Alright, another day. Another day of being a smartass in a world of dumbasses. With that I mean, I know the developer scene from the inside out. Basicly, I never have been employed for one of these companies but I have been all over the place. Nevertheless, almost being one myself. All in all, to skip the introduction yapping - The gaming market is becoming a walking Monopoly, and now there's less than ten actual developers that can consider their projects "Passion Projects". To name three, Konami's "Metal Gear Solid", Bethesda's "The Elder Scrolls" and Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto".
What are passion projects? These games are made with two sole thoughts; "We're putting our love into this, because we love what we do. And we love what we make.", and two is "Money, time, rewards... For us it's the experience and the fact that we cater the buyer with a great product that counts.". The games are made from beginning to end, without a sweat drop falling. Why? They love to make what they're making, and there shouldn't be a date until it's done. It shouldn't have to become that mass advertised item. If you put passion into what you create, the date will eventually create itself, and the game will become famous with the matter of time.
These series can be compared to the Automotive Business. Take four brands. Chevrolet, Bentley, Mercedes Benz and Toyota. Chevrolet creates a sub-par vehicle, produced into millions, for a cheap price, mass advertised. Toyota creates a somewhat cheap design, but has reliable parts, for a medium price, specifically build for that region. Mercedes on the other hand delivers quality that can be afforded by still a large number of people. Bentley on the other hand creates one-time-only vehicles, with superb quality and parts. They never advertise, yet it's one of the most famous brands out there, it just comes at a price.
In gaming talk that would be the following four brands, just like above a random selection; Electronic Arts, Eidos, Ubisoft and Bethesda. EA's out to dominate, and hold the money. Like GM tried in the 60's and 70's. The quest for money and the current saving of money leads to lacking quality, and oftenly repeated junk for the full price. Eidos tries to preform better by mass advertising all products, but in the end that fails often. Ubisoft creates and publishes great games, at their own budget('round 3mill per game/license deal). Bethesda manages to put years, millions, and best of all work into their games, and keeping the advertising at a minimum, and not being halted by a date on a calender. They worked their asses off for quality goods, year after year. No quality loss.
What the hell am I trying to say?
Caps Lock On spammage: GREED. GREED. GREEEEEEDDDDDDDD. GOD-FORSAKEN-GOD-DAMNED-GREED!
Say what you will. Say what you want. Stand behind the corporate ****s that are ruining the only market where imagination is an required tool. Run back to the greedy stock-eating companies that are ruining our gaming business. Agree. Disagree. Be a know-it-all. Be a marketing-snob. Be a caring gamer. Be a random moron who doesn't even know what he's angry about.
The point is final, you can't disagree or agree with it. You can only look, and think. Imagination is exhausted by greed. Sequel spamming is an trend. And new series are just as original as Saints Row was compared to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Where is originalty? It's just like imagination, exhausted by abuse. But these are two different cases. At a point, ideas run out and wether the creators of what you basicly clone like it or not, you'll have to set SOME originality out there. That's why I phraise Volition Inc. for doing so.
Back to imagination. You'd say, you can't buy visions of something you wanna make. Wrong. And you're a fool if remain thinking you simply can't. A large number of publishers/developers are sucking the imagination of their staff dry, and it's almost close to slavery. Whatfor? Cash. And if your guys happen to run dry... No worries, go to the sequel-spamming trend. Same game, every year. With few additions.
And you know whats the worst result we could've gotten? That people are punished if they want to bring a new, original game on the market. How? Thanks to the greed of many companies, who want more by the day. It now costs five times more to create a new game, rather than just slamming a sequel onto the market of another series that's already running. Truth is that it always costed atleast twice. But some developers ask certain requirements in technology, tools and staff.
Simple enough, the publishers who now run 80% of the market say "No." to that.
Remember how it used to be? Every time, a sequel would appear. The true meaning of sequel in gaming-sense would come above; Improve on the last, add new content and be original. Nearly all great names used to be these "Passion Developers". That was, until some started to realise that it was a sack of gold waitin' to be exploited. It used to be simple. While you were creating your last hit, the developers of the developer tools(e.g Unreal/Crytek/Havok) had created new software, that could set better graphics and animations(for instance). Developers buy the new and improved kits, and start creating the formula of their last hit from the bottom up again. New world, new story, new characters, and raising the bar on all of them.
Now it's a mission to gain more, while spending less. As if you're talking to the creators of the S**tsink. And while I can digg deeper into this, how the gaming industries used to be a typical "You've got the stuff to set the imagination in motion, and they have the money. Go, and make history."... And how it's currently a leeching race, with EA leading bigtime.
I can talk all day long about how it's going down the crapper. I just want to finish it with these words, which I hope every gamer reads and shoves it in their minds.
Indie-developing is a myth. Something that was once a great start, is now impossible. Imagination is a money-bag that's waiting to be exploited.
And want to know who's responsible for turning this market a stinking s**thole as it is now, and allowing it to pull the most ****ed up marketing tricks on us? For making it into the biggest money exploiting business on the planet? Creating a handfull of monsters?
Us.