Filed under: video games
The high-renaissance of video games is upon us. And everyone can give themselves a big pat on the back. The nerds have won. Innovation is through the roof (in most cases). Video game sales have wrecked every other entertainment industry for years now. But at what cost?
After graduating college in 2007, I quickly put my degree to work, buying up an Xbox 360 and furiously playing everything I could get my hands on. It had been years since I owned a console, and I was not disappointed. Gone were the days where I had to wait for parentals to imbue my games collection with yet another licensed piece of 8-bit garbage – don’t get me wrong, I challenge anyone to a game of Blades of Steel, or a run of Spy Hunter – but if I had to look at another Goonies II or Home Alone abortion, I would have killed myself by age 10. I mean, the only Nintendo 64 game I owned was some shitty platforming version of Mortal Combat starring Sub-Zero as Mario.
But that was history now. Summer of 2007 was marked by legendary titles like Rockband, Oblivion, BioShock, Halo 3, Portal, and later by CoD 4. However, I began to take notice of the nickel-and-dime practices that DLC precipitated. And not only downloadable content itself, but the technology behind pushing software updates to games in order to fix problems that should have been addressed before launch.
Now that I have had my ear to the ground in the world of video games, I have also seen the horrible things that happen with iteration. Many iterations are great, but a lot take it too far. Activision is the worst offender. EA also does plenty of it still. Does the world really need two teams alternating yearly on the Call of Duty franchise? Guitar Hero… really? I played original Guitar Hero in college religiously, but this has gone too far. And how long will it be until XBLA games are regularly priced at $30? A year?
With the booming success in video games, the industry is beginning to resemble the movie industry - over budgeted, all look, no substance. I am just waiting for the next Rocky. Jesus, there has already been another Rambo (Sorry Sly). New Terminators are headed our way. Do I need to mention George Lucas? I mean, when can I expect the next Weekend at Bernie’s directed by Michael Bay? Meanwhile, movie tickets keep getting more and more expensive. Just as developers and publishers of video games will continue to fuel themselves at the consumer’s expense. Just think of the word – consumer. It’s offensive.
Though there are still plenty of games coming out that are great, I fear the next generation of consoles and games. Everyone knows that Microsoft is going to try and grab the “casual” market more than they have already tried with that hideous NXE, and will probably forget their hardcore base. Who knows what Sony will do, since they seem to have their heads squarely tucked between their ass cheeks. Nintendo will be the only one that keeps doin’ what it does best… selling their warez to simple minds. There are sill a ton of great developers doing incredible work - I gladly give my hard earned dollars to them. But for every one of them, there are ten Michael Bays and George Lucases iterating in order to appease inverstors and their own pocket books.
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