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Videogames Doomed for a 'Comics-like Ghetto'?
At the Newsweek blog LevelUp, journalist N'Gai Croal wrote this week about the sometimes-precarious position of videogames in popular culture. The frustrations of legislators, lawyers, and 'pro-family' groups aside, the popularity and record sales of the gaming industry would seem to indicate rising stock for gaming as an art form in the US. And yet, there are some folks who see gaming as just another fad, which in some time will be equal in popularity to comic books or tabletop roleplaying. N'Gai starts to form his response by noting that learning to play videogames is considerably easier than developing an appreciation for literature of any kind. He then goes on to note that the (oft-cited) lack of weighty subjects in gaming is more due to the 'pop culture' nature of the hobby than the medium itself. "Popular fiction generally outsells literary fiction. Summer blockbusters generally out-gross arthouse films. Is this any different from, say, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat out-NPD-ing BioShock last year, or Madden doing the same to Shadow of the Colossus in 2005?" He discusses some ways to address that, but do you have any solutions? Or are games doomed to be the playthings of adolescent boys for the rest of the century? (And yeah, I resent the 'comics ghetto' label too.)
No, only games that are perceived to make large amounts of money are made. Better yet, the treadmill games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and like games with X$/month are made preferential over others.
And also console games are made. What a waste if you cant upgrade them and make content for them (and no, DRM does not count, ask those xboxers).
Ill look at your games if the following occurs..
Cheap - 30$ or so, you compete with movies and music... both of which can be easily gotten for free
Extensible - Do I expect you all to create new content for free? Nope. But I want to. And I want my friends able to do so.
Console Server - Most do, games like Dawn of War dont, and they suck. We went away from them cause of that.
No cd checks - Hmm... If I pay, im treated like a criminal. If I dl from Piratebay, its cracked. If you treat me like a criminal, ill be damned sure to act like one.
Easy multiplayer Spawn - Just like TA, 1 minute install to get user up and running. No BS. Just play.
Creators Have private server for paying customers - Just like Q3A, private lan can play with no serials. Wanna play on OUR servers? Then pay for it, downloader.
And after all this time, UT and TA get the most play time wise. That's why.
If you don't have the coordination to play games, you aren't the target audience. Go play a boardgame.
Do you also complain that baseball takes too much skill to hit the ball, and until they make the ball bigger and go slower, it'll remain a niche sport?
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
You're wrong and you're a grotesquely ugly freak.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.