Dear Reader, I?d like to sit and have a chat with you for just a little bit. ?Things are pretty hairy in the world today. ?Forecasts predict that the economic downturn we?re currently experiencing won?t be ending anytime soon. ?International politics are rife with controversy, and here in the United States we face a polarizing political divide that makes it difficult to feel optimistic about anything positive getting done.
That said, I?m here to talk about video games.
Yes, the favored hobby of both the young and old alike. ?Indeed, the very foundation of this website, not to mention the large amount of other gaming journalism sites, fan pages, message boards, and chat rooms. ?The appeal of this medium has broadened so greatly in the past decade that you?ll find gaming fans even in the most unexpected places, though I?m sure many will immediately raise objections to the idea of lumping ?casuals? in with the rest. ?What remains undeniable, though, is the mass attraction to this art form. ?Video games are wonderful! ?Everyone loves them!
Or do they?
If one was to follow the movements of the gaming community at large, without any further context, they would assume that video games are terrible in this Year of our Lord Twenty Eleven. ?Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica wrote a piece on this just recently, balancing the (typically) inflated response of the gaming community against the responsibility of journalists to report fairly. ?As he notes, gamers are big fans of lambasting the Big Evil Publishers. ?Boycotts are threatened frequently, though it?s unknown how much of an effect they actually have on sales. ?In some cases, it?s totally justified: the recent port of Tiger Woods 11 to the PC was so bad that it prompted EA to give refunds to those who were unhappy with their purchase. ?Ubisoft has made waves with their DRM policy, as well. ?Players of From Dust on the PC found themselves unpleasantly surprised to find Ubi?s always-on DRM still bundled with the game, despite pre-release claims that it would be unrestricted.
Still, there?s really very few cases of legitimate controversy ? typically involving poor marketing decisions. ?Personally, I like to focus on the good stuff. ?To put it in the most subdued way that I can, I think games are pretty great.
But, since I?m not a very subdued person, I?ll actually say video games are fucking AWESOME.
I?m a software developer professionally, and even though I understand many of the underlying nuts-and-bolts in games, I?m still amazed at what the industry has produced using the technology they?ve been handed. ?Video games have only been available to consumers since the ?70s, yet have expanded from the simple days of monochromatic graphics to the visual opuses we play today. ?It is to the point now that video games actually drive the market for performance computing hardware, raising incentive for innovation for hardware manufacturers. ?Gamers love their hobby and will frequently spare no expense to get the best experience; likely a reason that, even in 2010, the gaming industry was labeled as recession proof. ?Granted, recent sales figures have been pretty grim in the US ? a point worth addressing. ?As it turns out, the figures for average incomes in US households are pretty grim, too. ?We?re facing an economic crunch, and there?s really no way around it. ?However, the point I wish to make here is the resiliency of the industry; high-profile, big-budget games are still getting made and released to consistently high sales numbers, even if sales might be down on a year-to-year basis.
The argument one might make against this is the seeming creative bankruptcy of the industry. ?Some would claim that games getting released today are all sequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, or ports updated for HD graphics. ?Admittedly, this holds true for some games, particularly major franchises. ?This isn?t anything new, though; games have long been fatigued by sequelitis from the big hits. ?But the sales figures are there to back this up; people LIKE sequels. ?At least for a while. ?Eventually, the sequels will hit a critical saturation point, and the market will adjust. ?If you?re tired of hearing about the yearly iterations of Call of Duty, be patient. ?Its time in the spotlight will surely pass someday, and some new franchise will replace it. ?For now, I think it suffices to say that a lot of people are indeed having fun with the franchise, as well as others that have a similar release cycle. ?Additionally, if you are someone who legitimately takes offense at the idea that other people are having fun with a game simply because you do not like it, I would recommend you re-evaluate your priorities in life.
YOU?RE KILLING THE INDUSTRY! ?STOP BEING FUN FOR PEOPLE!
Now, an immediate assumption that would be valid to make here is that I only defend a series like Call of Duty because I am a big fan of it. ?Unfortunately, that?s not the case. ?I prefer games with a heavier focus on unique gameplay elements and engaging narratives, and while I recognize that Call of Duty satisfies the needs of many gamers, I tend to look for fulfillment in other genres. ?So what is a poor, artsy-fartsy gamer like me supposed to do, with the market flooded with all of these rehashes? ?What developers are willing to stick their necks out on a unique concept when game production budgets are skyrocketing?
Well, as it turns out, there?s a lot of them. ?Not only do games push technology in key areas, but the industry is also pretty great at adapting to new tech. ?With the emergence of digital distribution models, the barrier to entry in game development has been reduced significantly for passionate developers. ?Independent development is actually on the rise due to this, attracting veterans of the industry and newcomers alike.
A historical anecdote: ?In 1980, Richard Garriot created a small game inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. ?The game was called Ultima. ?He developed simply for the fun of it, distributing the games on floppy diskettes stored inside Zip-lock plastic bags. ?There was essentially no budget to this game at first; it wasn?t until some copies made their way to Sierra On-Line that the game even had a proper box. ?However, the Ultima games eventually went on to spawn nine sequels over a period of twenty years, becoming iconic in the realm of PC gaming ? not to mention inspiring one of the first graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online, in 1997.
The game industry has seen massively ballooning budgets in recent years in an attempt to match the ever-increasing expectations of their audience. ?But with independent development and digital distribution on the rise, a new trend has appeared where very talented and passionate developers are able to get innovative ideas to market while circumventing the traditional publishing system. ?Much like Garriot, these teams are able to implement their vision in its purest form, but with services like Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace, they have more sophisticated means of reaching an audience than plastic bags. ?Examples of successes with independent development are abundant, too. ?Minecraft, as of last April, had already made $33 million in sales, spreading entirely by word of mouth. ?Though not all indie games have quite the same meteoric rise as Minecraft, most developers see large amounts of profit that allow them to continue developing for these marketplaces. ?Innovation is alive and well in the industry, and the ability to reach a broad audience with a relatively small budget will allow this trend to continue.
Basically, there?s a little something for everyone, moreso now than ever.
Related posts:
- Gaming and the dreaded piracy by GreenBullet
- People + Games = Crazy/Violent
- How PAX East introduced me to my cities gaming community
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