an opinion, but a position created for the purpose of misinforming consumers or misrepresenting developers. The media stopped telling the truth, and it was like the foundation of the house of cards vanished.
The facts of the games we buy are no longer told. And why? Because nobody wants to hear them. The developers don’t want to see their product degraded, even rightly so, and bully media sites to ensure that. Consumers don’t want to hear it because Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all been able to separate out people into the type of gamer you are.
So you can see, the fault is widespread. As I said it was a near perfect storm of consumers being brainwashed into “fans”, media getting held up for ransom by the developers, and the developers believing the original lie that the big boys told them: progress is all that matters.
When Table Tennis for X360 was released by Rockstar, it was widely ridiculed, (though most media outlets gave it fair reviews). Why? C’mon, pong? That’s so 1980’s. Where’s the progress man? Similarly, consumers and media alike went on and on about Bully, a subpart game at best that many people will STILL tell you is the most awesome thing they’ve ever inserted into their console in order to preserve the meme that everyone has bought into: progress.
Do we need new console hardware? There are plenty of valid entertainment reasons to go another generation over PlayStation 2, Game Cube and Xbox, but take a look at the consoles and ask yourself: is this progress, or is this improvement?
Even the Wii, touted for its fun gameplay and its “progress” in game design and user interface falls victim to the meme, for much of the industry won’t say what needs to be said: the Wii is different, not revolutionary. Coffee did not make tea obsolete. The Wii, and its interface, is a matter of taste. It is not better or worse for the change, it is simply different. It is progress.
Improvement can really only take place at the game level. The industry as a whole, developer to consumer, has lost the concept of interactive entertainment. What are game supposed to be but entertainment that you take part in? Is this a concept that eludes us all? When you think of
video games and movies, how are they different for you?
You see, at least outside of Japan, video games have a stigma for being reward based. They are games in the truest sense of the word. There are objectives and rewards; missions and paths to take. Today’s video games function similarly to how a lab rat is rewarded for pressing the correct button. They are all about instant gratification.
But video games are just a form of entertainment, and through the loss of the industry’s soul, through the quest for “progress”, no one has taken the time to stand up and say, “What good is progress if the direction we’re heading is wrong?”
Instead we get people duplicating ideas, over and over. And it’s not that they aren’t fun or entertaining, it’s that there is no originality. Video games have lost their art in a lot of ways, or at least, the video games that get the “pro” treatment.
Movies have had nearly a century to fully mature. They have been through the hiccoughs and struggled with this situation before. I have full faith that the video game industry will pull through this similarly, but someone needs to say it. Someone needs to look at where we are and say the things that will set the industry back on track:
We need to move away from our idea of a person interacting with a computer. They need to interact with the content, with other people. I’m talking more than just “live” or “home” or multiplayer gaming. I’m talking about gaming which is not a set of rewards strung along a set of arbitrary switches. I’m talking about games which tell a story, and make us think. Games which question the human condition, and comment on society the same way movies and music do. I’m talking about entertainment which is built out of the quest to produce something which consumers will enjoy and be entertained by, not “progress”.
We need to move away from the time when we take a successful game and re-release it with minor tweaks. There should never have been a PGR2 or
a GTA 3. What there should have been is brand new ideas, brand new content, brand new outlooks on what entertainment and games really are.
We should be able to buy Madden once and receive updates to rosters and gameplay. If they want to make a new game, they should make a new
game. We should be able to buy games that build off one another and build upon your unique experience as a person.
Movies touch us because we relate personally in some way to the events taking place. The director doesn’t try to tell us how these things relate to us, he simply builds a way for us to figure that out for ourselves. What video games need is the ability to touch the gamer. They need to be able to reach inside a person and bring out who they are, the experiences that they’ve had and the things that they’ve done.
As it is, the industry at all levels is preoccupied. They are consumed with turning profits and making the latest and greatest. The consumers are consumed with being at the bleeding edge. Experiencing what no one has had the chance to yet, moving from reward to reward by performing the same actions over and over. The media are consumed with satisfying people instead of doing their job. They are focused on being “fair” instead of being real.
