So setting the scene... I was watching E3 streams and was appalled by the state of the games industry and felt compelled to make a blog. Half way through construction I realized I already had this discussion with a few of my friends when I explaining why I didn't want to seek a career in said field. So, here is the copied and pasted version of this Discussion. After copying and pasting everything, there is A LOT and it's hardly poetry but not going to condense... because I'm lazy.
Me: Ok i have several reasons:
In my opinion the games industry is fucked over at the moment and I dont think it is going to get much better in the near future. The problem is with games is that they take so long to make and they cost so much so it is difficult to take any risks unless you get paid less but given more freedom. This however results in shitty indie games in which the vast majority are terrible.
For the developer there is massive dilemma. Either he chooses to make one of these shitty games but is given complete freedom OR he chooses to go into a massive corporation and is giving an incredibly restricted job i.e. modeling ass muscles or texturing walls. Neither of these options interest me.
More and more the game industry is becoming commercialized, with the influx of 'casual' gamers this is only going to get worse. Nintendo is a perfect example, Miyamoto turned from being a creative genius to a money whore.
Games are also not taken at all seriously, there are VERY few games that I would consider art and even fewer made me feel any emotion. Fun is a thing that restricts games entirely . Instead of progression we are going to stagnate, clones are going to become more prominent i.e. Bayonetta, GoW 3, Dante's Inferno, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden I can go on.
If you can change my opinion I would be seriously indebted but at the moment film is just a much more of a mature medium.
Nina: You sound very bitter. Hopefully this will spiel will make sense to you and help you. It is late. I am tired and stressed. However, this was important enough that I felt like it warranted a very long, thought out reply. Caution: I will be very blunt in this. I don't have time to skirt around issues and think up euphemisms nowadays.
Ok, to start. "the games industry is fucked over at the moment and I don't think it is going to get much better in the near future"
All industries and fucked over and unfair. I don't think there's a single industry that isn't. That's life. Get used to it. If anything, the film industry, being the juggernaut that it is, is probably one of the most fucked up. In addition, the industry is only in its infancy. Movies started around the late 1800s/early 1900s, maybe even earlier. They've had more than a century to figure out how things should work. Comparatively, the video games industry is very young. It's barely had half a century from when it first started, if at that (depends on when you believe video games started). As my game design professor said, "There is no Citizen Kane of video games as of yet." But he also brought up the idea that should we even want such a thing? By having a "Citizen Kane" would this psychologically limit us in that everyone would strive for that idea of perfection and never innovate? But that is going into something entirely different and I am digressing from the topic.
Yes, games aren't going to get better "in the near future." However, if you cannot think long term, if you aren't inspired by the potential of everything that could be despite of all the problems, then this industry is not for you.
"The problem with games is that they take so long to make and they cost so much so it is difficult to take any risks [. . .] this [. . .] results in shitty indie games in which the vast majority are terrible."
And movies don't? Yes you could make a movie cheaply, but once again, then you're indie and the production quality wouldn't be that good, resulting in most people not wanting to see your movie. So we are back to square one. To realize your vision in anything, it's most likely going to take money and if you want to do your vision justice, if you care about it deeply (which you most certainly do as it is yours), it's probably going to take a lot of money.
The money problem is a major challenge that indie developers face. However, such challenges sometimes lead to innovation. You want result A, but only have tools B and C with which to make it. Result A requires tool A in order to work properly but you can't afford tool A. Your job now is to make it work. Innovate. Get creative. There is some way that it can work. Maybe for B and C you'll build a whole new tool, tool D, and it'll work even better than tool A
"Shitty indie games"
Shitty indie games? Boyo have you seen Flower, The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom, World of Goo, Braid, Machinarium, Fat Princess just to name a few? Just because your indie doesn't necessarily mean you're shitty. The stuff shown at indiecade seems really promising. Yes, a lot of indie games are shitty but frankly, how many shitty movies is the movie industry inundated with? Perhaps the movie industry seems to put out less shit just because of the sheer number of movies it puts out. Thus, percentage wise, the shitty-ness would be less than that of the games industry.
"the games industry is becoming commercialized"
It's an industry that people have only recently realized can make a lot of money. Of course, it's going to become commercialized. Like any new stock that starts to do well, people are just going to pour their money into it and try and pump out as much money as they get. Publishers are usually the big issue in this. But they are publishers in everything: books, TV, movies, games, etc. Even as a movie director you would have to get your project green lighted by a major publisher. Publishers are going to know what currently sells. They're not ignorant of the current fads and obsessions. If your idea of what should be made doesn't agree with their idea of what should be made and you can't convince them that you're good idea is worth making, you can kiss that big, fat production budget good-bye. Then you become an indie director and make it. Thus, movies are just like any video game in the sense that you are also faced with the "massive dilemma" or either bowing to a superior or having a low budget and making a shitty production.
