Poll: What is holding gaming back, as an industry?

[HardkorSB]

Holding it back? You do realize that the video game industry is valued at $65 Billion - making it a giant in the entertainment industry, surpassing both films and music - don't you?

It's not "holding back" in a monetary sense, it's holding back in an artistic sense. The way games are played, the level of dedication, attention to detail, true skill and flair that goes into creating a great game, one the likes of Bastion or Journey which can more or less be considered pieces of art. Nothing is holding back the industry in the terms of finance, it's booming like crazy. But unfortunately due to things like CoD; mass-marketed annual rehashes made to cater for the lazy, stupid and consumerist majority.

And that, in essence, is what is holding video games back.

I think that gamers who call other gamers lazy and stupid just for having different tastes are what's holding the industry back.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Publishers! They dictate on which platforms the game will be released, the dictate the funding, the deadline and they usually fuck up everything. Just look at Mass Effect 3. It should have been one of the greatest games ever made. If Bioware had more time it would have been. Unforgivable sin EA. Unforgivable.

 

[mrhappy1489]

There is nothing holding game back right now besides the people who play it. When people demand schlock, people get schlock, which isn't to say good things don't come out, it's just that they are inevitably overshadowed by the piles and piles of crap that comes out. Gaming as a medium is young and it is going to take time for it to reach the heights of things like film and books. For now all we can do is sit and watch as gaming grows and develops and try our hardest to contribute in anyway that we can.

 

[Darknacht]

In other words, you want gaming to die. Without appealing to the masses, the fanbase will only ever decrease, and games just won't be profitable or viable anymore, and they'll stop being made. Gaming will die because everybody stopped caring.

Gaming did fine before it became main stream and for people who don't like mindless action games games becoming main stream has to nothing to advance games. Some genres have even been almost completely stalled for the last decade as publisher began refusing to take chances or publish games without mass appeal. Eliminating mainstream gaming would not kill or even hurt games for the rest of us.
That being said I don't think mainstream games should go away we just need to find more ways to fund, like Kickstarter, and get other games made. The Double Fine Adventure game, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns have proven that their are many people willing to buy games that have no appeal to the mass market and that a large population of gamers are not getting what they want from current games. Please think before you make silly statements like gaming would die without mainstream consumption.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

The cost of developping quality AAA titles . Seriously , it now costs a small fortune and 4% of a persons lifespan to make 1 game . I personally believe that the only way the industry will move foward is to find a way developpe the same quality ( or better ) at a lower cost . I think , new technology needs to be developped to make games more cost efficent to make .

Once the cost is considerably lowered , then the industry could take more risks and we would get more original games . Even if the games aren't original in every sense , we would be able to experiment more and have more unique games with little risk .

This. Not to say that all sequels/remakes/reboots are bad. I've played a lot of them in my time and I've enjoyed the vast majority, but yeah. All things have to be prepared for a certain amount of risk in order to move forward, but when so much money, and so many jobs are on the line with each new AAA game that ships people just can't afford to take risks at the moment.

 

[GmonXyZ]

People treating a Beta Client as the actual game while they should be reporting bugs and flaws.

This is generally even worse, due to me not getting into the Beta.

 

[Kapol]

It seems more like easier to handle things (like CoD) sell better for the simple purpose that they don't challenge the player. That's not a good thing mind you

Yes it fucking is! Not everyone wants a challenge. Some people want something they can pick up and make explosions with. There's nothing wrong with devs making easy games for such an audience, nor is there anything wrong with devs adding in piss easy difficulty levels.



I'm one of them. I don't care what anyone else says about it, I put my games on piss easy from day one. I don't want a challenge, I want fun with a side of rambo-esque badassery. If you want a hard game that's fine, but not everyone does, and people like me are just as legit an audience to make games for as people like you are.

I can understand and respect that position. I guess I should have elaborated. My main problem is that many games are really trying to copy that exact same feeling as CoD. I enjoy a good, simple to pick up and just play game where I can just relax as well. But I don't want every single game to avoid any challenge to it can attempt to be more like a more popular game. That's what seems to have happened. And it's too bad.

That's the nice thing about difficulty levels though. It can allow games to allow that more badass feeling for those who desire it. I'm thinking of going through the ME series on easy recently to play through the story as myself instead of trying to get the good endings. The reason why I mention this is because I wouldn't bother if not for difficulty. Changing difficulty allows people to play for whatever they want. Challenge, story, or relaxation.

 

[LilithSlave]

Graphics is completely different from the CPU in the machine. Most graphics cards have their own dedicated CPU these days.

What? I'm pretty sure that even if you have a really nice graphics card, heavy graphics games can be pretty graphics intensive. As I'm always hearing about CPU being a bottleneck in games, just because of graphics.

Bleh, PC gaming talk, gross.

Well I hope somebody can put all that computing power to good use. Because that hasn't much happened, in my experience. Because when playing the new games, I don't usually feel that impressed. Some new games are impressive to me, but it's rare.

- Just because you don't want something doesn't mean its not something others want. I think the indy companies who focus on lil side scroller 2d things should grow up and make real games, but doesn't mean that I would try to force my view onto them.

2D games are the real games.

Seriously, I hope that was a joke. Considering 2D games as lesser games is really.. pathetic.

There's no merit that 3D games have over 2D ones. And I long for the 2D era. Those were better times as far as I'm concerned.

 

[broadbandaddict]

Honestly I'd say that the current console gen IS holding us back. I kinda doubt anyone will read this or care so let me know if you want the details. I'd be more than happy.

 

[ablac]

Consoles. 'Nuff said.

Oh yeah that thing which is making gaming more widely accessible and thus more accepted by the rest of the world (kind of important since people are trying to this day to pass laws outlawing the games we love and while not succeeding they have not been entirely dismissed by the people who make decisions) and is bringing in more investment into the industry as it makes many of the larger games we enjoy financially viable. If you disagree with that then you are simply blind to reality. Then there is the fact that gaming is not being ruined by consoles and I would like you to elaborate on your infantile comment on how you think it is harming the industry/holding it back. Also just because you do not enjoy something doesnt mean the entire industry is being held back maybe you just need to accept things change and you wont always like it yourself.

 

[Sandjube]

Consoles. 'Nuff said.

Heh, making your entrance with a boom I see my friend. Good to see you making such an impression already =P

...please skype me when your internet is back I'm so lonely.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Consoles. 'Nuff said.

You mean the biggest reason why videogames are so popular and why dev companies have such huge budgets?

Yeah, consoles are definately holding gaming back.

He means the hardware. If there were no consoles things would advance very quickly. Sure gaming would become very expensive, but the devs would all be chasing the ever receding hardware limits. however, I think this only leads to graphical and mechanical advancements. Being stuck with the same hardware pushes devs to do the best they can with it and once they've done that you get more innovation and ideas in other areas.

Ea and Activision are holding the industry back in my eyes. Churning out the same shit over and over each year and I can't help myself but buy them. I can't help it. I really like CoD.

 

[Darknacht]

Ea and Activision are holding the industry back in my eyes. Churning out the same shit over and over each year and I can't help myself but buy them. I can't help it. I really like CoD.

Doesn't that mean that the community is holding the industry back because they keep buying it. After all if the customers demanded innovation then the publishers would have to release innovative games to make money.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

The community, it's age as a medium and the lack of respect from critics.

 

[Vegosiux]

The unhealthy obsession with graphics, the unwillingness of the mainstream industry to try new stuff (aside from new ways to fry our GPU's that is), the cookie cutter money making generic games... (wow, added alliterative appeal)

But, all is not lost, for there is the indie market, for us pretentions snobs who just know that the mainstream is beneath us.