But eventually the industry will wake up. When gamers start growing older, and they look back at what they’ve played over the last decade and realize that the most fun they’ve had was on the SNES they’ll move on to other, more satisfying forms of entertainment, be it movies, music, or even (gasp) human interaction. When the bottom line gets affected, you’ll see the industry cope. The companies that see it coming will be able to move and adapt, and those mired in the garbage that is most video game production will be left behind.
One day, the consumer and the media and the developers will realize we’ve been chasing after progress what we really need is the same thing people have been doing for hundreds of years: the ability to feel human and be entertained at the same time. Until then, feel free to go pick up the highly acclaimed, hyped and well reviewed Ultra Awesome Game 16… because the higher number means it’s better, right?
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully it will serve as a wakeup call and reminder for all of us involved in the industry.
By Jordan LeDoux & Anthony Hanses
www.emaglive.com
Awesome article, and captures the spirit of many a gamers.
I recently had the fortune (or Misfortune) of playing Lost Planet on 360. A hyped up game receiving 8+ scores on all the gaming websites but I got so bored with it that I didnt bother to complete the game and sold it on emay within 4 days of buying it.
Some where the tech progress, funky HDR detailed Textures have taken the “fun” out of the games. Last great orignal game I played was God of War..it had a truly original and wonderful style of gameplay (button mashing..yes but original) .
On 360 I played GRAW 1 and truly liked it…wonderful graphics and a new gameplay…but GRAW2..isnt it the same…there is not much difference there…but then there is Gears of War, which has a new style of gameplay…but a Gears of War 2 or 3 wont it be repeat. Is there suffcient story to justify Gears of War 2 or 3?
PS3…well I own it and until now apart from playing God of War 2 and watching tonnes of Blu ray movies its not done much good. Motorstorm and Resistance are perhaps the only game worth buying but they are again the same. I hope Lair and Heavenly Sword change some of that.
I dont own a Wii mostly because its perpetually out of stock…I think its an awesome system…and offers possibilities but i dont think it provides a well rounded experience…i dont know how a God of War or Gears of War would be possible on the system. I think Wii is the only system that preserves the spirit of gaming…but it falls short as it wont interest as a single console for a large gaming population (esp the part which can afford to spend more on 360 or PS3)
Which game do you think is entertaining to play? In 2007 Calling all cars will have my vote and God of War 2. Maybe later on Assassins Creed and Bioshock with be genre defining games.
But yes I agree with the post..the entertainment value of games is going down…(Genji was a perfect example of lookiing beautiful but playing like c*ap)
Comment by Tom Marra — Apr 27, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
THIS GUY IS FULL OF BS!! WE ARE CURRENTLY IN A VIDEO GAMING REVOLUTION!!!!!
Comment by TIMSHADIE — Apr 27, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
Have you been talking to Molyneux? Emotional gaming is all well and good, but the medium is in its infancy, and to demand such refinement from an ever-changing hardware base and mindset is a big ask. Such massive change does not happen overnight, especially when massive profits are being made on the back of licensed garbage anyway.
I think you are selling gamers and (many) games journalists short - we are not all mindless avatars, ready and waiting to be filled with the latest PR hype - maybe independent blogging is the only way forward…
I have played videogames for 20+ years and personally don’t particularly want to consider the human condition via a joypad. I enjoy the challenge, social interaction and spectacle of gaming. The medium is evolving, I’ve watched it happen over the last three decades and I personally feel there has never been a better time to be a gamer. Just don’t buy in to the hype. Obviously. And choose your news sources carefully.
Comment by Stuart X Pearce — Apr 27, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
Interesting, but I can’t agree with much of this…
1. Not everyone in the industry is responsible for the hype machine, not everyone buys the new is better mantra - there are many voices championing independent gaming, retro gaming, unusual games etc. Sure, there are fewer of these, but to present the games industry as a uniform monolith is just plain wrong. It’s too young and disorganised for that.
2. There are plenty of examples of the industry media - the big sites, the magazines etc. championing truly classic, unusual, innovative games and knocking down subpar sequels. Look at the reviews for Ico, on one hand, or the reviews for Driv3r on the other. Yes, there are clearly issues over the scrabble for exclusives. But beyond those, there are still plenty of those in the industry willing to give low scores, attack bad games, and champion good ones.
