I’m not renewing my subscription to Game Informer Magazine. After not reading the last two issues I received in the mail, the final edition for this subscription arrived in the mail yesterday.
I decided I’d take a look at this issue, considering it gives a preview of the sequel to my favorite video game, Kingdom Hearts. 20 minutes later, I’ve read the entirety of the magazine and I am not going to send in the “Renew Now!” card stapled to the outside jacket of my February Edition.
It’s not that I don’t like Game Informer. In fact, I have to say that it’s one of the most fair and interesting review/opinion magazines out there. Aside from the several useless advertisements in the magazine, it’s overall, a fantastic experience. Why, then, am I not going to pay for another year of it? Because the subject matter of videogames is a waste of time in a world where videogames aren’t made to be reviewed. They’re made to make money.
The Video Gaming industry has become romantic with the idea of flashy graphics, blazing guns, and over the top effects and spec requirements. The few invested gameplay concepts include blood splatter, ragdoll physics, clothing selection, sexual innuendo, and multiplayer avatar interaction. The gaming industry is shallow and immature. Rarely do we see a game that attempts to challenge users into thinking or bringing their own experiences to the game. They don’t care about the end gamer. They care about sales. They care about profit. They care about iconic figures that will be a business investment into future titles under this icon. It’s sickening, and it is a waste of technology.
I know what you’re going to say: “Why would companies make videogames if they weren’t going to make money?” And yes, I understand that concept. What I don’t understand is why we keep buying them. How does a game like “25 to life” make it onto the scene in the first place? Who’s going to play the 4th installment to a racing game where the exact same goal of smashing your vehicle into a million pieces is only slightly enhanced with more particles and a new soundtrack? Who funds “Stranglehold,” a game where the most exciting new feature is that the environment breaks when you are in a gun fight [The fact that there aren’t important gun fights in this game, just several gun fights that will look real cool makes me want to vomit]? Who buys this year’s brand-name Tony Hawk franchised game where literally nothing but the sceneries, load times, and player creation is changed? It’s the gamers. It’s the expendable income 17 year old guy who is ruining gaming, not the developers.
I’m not exactly sure how many of you have taken economics, but I’m going to give you a very simple lesson: In a capitalist economy, each and every one of your dollars is a vote. That means if we stopped buying Tekken games, (However comfortable we feel playing with recognizable players, no one can dispute that the most recent release hasn’t in any way revolutionized the fighting game. Punch button? Check. Kick button? Check. A slight update on graphics? Double check. Another Tekken game on store shelves.) Namco would try something new. They just might think about how they can impress a generation of free thinkers. They just might look at the generation dying for a voice and ask themselves how they can provide it. Instead? They see you as the impressionable 8 digit number that you’ve shown yourselves to be. They look at the sales statistics where Madden is #1. They look at the trends of poorly produced sequel games that have sold more than their predecessors. They spend billions of dollars on the overwhelming suggestion from gamers for “more cool guns.” And then they make their videogames. They market the exact same thing that sold last quarter, spending more money, spending less time, and simply make it look prettier.
I, for one, don’t want a bigger arsenal of weapons, I want a real reason to use my weapons. I don’t want to rush through the beginning of a game, seeing if I can or can’t shoot the NPC before I meet my first combine soldier, I want to ask myself how I can achieve my own goals in the game. I don’t want to grind the same rail with the latest band blaring in the background, I want to impress my friends by inventing a new move and perfecting it with skill and finesse, challenging my friends to mimic the trick, rather than the button combination. I’m sick of paying the full 50 dollars for the 80% of the same game with a few new pretty pictures, or maybe some fancy new feature.
I want to play games that give me a new way of thinking. I want to play games that challenge me to rise above the usual method of accomplishment of learning button combinations and memorizing statistics. I want a game that actually takes me to a place where I can be an individual, and can define my experience not as my ability to type, or press buttons, but my ability to think and express.
When will a game be about creating, thinking, and challenges, and not about destruction, shock, and franchise? I’ll tell you when: As soon as we make the change. We, the consumer, can force the big businesses to progress in more than just graphics. We can show them that originality, characterization, and philosophy are things people want to experience, and we can show this to them all by spending our seemingly unlimited income on titles that foster these concepts. I ask you to make the change, not the software companies.
I won’t be reading another gaming magazine in a long while. I’ll stick to my grapevine of friends who play games because they see it as the amazingly progressive technology that has limitless potential to enhance, challenge, and compliment our already amazing minds. I’ll keep playing the games that deserve 50 dollars of my expense-free paycheck.
I decided I’d take a look at this issue, considering it gives a preview of the sequel to my favorite video game, Kingdom Hearts. 20 minutes later, I’ve read the entirety of the magazine and I am not going to send in the “Renew Now!” card stapled to the outside jacket of my February Edition.
