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The Box of Empty Promises
Grimwell.com has a feature up discussing the content selling that publishers like Sony Online and Microsoft have been announcing of late. Xbox Live micro-sales and the purchasing of in-game items in Everquest II may have an adverse affect on the playing field for the average gamer. From the article: "Games are becoming too much about money. Thats a real no brainer statement and I know it. The video gaming industry is where the money is at these days, besting Hollywood and the record industry without even trying. Nor have they really built up a public industry equivalent to the machines that grind out more traditional forms of entertainment. Oh, that's coming, and EA is quickly becoming the MGM of the old film studio system, but the public recognition of the machine that drives the gaming industry is nothing when compared to film, television, and radio."
What happened to those games that you were supposed to be able to download straight to the Xbox?
I recall reading the same 'all about money' thing regarding the collectable card games of the last decade or so - MTG. Still, I've yet to see anything that can change the balance in the 'twitch' games that dominate Xbox Live. Perhaps this would occur in the sports games, though, where you can buy a better player to sub in. Still, I think most tournaments and most players would stick to straight vanilla games.
What did you expect to happen??
-Around 18 minutes out of every hour of radio is spent on commercials
-The average hourlong TV show only truly breaks 40 minutes of content (I know, I TiVo through the commercials) -Movies innundate you with ads slideshowing prior to the ads for future movies. Those ads now lead you into movies with an incredible amount of product placement ads. -Video games give advertisers a unique opportunity to let people actually buy the product when the advertisement is fresh in their minds. It is the logical conclusion to the cycle, and it is only going to get worse.
http://www.tomandemily.com
This article is less informative and insightful than the comments on slashdot regarding the announcements of pay for play content.
-Reid
The trade of virtual items has gone on and will continue to go on whether authorized by the game companies or not.
It should be _better_ for the game when companies like Sony actually begin selling in-game items, money, and bonuses.
On games where players themselves are the providers of goods for sale, there is a huge business in "farming" items and coin for resale. So not only do you have players with real money able to buy things (rather than earn them), but you also have the contention for resources due to all the farmers.
If game company provides the virtual goods, that essentially undercuts any player-farmed trade. That is definitely an improvement.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
We've had this discussion before. Video games are now something everyone enjoys. And just like movies and music there is a divide between blockbuster crap that makes a shitton of money and real quality stuff that is only for the people who care.
Art house movie theatres, local garage bands, independently published books. That is where the quality is. And now that all the vast consumer sheep buy video games the real money is in selling crap games like this to them. The hardcore gamers who actually give two shits will be playing the independent games and the rare gems like katamari.
This is the kind of market for entertainment that our economic system fosters. Capitalism and IP law encourage the most profitable art, not the highest quality art. Get over it or do something about it.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
the original implosion of the videogame industry. The stars are all aligned for a second coming. Counter to what everyone keeps claiming about how it is going to grow and grow, and EA shall rule with small incremental updates to the same titles year after year... this is exactly what caused the bubble to burst last time. Flooded market, too many consoles, crap to good game ratio too high, and greedy companies looking to cash in on the boom... check, check, check, and check.
With all of the losses in hardware and set to grow higher with the next round, no real innovation in the next gen except for possibly the Revolution (ooh, online pay gaming and wireless controller standard!), and this notion that the same tired videogames will continue to sell after GTA 9, NFL 2k28, and the rest of the current market, I don't think so!
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Arcade games with a buy-in continue started this a long time ago. Then again, the real kudos went to those who did best on a single quarter. Usually the game will reset your score or make you ineligible for the high score leaderboard. With a little care, the games purchased content could be for "fun only" and not for "tournament legal."
Also, the free "promo only" items we get for pre-purchasing games are often great to start with, but won't last after a couple levels. So it's not the concept of micropurchase that's the problem, it's how you use it.
Worse comes to worse, we'll always have games like Deanimator from people who aren't only about money... so chill.
[o]_O
If the industry is bigger than Hollywood, where are all the limos, drugs, and groupies? Where's the money at?
Good link at http://grumpygamer.com/5378171
Quote: "The 2004 domestic Video and Computer Game Industry is estimated to be around $10B. This is a slightly misleading figure because it includes the sales of the console machines, in addition to the sales of the software, but we'll go with it.
The domestic US box office is estimated to be around $9B for 2004, and this is where the myth starts to take life. The problem is the movie industry is a lot bigger then just the U.S. box office. DVD sales and rentals for 2003 topped $16B. VHS sales and rentals for 2003 was $6.4B. VHS sales are declining fast, but most of that will just shift over to DVDs, which brings the grand total for non-box office movie sales to over $20B, twice the figure for the entire game industry."
-- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
Since when were any Xbox Live transactions "micro" sized? All I've seen are PGR track packs for £4 or so and obscure Japanese dance tracks by unknown Japanese dance artists for DDR at £4.99 a pop. That's the price of a PC game on the "Sold Out" range. Hardly "micro".
My Mind Is Rewired. Is Yours?
Empty promises? Game companies acting like rampaging lucre-beasts? Selling access to fairly gimmicky and short-lived bit-content, like "tricked out vehicles" to make friends drool while they watch you play some racing game? (That's paraphrasing, fairly maliciously, a quote from some X-Box exec I read, excited about his new, precious revenue source.)
I don't think it'll last, and I'd accelerate the process if I could. If I had the money, I'd love to produce this commercial and see if I could get it inserted into network news broadcasts. I kind of doubt I could, for the same reason Adbusters has problems getting their own spots aired.
Gen Y Slacker Type #1: "Dude! Take a look at this new game! If I press this button, the guy does a backflip and slices through that monster like a buzzsaw!"
Gen Y Slacker Type #2: "That's nice, but-"
#1: "Oh, and when I win the game, it opens up an entirely new character who can play the game in, uh, a slightly different way!"
#2: "Interesting, except-"
#1: "Oh, and look at that other character, check out the polygons on her, huh? On that... fake girl, heh heh... heh..."
#2: "But why not-"
#1: "And I've collected everything I can collect, and I've found the secret double-plus-good ending, and I've max'd out everyone's stats, and I can play as the bad guy, and everything's unlocked... and I've... but... uh."
#2: "And you're now feeling kind of empty from the whole experience, right?"
#1: "Hm, now that you mention it, yeah."
#2: "Yeah. Here, take a look at this pamphlet. It should help to put the situation into better perspective."
(Hands over a pamphlet entitled: "Why You're Feeling Empty: A short essay on the meaninglessness of arbitrary accomplishment.")
- LATER -
#1: "Wow, that handout you gave me was right on the money! I've thrown away my game systems and got started doing something useful!"
#2: "Just like I did a month ago. What are you doing?"
#1: "Writing Sonic the Hedgehog super hot triple-X hentai fanfiction!"
#2: "Just like I started doing a month ago. Hmm...."
This is why I think that the success of video games is short-lived. As companies are producing strings of games that are successively less unique and fun, playing through them feels more and more like work, work with a very insubstantial reward at the end.
Once a majority of players have made that connection, everything falls apart. Again.
("And it's about time," sez Cranky Kong.)
Can we just stop posting Grimwell stuff? This is ridiculous. Put aside for a second his repetition of the fallacy that games have beaten Hollywood-- no, wait, don't put that aside. Credibility lost instantly.
Oh, no. Games are too much about money. Well, here's the crazy thing: if people stop thinking games are fun, they'll stop buying them, and someone will have to make something they think is fun if they want to get any sales. It's almost like this crazy "capitalism" thing has something going for it.
Is a great game. The GBA version is one of a fairly small number of games I thought was good enough to buy. If you're saying that pac-man caused the videogame crash it can only be because eighties gamers had no taste.... hmm, considering their hairstyles, maybe that's true...
Games just have to feel less like work than real life does. Not difficult.
Personally, I think that after I shell out $50 for a game, and, in the case EverQuest II, pay $15 a month (I am actually a WoW subscriber), I do not want people to be able to obtain the "uber" new sword without going through all of the work that I did. If they are a casual gamer, fine, but they still should have to go through the same work that I did. I feel cheated in a way when the things I worked very hard for are dynamically generated and sold by a corporation (Sony).
First off, wow that was a badly-written piece. But more importantly, this kind of thinking smacks of the adage: "information wants to be free." Well yeah, for adolescents it wants to be. But adults realize that Metallica deserves to make money for their songwriting. People work incredibly hard to create the products that end up in our marketplace. There is a deep cynicism in most of these contrary beliefs that I find appallingly anti-American. Intellectual property doesn't want to be free; it wants to be respected.
HA!
I wrote a paper similar to this for a class about 3 weeks ago.
Nice to see I'm not the only one out there who picked up on this.
Insert Sig Here
...read the article title and immediately think of the Phantom console?
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This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
games have always been about money.
maybe when you and i were kids, we couldn't see that among the cool new games.
and please don't trivialize buying "virtual" items unless you also do the same for any "virtual" objects aka computer code/games/software/music/video.
if you don't want to participate (welcome to the club) then don't but don't try the bullshit fallacious argument that only stupid people would buy "virtual" items.
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source