The descent of the games industry: an adventure gamer's perspective

Posted by Lee Bettam.
First posted on 15 March 2013. Last updated on 15 March 2013.
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There are many parallels between the workings of the film industry and the games industry. In films, innovative and imaginative works are often followed by disappointing and unsatisfying sequels that cater only to an established market, offering little that can be called "meaningful" artistic contribution. In games, similarly, the current market is saturated with big budget releases which…

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Previous Comments

Hate to throw all of this around. I'm kind of going in circles. What a great feature. This feature needed to be written.

Some people say adventure gaming is an acquired taste. I believe its the missing piece to todays gaming. And it can be implemented to any genre...

United States By marshall • On 14 May 2014 • From Somewhere

Is there a chance that gaming could be re-classified as a drug if things don't change?

With first person Pavlovian immediate gratification gaming, its no wonder some gamers are battling addiction.

Could the lack of innovation be the cause and effect of something even more sinister.

The only safe guard from video gaming addiction could be a great story and characters the gamer can care about. Feeling emotions for the main character and story negates the rapid responses and impulsive reinforcement that gamers are currently subjected too in first person gaming.

United States By marshall • On 14 May 2014 • From Somewhere

Sure, I see what you mean.

I'd say yeah, the main reason is dollars. Originally I wanted to call the article 'Lowest Common Denominator Gaming'. I think that yeah with DOS there were relatively low costs (certainly not the multi-million dollar things of today, except for ET maybe)and a relatively safe geeky audience. Now, competition is high, and the market is developed and very competitive. So sure, lots of companies go for a broad appeal, instead of make a more interesting risk. It's safer. And ultimately much more boring that way.

I think the same processes exist in other industries. Companies are obviously much more willing to make a safe investment with something tried and tested, over something that might fail, and quality suffers as a result. Fortunately, though, there are exceptions.

Canada By Lee Bettam • On 13 May 2014 • From Somewhere

I just mean that Developers in the 80's developed games for Dos users. If you used Dos there was a good chance you could read, enjoyed a good story with developed character arch's and liked good graphics so only people that could fill that order would make games. Dos was the reason for this creative gaming renaissance in the 80's.

I know we cant go back to Dos. Why does "ease of access" curtail "ease of play?" Whats the connection?

is it just dollars?

By the way discuss it here. This is the perfect place. The may be the last place on earth place for real gamers.

This may be the only place that can save it.

United States By marshall • On 13 May 2014 • From Somewhere

Thanks for your comments.

DOS was great. A huge learning curve, sure, but such a variety of good games. I don't think it was really DOS that was responsible for high quality games, more that with DOS' limitations, developers chose to emphasise the important bits.

The VR goggles are very much in the pipeline. Sony and Oculus Rift (otherwise known as Facebook) are producing their versions right now. It's an idea that has a lot of immersive potential, but the pessimist in me expects games to mainly consist of lots of things jumping out at you (a shark, according to an article that i can't link to in the guardian this week) as happened with that big gimmick that is 3D films. Guess we will have to wait and see. Still I don't expect narratives to really improve any time soon.

RE: piracy. As with the music industry, it's a case of the big companies not realising that this big new thing called the internet has caused seismic changes in methods of production and distribution, and failing to catch up. That's what I think in a nutshell anyway, not much space here to go into it.

Canada By Lee Bettam • On 13 May 2014 • From United Kingdom

Excellent

Dos was the neutral Zone of gaming. It was dangerous; there was a chance you might not make it back if you ventured into himem or config.sys.

This horrible O.S. was a boundary that allowed gamers (if they could traverse it) a jump in gaming of up to 10 years in both graphics and story.

Dos gave gaming validity by only allowing people that wanted to be challenged the ability to enjoy a higher art form.

United States By Only one thing can save gaming. We have to bring • On 12 May 2014 • From Somewhere

This is a great piece. You know what I find really funny is how the gaming companies blamed poor sales on piracy! And now stand alone boxed games are gone and gaming is still on the decline, although, companies like steam managed to slow the decline ultimately it cant stop a dead art form.

In all fairness if game developers want to continue down the this benchmark contest they at least have to come up with new peripherals. A new way to interact with a game. That would at least overcome the lack of creativity. Possibly a VR goggles. They cant even do that because that would force them to take a risk and sell them at a loss. They cant even be bothered to take that risk.

United States By marshall • On 12 May 2014 • From Somewhere