If you were in charge of the games industry, what would you change?

[Thunderous Cacophony]

2. Tigers in every game somewhere. They don't have to be in obvious places. A sports game could have a team called the Tigers, with a tiger logo. A sci-fi game could have an alien race that looks like a tiger. Just somehow tigers are in every game now.

...

7. Dear Sega/ Creative Assembly, four words for you: Warhammer 40k Total War. You know what to do.

Are these two compatible? If so, I may have to kiss you full on the mouth.

OT: Ban DRM, and get Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to sit down in a room together and make the next generation of consoles one console. Seriously, I don't have the money or the inclination to buy 3 new computers to sit in my living room, I want one that's the best possible console. Add peripherals to be backwards-compatible if you must, but make sure you don't invalidate the libraries of every gamer who has been supporting you previously.

 

[verdant monkai]

1. Charge £30/$45 for games.
2. Make a way for companies to profit from preowned games, that is not a massive pain in the arse for the consumer.
3. Outlaw DRM, Online passes, day one dlc.

there are other things but I cant think of them.

 

[AsurasEyes]

All horror titles should have an optional Adorable Kitten mode that plays a selection of videos of adorable kittens after particularly scary levels.

I'd tell them to stop their annoying fucking arrogant business practices or to make more minorities or let Yahtzee design some games or put more dinosaurs and space combat, but I think this would be my first order of business. I had to watch kittens after an all night marathon of Condemned: Criminal Origins, lest I piss myself.

 

[Jamous]

DRM will get seriously revamped so that it, in essence, does not exist. At least we'd prioritise the customer over it.

New IPs wouldn't be quashed because they -might- not sell.

Try to ensure you only charge for DLC if there is a LOT of extra content, like expansion pack style. Everything else can be included as some downloads. If there is somewhere between, too much to give away for free but not quite enough for an expansion pack then we'd try to balance out content/price nicely.

Try to eradicate any outright -lies- in the industry. See the Aliens: Colonial Marines issues for that.

If a game was too buggy they'd be allowed some extra time to iron out bugs, or would have more workpower sent their way to help test it. If it was released buggy a LOT of work would be done on patching.

I think it'd probably last a little while then we'd all go bust because we wouldn't make anywhere near enough money to sustain any of this.

 

[ron1n]

Dedicated server's and LAN mode support for ever single FPS game that supports more than 2 players = Mandatory.

Full set of Mod tools and general support of Mod communities by developers for all AAA games = Mandatory

A Refund policy for any game that in some way doesn't live up to its stated content/service (within reason)

DLC not in-depth enough to be considered an 'Expansion Pack' = Free. (we never used to have to pay for new maps and skins and factions etc. Why should we now?)

In game cash shops may not sell anything other than vanity items.

Spectate mode and demo recording for every FPS and RTS title = Mandatory

All Major publishers to commit funds to developing new, more effective anti-hacking tools.

EA and Activision must give up the control rights to any and all game IP that they have no active plans to use within the next 3 years.

Dungeon Keeper 3 must be made. (Unless War for the Overworld turns out to be great, in which case it will do)

A new AAA RPG based on the Midkemia world and books by Raymond E Feist must be made.

All trailers must CLEARLY STATE what IS and what IS NOT 'Actual Gameplay Footage' as opposed to cut scenes or pre rendered video or 'concept demos' in all marketing material. If both types of footage are used, a transparent watermark in the corner can be used to indicate which is which.

There shall be no more 'console exclusive' games. All games (excluding mobile/ios) will receive a PC release near or on the same date as consoles.

Lastly... digital game prices will be EXACTLY THE SAME (relative to your currency) regardless of where you are located.


So it shall be written.

So it shall be done.

 

[spartandude]

9. All horror titles should have an optional Adorable Kitten mode that plays a selection of videos of adorable kittens after particularly scary levels.

10. every game comes with a kitten that has insurance and a life time supply of food

 

[Spartan448]

If I were to be put in charge of the games industry, there would be a few things...

#1: Imagine as if billions of immature 10-year olds cried out, and were at once silenced. Activision may continue to produce games, but Infinity Ward and Treyarch are as good as shuttered.

#2: World of Warcraft ends. Make one final expansion to tie up the loose story ends, and then move all resources to a Starcraft MMO.

#4: If your game has microtransactions, one of the options available must be hats. Everyone should be able to buy hats. In fact, it will be mandatory for all games to allow players to purchase hats.

