An article that I wrote....

**ThirdMarioBro** · 05-26-2004, 04:25 PM

This is an article that I wrote on the video gaming industry. Tell me what you think....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is The Gaming Industry Becoming Soulless?-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this board, I'm known as being kinda biased.....ok,
REALLY biased, so I'll try to make this as un-fanboyish
as possible. These are my observations on the gaming
industry as a whole. How I see it is that the gaming
industry is becoming soulless with each passing day, not
due to Sony or Microsoft.....*resists fanboy urges*..., but
more-so due to Hollywood meddleing in a place where they
don't belong. The invasion of casual gamers, has contributed
to this too. By the term casual gamers, I mean people who
only mess around with video games on their cellphone, and
buy a PS2 (or GameCube) for the sole purpose of playing the
new Shrek Game, or the new Charlie's Angles game, or above all
else.......the American Idol game (gag). They don't play games
for the purpose of playing games, but for the purpose of buying
a new licenced piece of crap that is created for the whole purpose
of promoting a movie/TV show/cartoon/bad amime. This is where
whole Hollywood interfearence thing kicks in. Companies like
Warner Bros. are getting their own game development studios, but
they don't understand how the gaming industry works, and as a
result, they create bad games. It stems from an endless cycle
that can't be helped simply due to the way things in Hollywood
movies are done.

Example: A new movie is coming out and the studio producing it
wants there to be a video game to promote it and release time. They
hire *insert developer here* to create the game. The developer
announces the development of *insert bad superhero game here* in a
press release and all the fans get excited. Then the developer
begins work on the game, but they need some info about the movie
before they can make the game, because the studio wants the game
to be accurate to the movie. The studio is tight lipped about the
movie because they don't want any details leaking to the press, so
development on the game is slow at best, because they don't have
much to work with. 8 months+ later, the movie is close to done,
and the movie is shown to the game developers. The studio then
demands that the game be finished in a completely unreasonable time
limit so it can be released with the movie. At that point, the
process becomes one of those 3 month slop jobs, and the game is pure
crap *cough* SHREK! *cough*.

Any true hardcore gamer would see that as shovleware being created
for the sole purpose of promoting the movie, but the casual gamer,
and the six year old kids who don't know any better will run out
and buy it faster than they can blink.

Another example is Kart racers. Ever since the creation of the
original Super Mario Kart in 1993, every company under the sun
thinks that their character needs to have some sort of cheap,
underproduced, and uninspired Kart racing game. Examples include
:Sonic Drift (bad Game Gear racer that was contradictory to the whole
Sonic franchise), Crash Team Racing (most blatent Mario Kart rippoff
ever), Komami Crazy racers (ditto), Shrek Swamp Kart (die, die, die)
, and Crash Nitro Kart (made to leech Double Dash's impending
suscess). Everyone from Bugs Bunny to Goeman has driven a go-kart
and they all suck, but casual gamers buy them like there's no
tomarrow. If the original Super Mario Kart had sucked, would people
have bought it? Heck yea, it had Mario on it, so of course it would
sell, but people sure as hell wouldn't have touched the sequel.

To close, my point is that casual gamers and other normal people are
invading the realm that was once reserved to geeks, nerds, and
hardcore gamers, and they are attack us for not falling into the
same endless pits of shovleware that they buy. Geeks are becoming
geeks in the place where they once thrived. Hollywood is trying to
merge the gaming industry and the entertainment/ industry into one
gaint cash cow, and Sony want's to mix it up with the music industry
(I'm a fanbooy, I had to blame them for something didn't I?).
Little by little, the gaming industry is losing the creativity and
originality that made the games fun to play in the first place, and
being replaced with endless mounds of underproduced games that
unknowing people rush to buy, which pushes the trend farther, and
makes less room for the good games, whichever system they may be on.
It's exactly what killed the industry in 1983, except this time,
Hollywood is causinng the collapse. It won't happen anytime soon,
but if things keep going they way they have, the gaming industry
will crash again, except this time, will there be anyone left to
save it?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whay do you think?

*Hannah* · 05-26-2004, 04:34 PM

I agree to the highest extent.

Meira-Bates · 05-26-2004, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~KenaI~

I agree to the highest extent.

me too...though I haven't been able to play "this gen/next gen" games I have easily noticed the rising trend in Hollywood related game releases.

*raphael_is_cool* · 05-26-2004, 04:47 PM

Some good points. Some fall flat, others miss the mark

You claim games don't have creativity and originality any more when there have been (or are approaching) new advances in games, including eyetoys, dancemats and karaoke games. Not that that's necessarily good

Hollywood doesn't use games just to promote films, it knows it can make money off people that way.

