Poll: Is the gaming industry deterioating?

[ComradeJim270]

I don't know. New games are coming out all the time and it seems like an awful lot of them are shit, but if you take the time to think about it, you realize this has always been the case, and also applies to books, movies, etc. But we usually only remember the good ones.

That said, I feel like it's becoming harder for me to find games I enjoy. The titles that get all the hype consistently underwhelm and disappoint me, yet I'll find out about a game that's been out for months without me hearing much of anything about it, and it ends up being a lot of fun. I actually have to look for good games now, but they are there when I do. I think this has more to do with how games are marketed than anything else.

Thank you for trying to lift my spirits, and I really hope that you're right. Also I've been thinking of getting into pc gaming (even though I know nothing about pc's)because of the aaa scene and how big budgets require big revenues means little experimenting or progress. The non united platform of pc's means that games that aren't top tier in graphics or length can still find a home from all parts of the spectrum. On consoles you have $60 aaa and $10 mini download games. Why aren't there games that meet like gamecube or ps2 standards for like $25-30 dollars. Consoles are pushing out a lot of options.

If you have the money, then do it. You just have so many more options on a PC, you'll never run out of games to enjoy, especially if you're willing to try older games. You don't even need to get a really expensive PC, just a reasonably fast desktop computer. A lot of the games that require an expensive PC to run also come out on consoles, but a lot of high-quality games that don't require a fancy PC aren't available on any other platform. There's also mods, which let you enjoy your games in ways that would never be possible on a console. Plus, if you do decide later on that you want to run those graphically-demanding games on your PC, it's not a huge deal to upgrade it as long as you have a good processor.

 

[DarkRyter]

Personally, I haven't seen much change in gaming in the past 20 years.

Sure, technological advances here and there. Genre emergence. Trends and whatnot. But nothing of real notice.

Except of course, the Sega Dreamcast.

 

[him over there]

If you have the money, then do it. You just have so many more options on a PC, you'll never run out of games to enjoy, especially if you're willing to try older games. You don't even need to get a really expensive PC, just a reasonably fast desktop computer. A lot of the games that require an expensive PC to run also come out on consoles, but a lot of high-quality games that don't require a fancy PC aren't available on any other platform. There's also mods, which let you enjoy your games in ways that would never be possible on a console. Plus, if you do decide later on that you want to run those graphically-demanding games on your PC, it's not a huge deal to upgrade it as long as you have a good processor.

Thanks for the encouragement but my main problem is I have no real knowledge of the workings or requirements of pcs. I doubt I'd be able to work my way around a lot of things. I would love to get in on it however. What you're saying about marketing and searching makes sense but isn't it kind of a bad sign that it's the mediocre games that get all the attention; and not for being mediocre.

 

[Zhukov]

Every media has an area devoted to mass market appeal.

Just at look at movies, TV, books, music, all these outlets have something that appeals to the mass market, despite being frowned upon by people who are more experienced with the intricacies of the media.


TV as reality TV, movies have the likes of the Transformers movies, books have Dan Brown (ugh, that guy sucks so much).

It's an inevitable consequence of popularity.

Thing is, movies also have their Black Swan and Children of Men. Books have their Tolstoy and Pratchett.

Games have... what exactly?

Games have Bastion, LA Noire, Portal. Those three are some of the best storytelling experiences I have had. You cannot of told those storys without it being interactive.

That's... that's it?

Don't get me wrong, those are good games. A couple of them are great. But comparing them to the best that movies and books have to offer just seems like a bad joke.

Thing is, movies also have their Black Swan and Children of Men. Books have their Tolstoy and Pratchett.

Games have... what exactly?

Planescape Torment, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami.

Once again, those are good games. (Can't speak for Okami, haven't played it.) But the notion that they are the best we can come up with is just a tad depressing.

Sure these titles aren't comparable to the greatest books and movies, but gaming is a lot younger than those things.

We'll have our time, don't worry about that.

Well, that's some consolation.

...

[self-snip]

Yep, baby steps at the moment. Hopefully EA and Activision will make something DIFFERENT (And not just Activision using some Treyarch piece of shit as an excuse either) this year...

I however think this year will be a shit one for the industry (ME3). What we need right now is a Baldurs gate 3! :3

Uh huh.

Considering that ME2 is a personal favourite and ME3 is the game I am most looking forward to right now, I'd say you're talking to the wrong person.

