I think Gaming is slowly dying.
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The first point I can agree with, the second point I'm a little torn on, the third point was unbelievably stupid for reasons that should be self-evident and the fourth point is not something new. People have been milking franchises since antiquity. Literally.
of course gaming is dying, at one point humanity will cease to exist and then nobody will be gaming anymore. But you didn't mean that.
your 4. is kinda obvious, i mean the system we live in has one ultimate goal and that is not ponies and rainbows but money. So of course you don't spend a lot of money on a game to make art, you do it to make more money.
i agree with you on everything else, although i think that the fear of piracy has done more harm than piracy ever could have to PC gaming.
the conspiracy theory guy in my head keeps telling me that MS and Sony(both are not traditional gaming companies but their gaming departments are just one small aspect of the whole) pay developers money to produce for their platforms and make shitty ports for the PC, not because the PC version would not make money but because in the long run people will drop the system were they get free maps and mods and stuff in favor of consoles and will eventually be stuck with systems that are controlled by evil corporate giants who will milk them for money until gaming dies because people hate being milked for their money (lol).
But that just my paranoid part talking.
your 4. is kinda obvious, i mean the system we live in has one ultimate goal and that is not ponies and rainbows but money. So of course you don't spend a lot of money on a game to make art, you do it to make more money.
i agree with you on everything else, although i think that the fear of piracy has done more harm than piracy ever could have to PC gaming.
the conspiracy theory guy in my head keeps telling me that MS and Sony(both are not traditional gaming companies but their gaming departments are just one small aspect of the whole) pay developers money to produce for their platforms and make shitty ports for the PC, not because the PC version would not make money but because in the long run people will drop the system were they get free maps and mods and stuff in favor of consoles and will eventually be stuck with systems that are controlled by evil corporate giants who will milk them for money until gaming dies because people hate being milked for their money (lol).
But that just my paranoid part talking.
It's not dying. It's turning into business long before it had a chance to become a true art form. Major thanks to EA and Activision for that.
Considering how widely games are integrating with our popular culture and becoming accepted as a medium, I think the exact opposite is true.
I mean, Charlie Brooker's last column on the British newspaper 'the Guardian' was centred around games, and I've watched Irish comedian Dara O'Briain joke about the absurdity of Metal Gear Solid's controls, neither of which I think would have happened at least 4 years ago.
If you want to hear people talk about the games that aren't really brown FPS's then keep watching Extra Credits.
And if you want games for the art, check out one of my favourites:
http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/
His games are pretty much the definition of art.
I mean, Charlie Brooker's last column on the British newspaper 'the Guardian' was centred around games, and I've watched Irish comedian Dara O'Briain joke about the absurdity of Metal Gear Solid's controls, neither of which I think would have happened at least 4 years ago.
If you want to hear people talk about the games that aren't really brown FPS's then keep watching Extra Credits.
And if you want games for the art, check out one of my favourites:
http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/
His games are pretty much the definition of art.
I wouldn't say gaming is dying, but the way it's going right now, I personally am losing interest in it very quickly. Sure, it's dying for me, but not for everyone.
I'm going to pull the "old guy card" here. Speaking as someone who was playing videogames back when you had to switch floppies during the middle of a game, I'm here to tell you that PC piracy has been around for pretty much forever. Games were being freely pirated and distributed back when the Commodore 64 was the king of PCs. DRM was pretty much laughable (often a "secret" code you'd find in the instruction manual)
And yet guys like Lord British and Sid Meier emerged from that period. They weren't surviving on charity.
Like a couple of others have said, in no way shape or form am I dismissing piracy. It IS a problem, and the DRM reactions to it have hindered industry progress. But at the same time, hinder isn't the same word as destroy. Frankly, PC games are just too much fun for them not to make money. And the convienence of services like Steam will continue to outweigh the disadvantages of lack of security.
How can I be so certain? Because the industry has already survived literally decades of the self-same problems.
(That said, I want me some LA Noir and Red Dead Redemption for PC, and I want it now!)