And with this all together you're telling me developers are all succumbing to Hollywood? Are you sure it's not game developers knowing they can make a quick buck off the films?

I'm no hardcore gamer but I know a crap tie-in game when I see one and there are a few exceptions

But you do have some good points in there

*damnhooligan* · 05-26-2004, 05:03 PM

My opinion: It's all about commercialism. Familiar faces and names sell products that would otherwise be completely overlooked and shunned. Everything from video games, to makeup (using actresses rather than models), to football stadiums, to bottles of ranch f*cking dressing. (Damn you, Paul Newman!*) A recognizable name is a valuable commodity.

I had the (dubious) pleasure of witnessing a group of 9 year old boys ravage the video game section of my local store. They don't read game reviews. They don't care about plot, quality gameplay or getting their money's worth. They see familar names and characters and wrap their little money-grubbin' fingers around it. I can't blame the industry for profitting off idiots and their offspring. I would no doubt do the very same.

*Disclaimer: I don't like Paul Newman. And, no, I don't know why.

*raphael_is_cool* · 05-26-2004, 05:05 PM

Doesn't the profit from his dressing go to charity? For some reason I think that...
He was good in The Hudsucker Proxy, gotta give him that

*damnhooligan* · 05-26-2004, 05:10 PM

Yeah, all profits Paul Newman makes goes to charity and other like organizations. I respect that.

I still don't like his salad dressing.

Peanut · 05-26-2004, 05:11 PM

I would have to agree. It's not just with hollywood games either. The GTA series will be a burden on the videogame community for years to come.

*Voltron* · 05-26-2004, 05:12 PM

Meh, samething happens to everything people buy. Advertise Advertise Advertise.

*raphael_is_cool* · 05-26-2004, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by damnhooligan

Yeah, all profits Paul Newman makes goes to charity and other like organizations. I respect that.

I still don't like his salad dressing.

Haha, fair enough

MW8979 · 05-26-2004, 06:36 PM

Gaming industry lost its edge in 1995, when SNES died. With the introduction of all "newer and better" systems, the focus of game development shifted away from make gameplay enjoyable (but simple) to making it boring and crappy (but visually intricate and complex). That sort of trade off in qualities resulting directly from techological development is what helped the decline of good games. And of course commercialization, as mentioned in the article above, which has increased to insane levels recently. And be sure that these advertising methods will only get more intrusive and irritating as the computing industry further develops.

**ThirdMarioBro** · 05-26-2004, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperShredder84

Gaming industry lost its edge in 1995, when SNES died. With the introduction of all "newer and better" systems, the focus of game development shifted away from make gameplay enjoyable (but simple) to making it boring and crappy (but visually intricate and complex). That sort of trade off in qualities resulting directly from techological development is what helped the decline of good games. And of course commercialization, as mentioned in the article above, which has increased to insane levels recently. And be sure that these advertising methods will only get more intrusive and irritating as the computing industry further develops.

Yes, in those days, gaming kicked ass, and it was the SNES that made it that way. The 16-bit days will never die.

MW8979 · 05-26-2004, 06:43 PM

Well, also the NES, second only to SNES. The original Nintendo system still has very good games on it, even from its earlier days (FF1, Castlevania, Mega Man).

**ThirdMarioBro** · 05-26-2004, 06:44 PM

To me, the SNES was the perfect balance of graphics/sound & gameplay. Games like the DKC trilogy and Super Mario RPG are hard to come by nowasays.

MW8979 · 05-26-2004, 06:46 PM

Yes, SNES was the perfect balance, to be sure. FF6, my all time favourite game, was after all, released for that system.

*XERO* · 05-26-2004, 06:59 PM

Nintendo is our videogame savior.

They opened the door for Sony and Microsoft, and most people don't appreciate that. It ticks me off when people dis Nintendo and I end up defending them. They just don't understand the quality of Nintendo videogames. All they care about is the new basketball or football game coming out, or when the next online will come with a free demo.

Videogame are ideas. Ideas made into virtual reality. Thanks to Nintendo, ideas are spread apart across the world. Unfortunately, most ideas are stolen instead of embraced.

THE LESSON IS TO OBSERVE THE IDEA AND CREATE YOU OWN. LOOK AND LEARN. UNDERSTAND AND ILLUMINATE. NOT TAKE AND COPYRIGHT.

Videogames are not dying, IMO, but they are getting mortal wounds, and Nintendo is trying its best to heal them up.

All I have to say is keep fighting, Nintendo! Bring back the glory days of innovation.

Eventually, people will come to understand creativity. That's the idea: To understand the true nature and reason of the joystick.

NINTENDO FOREVER.