3. You can’t blame the developers for what happened to Ico - they made a great, innovative game. You can’t blame Sony - they promoted it well. You can’t blame the press - they loved it. Who’s left? Gamers. Who walked straight past it to pick up the latest FIFA. The average gamer is as uninformed as the average music buyer and film goer. We get pushed the media we deserve.
4. The costs of entry - the cost to make a game, or a film, is frighteningly high. A lot rides on each game’s success. So that makes companies very conservative, risk averse. It’s cheaper and easier for young musicians and smaller labels, or authors and book companies to produce their stuff. So it’s hardly surprising that games and films tend towards the safe blockbuster. And games has its arthouse - the mod scene, the indie games developers - just like film.
5. What’s wrong with progress anyway? There are plenty of games that utilise stunning graphics to really drive immersion, or use advanced physics to add complexity. But yes, we haven’t seen as much progress in the fields of scriptwriting, dialogue, game concept, intelligence, freedom. And that does need to change. But turning back the clock to 1981 won’t help.
6. If anything, with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, developers do have an opportunity to innovate with less risk. And it’s only now that engine licensing and middleware are getting good enough so that there’s no excuse for companies reinventing the wheel with every new game (witness the rise of the Unreal engine).
7. As to consumers “waking up” to realise the most fun they ever had was on the SNES… I can’t think of a more unlikely idea. For a tiny hardcore, turning the clock back might appeal. But instead our best hope is in games like Alan Wake that layer in film and TV tropes - character complexity, story arcs etc. Or in directly immersive ideas like the WiiMote that grab non-gamers and scream “interactivity”. Those old SNES games? By and large even more simplistic and problematic in terms of engagement, reward, depth, dialogue than the latest stinkers. Look at the packaging of any retro game to see how far we’ve come (and it’s nowhere near far enough) beyond the tiny narrow worldview of teenage boys - violence, scantily-clad “babes”, fast cars. Yes, there’s plenty of that in modern games. But there’s also free-roaming exploration, AI, character depth and reaction impossible in an 8-bit sprite.
The solution isn’t some “golden age” in the past. But to use what we have now better.
The real question is not why this industry turns out sequels and sells them as the emperor’s new clothes - that bit’s obvious. The real question is how we change that…
Simon M
http://www.pspsps.tv/
Comment by PsiMonk — Apr 27, 2007 @ 7:48 pm
I think the exact opposite.
There is such extreme creativity and innovation going on in video games right now. Games today are far, far better than what was around five years ago and this will continue.
OK, Resistance didn’t revolutionize video gaming. But wow, that’s some high expectations. When was the last song that revolutionized music or the last movie that revolutionized movies or the last scientist that revolutionized science? That almost never happens.
The field of games is experiencing huge growth and evolution right now.
Comment by ps3fan — Apr 27, 2007 @ 8:26 pm
Great opinion piece!
I agree with your view that games should be focused on entertainment and making you think. I recently played Fahrenheit on the PS2 and was impressed by its attempt at interactive story telling. The studio’s next title, Heavy Rain, looks really impressive (videos are available on YouTube).
The problem lies with the consumers, though. Despite widespread critical acclaim and awards, Fahrenheit didn’t sell well at retail. If risky and alternative concepts don’t sell the first time round, publishers won’t be keen to publish a sequel. Reviews and awards aren’t the bottom line in the industry anymore. It’s all about sales figures!
Comment by Poz3D — Apr 27, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
Games improve in graphics and sound in the same way that movies do. Improvements in technology have enhanced the experience of the movie and the same can be said for games. This “progress”, as you call it, is absolutely what I am looking for in this kind of entertainment. If I want something to touch my soul or teach me about the human race I’ll read a good book. I’m not going to get that kind of experience from watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster at my local cinema anyhow.
Yes, the SNES was a lot of fun to play when I was younger. Have you played one recently though? It’s fun for a couple of hours, before the nostalgia wears off.
Personally I feel that the progress being made by the industry is essential for my continuing enjoyment of games.
Comment by reakt — Apr 27, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
Good essay. But as long as the medium is driven by proprietary corporations, good luck seeing the same themes we see in film or fiction. “Games” are beholden to the bottom line. And people must feel the same, because even if it’s progress rather than revolution, they don’t seem to be choosing the PS3 over a control tweak.
