RF Generation Message Board

The Video Game Industry's New Hat
By Eric Studer: With the new generation of consoles looming on the horizon, one author asks: is this really what the industry needs?

April 20th, 2005 - There is an episode of The Simpsons titled Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy. In this episode, a new version of Lisa's favorite brand of doll is released that actually speaks. Much to Lisa's dismay however, it spouts only drivel and harmful statements that could severely damage a young girl's development of identity. As a result of this offensive toy, Lisa and the original designer of Malibu Stacy create a new doll named “Lisa Lionheart.” Not only does Lisa Lionheart have a realistic form, but she also says things that unlike Malibu Stacy can help a young girl. Unfortunately, Lisa is defeated when the large chemical corporation that manufactures Malibu Stacy releases a yet another new version of the doll. The difference between the old Stacy and the new Stacy: a hat. This seemingly inconsequential addition to Malibu Stacy completely diverts attention away from Lisa's doll and her positive message, and immediately causes a sensation among doll fans. In the end, Lisa's attempt to enlighten young girls and bring something new and interesting to their lives is defeated by a plastic hat. I can't help but be reminded of this episode every time I think about the current state of the video game industry.

Over the next year or so, the industry will once again purge itself of the current generation of consoles and force a new set of standards down our video gaming throats. Promising better graphics, higher frame rates, and more complex worlds, what these companies don't tell you is that it also means higher production costs. Satoru Iwata stated in his GDC keynote, that he fully expects game budgets to break 8 figures consistently in the coming generation of consoles. The problem with this is that a similar rise in the price of a game is not expected. Every generation, games become more and more expensive to produce, yet the prices of games don't reflect this increase in production cost. What this means is that every time a new batch of consoles is released, the game makers are earning less money on their products, even though the time, money, and effort to produce that product continually increases. The question arises at this point: what the hell does this have to do with a plastic hat?

There are few people right now that would tell you that the infrastructure of the video game industry is sound. Poor management, over worked employees, pre-fabricated content, and other issues plague our industry. It is getting increasingly more expensive and complicated to produce games, but the people largely responsible for the development of these products don't see any increase in the value of their time. For instance, I am sure you all remember the fiasco with the working conditions at Electronic Arts, which to my knowledge is still a problem. Employees are being treated as slaves. They perform a backbreaking amount of work while receiving less than appropriate wages. What's worse, the work they are expected to do is becoming less and less creative with every iteration of console hardware. As the amount of money that needs to be made in order to make a profit balloons, the amount of original creative software is going to disappear. Playing it safe will become the standard, if it hasn't already, and the amount of original, interesting, paradigm shifting software that exists will dwindle to nothingness.

Yet, here we are, on the verge of a new generation of video game systems that promise next to nothing beyond more of the same, but with prettier graphics. This is the new hat. Technology expands, the capability of computers grows, and we utilize these things without even considering whether or not we should. In the past, when a new system came out, it seemed to redefine the very nature of what a video game could do. Intellivision to Atari; Atari to NES; NES to SNES and Genesis; SNES and Genesis to N64 and Playstation. Looking back, all of these transitions represented a true shift in the way games were made and how people perceived them. But with this current generation, the biggest change I have seen is an increase in graphics prowess. With few exceptions, games of this generation are simply the old games with higher poly-counts and a better resolution. Truthfully I don't see that what is to come is going to be any different.

Sure, the consoles will have online capabilities, but it remains to be seen if this is really a factor for gamers outside of the core demographics. Will this be making money for our industry? Will it bring something new to video games? I don't think so. Multiplayer gaming has existed since games existed, and pouring millions of dollars into a single aspect of video games seems like a waste. With all of the other possible ideas that video games can present, why are we focusing on one aspect, an aspect that has always only been part of an overall package? Listen to Microsoft, though, and it almost seems as if they think the single player video game experience is archaic, a thing of the past. I like multiplayer games sometimes, but I don't always want to deal with another person when I'm playing a game. It's ludicrous, and from people I have talked to who range from casual gamers to non-gamers, multiplayer is no more important than any other aspect of a video game. And online multiplayer is even less of a concern. When they want to play with their friends, they want them to be next to them, not in another house anonymously. So will multiplayer appeal to non-gamers? I don't think so. It is just continuing a cycle that is designed to keep the current gamers without drawing in new ones.

In the Simpsons, little girls had a choice. Lisa took a stand and tried to present something genuinely new that would improve and change the dolls that girls collected. She was defeated however by the short attention span of the audience she was trying to help. Again, the similarity to our own industry is staggering. All the time I hear people complaining about the current state of the industry. So many people moan about the sea of sequels consistently being released and the obnoxious number of sports games released every year, but do we do anything about that? No, we don't. We still buy these sequels and sports games in droves. If we were really bothered by what the video game industry was generating, we would try to expand our horizons, try to experiment and realize the full potential of our chosen entertainment medium. We would show the industry with our dollars that we were ready for something different, something better. It would force them to reevaluate how games are made, and how often hardware came out, and I think it would improve the industry. I don't see this happening in the near future though.

What about our champion? What about the free spirit, the independent thinker that will offer us something unique and worth exploring? The closest thing we have to Lisa Simpson in this industry is probably Nintendo. If you are to believe the things they are saying, then they are worried about the escalating prices of video game production. They are concerned with the increase in repeat products with rehashed concepts with little added other than window dressing. They are trying something new. I am certain you have heard the rumors about the controller for the Revolution, and the DS is a unique piece of hardware whose capabilities haven't even begun to be fully explored. Yet, they are still part of the problem. They are part of the machine, and as a result can only work against it so much. The audience is demanding new hardware and better graphics, and Nintendo has to deliver if they want to continue making games. Originally, the GameCube was supposed to take us well into 2007. Nintendo stated that they believed that the focus of the industry should shift from hardware to software. A focus on games should become the precedent. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Look at the products that are coming out in this final generation of software for these systems. The graphics are beautiful, the worlds are rich and full. I don't think a new generation of hardware is needed. Instead we should be focusing on using the excellent capabilities of these current systems to improve the games. We have the beautiful graphics, now let's make the memorable gameplay experiences. Unfortunately, this is not possible with the advent of these new systems. These systems come like steamrollers designed to wipe away everything that has been built for the last four years.

With new hardware come new design requirements. Programmers will have to learn the ins and outs of a brand new set of game consoles, and everything that they've come to understand about the previous generation will disappear. We are back at square one...again. On top of that, these new systems simply mask the problems that we struggle with. The problems themselves will still be there, but perhaps we can push dealing with them off for another four years. Management is still poor, work hours are still ridiculous, “me too” products will come out in droves because that's the only way to ensure a success, and original compelling content will take a back seat to simply keeping the industry afloat. I am saddened and disappointed in the video game industry and its consumers, and I long for our champion, our Lisa Simpson to at least try to open our eyes to the possibilities that we have yet to explore. I long for someone to take a stand and try to create solutions to the problems we are struggling with on a daily basis, instead of decorating them with a new hat.