With the release of Starcraft 2 today I think the writing on the wall is now clear: mainstreaming video games has killed the medium. Big business has realized that games can have a huge audience and they have begun manipulating their products and sales methods to extract the most money possible from consumers, not to produce quality products. Premium units and maps? No spawned copies? Taking ten years to release a game and then tri-secting the campaign release? Ridiculous.
Or look at Dragon Age 2. No character customization? Simplified dialogue and combat systems? Compare it to the original and I see the difficulty and complexity bar lowered to make the game appeal to an audience that could not be troubled with the intricacies, detail and thought that playing the original game could take.
I think too of BF2...the horrible bugginess at launch? How slow fixes to those severe issues were to come, some of which never were fixed? Companies routinely release such unfinished products now, uncaring of their customers opinions.
We can also look at Activision and their handling of the Infinity Ward fiasco for how developers are regarded...
I fully appreciate that videogame publishers are a business and must make money. But there is a definite distinction between caring ultimately for the customer and the art and from caring for the bottom line only.
This trend of lowering the bar and squeezing the consumer for all they're worth will sadly continue as video games get to be bigger business. Fortunately smaller shops like Stardock can still stay relatively free of the pressures o their big-name publishers. It looks like we'll have to increasingly turn to them for quality games that are player-focused, not profit-focused.
Or look at Dragon Age 2. No character customization? Simplified dialogue and combat systems? Compare it to the original and I see the difficulty and complexity bar lowered to make the game appeal to an audience that could not be troubled with the intricacies, detail and thought that playing the original game could take.
I think too of BF2...the horrible bugginess at launch? How slow fixes to those severe issues were to come, some of which never were fixed? Companies routinely release such unfinished products now, uncaring of their customers opinions.
We can also look at Activision and their handling of the Infinity Ward fiasco for how developers are regarded...
I fully appreciate that videogame publishers are a business and must make money. But there is a definite distinction between caring ultimately for the customer and the art and from caring for the bottom line only.
This trend of lowering the bar and squeezing the consumer for all they're worth will sadly continue as video games get to be bigger business. Fortunately smaller shops like Stardock can still stay relatively free of the pressures o their big-name publishers. It looks like we'll have to increasingly turn to them for quality games that are player-focused, not profit-focused.
Last edited by JdeFalconr (2010-07-27 17:13:30)