Comment by guthrie — Apr 27, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
Sadly, I’m not sure it will effect the bottom line in a way that the industry will recognize. In the music industry, it has spawned more piracy, and the ‘groupthink’ on the issue is that people would be buying music if pirated copies weren’t available. While this may be true in some cases, the music industry can’t see that the problem is the quality of the music and the musicians they are promoting. In the same way, I think if the low quality of game experience begins to effect the gaming industry’s profits, piracy or other ills will be similarly blamed. Often people with a problem will do anything to avoid actually confronting the issue. This industry is no different in that respect.
Comment by Ayrkain — Apr 27, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
Well written, well thought out article.
Odd to see it on a Sony site somehow, but as you said, we’re all guilty, buying into FUD and hype, and creating it, and making it into a Jihad, where there is no place for sanity.
Like A, Hate B, must have feeblefetzer X cause everybody says it must be good, cant like this ’cause the score sucks.
Just as a point on this.. please release tools for PSN game development.. small time coders can’t afford overpriced dev kits, but can create great games. We did since the C64 and Atari ST and before.
The industry is sick, let us provide the anti-bodies, and let the game-players re-discover fun and original games.
not just old games with a new controller..
Comment by Xtc — Apr 27, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Interesting but to me, progress is the main reason I play games. At first it was because I couldnt believe the technology of me actually controlling things on my parents computer screen, then how good the graphics looked on the NES, and now how immersive games are on the PS3. Another reason people play is social interaction, and that is what they are getting with things like four player tennis on the wii and uni vision chat on the 360. Look at how many people get so much more fun out of Wii Sports tennis and bowling compared to any game on the NES or whenever it was you said that games actually had soul. Games are funner now than they ever have been man, more people than ever are having more fun than ever.
Comment by mikeh — Apr 27, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
Anthony, not everything has to be new people enjoy a certain type of game (Final fantasy) or like the universe of a game (halo)
Your reference to movies was intersting as movies are a huge culpret for sequels look at spiderman 3 for example.. is that wrong? no people want it they do not need something new every time
I agree that some games for example madden, tiger woods hardly warrant a new game each year and i dont buy them anyway but a new game in a franchise every 2 years is fine with me…you cant expect publishers to take a chance with every game but doing something different they are a business after all
Comment by mike — Apr 28, 2007 @ 1:16 am
I was thoroughly moved by your statement, insight and passion. It felt very much like the scene from Jerry Maguire when Jerry produces the hundred or so page memo full of things the industry doesn’t want to hear. As I read it, I began reflecting on my own experiences and came to the crushing realization that I have been fueling the flames 100%. I spent 60 dollars on Virtua Fighter 5 because they told me to.
What can we do? How can we fight it? Do we stop reading IGN or Gamespot? Do we stop reading reviews? Import games? How can we, as consumers, change the tides of “progress?” Should I go out and buy a dozen copies of Okami or Psychonauts? Demand that they port Poy-Poy Cup to the states?
Though couldn’t it be that the reason we all love the SNES is the cichéd notion of nostalgia, hearkening back to when times were simpler? I remember getting Dragon Quest 2 for the NES when I was 9 and I’m rather sure that my emotional development matured 5 years on the spot. When I was 13 I got FF7, and to me, no other game has been able to even scrape the surface of what those games delivered in quality and, in the case of the latter, emotional attachment. I was literally depressed for 2 weeks after I saw hat happened at the end of FF7. But isn’t that because it was new to me? Like your first kiss or the first paycheck. Nowadays 140 dollars doesn’t really seem like much, but when it was the first time your hardwor manifested itself into something visceral, you couldn’t believe how easy it was.
I would very much like to know more and I feel overwhelmingly lucky that I stumbled across this entry while I was doing exactly what your essay discusses, preying on the controlled sound-bytes offered by the hype-machine.
Thank you for rocking my world.
Comment by Kemosabet2 — Apr 28, 2007 @ 2:10 am
i disagree to a degree..
look, i know how you feel about the recycled crap, and the media bullshit. i feel you there
but i know there are some talented people who will pull through, every once in a while there is that gem in the dirt to be found… you just have to look.
you are right, in some respects a game is like a movie, there is a story to be told.
