Truer words have never been spoken...

[Living-In-Clip]

Here is part of an article from Arstechinca.com....

Despite the popularity coupled with games such as Final Fantasy and The Sims, computer gaming will pay a dastardly price for associating itself with this kind of melodrama and escape.  In the 1980s, both developers and gamers knew well what a farce most games were.  Today, developers and gamers are no longer equally acknowledging the fantasy entailed in their games.  The primary elements of games have remained the same all these years.  It used to be the technology that was changed.  Now it\'s the sales pitch.  With computers out of their limited demographic of the early 1980s, publishers are now pushing their products with a different angle to take advantage of the general public.  When most gamers were upper-class intelligentsia, developers had to use intelligence and wit to succeed.  Now that a wider range of people are playing, the fulcrum is different.  If publishers keep on playing this game, gaming will be in a disgraceful state within ten years.  Games will be as shoddy and trite as most Hollywood movies or pop singles.  The plunge to mediocrity is beginning now.  Consumers must act now before the industry emerges without hope for a voice of true artistic worth.  The full potential for computer games has yet to be discovered.  If gaming continues down the course it\'s on now, its potential may never be found.

http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/01q3/gaminghistory/ghistory-1.html

This man speaks the truth and I think it is a very interesting read for anyone who considers themselves \'hardcore\' gamers or even just the casual gamer.

[nO-One]

Ahhhm reading ArsTechnica I see, I\'m glad I\'m not alone

There\'s an ironic comment that I must say in response to that quote you left there LiC...

I\'d read the article, but I\'m far too busy playing the completely original Pikmin to do much of anything else.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by Ryu
There\'s an ironic comment that I must say in response to that quote you left there LiC...

I\'d read the article, but I\'m far too busy playing the completely original Pikmin to do much of anything else.

Exception to the rule , maybe?

So long as it\'s acknowledged, I\'m happy.  

That guy sure does talk about a pretty dismal future for my favorite hobby, but I don\'t think it will be that bad.  What we need more than anything else are people with original ideas.  Yu Suzuki, Shigeru Miyamoto, Yuji Naka, Hideo Kojima, Gunpei Yokoi -- all names in the industry I have the utmost respect for.  However, when they pass the torch (sorry for the MGS2 pun there), who will take their place?  Just take Gunpei Yokoi for example -- how does Metroid look now that he\'s no longer behind it, more to the point, because he can\'t helm it because he\'s passed on.

I worry about the industry everyday, but so long as there are original ideas, there will always be fun games.  It\'s the people who purchase these original games who determine the greatness (read: profit) of them.  Pikmin is great and all, but I haven\'t seen anyong posting too many topics about how great it is (with the exception of Eik), yet Halo, an everyday FPS when you get down to the bare essentials of it all, gets like a thread a day from either someone who hates it or someone who loves it.  I don\'t even see Pikmin on sales charts despite the fact of its beauty, its originality, and its basic, yet original, concept.

It\'s just simple economics really...

If game A sells more than game B, than game A will have a sequel, we\'ll call it game number 2.  Now, suppose the sequel, game number 2, competes with an all new original title, game Z.  Game 2 is almost guaranteed to outsell game Z no matter how good game Z is.

It\'s sad, but it\'s so true.

Well I disagree with him but I don\'t want to go into a debate as too why (getting quotes and all that) I simply don\'t feel that what he is saying is true.

"What we need more than anything else are people with original ideas." - Ryu

No, actually I think there are already plenty of increadibly talented and very creative people working in the industry already. However the problem comes not from the deveopers side, but from the publishers. Videogames are very expensive to make these days.. costing upwards of millions of dollars to make really stellar games like Shenmue or Final Fantasy. So when a developer pitches a game idea to a publisher who fund the project, he has to make sure it\'s what the publisher wants. What do publishers want? Money. Follow the trend, play the market, cut corners. That\'s what it\'s all about, and unless you\'re a big name in the market like Suzuki, Kojima, or Miyamoto.. you probably won\'t get funding for some of your more innovative and creative work.

I honestly don\'t think anyone puts out a game they know is uncomplete or buggy because they\'re tired of workin on it. Deadlines and Budget limits are the #1 reason for crappy games. What I believe the industry needs is a few more of these publishers to have the same love for games as the developers. I don\'t see it happening though.

They\'re trying to turn video games into the 2nd Hollywood.  You don\'t need 3 million dollars and a Japanese novel to make a game.  You just need something that\'s fun to do, whether it\'s racing, driving, or whatever.  That\'s one reason why I\'m a big Tomb Raider fan.  There\'s no real Lara Croft someone has to pay royalties to.  Just a plot for a game.

WORD