"with the influx of 'casual' gamers this is only going to get worse."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZVZRsy8N8
(By the way, this video is the STORY OF MY LIFE.)
Irrelevant for this issue except the part at around 5:20. The industry is booming and casual gaming is on the rise. However, I agree with Floyd in that casual games have their time and place. They are not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, many hard core gamers spurn the thought of this, but as Floyd says: "And with time many of [the casual gamers] may become curious enough to cross over and try their hand at a Halo match or something."
I am a testament to this statement. One of the very first games I remember playing is a PC Madeline game. A very girly game I can assure you. However, as time progressed, I became interested in other games. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was the one game that bridged the casual/hard core gap for me. Now, I'm person I am today. Blowing hundreds of dollars annually on video games and game paraphernalia.
Also, casual games still allow for innovation and can be appealing to the hard core gamers as well. Take LittleBigPlanet. I would actually classify that as a casual game. It appeals to everyone regardless of age or gender. One can easily pick it up, learn the controls, play it for a bit, then drop it. If you think about it, all you do in that game is run, jump, and pull/push things. However, the way Media Molecule brought their world to life and their motto of "play, create, share" are amazing. It's basically modding brought to a bigger audience. They were able to infuse their game with the fun and innocence of childhood. It seems to remind a lot of people of their childhood and when they played with toys which is why I believe it appeals to so many.
"Miyamoto turned from a creative genius to a money whore"
I don't really follow specific developers so you're going to have to explain this to me. Why exactly do you think that Miyamoto is no longer the man he once was?
"there are VERY few games that I would consider art and even fewer made me feel any emotion"
Once again, this may be an issue that arises from the fact that video games are still very young (going back to the games industry Citizen Kane thing). They're getting better though. Look at Heavy Rain, LittleBigPlanet, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Psychonauts, Bioshock, Okami, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect. Admittedly, it's still hard to find a game with good gameplay, art, and story, but the potential that lies there is what personally attracts me to game design and development.
Here's another really interesting video to watch. Floyd explains it far better and quicker than I could. (Yes, I do love this man and would marry him in a heartbeat but I think he's already married)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jdG2LHair0
"Fun is a thing that restricts games entirely."
I don't agree with this statement, but before I comment more on it you'll have to clarify by what you mean. Give me some examples. More in depth than just naming games. Though going off the list you just have, there are also some really good games out there. I'm not going to list them all. And, again, how the movie industry any different? How many movies out there are just remakes, book to movie films, or have predictable storylines nowadays? The film industry's stagnating too. In the future, it may stagnate even more than games. People are already starting to talk about how games will overtake film and TV just like how film and TV took overtook radio.
A Conclusion (sorta)
The bottom line is this: very rarely will anyone start out in a lead position. A game designer is somewhat equivalent to a director's position. It's gonna take either time or huge sacrifices (and sometimes both) in order to prove yourself to either a company, or a team if you're indie, that your vision is something they want to create. You're not going into it for the money or the fame, you're going into the industry because you love it. With the reasons you have given me so far, I feel that some of the reasons is that you do not want to go into video games is because you are impatient and do not feel that the rewards for your hard work aren't worth it. Which then leads me to believe that you don't love video games. At least not as much as you should if you want to work in the industry. If you can't see yourself starting out working on Barbie Horse Adventures, if you can't see yourself throwing yourself at the seemingly insurmountable wall that is the money problem, then this career path is most likely not for you and I would quite honestly encourage you to get out while you're still young.
I am now going to go on a bit of a tangent. Indulge me and read it. This has a point, I promise. So, take my current position for example, I know that I'm probably going to start in a low level job in a huge company. I'm just going to be a cog in the wheel. However, I also know that this is not where I'm going to stay for the rest of my life. I'm idealistic but also realistic. This job is a means to my ultimate end. I don't care how long it takes or what I have to sacrifice. One day, I am going to be in a position high enough so that it's /my/ ideas that I bring to life. I will forsake food, sleep, friends, maybe even family if it means that I can realize my dream. I understand that it's gonna take hard work and time. I'm freaked out by the fact that what I do now is going to have a heavy impact on my future. I'm daunted by the fact that I'm going to an art school to realize my dream (despite the fact that I can't draw) and that it is quite possible no one will take me seriously because I have a degree from an art school. However, there is little I will not do to realize my dream. Money is not an issue. I will find the money somehow. People far less competent than I have balanced full time school and work. If they can do it, so can I. I'll just commit seppuku in the process. I do not care who stands in my way or what my relationship to you is. If you stand in my way, I will /cut you down/. I have little doubt that I /will/ one day have enough freedom to create and breathe life into a world and characters all my own.