Some movies are crap, and some are good. thats just the way it is. some people like intelligent movies, others steroid blockbusters. unfortenately, these days, there is a shit load of crappy games not even worth the plastic it was printed on. not even enjoyable for the dummest of apes..
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 28, 2007 @ 2:38 am
Very good read. I see where he is coming from and I do have to say that the SNES was on of the best consoles out there. Now they are just trying to put out the latest and best, not worrying about giving the people great/fun/wonderful games.
Of course there are a few cases of great original games, but its getting rare.
Comment by Chad — Apr 28, 2007 @ 3:32 am
the final comparisons of videogames to films was spot on.
despite huge investments on development costs, and a wider market to cater to, i dont think all hope is lost.
alike to the movie industry - people will still line up around the block for the latest will farrell comedy (which was exactly the same as every other will farrell comedy), and let babel or the fountain get run out of the theatres in one weekend.
just the same that gamers will buy every madden or project gotham racing or grand theft auto while shin megami tensei, silent hill 2, and suikoden go away after making small waves.
a smaller, passionate developer will make something and everyone will turn their heads. small studios will open and give new experiences to us. an art house director will write a videogame. its on the horizon. after hollywood’s monopoly over the movie industry for almost 30 years, godard and resnais said “forget this, we’ll make our own.”
what you’ve outlined here is a problem, but now that gaming is a mainstream entertainment form, WE HAVE TO USE OUR VOICE AS THE CONSUMER and say ‘no, i will not support this new grand theft auto or madden which is exactly the same as the others and does nothing to my brain, my heart, my life.’
while our options of positive support are small right now, we can still do it. luckily, for example, metal gear solid 4 will perform great. im positive it will be a touching story, with original ideas both in gameplay and plot, but it still comes down to the same thing. it will be played because it has clout, guns and action. how many people watched michael mann’s heat and walked away appreciating how it looked at the protagonist’s love life? its level of craft in direction/sound/etc.? no. they will leave it thinking “fuck that was a good shootout.”
and though it may be a bummer, it wont change anything. music will stay as saturated with shit as it ever was, and the multiplex will still stay polluted with the same witless star studded crap.
us who want art. us who want experience. us who want change.
we are the minority my friend.
and reading this, i know that i am not alone.
so thank you.
Comment by daniel. — Apr 28, 2007 @ 5:54 am
Well said, I agree with a lot of the points here, it reads a little like an Orwell novel.
I think a good example to use would be the FPS GRAW 2 on 360. Graphically marginally better than the first but not much. At £40 for 8 hours of single player entertainment, thats £5 an hour, not my idea of value for money. Sure there is online but they could of been (should of been) free downloads to GRAW1
Same with Gears of War sure good game but not that revelatory as hyped, I got sucked in to that one big time and paid £55 for shiny box and book collectors edition.
That said I play Final Fantasy XII on my PS3 and at £30 I have clocked up 40 hours so far.
Its all about choice, I did not have to buy ether game. I bought in to the media hype around GRAW2 and GEARS of WAR
and have spent more time enjoying a PS2 game on a £300 PS3 console.
redlander.
Comment by redlander — Apr 28, 2007 @ 9:16 am
good piece….and it’s ‘realise’
Comment by seedaripper — Apr 28, 2007 @ 10:32 am
I think there are plenty of hardcore gamers that adamantly degrade modern games and put the “good old days” on a pedestal. We can see this through the updating of retro concepts like Metroid with Metroid Prime, or Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox and PS3. These games don’t defy this idea of progress in their technology, but they’re literally about using “progress” to expand what they once were. So as long as there’s this voice requiring such a literal demonstration of improvement, I don’t think your point of view completely hold ground.
Comment by Dev — Apr 29, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Very nicely written piece, the only thing I would take issue with is the “the world didn’t need GTA III” statement. I will agree it probably didn’t need PGR2, mainly because I’m not really a fan of those games.
But GTA III was, for me at least, a completely different experience. It may seem watered down now with endless sequels and immitators, but I can still remember first playing it and being sucked in for days on end.
