The excitement’s gone from gaming – how can we get it back?

Posted December 7, 2011 by Patrick Lindsey in News, Opinion.

Blog: With the likes of Call of Duty spawning endless sequels, and even new IP cashing in on existing popularity, gaming can sometimes feel like a chore these days. But all’s not lost, writes Patrick Lindsey – we just need to know where to look.

When I was a kid, videogames were a big deal. I skipped homework assignments and devoted entire weekends to playing through my favourite games as quickly as possible, just to start them over again. In fact, I played some games so much that the cartridges (or, later, the discs) would start to wear out.

I knew every nook and cranny and secret of every game, and yet somehow they still never got old. Back then, for me at least, videogames were always magical things.

Today, I still pour hours on end into my favourite games, and yet I can’t help but notice that things seem different. If I race through a game these days, it’s less because I’ve been consumed by it and more because I need to move to the next one on my list. New titles from major developers are no longer exciting; they’re merely expected. There are sequels everywhere.

So what happened to videogames? Why is it that gaming seems to have put its years of youthful exuberance behind it, cut its hair and settled down with its sequels and reboots, content to punch a clock and pay a mortgage, existing in a happy little status quo?

Of course, it has a lot to do with what most things have to do with: namely, money. No longer are videogames just a niche market enjoyed almost exclusively by a narrow social demographic; they’re a big budget industry in the neighborhood of billions of dollars a year, enjoyed by everyone from gamers to their grandmothers.

Playing it safe

And while it’s great that games are starting to get the recognition and attention they deserve, the kind of money that exists within the digital microcosm carries with it some implications. On the side of the publishers, they’re dumping more and more money into developing bigger AAA titles than ever before. With game budgets pushing into the tens of millions of dollars and beyond, it’s not surprising that studios are less and less willing to take chances on brand new franchises, or even genres that they aren’t totally sure will be a success. After all, why blow that kind of cash on a game that may be met with only lukewarm success when you can make a game that you know people will play and see a huge return?

But this attitude is also being reinforced by the buyer. With all the big studios dishing out their trademark blockbuster titles (or, let’s get realistic here – trilogies), shelling out £40 for a brand new game simply isn’t a good investment if we don’t know what we’re in for. As with many things in life, we like more of what we like. More Uncharted, more Halo, more Call of Duty; studios know that if they keep giving us these games we’ll keep playing them. We’ve become a culture of enablers.

And then, of course, there’s the audience to consider. The days of videogames being played only by “hardcore gamers” are over. Insanely popular franchises like Call of Duty mean that more people are playing those games who don’t normally play other videogames. As a result, common elements we’ve all grown used to over the years – RPG stat-managing, inventory management, turn-based combat, etc, have all been streamlined into the ubiquitous “action game” for the sake of the vast majority of the audience who would be put off by that sort of thing.

The good news is that as a result we’ve seen some incredibly tight and refined experiences pop up over the past few years. It does, however, carry the unfortunate side effect of a lot of games looking, feeling, and – well – being derivative.

But wait

It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some great games out there that are successful in getting people – both game fanatics and others – excited about the medium again. Outside of the circle of major blockbusters, some really innovative things are happening. Mojang made a little game called Minecraft that’s been so influential an entire video games convention sprung up around it.

Everywhere, smaller developers are taking advantage of the internet’s reaching power to get their games out there to more and more people, and organisations like the Humble Indie Bundle have taken on the mission of making sure these new, exciting games go out to as many people as possible – and with them being so reasonably priced (the Humble Bundle is literally sold on a pay-what-you-can model), people can feel good about trying new games rather than stressed out about potentially wasting £40.

I’m not saying that we should be working towards and “indie-only” future, where we give games away to everyone with a side of free rainbows. But there’s certainly something to learn from these examples. These smaller studios have hit on something fundamental: that the joy of gaming comes from the new, exciting places these digital experiences are able to take us.

That’s why people like you or I got sucked into them all those years ago, and it’s time we shared that feeling with those of us who may be newer to videogames. If we’re able to embrace that attitude, the money will follow.

Gaming is currently too big for its britches. Like a small-town musician who strikes it big and becomes an international rock star sensation, gaming today has forgotten where it came from. But forgoing your original values in the name of making obscene amounts of money isn’t the way to progress the medium. Rather, the answer may lie in looking back (or, at least away from the spotlight) to see who is succeeding without the NASA-sized budget.

Tagged as Call of Duty, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Minecraft, Modern Warfare 3