4 Ways You Are Killing Video Games

2. The Overall Problem

The majority of people who play video games always seem to be hard done-by. They're never, ever happy, and they seem to be able to happily wallow in a stinky pit of acrimony. Players get mad at publishers because publishers give us nothing but the same crap year in year out. Every year I am expected to go out and buy another copy of FIFA, followed by an Assassins Creed entry in October and a Call Of Duty in November. They push us into buying season passes for stuff we never are going to play then metaphorically slap us with on disc downloadable content.

THEN, in the next generation of consoles, they have the audacity to lock us out of pre-owned games with the ability of technological advancements. We are expected to dish out a hard day€™s earnings on a game but be unable to play it because of some stupid issue with digital rights management. The press as well. All of the media outlets, both on the internet and in print, don€™t serve their readership but are owned and controlled by the PR companies and their advertisers.

However, the players are not the only ones to hate the people that support their hobby. The press and the publishers share a similar amount of antipathy towards the players. Gamers are always in a bottomless pit of wanting and whatever happens to be spoon fed to them, a not insignificant amount of the them are vocally abhorrent.

This sequel is rubbish, it€™s too similar to the last game. This sequel is rubbish, they changed too much. That review score is too high, the reviewer must have been payed off. That review score is too low, they must not be a real gamer and not have finished it on super hard ninja difficulty. This website has ZERO integrity, they thrive on click baiting BS articles and have no respect for the reader €” now let me click this news article called €œBREAKING: Kaz Hirai bashes the Wii U!€

1. The Fall To Pieces

When publishers attempt to right these so called wrongs, they get it pushed back in their face. When a bad case of sequelitis sets in, publishers will put out a, say, Mirrors Edge. A damn fine game which nobody brought. Players wanted Banjo Kazooie back and got given Nuts And Bolts. Not good enough. Another Battlefield is coming out this year but it just looks the damn same. RUBBISH. What is a video game publisher supposed to do? They are in an eternal catch 22. Put out something new and face low sales and lost cash. Put out the same old shooter, make all the money, but face abuse from the gaming public. And in many cases, as you have probably read on news sites, they get laid off.

The video gaming press doesn€™t get off lightly either. This is something I know from experience. The world most beautifully written editorial could be pushed down by some sensationalist headline and a cosplay gallery. It€™s another catch 22. We know what the readers pay attention to based on hard numbers like €œunique visitors€ and €œclick through advertising€ however, the press still gets hated for posting those sorts of headlines instead of deep intellectualism despite people still clicking on them. Websites end up becoming places focusing on the more lucrative pieces over focusing on that which will best serve or inform readers. I mean look at the headline for this piece. I bet 90% of your are only reading these words because of the title of this. But the margins for error are slimmer than ever before, just ask anyone that has ever for the infamous Ziff Davis.

Just like the developers, if you don€™t make money, you€™ll end up selling editorials on street corners to feed the family and pay the mortgage.

Contrary to popular opinion, the relationship between the press and the publishers is not all hunky dory either. If coverage drops €œoff message€ the emails and phone calls could stop completely. PR companies will lie about what parts of games will be fixed for release, or if a person will be available for interview at an event. Some complain when a comment on a rumour is not sought, but then stall for ages to give one. On the flip side, I€™ve known reviewers to review games that they downloaded from not entirely legit sources online so their words can hit the net first. And, of course, there€™s no shortage of writers willing to view everything a publisher does in the worst possible light, making out-of-context remarks into headlines or run with scintillating scuttlebutt, no matter how flimsy or far removed from reality it actually is.

So what we have is the three pillars of the video game industry who are suspicious of each other in equal spades. No one pillar can extend the other any respect or patience. Because of it we will fall to pieces; creatively at least. Publishers will only push out the same title with a different subtitle every year because that is all that sells. Journalists will feed the world sensationalism because people will read nothing else. Gamers will end up buying those repeated games so they be engaged the hateful conversation online.

In the current state of the business, with recession hitting, technology speeding forward and the internet being a consummate pain the in backside there is no easy fix.

Thankfully, I still have some suggestions for a fix...

The Fix

There are three real options really to stop this hatred tearing apart video games as we know them. The first is to wait until the industry€™s financial fortunes improve, alleviating the pressures on the press and the makers of video games and, hopefully, giving people the afforded luxury of breathing room. Although, given the number of AAA-naysayers, let€™s assume this improvement is not imminent. Second, is the option that Chris Heck gives in the above video.

Players: Request and purchase true variety. True variety is not a turret mission in an FPS. You are the body of the industry, and you need to feed your body a variety of healthy foods. Press: Provide sorely needed context, and hold Players and Developers accountable for this appetite for sameness. You are the conscience of the industry. Developers: The statement, €œWe make the games we want to play€ may be true and great, but then can you please want to play a wider variety of games so you€™ll make them in turn? Or third, and my preferred option, give each other little space. A little empathy. A little benefit of doubt. You can€™t say who should extend that courtesy first and you can€™t fault those who wait on making that move, but it needs to happen to stop the art form I love from folding in on itself.