We are now, for all intents and purposes, living in the future. At least, during the eighties and nineties, we looked at anything post-millennium as proper future, and expected things to have developed as such. For what it's worth, the future is a bust - still no hoverboards a'la Back To The Future, no talking self-driving cars a'la Knight Rider, nothing. What do we have? The internet? Yeah, ok, but a worldwide network filled with porn and funny photos of cats is hardly a match for a hoverboard. You're losing focus, but there's a point to all of this... The point is, we are now in the year 2014, and while so much has changed, in many ways we are still stuck in the past. How on Earth is is possible that to this day game developers are still making us jump through hoops to save princesses? In 1985 Aretha Franklin was already singing about Sisters Doin' It For Themselves, yet almost three decades later that hardly seems the case in video game land - over here it's still big breasted damsels dangling from castle parapets, shrieking in desperation for a big beefy man with rippling biceps and a taste for adventure to save the day. It's a narrative direction which speaks to the most archaic part of the gaming demographic, that simpleminded little boy inside most men who wants to carry Princess Peach off over his shoulder. But the gaming landscape has changed, target markets have changed, and that kind of outdated, predictable storytelling just doesn't capture our attention like it did in Mario's golden age. As with the rest of the cliches listed here, the now forgettable "save the princess" theme has to go. There are far more intriguing ways for game developers to tell a story, to enthrall an audience, and, essentially, to make a pile of cash in the process.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