*jeff the cheff* · 05-26-2004, 07:06 PM

I agree with some of that, but I don't agree with one part. You said that the casual gamers are buying these games...I don't think thats the case. Most gamers I think are "casual" and I think they know just as much as anyone else that movie-games suck. I do agree with the kids though, they will buy anything with a cartoon character in it. Like my 8 year old cousin, I try to teach him to pick good games, but he loves those crappy cartoon games.

05-26-2004, 04:25 PM	#1
ThirdMarioBro Tea Time! Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 8,905	An article that I wrote.... This is an article that I wrote on the video gaming industry. Tell me what you think.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is The Gaming Industry Becoming Soulless?- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On this board, I'm known as being kinda biased.....ok, REALLY biased, so I'll try to make this as un-fanboyish as possible. These are my observations on the gaming industry as a whole. How I see it is that the gaming industry is becoming soulless with each passing day, not due to Sony or Microsoft.....resists fanboy urges..., but more-so due to Hollywood meddleing in a place where they don't belong. The invasion of casual gamers, has contributed to this too. By the term casual gamers, I mean people who only mess around with video games on their cellphone, and buy a PS2 (or GameCube) for the sole purpose of playing the new Shrek Game, or the new Charlie's Angles game, or above all else.......the American Idol game (gag). They don't play games for the purpose of playing games, but for the purpose of buying a new licenced piece of crap that is created for the whole purpose of promoting a movie/TV show/cartoon/bad amime. This is where whole Hollywood interfearence thing kicks in. Companies like Warner Bros. are getting their own game development studios, but they don't understand how the gaming industry works, and as a result, they create bad games. It stems from an endless cycle that can't be helped simply due to the way things in Hollywood movies are done. Example: A new movie is coming out and the studio producing it wants there to be a video game to promote it and release time. They hire insert developer here to create the game. The developer announces the development of insert bad superhero game here in a press release and all the fans get excited. Then the developer begins work on the game, but they need some info about the movie before they can make the game, because the studio wants the game to be accurate to the movie. The studio is tight lipped about the movie because they don't want any details leaking to the press, so development on the game is slow at best, because they don't have much to work with. 8 months+ later, the movie is close to done, and the movie is shown to the game developers. The studio then demands that the game be finished in a completely unreasonable time limit so it can be released with the movie. At that point, the process becomes one of those 3 month slop jobs, and the game is pure crap cough SHREK! cough. Any true hardcore gamer would see that as shovleware being created for the sole purpose of promoting the movie, but the casual gamer, and the six year old kids who don't know any better will run out and buy it faster than they can blink. Another example is Kart racers. Ever since the creation of the original Super Mario Kart in 1993, every company under the sun thinks that their character needs to have some sort of cheap, underproduced, and uninspired Kart racing game. Examples include :Sonic Drift (bad Game Gear racer that was contradictory to the whole Sonic franchise), Crash Team Racing (most blatent Mario Kart rippoff ever), Komami Crazy racers (ditto), Shrek Swamp Kart (die, die, die) , and Crash Nitro Kart (made to leech Double Dash's impending suscess). Everyone from Bugs Bunny to Goeman has driven a go-kart and they all suck, but casual gamers buy them like there's no tomarrow. If the original Super Mario Kart had sucked, would people have bought it? Heck yea, it had Mario on it, so of course it would sell, but people sure as hell wouldn't have touched the sequel. To close, my point is that casual gamers and other normal people are invading the realm that was once reserved to geeks, nerds, and hardcore gamers, and they are attack us for not falling into the same endless pits of shovleware that they buy. Geeks are becoming geeks in the place where they once thrived. Hollywood is trying to merge the gaming industry and the entertainment/ industry into one gaint cash cow, and Sony want's to mix it up with the music industry (I'm a fanbooy, I had to blame them for something didn't I?). Little by little, the gaming industry is losing the creativity and originality that made the games fun to play in the first place, and being replaced with endless mounds of underproduced games that unknowing people rush to buy, which pushes the trend farther, and makes less room for the good games, whichever system they may be on. It's exactly what killed the industry in 1983, except this time, Hollywood is causinng the collapse. It won't happen anytime soon, but if things keep going they way they have, the gaming industry will crash again, except this time, will there be anyone left to save it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whay do you think? __________________

05-26-2004, 04:34 PM	#2
Hannah Once more, with feeling! Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 4,111	I agree to the highest extent. __________________

05-26-2004, 05:03 PM	#5
damnhooligan Mad Scientist Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Dorksville, USA Posts: 1,745	My opinion: It's all about commercialism. Familiar faces and names sell products that would otherwise be completely overlooked and shunned. Everything from video games, to makeup (using actresses rather than models), to football stadiums, to bottles of ranch fcking dressing. (Damn you, Paul Newman!) A recognizable name is a valuable commodity. I had the (dubious) pleasure of witnessing a group of 9 year old boys ravage the video game section of my local store. They don't read game reviews. They don't care about plot, quality gameplay or getting their money's worth. They see familar names and characters and wrap their little money-grubbin' fingers around it. I can't blame the industry for profitting off idiots and their offspring. I would no doubt do the very same. *Disclaimer: I don't like Paul Newman. And, no, I don't know why. __________________