Right now, I'm stressed and trying to balance my 3d modeling/animation class and my game design class (both of which are huge time sinks) with my other classes but in some fucked up way, I'm happy. I'm doing what I love and what I love pertains highly to games. I therefore realize that I /have/ to go into video games. It is no longer an issue of want, it is an issue of need. Succeed or die trying. Those are the stakes now. I highly believe that the only reason you don't achieve things is because you didn't want it enough. If you wanted it enough, you would have done anything to get it. You would have figured out some way to obtain it. There are no excuses. I want this badly enough. I will achieve this goal and I will go to hell and back to get it. Fuck anyone else who tells me I can't.
Now, if the above 2 paragraphs are how you feel about movies. Go for it. I'll expect to see your name in the theatres one day. Then I can tell people I knew you when you were but a teen. However, if that is not the case, then you should seriously reconsider your options. All of them. Not just video games and movies. You're still have some time seeing as you're still in high school but by the time you're in college I advise that you have a pretty good idea of what you want to do. Time is the only resource you will never get back. One of the things I severely regret is discovering what I wanted to do in life only after I finished high school. Only now do I have a clear vision of what I want. But I guess that is more than what most of my peers have.
Matty, I believe you are changing your mind for all the wrong reasons. The problems you see in the video game industry also exist in the movie industry but I do need clarification on some things you mean. But what do I know? Maybe you really do love the medium. From what you've told me so far though, it seems like you're just "falling back" on it in a sense. Honestly though if these problems are what originally drove you away, if they seem too daunting and the rewards not good enough, then leave. I don't mean to sound harsh, but if things as simple as this drove you away and you believed and/or did not want to try and overcome such obstacles, even should I convince you not to abandon video games, I don't know if you should come back to them. More than anything else: if you yourself don't believe you can do something, then you really won't be able to do it. Simple as that.
"Because the people who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who actually do."
/endrant
Me: First of I'm just going to say that I agree with a lot of what you said, I still think that games are integrally flawed. I enjoy games for huge amounts of fun they provide for me but what truly fascinates me about them is their narrative potential. Here is the first dispute that I have. Compare Metal Gear Solid 4 and Shadow of the Colossus. We see two game’s attempts at a narrative display. Games, presently, due to their subsequent lack of understanding are looking towards film when trying to present the player (I don’t really know what to call them as they are doing more then passively viewing, interacting? Interactor? I dont know.) with a story, we see MSG with hour long cut scenes that use none of the tools that Games exclusively own, the story is no less spectacular and no less valid but it IS just film and I would rather just watch a film. It is in Shadow of Colossus, my favourite game, where we are presented with a much less intricate but much more moving story. Games have the ability to allow the player to have a genuine and active relationship with the characters in the story, Shadow of the Colossus picks a cipher character who we are never separated from. We discover at the same rate that he does and gradually, through actually living this persons life for a while inherit the developer’s desired emotions. When needing to view the story from another perspective we actually play as that character for a while. The only cutscene we see is to simply establish a story. Now for the bad news, Shadow of the Colossus is critically adored but there is no other example that has earned my love or even come close to it and here is when the bad news starts.
You say that the film industry is fucked up? Once again I entirely agree but film as opposed games films are entirely aware of this fact and have dealt with it. Film has an obvious and self-aware division; the formulaic rom-coms and the high-budget action movies versus the avant-garde, the less mainstream perhaps the “indie” film. Games have no such distinction. Games unsuccessfully try to merge these two sides, so instead of rapid development you have clone games as previously discussed each differing from each other by a minute and barely noticeable innovation. Some of these sequels don’t even try to innovate at all and adopt the bigger, badder, better mentality which is only an evolution in terms of budget size. This division isn’t entirely absent however as you do get indie games but they are generally completely unappreciated or just flat out ignored. Psychonauts is an example of a game that was critically acclaimed but made the publishers bankrupt and unable to publish since. Films do not have this problem, there is an audience, a numerable and important one, that reduces the giant risk (as of the one of backing an indie game) to a minor gamble of backing an indie movie.
