Video Games…We Have Sinned

Sigh Video games,
“stop playing that son why don’t you go outside what is a SNES anyway?”
“omfg Zangiefs throws are so lame”
“shit is that the time I got college I should stop playing counter strike”
“oh dude is that the time I said I would see her soon I should stop playing GTA”
“is it time for work already?! I really should leave the orange box alone”

There progress is charitable, most of us remember where we were when those iconic titles came out. No matter how old or young we are, or what games they were. Where not here to debate that right now, but you remember it right? You remember begging your mum or dad to get you this one game, because its like the “best game evorz!” Or even trading them in only to get like £5 for a game that cost £40 last week,
(yes I’m British, no I don’t know the queen and crumpets are actually pretty nice. translation £1=$1.65)

Yes we loved and respected our games. We dropped the dollar happily to experience them, and they could never do wrong in our eyes. They’ve  always been there for us. Except something evil was brewing, games were growing making more and more money. They have been forecast to make double the amount of music’s revenue by 2011 at $12.47 billion in the US and $48.880,000,000 globally. That is a lot of money, and wherever there’s lots of money, there’s a lot of people that want to capitalize on it. We’ve already seen the signs, Wii fit, those awful adverts for Nintendo with grandma and grandpa playing the DS. We have accepted It. It’s just a sign of the times there’s a game for everyone be it casual to hardcore, FPS, RPG, MMORPG, puzzle, action, adventure… well you get the idea. It hasn’t got in our way so we accepted it. The truth is  we are just blinded to it and we need to smell the hot cup of Joe and wake up, and I’ll tell you one big problem that we face right now… for free… that’s right no charge, you can thank me later.

Ready? “Dumming down”. That’s right, you might not have thought it was that big of a deal, or you may have noticed some small little details. Let me tell you now it’s a problem because its going to get worse and worse. Games as a whole have gotten easier with such features as “aim assist”. I really get angry with features like that, “hello would you like help shooting the big bad guys?” ummmm no? I paid for a game to play not sit back and have someone do the work. Personally I think it all started with the auto save, or save any time you want feature that a lot of games seem to have adopted. Sure it was a godsend because we just don’t have the time to play a whole run-through, like the old days. But a lot of games don’t really have massive levels to start with. And the learning curve can sometimes be non existent due to developers not wanting to have a game with a “learning curve”, because it may be “too hard” and they wont meet forecast targets.

Now gather around children, because this is all ok. That’s right, just add this simple formula Game+hype+sequel+ numerous special editions = Title of the year! And slap a 2,3,4 at the end of the title, give it a special edition and we won’t give a shit. We’ll be talking about it for ages, getting all excited. And this is where those big bucks are made and if you’re one of those people that is stupid enough to buy a special edition of a game that costs more than double the price of the normal game, or just a fanboy of the series you’re adding to the problem. So please just tell someone you have a problem and ask them to tie you to the nearest retro console so you can understand… YOU DON’T NEED A METAL PRESENTATION BOX “shudder” OR  ART BOOK!!! OR A DVD OF THE GAME! Who has brought a special edition with a dvd and watched it? I want you to comment on this right now because; even if you did, I bet it was shit and a waste of time.

Look I’ll level with you, I have fallen prey to the trap I really have. It’s tempting, they market it so well you think you’ll need a gold life-size chainsaw gun. But truth is, its badly made, looks awful and women won’t respect you. Nevertheless I have made a choice; I will buy the game and the game alone and judge the game. Because that’s what it’s all about. Not “Legendary Hardened Elite Gangster double gold Black and velvet trimmed special edition with free wizard robe and pimp cane”.

Because its all horribly made cheap stuff from China, added to help shift the game and make even more money. I think £40.00 is more than enough for a game, and even retailers take the piss and try and sell us them for £44.99 for the first 2 weeks of release because they know we can’t wait for it. But if we all take a stand and stop buying these pointless add-ons to games, and just the games. The developers and industry might take notice, and devote more time to developing a game and quality testing it. Because they know the game has nothing to sell itself on, no hype, no special editions, no branded merchandise. I hope you might see a point in this rant, and if you don’t I’m going to eat dominoes in the bath and cry because there is no hope for us all when modern warfare 3 comes out with 12 special edition variants.

Now pass the nes controller I’m going to play Castlevania.

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