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To whoever finds this letter:
You are not hallucinating. At least, I hope you’re not. I hope you’re not crazy, either. This won’t do a whole lot of good in the hands of somebody who doesn’t have their feet firmly planted on the ground. I spent a lot of time and a lot of money getting this to you, whoever you are, and I pray it was well spent. This needs to get to the right people, people that can make the changes. I urge you, get this to them, or all of this will have been for nothing.
I hope this letter finds you well. In the accompanying envelope you will find a newspaper clipping from July 16, 2020. This is not a typo. Read it carefully. Treat it with the utmost respect.
Good luck.
The economic crisis that marked the first decade of the 21st century produced nearly ten years of global business catastrophe. Big businesses in the U.S. initiated slash-and-burn policies for their employees instead of their business practices, joblessness reached record highs, and the American way was threatened once again by the looming specter of the poor. Government response to the situation was at best slow and minimal, and at worst incompetent and counterproductive.
The economic collapse was only the first of many forewarnings that the cushy American way of life was well on its way to the grave. Families gave up modern conveniences, turning back the clock on their desires and humbling themselves and their way of life. It was the end of an era.
Many industries experienced hardship as a result, but none more so than the so-called “gaming” industry.
The rise of videogames and videogame culture was one of the hallmarks of the early 21st century. Advances in various technologies were made possible almost entirely by the millions of dollars shelled out by the techno-savvy market. Companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo spent billions on research and development of digital entertainment centers, online communities, and product services. Not to mention the millions spent by companies creating games and other media for those consoles.
Many claim that the beginning of this era of expansion of videogames into popular culture began with Sony and the PlayStation 2. While the success of the original PlayStation was phenomenal when compared to its competitors of the age, it simply could not hold a candle to the market generated by the PlayStation 2. This market only expanded further with aggressive marketing, and the climate of economic growth that allowed families to purchase such expensive pieces of equipment. With games firmly entrenched with the youth, videogame consoles became a mainstay in many households with children. Their devotion to the product only served to strengthen profit margins in the industry, spurring it into further development cycles with even larger goals in mind.
The Birth of a Titan.
The next major change in the market began with the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s amazingly aggressive strategy allowed the company to produce consoles and sell them at an astounding rate for a surprisingly reasonable price. The resulting market penetration was astounding, and the early release gave Microsoft’s little white box a chance to seal the next decade as its own, but that simply was not to be.
Neither Sony nor Microsoft could contend with the unique strategy of Nintendo. The Wii entered American stores on November 19th, 2006, and was an instant hot commodity. With units hard to find for years to come, Nintendo had entered and essentially won the war. They had single-handedly created the largest video gaming market in history by taking the pastime into the public arena more successfully than their more traditionally designed competitors.
The Beginning of the End?
No one realized it at the time, but this was the swan song of the games industry as we knew it. The aggressive strategies employed by Microsoft and Nintendo created an entirely new generation of gamers, called the “casual” generation. The reach of videogames had been extended, and the income from their efforts was massive.
This new market led to incredible innovations in technology. Competition, of course, always breeds innovation but the sheer number of technological advances made as a result of this new market was and continues to be absolutely spellbinding. Billions of dollars coming in from this new generation of gamers, eager to get into the “lifestyle”, paid off for more than just the gaming companies. Computer design colleges sprung up like wildfire as new game studios opened and demand for fresh talent increased. Educational advances in technology studies were pioneered, and an entire generation of already computer-savvy individuals became the workforce of their tomorrow and our today, computer techs, programmers, graphic designers, assembly line workers, and R&D specialists.
However, what goes up must inevitably come down.
The games industry had exploded far beyond its means. The sheer number of small businesses which came into existence, eager to cash in on this new exploitable market is staggering. The amount of them that went bankrupt when gamers across the globe began to tighten their belts, albeit gently, is similarly staggering. The mass migration of blockbuster titles from 2009’s winter season into the first half of 2010 was the first true warning sign that the industry had expanded too quickly. The sheer amount of titles available and being released coupled with a standard price tag of $60.00 U.S. left gamers with little in their wallets. This, coupled with aggressive legislating in some countries and principalities made it that much easier for the average individual to write games off as a pastime rather than a devotion. Over time, the desire for games simply waned as the average individual had to make the decision between paying the water bill or picking up the next big title.
Rapid expansion coupled with poor economic conditions created the perfect storm in the gaming market. With only one or two major titles being released yearly and development costs skyrocketing into the millions, many game companies were forced to close their doors. In an ironic twist, the lack of interest in games actually had a further negative impact on the market; as demand for games dropped, so did the demand for jobs in the industry. The mass layoffs continued to contribute to scarce markets for gaming, reinforcing the cycle each year until finally the whole industry collapsed in 2019.
Many game designers and programmers are now sleeping on the streets, with nowhere else to go.