I would be glad to be proven wrong but I have never heard of an indie game ‘making it big’ this is because they are hindered by innumerable draw backs and they simply do not have an audience. Film have less of these drawbacks thusly making it much easier and definitely within grasp to achieve stardom. Take the hurt locker for example whose budget was perhaps 1/100 of that of Avatar or Up In The Air but still managed to win the Oscar. In all the examples you gave of Indie games each had stylish, beautiful and cleverly done visuals but when you compare it to FFXIII or GoW they are incomparable, the graphics are shit. A person who adores these games enough however can overlook this, and these people are the hard of the hardcore audience and simply but sadly don’t have the numbers to back or make a games like these profitable.
Ok, another point. It is undeniable that money is the foundation of both of these industries and a huge chunk of this is down to the technology. The very nature of the technology of game is a massive hinderance to it’s progression. Games have followed the advances in technology so closely that the two are inherently and irrevocably intertwined. The problem with this is that the Game industry has been struggling to establish itself as more than just a showcase for the current level of technology. It leaves everyone who is involved in the industry on incredibly slippery foundation. The students who want to make game have to learn an incredible quantity of technology which is a massive obstacle between them and what they want to create. It also makes it so that someone who wants to make a game has to be constantly updating and furthering themselves as opposed to refining their art. It is simple with film, the huge technological feats (digital technology) is simply something that allows for greater efficiency and ease of distribution and use. The camera has been her for centuries now and people instinctively know what to do with it, I can’t say the same about kizmet or maya. If a person wanted to they could simply go out and make a movie, what you learn in university is the art of film not how to use a camera. Look at Blair Witch and Y Tu Mama Tambien, these films are incredibly simplistic but no less incredible. So when you say there hasn’t been a Citizen Kane I don’t think there will be for a considerable amount of time as developers are still struggling with story itself. Games don’t have time for story so they simply use what film has already achieved.
Blair Witch and Y Tu Mama Tambien are student projects, have you ever played a student project game? If you have then you know they are pretty awful, take Braid as an example you would think that it was pretty easy to make, contrary to this, it had a 4 year development cycle and cost $200,000. This a monstrous amount of time and money which could never be in the grasp of any student. This is why people don’t take on jobs that involve leadership in the game industry because you are holding a suicide bomb, you have to instead join a massive company doing a job that you hate. You say climb the ladder? It’s a loooong ladder.
Addressing your innovation point, no amount of innovation can surpass money and time barriers. Bear with me hear this is going to be a convoluted point but we have reached the stage where Indie games have the ideas and High-budget games have the graphics. Now don’t get me wrong graphics aren’t everything but games are a medium that relies almost entirely on the visuals. To try use an analogy, picture conceptual art. You are either looking at a pile of shit or some dirty clothes. Conceptual art however is simply art when the aesthetics of art is left behind, it is just the idea. Now for a casual gamer looking at an indie game it would be just the same, it is an idea without the visuals to back it up. A story cannot be told without visuals which I do truly regret. Another example going against your innovation argument is the conflict that is going on between Japanese and American games. Japanese games are those that when presented with a problem innovate. Americans tend to solve the problem through technological advances. Japanese games become stale and irritatingly strange, America’s games are ones that fall victim to all of the problems addressed in my previous technology paragraph.
You say that the casual audience can be good for games? You said that they might go from playing a ‘gate-way drug’ game to playing halo. Halo is NOT good for the gaming’s evolution, Juggernauts such as MW, Halo and WoW are the things that destroy any chance of progression. They are the symbols of all things money and therefore subject to thousands of clones, there will never come a time where something like SotC or Heavy Rain will ever become one of these juggernauts, the thought is inconceivable. What we need is a case of less is more. A devout group of hardcore gamers that actually made a difference to profits this will never come about however with the influx of the casual gamers. Little Big Planet was used as an example. Well, LBP is very fun but ultimately a little insubstantial, it has no story for one and is subject to a case of being incredibly well done but it stops at fun and never transcends into the realm of art.
I do still love games however and will play them till I die. Games like Bioshock cleverly manipulates the game medium itself, have you noticed ‘would you kindly’ does instinctively make the interactor do exactly what the voice coming from the screen says? It questions the role of the player in the story. Heavy Rain is another example of the manipulation of story with the involvement of the player, how far would you go for love? I actually did come out of that game seriously considering the question. But games are going in the wrong direction and no single person, or any group of people will stop the one way train to apocalypse where we can set new foundations and start again. Sorry for being melodramatic :D games and movies FTW!
