Over the last week I have defined each genre of the gaming world, I have investigated why certain aspects affect our game play styles, our methods and ways of deciding on purchases and the past and future of the industry. I have discussed sex, sexual content and nudity, I have also discussed violence, violent content, and graphic images in our favourite titles. I would say ultimately I have probably discussed and addressed most issues as I have progressed. Thinking this I have had to work hard to think of many subjects to touch upon. I have looked at dying breeds, games of the past and future and each individual genre and have argued the case for each. This post will tap into the minds of the consumer and game designers and major companies that bring us interactive entertainment.
So what exactly is it that we want as the customer? The reason why I ask is because gaming, fifteen years ago games were simply not held in the same regard as they are today. There weren’t any television adverts, hundreds of game play and game review channels on YouTube and there certainly were no magazines revolving around at the time. At some point in history somebody, somewhere at a games developer, decided that content, graphics, game play, story and cutting edge features were the only way to get consumers to become what we are today, geeks, nerds, fan boys, and so on.
The world could no longer ignore video games when developers starting adding Hollywood class scripts into their projects. We couldn’t ignore anymore when they gave us the opportunity to grow virtual characters and guide them on their adventures. We couldn’t ignore gaming when it started dominating the internet and over taking the adult content or dodgy spam and chat rooms that we were once bombarded with. Gaming began seeping its way into men’s magazines, they were advertised on various websites, and eventually made their way onto televisions.
When the Playstation 2 and the Xbox were released many years ago, a cold war begun. A war that could rival America and Russia’s forty or fifty years at each other’s throats. Negativity naturally gets our attention and so this may have helped promote each consoles sales targets. Most of my friends are either for Microsoft or Sony pro; unlike them I’m not biased and have both. The consoles began striking deals with games developers in an attempt to gain “exclusive content” which proved successful.
The gaming industry gained more popularity when they started making films from games, although this would prove to be rather unpopular in the long run, as most feature length movies manufactured from video games were often more CGI and big budget rather than quality acting and story lines. Some examples of this are Resident Evil, Doom, Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Mortal Kombat. In time this process would reverse, and films and television programs would be made into games. Such examples are Power Rangers, Chronicles of Riddick, Star Trek, Aliens, Predator, Lord of the Rings, and Pokémon.
Our consoles, our games, our interactive gaming services, our profiles, our trophies and Microsoft points, our achievements, our kill streaks, Our decisions. Exactly my point, “our”, this is our generation, we the fans have shaped and changed simple games like Pacman into 3D, HD, Blu-Ray formatted, fully structured and beautifully designed environments where anything is possible and the limit is only restricted by your imagination.