A rant on the gaming industry.

[Slidell]

Look at some of the most successful, and critically acclaimed games out there, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect. What do they all have in common?

 

Big Publisher.

Yearly releases/bi yearly releases

Rushed dev times.

Zero Innovation. (AC is a bit of an exception)

 

But year, after year, they're rated 10/10 by every reviewer out there, why? Because gaming journalism is corrupt, not corrupt directly, it's not like EA actually goes to IGN with a burlap sack with a big dollar sign on it and says "Give Mass Effect 3 a 10/10." they're corrupt in a more discreet way. All of these sites survive on ad revenue, ads for games, there in lines the problem. By definition, that's a conflict of interest. They get money from a big publisher/dev for months advertising a game, they give it a bad review, the game company is less inclined to put ads up on their site in the future, they're less inclined to give them a game early, the site gets less hits, the site gets less ad revenue.

 

The ME3 ending debacle showed just how corrupt gaming journalism is more than anything I can think of (except for that guy getting fired from gamespot). In no other medium are fans that are disappoint by a product demonized, almost universally by every site there is. All of the big sites, either didn't cover the story, gave it a passing mention, or attacked the fans. Across the board, and the only sites that were on the side of the fans were the smaller ones (Gamesradar) and sites not associated with gaming (Forbes).

 

In no other medium is mediocrity rewarded like it is in the gaming industry. Transformers made a lot of money, lot's of people bought the dvds, went to see it in the theaters, whatever. But no critic gave it a great review, it didn't win any oscars, and no critic is attacking anyone who didn't like it and calling them entitled, or saying they're hurting Michael Bays artistic integrity by saying it's shit. That only happens with games, it's ******* embarrassing, and it's hurting the industry, because people don't want to investigate for themselves, they just want to be told how to feel. Whether it be videogames, politics, or religion.

 

tldr; The gaming industry has been inadvertently set up to encourage mediocrity.

 

That's me off my soapbox.

[iBotPeaches]

Just tweeted this bitch. Its all true and it never really clicked in my brain until you said it.

[blacklabelfosho]

gaming industry fell when wii sold so well.