General Games Discussion

[Neo Emolga]

Here's the trend I've been noticing, and it's not just with the video game industry, but with movies, books, music, and so on across many other entertainment fields.

It's the lack of being willing to take creative risk.

Instead of trying something new, no, let's make sequel #83. Let's reboot this thing. Let's make yet another movie about Peter Pan or make a remake of a movie that should have stayed in the past. Let's do a Shakespeare thing again or see what work of fiction is not protected by copyright anymore. The entertainment industry isn't a pioneer or an adventurer anymore, it's a recycling plant.

And where does it come from? This notion that something has to be guaranteed to generate return on investment by some percentage rather than say hey, we're not sure how this is going to turn out and we can't predict the future, but we're going to try our best to make something new, make this thing as great as we can, and do our best to be proud of it and market it and create the need for people to want to try this and get out there to experience it. No, instead it's all about "well, this sold pretty well years ago, so let's just make it again/another."

And yet business is all about taking risk. Sure, smart and educated risks, not reckless gambles. Get the voice of the customer and the market understood. Find out what people would like to see and what they don't want to see. Experiment and try something creative and new. Use market research, and drive an effort to create something that people never knew they wanted but now it's out there.

And yeah, I feel like the indie developers are the only ones doing this. They don't know how their game or their idea is going to work, but they're going to at least try. They're taking that risk and sure, for many, it may go flat or it will just fade into obscurity with only a few fans picking it up. But there are plenty that are striking it big. Meanwhile, the big publishers are essentially driving what used to be beloved franchises into the ground, like making copies of a copy for cheaper and cheaper until it's garbage.

And yes, there a special place in Hell for the ones that conceived of microtransactions. That's not a way to add enhancements to a game, that's a new take on extortion. And the worst cases are when players need to purchase them to stay competitive or else they're always at a disadvantage. My dad had trouble grasping this whole concept at first because he's not big into video gaming, but I explained it to him as imagine wanting to play a game of Chess with an opponent, but they paid money to have five queens and four rooks while you only have the standard set. This isn't gaming anymore, this is duress.