Saturday, December 24, 2011

#1. State of the Game

I'm trying this all again. This terribly titled blog is going to be my mouthpiece to my thoughts and opinions on what will mostly be about nerd and pop culture. I'm not holding myself to any kind of strict structure or schedule. So, here's to hoping I can keep myself motivated in doing this.

For my inaugural outing I'd like to talk about the current state of video games as an industry and subculture. Video games are still a fairly new industry (Pong was released in 1972 but, as a larger viable industry it occurred around the late 70s) but since the turn of the century they have slowly crept into the mainstream. The popularity of handheld devices and casual Facebook games has caused the title "gamer" to become a more ambiguous term.

The hardcore still exists, but because the the bid for mass appeal and larger sales figures, games are starting to become more derivative and less chances are being taken for forward movement. The video game industry has taken a similar turn that the movie industry did in the 70's, in order to capitalize on what is popular, sequels and knock-offs are turned out in regular intervals. Now, original games and honest attempts at original storytelling are still happening, but all you have to do is look at this year's major releases and see that there were only a handful of original titles released.  Sequels aren't bad, my personal favorite game of the year, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is a part of a long running franchise.

I think the major crime is the forced timeline games are starting to face. The Call of Duty franchise has seen a game released every year for the past five years. The same has become true as well of the Assassin's Creed series for the past three. Neither of these franchises are "bad", both have excellent production values and function well. But, what starts to happen is there is not enough time to improve on current tech and mechanics to make a superior game. Unfortunately, it is hard to argue with these kind of decisions when you see the sort of sales figures these games put up.

The symptoms of the problem are similar to those movie industry. There isn't a lot of reason to spend outrageous amounts of money on an original idea that has a high potential of failure when a company can have a surer bet and put out something safe and familiar for people to purchase. As consumers we tend to stay with tried and true products. This is how things like Hangover 2 (the exact same plot and pacing as its predecessor) get made.

Now, with all of that being said, I also feel that games are at the highest point they have ever been at. Even if things tend to be sequels, there is still a large amount of good, enjoyable games. I feel more quality games are put out now then has ever been. This is one of the positive effects of having video games move into the mainstream, larger budgets and better resources.

Video game culture has changed wildly throughout the years as well.  The stereotype of socially inept teenagers in their parents basement no longer applies. Video game culture has become more faceted and diverse as a subculture. I like to joke there are two types of people who play video games: the gamers and the Call of Duty players. I don't mean this in the literal sense, but there is a fairly large split between those whose only exposure to video games is Call of Duty or the annual sports franchise and those who plays games on a regular basis as a hobby. When I talk about video game culture I'm generally referring to the latter.

Even with more mainstream acceptance video games still exist as a subculture and therefore misunderstood regarded to stereotypes and the like. It my experiences video games are viewed as violent entities that influence children to do terrible things. It is no secret that there are violent video games. But, just like in all forms of media and entertainment, we live in a blood thirsty country that treats simulated violence as the norm. For whatever reason (perhaps the interactive quality?) video games are viewed as worse and more dangerous that anything else. I'm probably going to ear mark this subject for later use.

Nothing I've written about today is by any means an original idea. But, it's important for anyone who feels passionately about something to have a clear understanding of how that thing fits into the world. There are plenty of negative items involved in video games and the culture around it, but I hold a fairly optimistic view of its future.