And yet guys like Lord British and Sid Meier emerged from that period. They weren't surviving on charity.
Like a couple of others have said, in no way shape or form am I dismissing piracy. It IS a problem, and the DRM reactions to it have hindered industry progress. But at the same time, hinder isn't the same word as destroy. Frankly, PC games are just too much fun for them not to make money. And the convienence of services like Steam will continue to outweigh the disadvantages of lack of security.
How can I be so certain? Because the industry has already survived literally decades of the self-same problems.
(That said, I want me some LA Noir and Red Dead Redemption for PC, and I want it now!)
You can't kill gaming- that's what indie devs are for, a safety net. There will always be some innovative design going on. Check out Project Zomboid, Terraria, a good amount of the games available on Steam- We have plenty of material to keep us going, even if it means losing mainstream appeal.
Gaming cannot be destroyed- Only changed. It has already survived a crash, it can do it again, and again, and again. As long as there is the interest, there will be product.
Gaming cannot be destroyed- Only changed. It has already survived a crash, it can do it again, and again, and again. As long as there is the interest, there will be product.
I wouldnt say that. Its not like anything is original any more (go ahead, name something, and you'll find things like "inspired by" or, "drawn from", or, as a child, I looked up and was interested in") and so far there's a pretty solid line up.
Times are tough, economy sucks, so its better to make money than cater to the masses. The film industry did it, and they almost died doing it. I cant blame them. Hell, if i was a CEO i'd pump out FF sequels or CoD sequels or Halo sequels if it meant i'd make money.
Times are tough, economy sucks, so its better to make money than cater to the masses. The film industry did it, and they almost died doing it. I cant blame them. Hell, if i was a CEO i'd pump out FF sequels or CoD sequels or Halo sequels if it meant i'd make money.
Indeed, this is quite true. For just one example, I remember the licensed games from the 16-bit console era. They were godawfully bad, almost without exception. Nowadays they tend to be just bland, but serviceable. Bad games before were really bad, much worse than todays stinkers, even with all the bugs (which are a consequence of the software becoming hugely more complex than before).Jaime_Wolf said:
So yeah, it's basically nostalgia.
You're overreacting.Gaming is dying no more than films are there will always be problems with gaming, we live in an imperfect world. However you need only look at all the good things that have come out of gaming in the past couple of years to know that gaming is still very much alive.
As someone who has been gaming sine the early 90's I can say you're wrong on all accounts (some more than others). As people have mentioned above, gaming has become a booming business that includes hundreds of products that publishers push out for the $. You're just seeing more "blah" games and less truly "excellent" games.
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LOL! That's awesome. xDFalloutJack said:FOUND IT!
Now, apply this to the WHOLE of gaming and Bob's your uncle, we have a winner.
Actually, the industry as we know it will cease to exist in this form in my Opinion. I hope that we'll get to enjoy triple a massive titles which are as big as "Skyrim" in the future and i think the chances are good that we will.
But it's getting very hard for smaller companies to compete. You make one game that sells badly and you're out. You make a mediocre game that pays your bills, you're good. Until your audience finally gets fed up with the FPS flood and replays older games. You can choose from a huge library of games on a similar graphical and gameplay level, so why would you buy yet another "Call of duty"? Will the next one bring something new to the table that is worth 60$?
At least you know you'll get a "call of duty". If you love the style of that game, you'll get at least something out of the new release.
Would you buy the next "Call of duty" knock off by a smaller company? I doubt it and i doubt the copy and paste approach is going to work for much longer. At least for this genre, which is the largest we have in the full price segment.
So smaller companies without a huge brandname will have to try something new eventually. Most of them will fail and cease to exist.
The Industry is going through some hard times; lets hope this wont result in more harassment of the customer and only the customer.
Maybe the current graphical level (we wont get anymore graphical "wow!" effects) will have the companies build consoles which are sturdy enough to last a few years. I'd like sturdy constructions and i would like to have a console that will last as long as my Master system (had that since 1986, still works).
