We Must Recognize Video Games Place In Society And History

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This article is definitely good reading. Make sure you forward it to all your non-gaming friends and family. ;)

The UK’s video games industry body Tiga has called for the products to be treated like other creative industries such as television or film, rather than mere “software”. There is a good argument for this. Games have been part of human civilisation for thousands of years.
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So does this mean we can stop having DRM that bricks a game so it can never be played again once a company shuts off the servers?
 
tetris42 said:
So does this mean we can stop having DRM that bricks a game so it can never be played again once a company shuts off the servers?
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They should have to release an unlock patch whenever they stop supporting a game/software or close shop (funds set aside for when this happens).
 
I thought the book "All your base are belong to us" did a pretty good job of that with biographical essays stretching from the guy that invented the technology that later became Pong up through the Bioshock and GTA folks. I haven't finished all the essays yet but they are well done so far ... I really liked the one on the Williams (King's Quest) and Bioshock ... it also highlights something that is missing from many of the developers today (passion for the art and technology of gaming)
 
kbrickley said:
it also highlights something that is missing from many of the developers today (passion for the art and technology of gaming)
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$$$. Gaming is a huge industry these days. You see less gamers in there making and selling games that they enjoy and instead you get employees making games that sell well.
 
Ur_Mom said:
$$$. Gaming is a huge industry these days. You see less gamers in there making and selling games that they enjoy and instead you get employees making games that sell well.
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Actually with the indie scene bigger than it's ever been, you kind of see tons of both nowadays. AAA companies get out a dozen or two games a year with big media coverage, and indie games swallow up everything else.
 
Ur_Mom said:
$$$. Gaming is a huge industry these days. You see less gamers in there making and selling games that they enjoy and instead you get employees making games that sell well.
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Bioshock was one of the last AAA titles that was about the art (although the later incarnations fell into the money trap) ... the essay was interesting since it talked about their unique trailer and how everyone was very skeptical about the trailer but it did so extraordinarily well during testing that it persuaded the "suits" to go with it ... the Williams article definitely touched on the all about the money aspects of gaming that forced two of the elder statespeople of gaming out of the industry completely ... it is a bit sad that although a good game can make lots of money, a mediocre and derivative game can make just as much (or more) with a lot less effort
 
kbrickley said:
Bioshock was one of the last AAA titles that was about the art (although the later incarnations fell into the money trap) ... the essay was interesting since it talked about their unique trailer and how everyone was very skeptical about the trailer but it did so extraordinarily well during testing that it persuaded the "suits" to go with it ... the Williams article definitely touched on the all about the money aspects of gaming that forced two of the elder statespeople of gaming out of the industry completely ... it is a bit sad that although a good game can make lots of money, a mediocre and derivative game can make just as much (or more) with a lot less effort
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What are you talking about? Bioshock was essentially a dumbed-down repackaging of System Shock 2 in a different setting aimed at a more lowest-common-denominator audience. I would go on and argue that it was weaker than SS2 in every single way except graphics. In SS2 everything felt cohesive and had explanations for it. In Bioshock, half the content felt like it was thrown in for no reason other than SS2 had it and felt out of place.

As for the trailer, people were skeptical about that? It had fighting with an armored hulk in a diving suit, steampunk hacking, melee combat, gun combat, elemental magic manipulation, and an underwater city. People were concerned about THAT as a commercial product?

Maybe there's an exception I'm not forgetting, but I want to say AAA games have NEVER been "about the art." In art you're not worrying about alienating people and want to send a deep message. In AAA games you want to play things as safe as possible, wow as many people as possible, and try not to alienate anyone in your targeted demographic to recoup the producers; investments.
 
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