 

[Signa]

Most here will say no, but I don't see it any other way. "Progress" is being measured by sales, and as such, shittier and shittier games are being made to appease the masses instead of the gamers that dedicated themselves to gaming in decades past.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

i wouldn't neccessarily say deteriorating, but there is a 'tumour' of sorts embedded deep within the industry, one that is oft overlooked or rationalised away, and that is the fact that the software is one of the few areas where shipping an incomplete or defective product is considered an acceptable practice

we've seen it recently with skyrim, fallout new vegas, and SOTS II, where a broken product is released with the hope of patches to fix it later on down the line, i know what some are going to say in defence of this, that its the nature of the medium, etc etc. but you know what it isn't acceptable, it certainly isn't across other industries, could you image if Toyota pulled this kind of nonsense on a regular basis with the excuse of 'making brake or acccelerator pedals that work is difficult.' and i'm fairly certain that most nations have some form of statutory warranty where a company is required by law to make their products to a standard and give a full refund if said product is not fit for purpose, so why do we let this go on?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No it is not deteriorating but it isn't doing itself any favours. Regardless of what some people think, believe or want to see consoles are becoming more and more like actual PCs which is not a good thing. As if you wanted a PC you would already be gaming on one. Consoles have basically brought many of the cons of PC gaming to itself without many of the pros.

The mainstream is just something you have to live with.

 

[Stormz]

Gamewise? No. But Companies are getting greedier and greedier. Day one DLC a long with always online DRM, Project 10$, Cloud gaming. All of these are what makes me mad because all of these are just ways to nickle and dime us or take away control from the products we purchase. Whats sad is people don't care about this and it's quickly becoming the norm. That's why I think the game industry is fucked, at least for people like me that don't like wasting money and being ass raped by these huge corporations.

 

[ComradeJim270]

Thanks for the encouragement but my main problem is I have no real knowledge of the workings or requirements of pcs. I doubt I'd be able to work my way around a lot of things. I would love to get in on it however. What you're saying about marketing and searching makes sense but isn't it kind of a bad sign that it's the mediocre games that get all the attention; and not for being mediocre.

Well, there's a lot of things I don't know about PCs, but if I'm having trouble with my PC, there are lots of people who do know those things and are willing to help those who don't. You don't need to understand how everything works. I'm not going to lie and say it's as user-friendly as console gaming, but it's certainly not rocket science either.

As for the thing about mediocrity, it's just an indication that game companies have gotten better at marketing and have more money for it now. It's all a bunch of hot air, and it's not going to stop others from making good games, nor can it turn a bad game into a good one.

Basically, what I'm saying is that the perception that games (or movies, or music, or books, or whatever) are declining in quality is just that: a perception. This is not actually occurring. But with games in particular, the fact that the gaming industry has grown as much as it has in as little time as it has makes everything seem like a bigger deal than it actually is. The release of Dark and Gritty Military Shooter 4 orExtra-Explodey Sci-Fi Shooter 3 may seem like a huge deal when it happens, but a few months later, most people have moved on to the next big thing. The whole time, other people are so hard at work on great and innovative games that they've barely paid attention to the whole thing, and those are the people to be watched. Those are the people who make sure that no matter how many mediocre and derivative games are shat out by other companies, good games will continue to be made, too.

 

[Fox242]

Why is it so popular to declare the end of gaming? All you mention is that games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are putting gaming on a "downward slide", without any actual argument to support these claims im going to assume you just read some comment or article about how gaming "stagnating" and are just blindly copying the writers opinion to make yourself appear smart.

And no Gaming is not deteriorating, Its as good, and in many ways better than its ever been

I never said that I agree with that sentiment. It's just that alot of people are saying that the extreme popularity of Call of Duty and Battlefield are bad for the industry. I happen to own and paly both of the latest versions in both series and I love to play them (CoD especially). I couldn't disagree more with the whole "stagnation" arguement. Those franchises are good for the gaming industry. I just wanted to see what other people think on this site.

Oh, well sorry for the snappiness then, im just sick of all these naysayers. I probably should have read the OP more carefully, once again sorry

It's all good. It happens. I guess I should have made my own position a little more clear in the first post.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I don't think that's true. The popular games published by a small subsection of the games industry will not kill the entire industry. That's like saying McDonald's is killing the food industry. I think the industry is more complex then what the simple notion of "repetition is bad" soundbite spewers are proposing.