The current "crisis" in the industry will hopefully result in less drm for PC and in consoles that aren't as laughably flimsy. Seriously, i have never seen a built-quality this low on any console.
On the other side we have the PC, which has games that are very poorly ported and long past the point where the drm will prevent you from playing your legal copy.
With some games, you pretty much have to pirate them in order to play them.
If "gaming" is dying, i hope that companies which haven't screwed us quite as hard will survive long enough to show people that things can be done differently.
Companies that make people worry if this game might fry their console and companies that invest millions into more intrusive drm and then whine about evil pirates (and do a quick 180 when they find out that piracy has earned their product some recognition and actually increased sales in certain areas) at the loss of money can die out and i wont shed a tear for them.
Companies like Ubisoft, EA, Activision or Rockstar damage the whole business. The Land of Videogames would be a better Place if those Companies where to disappear.
But it's getting very hard for smaller companies to compete. You make one game that sells badly and you're out. You make a mediocre game that pays your bills, you're good. Until your audience finally gets fed up with the FPS flood and replays older games. You can choose from a huge library of games on a similar graphical and gameplay level, so why would you buy yet another "Call of duty"? Will the next one bring something new to the table that is worth 60$?
At least you know you'll get a "call of duty". If you love the style of that game, you'll get at least something out of the new release.
Would you buy the next "Call of duty" knock off by a smaller company? I doubt it and i doubt the copy and paste approach is going to work for much longer. At least for this genre, which is the largest we have in the full price segment.
So smaller companies without a huge brandname will have to try something new eventually. Most of them will fail and cease to exist.
The Industry is going through some hard times; lets hope this wont result in more harassment of the customer and only the customer.
Maybe the current graphical level (we wont get anymore graphical "wow!" effects) will have the companies build consoles which are sturdy enough to last a few years. I'd like sturdy constructions and i would like to have a console that will last as long as my Master system (had that since 1986, still works).
The current "crisis" in the industry will hopefully result in less drm for PC and in consoles that aren't as laughably flimsy. Seriously, i have never seen a built-quality this low on any console.
On the other side we have the PC, which has games that are very poorly ported and long past the point where the drm will prevent you from playing your legal copy.
With some games, you pretty much have to pirate them in order to play them.
If "gaming" is dying, i hope that companies which haven't screwed us quite as hard will survive long enough to show people that things can be done differently.
Companies that make people worry if this game might fry their console and companies that invest millions into more intrusive drm and then whine about evil pirates (and do a quick 180 when they find out that piracy has earned their product some recognition and actually increased sales in certain areas) at the loss of money can die out and i wont shed a tear for them.
Companies like Ubisoft, EA, Activision or Rockstar damage the whole business. The Land of Videogames would be a better Place if those Companies where to disappear.
It's so cute! Gaming has entered it's first culture/counter-culture cycle.
Aw, who's an adorable struggling medium, you are.
Seriously, this stuff happens. Romanticism is a rebellion against Enlightenment, and Romanticism gets it's own counter in Realism.
The truth of it is gaming started out whimsical, bright, and wacky. However, the push for higher fidelity experiences would inevitably give way to realism. What we've got here is two different views. Neither of them wholly right or wrong.
Just wait, gradually five to ten years, someone else will be waiting for the return of gritty realism and regenerating health.
(Regenerating health is by the way a direct counter to douches who mine health pick-ups in multiplayer. You know who you are.)
Aw, who's an adorable struggling medium, you are.
Seriously, this stuff happens. Romanticism is a rebellion against Enlightenment, and Romanticism gets it's own counter in Realism.
The truth of it is gaming started out whimsical, bright, and wacky. However, the push for higher fidelity experiences would inevitably give way to realism. What we've got here is two different views. Neither of them wholly right or wrong.
Just wait, gradually five to ten years, someone else will be waiting for the return of gritty realism and regenerating health.
(Regenerating health is by the way a direct counter to douches who mine health pick-ups in multiplayer. You know who you are.)