The Gaming Industry Is On A Course For Self-Destruction! [Straight from Digg]

[vpr]

Found this on digg which simply links to this article at the inquirer. A quote from the article below:

Sadly, the gaming industry is in a self-imposed death spiral. Everyone is putting on a brave face, touting the latest v6 of a game that came out before most of it's audience was born. What was a fun hobby full of creative geniuses and their mad art has become a grey corporate parking lot. We are about to take that dive again, the industry is desperately trying to speed up the process with each passing day

It's a fairly good read with some very valid points. I don't know if I agree w/ them completly or not though. Just felt like sharing.

 

[BlaqRenaissance]

I don't know about the industry coming to a crash, but I do agree with the lack of creativity and innovation. That's why I can't wait to see what Nintendo has in store for the Revolution.

 

[psiufoxx2]

I agree and disagree with many of this guy's comments. Sure we have a sea of mediocrity taking hold in "mainstream" gaming but I certainly believe that new markets are being tapped, much more so than in the late 70s, and provide a steady enough stream of revenue to allow for continued creativity. For every 5 sequels a large company like EA or THQ will put out one original IP - and it's that one IP that I'll buy for my hard-earned $50. To say the entire industry will crash because GTA sequels and Madden 20xx sell millions of copies every year? Hardly.

There is one, possibly two titles a year that can be considered innovative, and that is not enough to sustain an industry.

One or two? Whatever he's smoking I want some.

You end up with focus grouped mediocrity, make something so simple that even an idiot would like it, and only an idiot would like it. The few huge hits drive the industry toward the abattoir of sequels and clones, no one can afford a miss. If you do miss, and everyone does occasionally, it can take your company down.

In reference to companies being afraid to take risks, THIS argument I agree with.

The XBox 360 titles, and presumably PS3 ones, have gone from $50 to $60, but I am at a loss as to what that 20% buys you in terms of enjoyment. To me, you get eye candy limited by the TV you play on and gameplay that did not change from the original Playstation version.

True again, IMO.

What was a fun hobby full of creative geniuses and their mad art has become a grey corporate parking lot... It is high time someone flushed the toilet that the games industry has become, it will do us all a world of good.

Funky quote

 

[kev]

Utter drivel.

The movie market is shrinking, the music market is shrinking, the print market barely exists, the game market is still growing rapidly. Crappy movies can make money easily and we still get some suprisingly good, unique movies every year. The gaming industry has problems but they are consumer-side issues. As long as Johnny-newb keeps buying the sequels we won't get many new titles. That, however, is not going to hurt the market overall, it will just hurt those of us who know better...

 

[Snake2715]

This has been said for a year or two as of late. Personally I didnt read the article but I agree with what I did read.

Crap Defender was stating this two years ago. Very few things are being done to stop this process.

 

[jkam]

I feel as if video gaming in a sense is shifting more from actual gamers to audio\video lovers. It seems to me more people are talking about how their system is hooked up to a beautiful HDTV and the sound could blow the windows out. Then there is the people who mod their system to play Mame or change the LEDs to purple. I mean granted these things can be cool but it seems people talk less and less about actual gaming. When you had a NES back in the day you played the thing and that was it.

The one thing I don't understand is this. Everyone is saying that the industry is setup to fail and that the time and money that goes into making a single game is incredible. Why on earth then do we have more games than we could ever hope to play at this point? The article says how 90+% of games are mediocre crap. I can't imagine anyone has played 90+% of the games that exist today.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a huge fan of sequel after sequel but just like everyone else there are titles that I look foward to the next installment.

It also seems to me there is so much more invested in gaming now and its not just Atari in the hardware business. We have some big time companies dedicated to gaming because they see the potential for profit plain and simple.

I would say rising costs to developers and consumers is not a good thing but it will only hurt them if consumers decide they won't pay the higher amounts. Nintendo has seemed to make the right decesion with the DS. Offering more power but not as much as Sony's PSP. Right now it seems wonderful as the games are turning the system into a hot item. It was still a gamble. Like I said in my first paragraphs gaming has shifted and some consumers just want to be wowed.