#5: anyone thinking of developing a stealth game must first have the entire development team play through the entire Metal Gear Solid franchise, including Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

#6: All studios would contribute at lease one staffer and 100,000 dollars towards research into two fronts: Numero Uno: Making GOOD 4X RTS games. Sins of a Solar Empire and Anno 2070 make good progress, but it's not there yet. They still encourage military victories, although I like the continuous game style of Anno 2070. Numero Dos: Research into making good console RTS games

#7: All games before release must undergo peer review from a council of gamers elected by other gamers.

#8: More things like EVE and Dust 514, where doing something in one game directly affects gameplay in another

#9: Establishment of a network of powerful PMCs run by the games industry

#10: World domination

#11: The Orange Box 2

 

[Tayh]

I would use my power to split the term 'RPG' into two definitions:
Power Progression Games(PPG): Games that feature XP curves, levels, skilltrees, etc.
Role-Playing Games(RPG): Games wherein you actually roleplay a character to some degree. This does not include games such as Diablo, Battlefield 3, Borderlands and other, similar "rpg's".

Also, DRM would be a thing of the past.

 

[The Comfy Chair]

Kill consoles as we know them, and force Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo to make competing 'steamboxes' that all operate on the same base OS (which in this case would have to be linux based). All those PS4 features? nothing stopping them being added to the PS4 'steambox' and not necessarily available on the MS/Nintendo ones if they don't want to include it, but the games must work across all steamboxes.

No more artificial exclusivity so everyone can play everything that's released that their machine is capable of, and it'd make fanboy wars even more pointless to boot. Once they're in competition with every other hardware company, games cannot stagnate based on ancient tech for most of a decade. You'll likely see a roughly 5 year cycle where new games at that point wont play on the very oldest steamboxes much like PC gaming (and recently mobile gaming, but it's much more sped up for mobile).

Sort out the hardware, make the platforms more open, and the games will sort themselves out. PC has loads of interesting and niche games on the platform, and that's doing the same thing by not being held hostage to the hardware (outside of multiplatforms anyway) and closed systems.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I'd tell developers to quit making brunette white dudes for main protagonists. Give us something other than the same thing we saw 10 years ago, for a change.

I want to see at least one balding 50something protagonist. I loved Rusty and Herschel in LA Noire, would have been great to play as someone like that, then again I suppose it's hard to introduce them as somebody 'new' to whatever it is they're doing.

Heavy Rain doesn't count, because he was one of four, including a brunette white dude.

I dunno, I don't think they necessarily have to be new to what they do. I like playing professionals as much as, if not even more than people who are new to their profession. Shelby, to me, was infinitely more interesting than Ethan or the other two protags. Well, what I'd seen, at least. I couldn't get far into Heavy Rain, the extreme amounts of QTEs, as interesting as the story was, really put me off. It's one of those games I have more fun watching than playing.

 

[Terminate421]

Each gaming company must do a collaboration with another every number of years. This means that we could get amazing projects from Bungie and Bethesda working on the same game.

 

[ThriKreen]

Reading most of these "what I would do" just makes me glad NONE of us are in charge. Seriously, most of these ideas would stagnate the industry and we would be back to playing crappy games.

Oh man, as someone who's actually worked in the industry, it kind of funny reading these from the gamer perspective only.

Most of my changes would be on the developer side of things but I don't know how much of it would make any sense to you guys. Other than less focus on graphics and more on interactive elements (i.e. get rid of non-interactive cinematics), and give enough time and budget for a game to be polished and not feel rushed - You'd still want to have deadlines so games can focus on important elements and not end up like DNF, so like give a minimum 2y, max 4y dev periods, not <2y rush jobs. Granted it would depend on scope, a small mobile puzzle game wouldn't need as much time.

From a consumer stand:

Better PC ports and support mod communities with editors, or at least file formats.

Lower prices so the new price point is like $30, not $60. Valve has already shown that dropping the price by 50% could result in a 370% increase in sales [http://www.shacknews.com/article/57308/valve-left-4-dead-half], so you make more, not break even. Problem is that it's not just retailer/publisher mentality that keeps it at that level, but also gamer perception of game quality, where a $60 game is considered AAA and anything $20 and under is shovelware. But now we've seen a perception shift with games going on sale and such a year later and people waiting til then to buy the game, so why not do it on launch instead?