 

[Aprilgold]

Yea, I think it's deteriorating but not because of Battlefield or MW3.
The problem is that the console market has been pretty crappy and hasn't been selling nearly as well as it was last generation when it should be selling a lot more. Because of that AAA games haven't been selling nearly as well, except for those old franchises that keep picking up more and more fans.
Console gaming used to be an easy alternative as PC gaming but in this generation it's become more of a pain in the ass. It used to be that you just had to worry about patching, punching in codes, and what hardware you have when you were a pc gamer but now console gamers are being asked to deal with it and there are a lot of ps2 owners who decided that they just can't be bothered. As someone who has tried to make the best out of being a ps3 owner, I can't blame them.
Even the kids in my family who used to want games for Christmas, now want other things.
Of course the industry would much rather put the blame on used game purchasers so I don't see an upturn coming any time soon.

I agree with this. Is it alright if I rub it in? I'll do it anyway. HA HA, PC'S GOT IT SLIGHTLY BETTER!

It isn't detoriating in sales, its just deteriorating in quality. However even I hesitate to say that this is the case, with so many indie games that are unique selling well I say that gaming is better then ever.

 

[mrF00bar]

It is certainly in trouble and I think it will crash soon but its not dead/dieing. Not yet anyway.

 

[4RM3D]

But once you learn to turn away from major publishers then it's not that hard..

I've put more hours into terraria and dungeon defenders than i have with all of my major game titles combined

Damn you Terraria, stop devouring my social life! But yeah, best spent 5 bucks ever. Not only are indie games cheaper, most of them are actually better than triple A games that took years to make and costing enough money to buy a small country.

 

[veloper]

It's more a case of game companies doing a fairly good job of squeezing money from potential customers and the gaming audience becoming worse over time.

There is some valid criticism against publishers that are cutting themselves in the foot by trying to compete with too similar products in an oversaturated FPS market, while neglecting smaller but considerable audiences, but for the most part they invest in projects that are the most likely to sell.
When trash sells, the fool is the buyer.

 

[Savber]

I'm getting tired of people declaring the decline of the gaming industry just because of TWO FREAKING GAMES (Battlefield 3 and MW3). Seriously, out of the plethora of great games from Dark Souls to The Witcher to Deus Ex: HR to Arkham City, why oh WHY are we always acting like the two shooter franchises are THE definition of ALL gaming?

That's just kinda pushing it.

 

[Triangulon]

I think the industry as a whole is fine. Great even. There may be more, in my opinion, poor quality mainstream games (eg. MW3, Battlefield 3, DNF etc etc), however it seems like the indie scene is only getting stronger. PC Gaming hasn't deteriorated at all like many though it would last year and I think that things are looking pretty good in general for the industry.

This is absolutely correct. Change is not necessarily bad.

Its not dying, it's changing. The Indie market is exploding, and the AAA system, while still profitable, is nowhere near what it was a few years ago.

 

[Brighton_Game_Trader]

I'd say that the gaming industry it is getting better overall.

However, as an industry gains in popularity and sales go up, you will get a lot more rubbish being produced along with the great stuff.

Basically, you will have game developers (in exactly the same way you have film-makers and musicians) who make media to appeal to the most people - the masses - to make the most money.

Examples of this are everywhere - one particular painful example of this is film tie-in games. Generally released as an afterthought while a film is being made, there are very few examples of games made for films that actually worked well as games. These games will have sold a lot more than other, better games, however, since the idea appeals to more people.

I would say that with platforms now available like the iPhone/Pad games store, Playstation Network, Xbox live, Steam and other popular on-line stores to purchase games, it is much easier for independent developers to get their games to a wider audience - which can have a lot more time, care and effort put in than a big-studio title. This is good news, and means that gamers have easy access to a whole wealth of games that would before have been obscure and difficult to distribute.

So in opinion, things are changing for the better and we're just going to have to accept that the games industry is going to have some crap in amongst all the gems.

 

[Maveroid]

The gaming industry is not deteriorating in my opinion, its just going in a new direction... 'New' when compared to everything until the Playstation 2 came out.

I might not enjoy as many games now as I did in the past, but thats my personal preference. The gaming industry is at its peak financially as far as I know and that can be largely (if not solely) attributed to Call of Duty's success..