Sales are growing and more and more people are into gaming nowadays. People lined up for their XBOX 360. It doesn't seem the industry is showing signs of slow down just yet. Unless everything is owned by EA I think we'll be alright for awhile.

 

[Photomotoz]

I think that there are just as many unique titles as always there just seems to less due to the number of games that come out. Lets say 20 unique games came out this year and 100 Maddens. Well 10 years ago it was 20 unique games and 20 Maddens. We are just seeing more games come out in general so it's harder to find the unique ones. But I would not say that we have tapped out our creativity.

 

[whitereflection]

[quote name='psiufoxx2']
There is one, possibly two titles a year that can be considered innovative, and that is not enough to sustain an industry.

One or two? Whatever he's smoking I want some.
[/QUOTE]
How is that wrong? Games haven't been innovative since the advent of the first-person shooter; Shadow of the Colossus was a more combat-focused Ico, which was just an adventure game that focuses on escorting a girl to safety; Guitar Hero borrows more than just a little bit from Konami's Guitar Freaks; Nintendogs is a retread on Tamagotchi, albeit, a much more advanced version since portable hardware has come a long way since then.

The only innovative games in recent memory have been The Sims, Harvest Moon, and Katarmi Demacy - and I'm not even sure about the last one since there must have been a flash game or a shoddy Japanese game with the same concept.

Of course, I don't mean in any way that games are any less fun nowadays, or even that the industry will collapse with a dearth of innovative games...

 

[Graystone]

[quote name='BlaqRenaissance']I don't know about the industry coming to a crash, but I do agree with the lack of creativity and innovation. That's why I can't wait to see what Nintendo has in store for the Revolution.[/QUOTE]

It has been a little stale for a while. I dare to say RE4 was the last game that the developers said lets try this and if it don't work oh well.

 

[psiufoxx2]

[quote name='whitereflection']How is that wrong? Games haven't been innovative since the advent of the first-person shooter; Shadow of the Colossus was a more combat-focused Ico, which was just an adventure game that focuses on escorting a girl to safety; Guitar Hero borrows more than just a little bit from Konami's Guitar Freaks; Nintendogs is a retread on Tamagotchi, albeit, a much more advanced version since portable hardware has come a long way since then.

The only innovative games in recent memory have been The Sims, Harvest Moon, and Katarmi Demacy - and I'm not even sure about the last one since there must have been a flash game or a shoddy Japanese game with the same concept.

Of course, I don't mean in any way that games are any less fun nowadays, or even that the industry will collapse with a dearth of innovative games...[/QUOTE]

innovative (adj) 1: ahead of the times; 2: being or producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before


What you miss in your argument is that innovation occurs within games that might otherwise be assumed clones or copies of previous games in the same genre.


Ico, The Sims, Harvest Moon, Katamari Damacy could all be called innovative on one hand, but could also be called derivative on the other. I prefer to reside within the innovative camp, simply because I perceive value in the new ideas they present within their genres.


Calling Shadow of the Colossus anything but innovative is a mistake. Name me one other game that pits yours sympathy and common sense directly against your main objective of the game, namely to kill these gentle giants; Name me another game whose puzzles take place entirely on the backs of the very foes you are meant to defeat. Isn't this game producing something lile nothing done or experienced or created before?


Past that - I realize that I have not answered your initial challenge - the question of whether more than 2 innovative games come out per year. The short answer, yes, of course more than 2 come out in a year. However because we have a mutually exlusive difference in opinion over what defines innovation it would be fruitless for me to list all of the titles I find innovative... not to mention it would take more time than I have at the moment.


Suffice to say, I believe innovation is alive and kicking.. it just takes a keen eye to find innovation in games like Shadow Hearts and Blood Will Tell.. I assure you it's there.

 

[Apossum]

if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that analogies comprised of 2 different periods in history are always innately weak.

You can come up with any number of surface comparisons between any 2 points in time, but the fact is, the same exact thing won't happen because the situations, in reality, are completely different in execution. Or there are factors that throw off the whole analogy.

For one thing, there are millions more who are into games now than there were then. There's also a crapload more who do it for a living and have the ability to put out their own games. If the big names bow out, there'll still be a huge foundation of people who love the hobby that can build it up again.