Tag: Gamers

Why Video Games still do not have respect in our Western culture

The Video Game industry is at a crossroads, especially in the West. China’s video game industry after about a decade and a half of hibernating under government regulations, is now spreading its wings. However, the video game industry in America and the rest of the West is very weak and stuck mostly on franchises instead of new ideas. Is it really a sign of healthy industry when we have video games that are on multiple installments? We need to have a healthy mix but anything new tends to lack any media coverage which causes them to be under the radar and have little influence on the people who are making the games.

Video games began quite successfully under the leadership of Atari in California, but the bubble would burst under the weight of too many mediocre games. Nintendo would save it and then competition would blossom between them and Sega. Other companies would join but it would take until the release of the Xbox for an American company to come back into the console market in a significant way which would actually have some presence.

However, the video game industry probably peaked in 2007 and the increasing popularity of mobile games on smartphones has made the video game industry a more brittle industry which is causing issues.

The video game industry has a lack of quality control in this age.

Many games are coming out which are not meeting expectations.

Increasingly, video game journalists seem to be trying to prop up mediocre or horrible games just to make political points. Such attitudes can only come from a culture of entitlement that comes in such circles. Video game reviewers should be focused on advancing the medium through careful analysis of games. They are simply becoming mouthpieces of ancient newspapers and television shows. Video Games have become a medium which become attached in a sense to the establishment, which makes them tools of government power. Instead of emphasizing the uniqueness of video games that make them stand out, they are being made into symbols of the degenerate nature of the youth. It is within the realm of video games where creativity is still allowed to flourish in some ways.

Video Games are not seen as art but as something that has to be manipulated in order to gain political power.

Video Games need to return to the realm of being pure art not just Panem, or bread and circuses. Only then, will video games be given the respect which the medium needs in order to change and grow.

Video Games need to stop emulating movies

The video game industry has generally been a place that has been trying to get respect from older mediums. In the beginning of the industry, when graphics were not as sophisticated, and video games were relying on much more interpretation than a literal representation of reality. Video games have been increasing in graphical fidelity and become popular in the consciousness of the public. Because of this rise in popularity, video games have been focusing more on receiving legitimacy with the mainstream mediums, most specifically movies. There is a question why they wanted to have this legitimacy anyway, considering that video games are their own medium.

Video Games are games not movies. We should embrace interactivity and not making a linear narrative here. The choices are what make video games, simply unique as games.

Why the Video Game Reviewers need to stop proping up bad or mediocre games

There is general idea among regular gamers that professional reviewers are basically being bribed to push game sales. While we cannot say that this is the truth in every instance, it is clear that there many journalists are no longer able to review games without trying to use them to prop up their factions in culture wars.

It seems to me that the video game reviewers have become more like political activists rather than people who are actually trying to play the games and show their thoughts on it.

Some of it is a cultural change in our culture. The video game industry was seen as a not serious industry by many governments. It was simply part of the entertainment industry, which in the highly technocratic era of the Post-World War 2, was not seen it as a threat to their power. However, more recently, people have started to take a closer look at video games.

Politics and video games do not really mix as video games unlike movies, were truly seen as diversions not were taken up by the avant-garde. This means that video games have been more a product of middle-class values and concepts

However, more recently, people who tend to be more political have been getting more interested into video games. With this attention, they are bringing along the baggage which has been hurting the industry and its ability to make games.

What we need to is to return to when Video Games were made for people playing games.

We do not need activists in our games. Neither should they be in any form of media. Activism in this age seems more of a way to help one’s side of an oligarchical system in America.

Video games should return to being about entertainment and telling an inspiring story that matters to people of all ages, races and abilities.

When the video game industry and its critics manage to stop being so elitist, then the industry will be able to make great games that people will purchase and cherish.