Remove DRM beyond any sort of online one time authentication, so you can still allow used sales. But have a nice incentive to buy new, not just with an online pass. I'm thinking a unique "I bought this new" skin via the first time the key has been used, that you CAN'T get via regular online store methods. I'm sure people will complain about this, but with the shift of games from physical to digital, you lack out in collector's editions goodies. I love that my Baldur's Gate 2 CE came with a T-SHIRT that you can't get anywhere, so I can walk around with it and basically act like free advertising. Heck, make it so you redeem said key for a REAL t-shirt (saves the problem of having the wrong sizes bundled with the game) so even pirates can't get it. Mind you it should to be coupled with the above price decrease though.

Arachnophobia mode, a toggle that converts all spiders into bears. [http://social.bioware.com/project/1013/#details]. It MUST be bears, and yes it will require bears to have wall climbing animations and dangling from the ceiling by webbing from their butt animations - but HOW IS THAT NOT AWESOME?

o/` Spider-Bear, Spider-Bear, does what ever a spider - and bear - can! o/`

(Disclaimer: While real spiders give me the heebie-jeebies, I have no problem with virtual ones, but I know some people who are.)

Be a bit more open about the dev process (i.e. via blog). While obviously we don't want to spoil the story to the readers, but things like saying "Yeah we changed X or cut Y because of Z" so people know the reasons behind what it was done as not to create unrealistic expectations and have the player base speculate (often wildly and incorrectly). And be willing to admit "Yeah we screwed up" - that way the audience knows we're not infallible and to stop creating this 'on a pedestal' perception where they can do no wrong and it must be due to the evil publisher. And the players could be more forgiving for features that didn't live up to expectations the way we thought they would on release.

Adjust reviews so it's more on a -2, 0, +2 scale (for 5-stars) where 0 is considered average, so the medium isn't 7 or 84.5% value anymore. Basically start off with 0, and give or take away a point or half-point depending on how good or bad a feature is. Get rid of the 100% scale, as at that granularity it's hard to look at a 79% game compared to a 81% for some people, while it's much easier on a 3/5 star vs. 4 star game with the buffer it offers.

 

[Tallim]

I'd probably just try and get companies to have some smaller studios dedicated to trying new things. Much like Clover was and they churned out some awesome games. Sure I like the staples of the game industry but they rarely try and do anything new.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Ok Ok, I won't comment like * BWAR ONLY GAMERS SHOULD PROFIT FROM THIS THREAD"

-I'd keep the Call of duty, the maddens, the frequent releases, etc. Let's face it. They make a lot of money. I want my industry to be successful. Although, I wouldn't let the success of those franchises dictate the industry.
-I'd try to fix the gap between the Western gaming market and the eastern gaming market (Japan and Europe). Everyone deserves to have fun.
-There's no more shenanigans of disk-lock content, day one dlc that needs to be paid or rushing a game before it's released.
-I'd make sure that developpers are treated nicely. Most of them work in shitty situations, have little job security and get screamed at by the fans because they did one little thing wrong. Seriously guys, I almost don't like reading gaming forums because of that.
-I'd also make sure that, even though I want those developers to work in a safe place, they deliver what they promised.
-If a game takes too long to develop and several studios gave it a try to adapt it, then cancel that game. It gives false expectations for fans, a shit load of problems to developers and everyone ends up regretting its existence.
-I'd also make sure the original final fantasy team is reunited.

 

[DarthSka]

The only things I would do would be to get rid of DRM and make it so that publishers have no say in a game's development so that the developers have full control. Also, more support for non-AAA games. Other than these, I'd keep it all the same.

 

[Full]

sliding mechanics

Do you mean mechanics that allow the player to slide, or mechanics (as in car fixing people) that slide around?

Either/or.

 

[kommando367]

Set the minimal graphics standards for AAA games at around 2006 era graphics to knock development costs down a couple of notches.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

First, Optimization. Not only do these new games look amazing with high res textures, FXAA and detailed models, it can be scaled to different sets of hardware with at least a constant 60 FPS. Every game must adhere to this rule unless your game is utilizing some new state of the art tech.

Second, no more exclusives. I can play any game on any platform, barring technical leaps from hardware.

Third, A cycle sysytem. If your franchise has released 3 games, you must break for 4 years before you can continue.

After more bug testing, Mod Support, Explore more genres, I think thats about does it.