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Game Over Author On the Future of Gaming
Gamespot has an interview with Game Over author Chris Morris on the future of the gaming industry. The Game Over column is a regular thoughtful commentary piece on the industry, and is well worth the time to follow. From the article: "The growing trend toward legislation is certainly the biggest issue retailers are facing. Lawmakers want to dictate where games can be placed on shelves and hold retail clerks legally accountable for checking IDs (when, for instance, people who sell movie tickets are not). The legal fees spent fighting these bills are going to be enormous, I suspect. Digital distribution may very well start to have an impact as we move later into the cycle."
I personally think the government should not dictate things like where video games can be sold, or holding stores responsible under LAW for I.D checks in relation to the games being bought.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
These legal concerns are way exaggerated. These are politicians trying to score some easy "family values" points, but little if anything will actually come out of this. In the end, computer games are like cable TV. Sure, bad stuff gets broadcast, but it's so woven into society that nobody will be foolish enough to rub it the wrong way.
I think the bigger challenge to the future of games will be fostering creativity in the face of pressure to make formulaic "hits", rather than a legal crackdown and censorship. The reason I think censorship is not the big worry is that legislated censorship of games opens a door to censorship of movies, tv, and books. Once that door is opened, why stop at games? It wouldn't, and for that reason, despite all of the noise the politicians are making, we aren't likely to see any laws upheld that would censor and regulate games for content. Big media has enough money and clout to make sure that the door to censoring their products is not going to be opened. And there's that little thing called the U.S. Constitution standing in the way too.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Personally, I believe that the gaming industry is setting itself up for another fall as seen before Nintendo arrived on the scene. The next generation consoles are expected to be more expensive than ever with the PS3 expected to debut for $400, which is interesting because it supposedly costs over $500 to manufacture. The Xbox and Revolution will probably be more reasonably priced, but will still come in costing a little more than gaming consoles generally cost in the past. Game prices are also expected to rise from $50 to $60. Granted that games have been priced at $50 for a while now, but inflation has been slowly reering its ugly head. Whether it's fair or not, consumers are not going to like it.
Additionally, small studios seem to be getting gobbled up by larger companies like EA. Game designers are generally being overworked and underpayed. How long before they decide that they've had enough and go on strike or quit in droves? Massive strikes or large upheavals in the industry would lead to even more delays than we're used to seeing currently. With the software sitting on a computer uncomplete and not in a store for people to buy, developement costs would technically go up as the income from sales becomes non-existant. Additionally, it seems that the industry has turned into Hollywood. There are always a few sleeper hits that creep out every now and again, but it seems like the industry has become sequal driven. As the cost of development rises, companies can't afford to take bigger risks. At the same time consumers are getting sick of being fed the same rehashed games over and over again.
Another factor is the industry's obsession with graphics and power. The dick measuring contest the PS3 and Xbox 360 have gotten into is ridiculous. Gameplay is put on the backburner while developers see how many more polygons they can squeeze in or how much more realistically they can get breat jiggles to be. 3D games have looked great and have wonderful worlds to explore, if the camera isn't busted beyond usability and the controls make you feel like your character is drugged. Companies have been mandating HD support in all games when many consumers don't have HD TVs capable of displaying resolutions that high. Additionally, making prettier graphics only increases the development costs. At a certain point they have to realize that the graphics that will only look marginally better aren't worth the extra cost.
The game industry has enough problems internally right now without worrying about what Congress is doing. Given their general track record, the government is the last thing that the game industry has to worry about, at least for the time being. If you're worried about a few nuts whining to their Senator are going to tear the game industry apart, perhaps you should step back and see that the industry is already doing a pretty good job of doing it by themselves.
Somebody Bitchslap Rockstar
Basically, I get the impression that he is irritated not by the content, but by R*'s, "let's incite a moral panic as a publicity stunt" approach to marketing.
It's actually difficult to say how big a moral panic this is, whether it is TV Violence bad (I have to pay for a V-Chip) or Comic Book Bad (unless you were a big fan of Scrooge McDuck, and who isn't really, comics books sucked for years and have never really recovered).
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
...that eventually Video Games will be as difficult to obtain as Pornography.
The key I think is to make enough noise framing the question the right way, so that our labels supercede theirs. Rebrand it from a Family Values (tm) debate to a Personal Rights (tm) debate
You can't do that when talk of "rights" translates as "I want to beat the living shit out of a prostitute!" in a home video game. The crude, button-mashing, sexual action in Hot Coffee isn't adult or mature in any ordinary meaning of the word, but rather, adolescent and a tad perverse.