It’s not that I don’t like Game Informer. In fact, I have to say that it’s one of the most fair and interesting review/opinion magazines out there. Aside from the several useless advertisements in the magazine, it’s overall, a fantastic experience. Why, then, am I not going to pay for another year of it? Because the subject matter of videogames is a waste of time in a world where videogames aren’t made to be reviewed. They’re made to make money.
The Video Gaming industry has become romantic with the idea of flashy graphics, blazing guns, and over the top effects and spec requirements. The few invested gameplay concepts include blood splatter, ragdoll physics, clothing selection, sexual innuendo, and multiplayer avatar interaction. The gaming industry is shallow and immature. Rarely do we see a game that attempts to challenge users into thinking or bringing their own experiences to the game. They don’t care about the end gamer. They care about sales. They care about profit. They care about iconic figures that will be a business investment into future titles under this icon. It’s sickening, and it is a waste of technology.
I know what you’re going to say: “Why would companies make videogames if they weren’t going to make money?” And yes, I understand that concept. What I don’t understand is why we keep buying them. How does a game like “25 to life” make it onto the scene in the first place? Who’s going to play the 4th installment to a racing game where the exact same goal of smashing your vehicle into a million pieces is only slightly enhanced with more particles and a new soundtrack? Who funds “Stranglehold,” a game where the most exciting new feature is that the environment breaks when you are in a gun fight [The fact that there aren’t important gun fights in this game, just several gun fights that will look real cool makes me want to vomit]? Who buys this year’s brand-name Tony Hawk franchised game where literally nothing but the sceneries, load times, and player creation is changed? It’s the gamers. It’s the expendable income 17 year old guy who is ruining gaming, not the developers.
I’m not exactly sure how many of you have taken economics, but I’m going to give you a very simple lesson: In a capitalist economy, each and every one of your dollars is a vote. That means if we stopped buying Tekken games, (However comfortable we feel playing with recognizable players, no one can dispute that the most recent release hasn’t in any way revolutionized the fighting game. Punch button? Check. Kick button? Check. A slight update on graphics? Double check. Another Tekken game on store shelves.) Namco would try something new. They just might think about how they can impress a generation of free thinkers. They just might look at the generation dying for a voice and ask themselves how they can provide it. Instead? They see you as the impressionable 8 digit number that you’ve shown yourselves to be. They look at the sales statistics where Madden is #1. They look at the trends of poorly produced sequel games that have sold more than their predecessors. They spend billions of dollars on the overwhelming suggestion from gamers for “more cool guns.” And then they make their videogames. They market the exact same thing that sold last quarter, spending more money, spending less time, and simply make it look prettier.
I, for one, don’t want a bigger arsenal of weapons, I want a real reason to use my weapons. I don’t want to rush through the beginning of a game, seeing if I can or can’t shoot the NPC before I meet my first combine soldier, I want to ask myself how I can achieve my own goals in the game. I don’t want to grind the same rail with the latest band blaring in the background, I want to impress my friends by inventing a new move and perfecting it with skill and finesse, challenging my friends to mimic the trick, rather than the button combination. I’m sick of paying the full 50 dollars for the 80% of the same game with a few new pretty pictures, or maybe some fancy new feature.
I want to play games that give me a new way of thinking. I want to play games that challenge me to rise above the usual method of accomplishment of learning button combinations and memorizing statistics. I want a game that actually takes me to a place where I can be an individual, and can define my experience not as my ability to type, or press buttons, but my ability to think and express.
When will a game be about creating, thinking, and challenges, and not about destruction, shock, and franchise? I’ll tell you when: As soon as we make the change. We, the consumer, can force the big businesses to progress in more than just graphics. We can show them that originality, characterization, and philosophy are things people want to experience, and we can show this to them all by spending our seemingly unlimited income on titles that foster these concepts. I ask you to make the change, not the software companies.
I won’t be reading another gaming magazine in a long while. I’ll stick to my grapevine of friends who play games because they see it as the amazingly progressive technology that has limitless potential to enhance, challenge, and compliment our already amazing minds. I’ll keep playing the games that deserve 50 dollars of my expense-free paycheck.
ᵗʰᵉᵇˢᵍ๒ᵍᵐᵃᶥᶫ∙ᶜᵒᵐ
ᴸᶥᵛᵉ ᴼᵑ ᴬᵈᵃᵐ
ᴸᶥᵛᵉ ᴼᵑ ᴬᵈᵃᵐ
![[http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/EdX2WT4zfrPiOI_RoY3JWEMfpGJXu5MG.jpg]](http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/EdX2WT4zfrPiOI_RoY3JWEMfpGJXu5MG.jpg "http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/EdX2WT4zfrPiOI_RoY3JWEMfpGJXu5MG.jpg")
