The older the better?

An article on our point of view to the current gaming industry.

That is the question I am asking myself the last 2 years. Lots and lots of video games are being published to cover the needs of the gaming community, but are they worthy of our attention  or even  good enough to justify their position on the market shelves? Well, I would say not. All this mass production  has depleted  the heart of gaming itself, transforming games from a form of art to mindless titles with only one purpose, money. This mass production serves only one purpose: the temporary satisfaction of all gamers, and it mostly targets the younger ages that are easily dazzled by their. This satisfaction is soon lost and a need for a new video game arises. And who is the one to fulfill this “lust”? Who else but the game studios of big companies. That’s why we see more and more new  games every year, well not literally “new” games, just a replica of what was played before with only a few minor changes. Take as an example the Call of Duty series. In only a few years, this series has introduced many titles which are almost identical. Great optical effects and some in-game cut-scenes manage to impress the gamer and “hide” the fact that the titles haven’t anything to offer anymore.

The gaming industry once was trying not only to impress the gamer, but to offer him a few hours of relaxation, lots of fun and excitement. Graphics back then were not as they are today, but this didn’t matter. The plot was so great that for as long as you were playing, you thought you were actually a part of the game’s world, away from the routine of your  live. Today, none actually manages to pass this filling to me, with only a few exceptions.

Continuing with my thoughts, I get angry with the fact that new games are actually copies of older games and they are being introduced as something special. For example, there are some features in a game which by the average gaming community (which is the higher percentage) is considered as a new feature, but in fact it is copied from a much older game. Take for example Bioshock. In Bioshock you could hold a weapon with the one hand and do some “magic” with the other hand. This feature was introduced firstly in Undying (2001), but I am sure that nearly none of those who played Bioshock knew that, and now the same thing is passed onto Skyrim, elder Scroll’s new sequel, and people are saying this is great, well yeah we know we have seen it a decade before. .

Furthermore, I have stated at the beginning that the heart of the games is now almost gone,  and by that I mean that one thing  transformed the games from a useless activity to a serious  hobby. The gaming industry has sacrificed this feature for graphics and let’s face it, for money. They are giving the crowd what they want, and as a reward they are getting lots and lots of money. This makes me wonder if it is entirely their fault or  is it more ours, or even if it is a greater problem concerning our whole society and the path we have chosen. Money is to be made and quick. Time is something vital for a game to “mature”,  as water is vital to plants, so is time to games. Time, to think of a plot, a way this will progress, a climax and an ending. Most times the ending is carved in our mind and hearts and makes us remember it for an eternity. Instead we just get simply minded plots, which are highly predictable and have no actual meaning. Take for example the Halo series. Halo Combat Evolved was not something new ( Humans vs Aliens), but the plot had such features, its climax and ending were so epic, if you may, that Halo CE was carved in our hearts. However, Bungie studios and Microsoft saw that this was a hit and rushed to continue it. The result was a disaster. The successors of Halo CE, in my opinion at least, are games worthy only for the garbage can. And to take this to a general  issue recent popular games have a more-or-less identical plot: USA is the good guy and wants to save the world from the evil Russians or Middle Easter. Games now are also used for propaganda which unfortunately young gamers are unable to see so they digest the ideas of others without even realizing it, and we actually pay them for this.

Another thing I don’t like is the unrealism I see in  games. I don’t really mean things should be as they are in real life, but I can possible see a farmer fighting his way through enemy lines and monsters, or one person slaying armadas of enemies, or half naked chicks with big boobs and no muscles at all carrying swords 4 times their weight, swinging them with ease and slaying armadas of enemy monsters and humanoids.  Finally, now games are ridiculously expensive for what they actually offer. I can’t possibly bear with the fact that Call of Duty 6 is more expensive to Orange Box, for example. Games which offer no fun at all are considered as top games, when their actual worth is no less than 5$. 

I don’t want to be treated by the game companies as a sheep. I don’t want them to serve me games that are worth only for the trash. Yes, I don’t buy them, but others do. Summarizing I want to emphasize once more that the continuous straggle for better graphics has caused more harm than any good. In the future I do hope that examples like Microsoft X-box 360 will cease to exist, cause I think it is ridiculous to pay 40-60 $ for a game and then paying even more for playing online via X-box live. Coming to think of it I also consider us, the gamers, as blamable, cause we accepted such treatment. Now quality games are scarce as biological tomatoes, and those few are “slaughtered” by strict deadlines forcing the producers in creating half-made games full of bugs. What’s so ever, the publishing companies force for more titles, which are also poorly made, to fill in the blanks and keep feeding the mass with junk, with a purpose, what else, money. Maybe it is time that we should show them that we won’t appreciate such actions any more, and if they want our  money they should earn them by giving us something much better