05-26-2004, 05:10 PM	#7
damnhooligan Mad Scientist Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Dorksville, USA Posts: 1,745	Yeah, all profits Paul Newman makes goes to charity and other like organizations. I respect that. I still don't like his salad dressing. __________________

05-26-2004, 06:44 PM	#14
ThirdMarioBro Tea Time! Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 8,905	To me, the SNES was the perfect balance of graphics/sound & gameplay. Games like the DKC trilogy and Super Mario RPG are hard to come by nowasays. __________________

05-26-2004, 04:47 PM	#4
raphael_is_cool Mad Scientist Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: England Posts: 2,151	Some good points. Some fall flat, others miss the mark You claim games don't have creativity and originality any more when there have been (or are approaching) new advances in games, including eyetoys, dancemats and karaoke games. Not that that's necessarily good Hollywood doesn't use games just to promote films, it knows it can make money off people that way. And with this all together you're telling me developers are all succumbing to Hollywood? Are you sure it's not game developers knowing they can make a quick buck off the films? I'm no hardcore gamer but I know a crap tie-in game when I see one and there are a few exceptions But you do have some good points in there

05-26-2004, 05:05 PM	#6
raphael_is_cool Mad Scientist Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: England Posts: 2,151	Doesn't the profit from his dressing go to charity? For some reason I think that... He was good in The Hudsucker Proxy, gotta give him that

05-26-2004, 05:11 PM	#8
Peanut Second Gear Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: The New World Posts: 15,422	I would have to agree. It's not just with hollywood games either. The GTA series will be a burden on the videogame community for years to come.

05-26-2004, 05:12 PM	#9
Voltron Handsomest Boy in School Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: The Realm of SJW Posts: 4,642	Meh, samething happens to everything people buy. Advertise Advertise Advertise.

05-26-2004, 06:36 PM	#11
MW8979 Hench Mutant Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 431	Gaming industry lost its edge in 1995, when SNES died. With the introduction of all "newer and better" systems, the focus of game development shifted away from make gameplay enjoyable (but simple) to making it boring and crappy (but visually intricate and complex). That sort of trade off in qualities resulting directly from techological development is what helped the decline of good games. And of course commercialization, as mentioned in the article above, which has increased to insane levels recently. And be sure that these advertising methods will only get more intrusive and irritating as the computing industry further develops.

05-26-2004, 06:43 PM	#13
MW8979 Hench Mutant Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 431	Well, also the NES, second only to SNES. The original Nintendo system still has very good games on it, even from its earlier days (FF1, Castlevania, Mega Man).

05-26-2004, 06:46 PM	#15
MW8979 Hench Mutant Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 431	Yes, SNES was the perfect balance, to be sure. FF6, my all time favourite game, was after all, released for that system.

05-26-2004, 06:59 PM	#16
XERO Hybrid Theorist Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Alamo City Posts: 8,185	Nintendo is our videogame savior. They opened the door for Sony and Microsoft, and most people don't appreciate that. It ticks me off when people dis Nintendo and I end up defending them. They just don't understand the quality of Nintendo videogames. All they care about is the new basketball or football game coming out, or when the next online will come with a free demo. Videogame are ideas. Ideas made into virtual reality. Thanks to Nintendo, ideas are spread apart across the world. Unfortunately, most ideas are stolen instead of embraced. THE LESSON IS TO OBSERVE THE IDEA AND CREATE YOU OWN. LOOK AND LEARN. UNDERSTAND AND ILLUMINATE. NOT TAKE AND COPYRIGHT. Videogames are not dying, IMO, but they are getting mortal wounds, and Nintendo is trying its best to heal them up. All I have to say is keep fighting, Nintendo! Bring back the glory days of innovation. Eventually, people will come to understand creativity. That's the idea: To understand the true nature and reason of the joystick. NINTENDO FOREVER. __________________ "Travel at the speed of light... then hit the nitro!"

05-26-2004, 07:06 PM	#17
jeff the cheff Mad Scientist Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: 122 and an eighth Posts: 2,129	I agree with some of that, but I don't agree with one part. You said that the casual gamers are buying these games...I don't think thats the case. Most gamers I think are "casual" and I think they know just as much as anyone else that movie-games suck. I do agree with the kids though, they will buy anything with a cartoon character in it. Like my 8 year old cousin, I try to teach him to pick good games, but he loves those crappy cartoon games.