Drawn To Jaffe · @davidscottjaffe
13th Jun 2013 from TwitLonger
Regarding this from @jimsterling whom I admire and like very, very much:
'It's not our fault games have gotten so expensive, and I resent the implication that it is. The fact this industry seems utterly fucking incapable of taking some damn responsibility for itself continues to disgust me, and I refuse to shoulder the blame for companies that cannot demonstrate one iota of self-reflection. '
It may not be gamers faults but a fuck ton of game journalists sure are complicit.
They are part of the problem.
Why is Nintendo (who I love) being called out for trotting out the same old same old this year but Ubisoft (who I also love)'s game THE DIVISION is being lauded and showered with GAME OF THE SHOW awards? THE DIVISION looks so stunning it looks like LIFE COME TO LIFE but mechanically it has shown- at least based on what they revealed to the public- to be a wonderfully executed yet standard online shooter. So it's got lots of other folks playing at the same time...Planetside 2 says hi (along with a lot of other MMO shooters). And I bet if folks took the time to dig into the meat of games like MARIO KART 8 or THE WONDERFUL 101 and PIKMIN 3 they would find a great deal of unique, nuanced, and fresh PURE PLAY ideas.
I'm not saying gamers only want photo real and super expensive looking games. They don't (and thank God, as we're betting the farm on a non realistic art style for our next game) but it's disingenuous for Jim to act as if the publishers are the only ones pushing visuals over gameplay/interactivity. The press eats that shit up with a spoon and then asks for more, each and every time. And at the SAME time so many of the gaming press seems unable to write about and talk about interactivity in any way more sophisticated than simply listing out feature lists on the back of the box.* So you have to forgive us game makers- who read the game press and comment boards religiously- if we are conditioned to feel that graphics are the most important thing to y'all when an amazing looking game (that no one even knows how it plays) can generate awards and pages upon pages of comments while a unique, mechanic/interactive heavy game results in mostly crickets.
*Do some journalists write about/podcast about game play and interactivity first and foremost? Yep- they do. Including Jim in many cases. So some do. But not all. Not most.