It was the industry itself which crafted its own demise. It expanded with such velocity such force that it was simply incapable of supporting its own weight. When the status quo of expansion finally came to an end, the crushing costs of operating a gaming-centered business finally came to bear. An inverse to the economic conditions which forced small studios to shut down in 2008, 2009, and 2010, it was larger businesses which suffered the harshest losses last year when the industry collapsed.
The future of the industry is uncertain, if it can even be called an industry today. Small groups continue to program and release games, but the medium is nowhere near as popular as it once was. There is simply a lack of will among the large companies to open their doors back up to the gaming market, which nearly destroyed them. Nintendo, the powerhouse of the industry, nearly went bankrupt as the gaming market in the U.S. shriveled into nothing, severely damaging the company’s income. Sony was able to bounce back after their losses, out of pure luck that they were only able to penetrate a fraction of the market available thanks to poor marketing and strategy. Microsoft came out of the collapse in the strongest position, thanks in no small part to its household status for computer software.
It would appear that the games industry may suffer on, though as a shadow of its former self. Back to its origins; men and women both young and old sitting in a garage somewhere, typing away on a keyboard before burning and sealing a disk in a dime-a-dozen jewel case with a handwritten cover and a one-page manual.
With all the rumors circulating Halo: Reach, Bungie has finally decided to put its foot down and did some myth-busting on their blog. One of them, the one claiming that Reach will be supported by Project Natal,
Instead of having to go through the tedious process of having each Xbox Game Room title rated by the ESRB, Microsoft had the rating board classify the Game Room itself. By doing so, the ESRB has given
Heavy Rain arrived this week, stuffed in a fancy box with all manner of promotional material. I can’t talk about the game itself right now until the embargo, but what I can talk about is the pre-release hype, and the way in which is seems to undermine the accomplishments of videogames as a creative medium.
You’ve doubtless heard game director David Cage talking about his “interactive drama,” likening it to movies and almost distancing it from videogames, trying to make out that it’s something more than a mere game. I would like to direct you to the aforementioned promo material I received, and two statements that really stuck out for me. They are as follows:
- “Film Quality Narrative — Heavy Rain brings a high-quality story filled with tension, emotion, intrigue, and dramatic sequences.”
- “Hollywood Production Values — From the length of the script, to the musical core, to the number of hours of motion capture, Heavy Rain is a vast and ambitious project that delivered a true film noir feel as well as production values that rival a cinematic experience.”
Hit the jump to find out why this is a problem.
Spotted the problem yet? If you haven’t, let me make it clear — Quantic Dream is not in the movie business. It’s in the videogame business, and it should be comparing itself to the best of its medium, not the best of other mediums. When I see a game promoting itself by saying it’s “movie quality,” do you know what that says to me? It says that videogames are not as good as movies. It says that the more gaming emulates film, the better videogames will be. And that’s bullshit.
It’s a disservice to videogames to claim that your title is good because it’s as entertaining as a movie. That essentially discredits the hard work of game writers and directors, who have a hard enough job as it is in trying to convince people that games are a legitimate work of creative entertainment. The last thing they need are having members of their own industry implying that credibility comes from a direct comparison to other mediums.
There’s a real problem in the games business of people latching onto more established forms of entertainment instead of trying to establish gaming itself. It all goes back to that ludicrous Citizen Kane argument. People need to stop asking when gaming will get its Citizen Kane. They need to ask when gaming will get another Super Mario Bros. They need to ask when gaming will get another Shadow of the Colossus. Videogames should be compared to videogames, because they are an artistic and creative medium in their own right, and deserve to be treated as such.
This attitude towards the relationship between games and film is why we have so many arrogant Hollywood directors thinking they can make terrific videogame movies. Just take the failed Metal Gear Solid film, for example. Metal Gear Solid already tells a brilliant story, and if you want to pull a Quantic Dream, you can argue that it rivals any film and possesses these so-called Hollywood production values. Metal Gear Solid already does enough to be “cinematic,” but some people were egotistical enough to think they could do better. Because, of course, a story isn’t legitimate until it’s been in a movie, right? That’s the only way narrative can gain credibility to these people.
Silent Hill is another find example. Nothing wrong with that game’s narrative, and yet they made a film out of it — not a very great film, either. A BioShock film is also on the cards, despite that game’s story being helped along by its interactive nature. This attitude that any game with even a semblance of plot would be improved in movie form is ludicrous.
You can turn a book into a movie because you’re adding a visual element missing from the books. When you turn a game into a movie, you’re not adding a new element. In fact, you’re taking an element away — interactivity. This is why game movies fail so often, because something is always missing and it can’t be emulated. So why is it, then, that so many film makers persist?
Aside from the money, the problem lingers in attitudes like Quantic Dream’s. This idea, rooted deep in tradition, that movies are the be-all and end-all of sublime narrative and top-notch production. I’ll concede that videogames might not produce the cream of the storytelling crop right now, but will they ever if developers are too busy trying to copy other industries rather than forge their own way? There’s all this talk about innovation in the games industry. If game makers are so innovative, why do they let their perceptions of entertainment tread water in this way?