Comment by Pete Cullen — Apr 29, 2007 @ 1:36 pm
Love the feedback. Lots of postive and negative, just like it should be. Thank you to just about everyone who has commented for keeping it civil and discussing the points. As the consumers in this market, we are the ones with the long term power. Where we choose to get our news and who we choose to elevate to being our Spielbergs and our Olbermanns will have a lot to do with what games we see in the future.
On a final note, I did not personally write this article. This was submitted to my site EMagLive.com by a gentleman by the name of Jordan LeDoux.
Thanks, and have a great weekend.
Comment by Anthony Hanses — Apr 29, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
We do have the power, just be exercising our ‘right’ to consume. We’ve seen it happen already with the PS3 discounting that’s been happening. Us consumers would be dangerous if we got organised…
Comment by Lord Mooch — Apr 30, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
Well, as a mature gamer i read this with interest. I liken the games industry just like the music industry and more specifically, it’s history. It was at first awesome in the 60’s & 70’s, pretty dire in the 80’s and 90’s and today it’s diversifying into many areas with some great acts and new music. It’s grown, merged, failed and failed again and to me at least, has grown up but you MUST wade through the commersial tat. The games industry is very similar, yes, there are the games aimed at the sheep, the FIFA’s and cash in’s but for me, there is some real gems and talent out there that is constantly if slowly pushing back the boundaries. Games like GOW, FFXII, GTA, MGS, DMC, ICO, HL2, OKAMI etc etc are all at the top of their field and this will continue. If every year, there are 8+ killer apps that true gamers buy then I will remain happy.
Like a previous post I am using my £425 PS3 to play PS2 games (FFXII currently), foolish yes but i have every faith that the PS3 is going to deliver in spades.
Comment by Neil — May 1, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
From what I could read in the essay it seems to dissmiss the idea of the perpetual sequels we get in games these days not to mention the expansion sets. Whilst this ideal seems to be a popular one we must consider some gaming franchises that have been with us for many years and have not degraded after every sequel/follow-up made based on the same IP. Examples of these would be:
Doom->Quake
Final Fantasy
Zelda
Civilization
C&C
Warcraft
GTA
Metroid
Super Mario
Conversely there are franchises that really lost their way over each generation, for example:
Deus Ex
Thief
Gran Turismo
Burnout
Castlevania
To name but a few. So yes sequels can turn a perfectly good idea into a pile of poop but then again they can act as a catalyst for other games to spring from GTA being the obvious example. I seriously doubt Crackdown would have existed without GTA III being released prior.
Comment by Kropotkin — May 1, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
Yep! As a mid thirties gamer, I can honestly say that the games do more, look fantastic, sound great, interact better, and … have lost all sense of decent game play.
Well, not all, but the majority.
Like Hollywood movies, all eye candy with rubbish acting, rubbish dialogue and rubbish story.
It’s all a case of commercialisation. Make the product appeal to the greatest number of people, which means you must make it appeal to the lowest common denominator. Hence the lost spark.
I live in hope for the gems that are hidden or overshadowed by the glitzy lights. Look for the GranTurismo (originally it was ground breaking remember), the Ico’s, even Tetris. Mmm!
Not that I’m going to stop buying the next latest and greatest of course.
Comment by LordOfRuin — May 3, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
As an industrial designer the problem of art vs money is an old story in our biz. I would say the problem as I percive it from your article is more how to develope both an emo/art side of an biz and at the same time the profi/tmoney side. The cost and distubution (consoles mainly) limits an healty growth of difference in styles, ideas. The inclusion of difference is important for major players if the gamemarket wants to expand.
Well nice to see an thread about this anyhow.
Comment by Muungano — May 4, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
Ok, I think you are obviously blind. Are you saying that the new games aren’t as good as the old games?
Wrong. In fact the new games are WAY better than the old games. Because the newer consoles allow the developers to do more. The more a developer is able to do, the more a gamer can connect with a game.
Imagine playing 8-bit games to this day. It will just be the same old stuff over and over. Because the developer can’t do anything new. They are limited by the console.
So the more a console can do, the better the games can be. Which means, new consoles should always try to offer more, and better.
Pac Man was tight. But it can’t offer you something innovative AND tight like MGS.
And of course, there’s the PSN and Xbox Arcade. Where developers can make smaller games that goes back to the root of video gaming, but can also offer something different because of the console.
Comment by Rock Lee — Jun 3, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
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