I have been for all of my life a Nintendo fan. My fondest memories are of those sitting on sun-warmed carpetted floors, exploring the world of Zebes and Hyrule, and smashing evil mushrooms and turtles in the Mushroom Kingdom. My friendships were based on the love of games, and I was very much impacted by gaming growing up. By consequence, I have an overactive imagination and am highly self-reliant. Many gamers grew up as I did, though with or without the varying levels of social retardation that a lot of gamers suffer from, myself included. Unlike a lot of the people that grew up as I did, I still am quite interested in videogames, and have made several attempts at getting into the industry. The fate of such attempts will be mentioned later, but one thing at a time.
I participated in the vehement fandom wars between Sony and Nintendo fans in times past, but I adamently stuck with Nintendo through the troubles of the N64. I steadfastedly refused to play the PlayStation, despite its swelling popularity and library. I stuck with those principles until the GameCube came out. I was promised gaming experiences like no other, just as with the Nintendo 64. I bought into it, and stuck with Nintendo through the first year. Astoundingly, though, the GameCube had even less interesting games for it in its first year than the Nintendo 64. Companies have learned their lesson, and have left Nintendo to their self-imposed tight-knit esoterical society of development. "Quality over quantity" is the familiar mantra coming from Nintendo, and until now I quite believed it. In lieu of the game shortage, besides a few notable exceptions, I broke my cardinal rule and delved into the PSX's aftermarket. Though I bought a lot of games, I only really got in to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a game I deem among the mighty with Super Metroid. I had at that time still stuck with Nintendo, and made my way into GameBoy Advance development with hopes of putting my overactive imagination and game ideas to use.
My team, despite insurmountable difficulties, made some good progress. We worked on a game for a small while, ditched that, and went with a game that would potentially sell very well. But I was becoming more and more familiar with the industry, and my hopes of getting into it declined daily. I hope to describe to you how self-absorbed and, in my view, incompetent the leaders of the video game market are.
First off, you may wonder why I tried making a game rather than joining an established company. I have indeed pursued that option, but it is a dead end. The video game industry, as it is now, operates in a closed system. A certain amount of game designers exist. They do not quit or retire often, and the numbers of the game designers do not increase. Older game designers are still working in there, designing games as they always have. Though some companies are trying to increase the number of designers, most of the fledgling designers are directly under the thumb of older designers. Things are, therefore, done with strict accordance to tradition, and in my opinion this is severely impacting creativity. I'll come back to that point later, but you probably have better chances of winning the lottery than of becoming a game designer. "Okay, I'll just get in to a development company and work my way up to the top," you may say. And in theory, that is a good idea, and has often been a standard method of progressing in the world. The game industry does not work that way, though. When you are hired for a position, you will probably be stuck with that position for as long as you remain with the company. You may progress, but it will not be fast. You may think that's acceptable, but you must realize that you can't even get into companies in the first place! Take a look at all of the major development company web pages for their available jobs. You will see "Two year's experience in a development company" or "One or more published games you've worked on," or something similar. These requirements exist for just about every meaningful position, and seem to be designed so that nobody new can get in to the industry. To get in, you must first be dulled and jaded by passing through the typical corporate heirarchical gauntlet by starting at a level like "Janitor." I am aware that this is a common practice in modern corporate progression, but modern corporate progression is rooted in the concept of making money, and not making good games.
Look at the history of videogaming, and look at the much-touted "fathers" of videogaming. They created wonderfully original and imaginative games. You must also note that these people were not passed through the rigors or the corporate gauntlet. Shigeru Miyamoto? He worked as a cabinet painter for a few years before being put to work to replace "Radarscope." Because of the structure of the industry, those people are still making games, and they are not being motivated by new blood. Games are not becoming more original since the video game industry has become an institution, and untainted developers are not getting into designer positions. It is a big problem, and only people reguarded as "crackpots" have noticed it. Namely, Hiroshi Yamauchi before he retired as president of Nintendo. If others have noticed it, they are entirely unwilling to change it.
The result of these troubles is an unoriginal video game industry filled with ports, sports games, licensed games, and very little else. Companies that rely on their old and established designers are suffering the most, namely Nintendo. Their great sellers are restricted to games based on tried and true series, such as Zelda and Metroid. This terrible stagnation seeps into every facet of the industry, and the overall result is a decrease in original games. Even the games made by the "great" old designers are becoming less and less original, and probably even less fun depending on who you talk to.
As a consequence, I cannot name myself a Nintendo fan any longer. I still prefer Nintendo by far, but I see them making infuriating mistakes, and snubbing new talent. They have the notion that they can still lord about as if it were the NES days. This is a fairly popular misconception among Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, as can be seen in their licensing terms. Their licensing terms prevent small talented groups from making games, or getting into the industry by strictly controlling development tools, information, and assets required to make good games. While it is understood why these companies protect assets, they are severely undermining their future by refusing to create new programs or methods by which talented people can get in to the industry to make new and original games. Hiroshi Yamauchi understood this, but his feeble attempts at fixing it won't help. What's worse is that the measures to prevent people from getting into the industry are completely unreasonable. More games mean more competition and more product being sold, which would mean a larger game market that appealed to more people. For reasons beyond me, though, they prefer to stick with an antiquated system that doesn't work anymore. Game development is becoming more and more expensive, and yields are lowering. Great games can certainly be developed for far less than what is spent now, but the question is if companies are brave enough to shake off their deep-rooted practices.
I personally believe that some of my game designs could create very good games. I sound very conceited, I admit, but it is hard not to sometimes. I have a lot of experience in game programming, game structure, story development, and many other fields. The experience I have is something today's classic designers do not have, but I will probably never be able to develop console games. I cannot get into a game company, I cannot start my own game company or sell a game developed at home, and I will never be in the position to design and develop great games. Are my game ideas very great? I certainly think so, but nobody will ever be able to find out for themselves. I am not the only person in this position, mind you, and the present state of the video game industry should offend video gamers everywhere. Through what I personally see as mismanagement, the video game industry is preventing new and wonderful games from being created. They are stifling the potential of the industry, and preventing it from becoming something more than it is now.
I am not an expert. I do not know everything, and I never will. What I have just said is from my personal experience, and may be filled with shortsighted statements. I would not advise taking offense at anything I said, as it is probably opinionated upon my part. However, do look at the situation in the industry. If I am wrong, or misguided, try to explain the dismal situation the industry is in. If my opinion is flawed or misguided, I suggest you try to figure out how someone who really wanted to get into the industry could be lead so astray. This is just my personal opinion from my experience, and nothing more.
-Elf
P.S. I wrote this on a whim, and it is undoubtedly fraught with spelling and grammar errors, and may be incomplete in its entirety. Please excuse any errors you come across. I would also like this to be put up on the main site, if thought necessary.
Topic: An Essay on the State of the Video Game Industry (Read 2535 times)