I would ask that game developers stop looking from side to side and spend more time looking at themselves and the industry they chose to get into. Games don’t need to be compared to movies. There has been so much wonderful writing, emotional attachment, astounding insight and technological achievement in the medium of interactive entertainment that we don’t need to keep looking at books, films or television and trying to hold a measuring stick to them. Let videogames be judged by their own merits, not the merits of a completely different world.
Whether or not Heavy Rain succeeds in what it tries to do is a subject for another day, but the way in which Quantic Dream and Sony have chosen to promote the game seems to me to be a slap in the face of gaming in general. Let it not be said that Heavy Rain has “Hollywood production values” and a “Film quality narrative,” Let it instead be said that Heavy Rain has “Sony production values” and a “Quantic Dream quality narrative.”
Have some damn pride in yourself, in your industry, and in what you have created. Have enough respect for your creation that you let it stand on its own two legs without using Hollywood as a crutch. It’s high time developers stopped living in the shadow of the movie world and started to cast some shadows of its own.
I never actually knew these existed, but now that I do, I want them! Unfortunately, anybody who wishes to own these metal DOOM miniatures will need to shell out a good few bucks. Most of them are currently on eBay for no less than a hundred bucks!
These miniatures were made by Reaper, way back in the distant past of 1996. Available in never-opened blister packs, you can get your hands on Zombie Marines, Pain Elementals and Cacodemons. You can also get an unopened Mancubus for ten dollars if you’re feeling cheap.
This post has reminded me how expensive these things are. And here I was considering getting back into Games Workshop stuff.
eBay Seller [eBay, via GoNintendo]
While other retailers would consider digital content as a threat to their business, GameStop COO J. Paul Raines believes that DLC is critical to their survival. As such, he says that the next challenge for him and
[This Week in the Community is your weekly look at some of the best Community related work that has come from the Community Blogs and Forums.]
Mxyzptlk and friends wowed all with their contest entry to the Darksiders contest. Now enjoy some of the outtakes and bonus footage from the production.
NARPs went down, people were showing off their weapons, check out the Mr. Destructoid face in Garry’s Mod, Tactix got an awesome Secret Santa gift, people are still Double Downing and more happened in the Community over th last couple of weeks.
Let’s Cybercast, episode 6 with guest Technophilia.
Dtoid San Francisco recaps the good times at the latest NARP. Also, check out DtoidSF on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s some pictures from the NARP host too.
Check out DtoidEurope for all your Europe based NARP needs!
Doomsday Forte has been around for a year. Punch babies, Doomsday!
Wilbo designed a Destructoid themed car in Mod Nation Racers.
321 gocast episode 5 and episode 6.
It was show off your weapons week for some random reason. PsychoSoldier, Genki-JAM and DaedHead8 all show off their tools of destruction.
Animucast episode 4.
161481
Steamtoid crafted the Mr. Destructoid face in GMod. Sw33t!
A new remix from Super Mega Hyper has appeared and this one stars Chad Concelmo. It’s easily one of the best ones yet.
Tactix got the best Secret Santa gift ever!
stevenxonward made a groups section for Dtoiders on Flickr. If you got photos to share, then share away!
de BLOO recapped his first NARP adventure from the Dtoid North West meetup! Here’s some videos from Grumpy Turtle, too! Lots of videos, in fact.
Crunshii got the Darksiders sword and it made his grandma super powered!
Double downing still continues. Here’s Gobun’s disgusting Double Down attempt.
Happy birthday wishes go out to Mxyzptlk, psycho soldier, Tdiddy9182, Arrested Developer, Xzyliac, John B, Isay Isay, Nebones and Daxelman!
Courtney Love wasn’t at all happy with the way Kurt Cobain’s likeness appears in Guitar Hero 5, so pissed that she’s threatened to sue Activision (Courtney-Love-up-in-arms-about-Kurt-Cobain-s-inclusion-in-Guitar-Hero-5/pg/49/aid/134423) for it. But despite all the rancor she’s shown over the
With Crysis 2 set for release within the year, it seems that Crytek is already busying itself with its next big title. According to a LinkedIn profile spotted by Connected Consoles, an “unannounced MMO FPS” is now
Is your NES just sitting under your TV being so 1980s? Look at that little red light, and the lack of stereo sound and the fact that you have to get up to reset the thing. It’s been well over two decades, why won’t the thing start evolving? Raphnet.net is here to help with a plethora of mods that can bring your NES into the modern day and age that it so stubbornly refuses to join.
Raph, a Linux and electronics enthusiast, is loving modding the damn thing. He’s got instructions on there for insanely simple things like changing the LED light from red to blue to how to more complicated ones, like how to give your gray box stereo sound. He’s come up with a pretty pimped out NES that can play pretty much any game ever and have other games not for the system played on it as well. I think I’m supposed to be most excited by the stereo sound, but damn if that little, blue LED doesn’t look sexy and would make my NES really look good next to my Wii. That little blue light could really tie the room together, man.
Mod Your NES for Stereo Sound, Arcade Games, and a Remote Reset Button [Lifehacker]
