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before you come and attack me, please do both of us a favor and read the thing ok?
First for your enjoyment while reading:
+ Show Spoiler +
Wake up, and stop dozing.
I have been wanting to write this for some time now. I have been trying to hold off on posting some thing of this nature until the entire- SC2 sucks!!! Beta fails, Blizzard is so bad- typhoon blows over. What I am going to be talking about should not be revolutionary, however to many I fear that it might be.
Preface: This is a small essay about the reality of games. Not only in Korea, but in the EU, US, China, and other parts of the gaming world as well. What I don't understand is why everyone is getting worked up over nothing- and why so many people are not facing the reality of what the game industry has become. Nothing in this essay should be revolutionary. Instead I hope to clearly state and define the current reality of gaming, and pro gaming in particular. Why has gaming died?
$Money$
Money Runs the world, and people are driven by it. Don't ever try and shield yourselves. Everything a game company does is always for money, period.
All the interviews, all of the beta testing, the alpha testing, and even 'show games' are all there to help make money. Play testing is a great way for companies to have people come and give them free consultation on a game. Whats more is- if respected players (pros come to mind) test the game out, they can give feed back. And from a competitive point of view- that feedback is exactly what game companies want to here. Now remember this- Competition and its role inside of a game. You will need it later. If money is the end game, and making a gross profit has always been the goal-why would any game company worth their salt, make a game that does not sell?
Staying power- that is how long does one play a game? For some games, a hard core following can play the game for decades. However is that really where the profit lies? The simple answer is no. making flash in the pan games are far more profitable. Look at the modern warfare series, halo, WOW and all its expansions ext ext, Super Smash Brothers Brawl... What do all of these games have in common? One thing- they are really easy to pick up. Whats more is- they are easy to master, and most games have a learning curve that allows players to feel 'good' with little to know practice needed.
So why do people want to play games like this? Why can HALO 3 players play a game that is vastly inferior to its predecessors? Because people like to play games that make them feel good. Most of the gaming population is growing younger and younger each year. Do these kids really want to play a game where they have to lose again and again to get better? NO! The majority of gamers want to pick up a game and start winning. They want to start having fun and feeling good about themselves. For a long time, games were hard- they were challenging, and they required practice. But now something has happened- people have realized that there is money to be made here. And with the prospect of money, people are jumping on it.
How can we create a game that is popular to the masses?
How can we create a game that gets people to play again and again?
How can we create a game that will have sequels? People that buy the first will be the second, third, fourth...
The 'gamer' population
Now lets take a look at you. If your older, you were the nerd, the geek, a true gamer. You played games when there were not popular, and there was no such thing as huge 'gaming corporations' a la Blizzard. You played games before some of the current gaming population was alive. You are the purist core of gaming, you understand that a good game is a complex and challenging one. Remember games like duck hunt? Or Asteroids? How about Donkey Kong? Or space invaders? Ya- they were hard. They required practice, and every time with out fail- you will die, again and again. Yet you enjoyed it.
Nowadays- the 'gamer' is something that every high school student is. Every home has a game console- and you would be hard pressed to not find a high school student that has not played MW2 or Halo. Gaming has now become something cool. Something that everyone can do. No longer is playing games is obscure, or something that only geeks do. So what happened? How have games changed?Whats even better is the younger. Yes I am talking to you middle school kids. Why do they play games? Its not going to be for the competition...
Lets take a look at our all time favorite- SCBW. Back when it was released, it was wildly popular. However- look around today. While people know about SCBW- who actually still plays? Even better- who plays competitively? The answer all of you should give- is few. Look at the huge market shares that games like Halo, Modern Warfare, or WOW share. Just look and wonder for a second at the size of that player base. Just think of the money... Imagine what the first few video game creators would say if they would have know that games would grow to this amount. Now one could ask- what does SCBW and the other listed games have in common? Nothing. So what happened? People stopped looking at gaming for competition, instead it has become entertainment.
'Competition in Games'
Game companies need to make a game that is fun to play, not hard to play. They need to make a game that is easy for players to pick up and they need gamers to feel good about themselves. So how does one do that? In short its making a game eaiser to play, and making sure there is a skill ceiling that is very attainable. Think of Super Smash Brothers Brawl compared to Super Smash Brothers Melee. Think of HALO compared to HALO3. Think of SCBW to SC2. Think of the Modern Warfare Series... WOW ext... all of these games have something in common- and that is a false sense of competition. As the new generation of games debut- they slowly and slowly lower the skill ceiling. Yet even when the skill ceiling is lowered, competitive gaming circuits still pick up games that are vastly inferior to others.
Why?
Because a game that is played by all will generate more money, regardless of the skill ceiling. Game companies are taking the theory that much further. Not only can you make a game that requires little skill- but you can make even more money holding competitions for the game. Just because a game has a high skill ceiling- does not mean that it is competitive. You just need the games to be popular, and the game companies know it. Entertainment sells more than gaming / competition.
Death Of Competitive
Games
I wanted to scream and yell at all of the game testers of this recent SC2 craze. Did you not all realize that they have not taken a single shred of your advice? Don't you all see that all of the hard work you put into 'imbalance' topics, or 'this seems weak' is ignored? Don't you understand that blizz and other game companies only want your opinion- so THEY KNOW HOW NOT TO MAKE THIS GAME! They never wanted a competitive game, they always wanted a popular game... ENTERTAINMENT Your constant nit picking and eager help, clearly showed blizz and other game companies how exactly not to make a game.
Competition in games is all but dead- because competition is not profitable, and it never will be. Hard core game players are always going to be a fringe market. Every single 'competitive' game was never created form the ground up to be 'competitive' . It was created for entertainment. The community of a game can help a game become truly competitive, and that is the only way. Until a game company wants to really make a competitive game, not a game for entertainment... then we can all rejoice again.
I feel that I am may be disillusioned saying all of this- but the gaming industry of what I grew up with, was not an entertainment industry- it was games. And games are meant to be competitive. However now with the advent of big bucks- the game industry has turned into a Hollywood whore, and is nothing more than cheap entrainment.
My Final Thoughts
So I guess that's it... The game industry is no more. Video games are a thing of the past, and now have been replaced with video entertainment. Entertainment is clearly more profitable than making games. But it's such a shame to see it happening so quickly. It seems that everyone is jumping on this band wagon. Shiny new graphics, cool new APM technology, and of course twitter and facebook apps making my 'entrainment' experience so much more enjoyable. I guess it was bound to happen, that something that was once under ground, and at least slightly off the beaten path has been dragged out in the open.
No one put up a fight- and the games industry has certainly not gone kicking and screaming... there was money to be made, and hungry entertainment seekers to feed. Most people in the SC2 forum are exactly what I am talking about. You are the new breed of gamer, the entertainment seeker. You don't play games because of the skill or complexity involved- but instead you play to enjoy yourselves. Gone are the days when playing games was challenging, and you did so in the dimly lit glow of your basement, or in a room filled with competitive driven people.
The new entertainment industry is filled with false competition, and everyone from middle schoolers, to high schoolers all thinking they are the shit. Gone are the days of SSBM, HALO, SCBW, CS and all of the other wonderful games that made gaming fun. Now games are not games, they are entertainment- a joke- a shadow of their former selves. I am just sad to see it go so soon, because I had hoped that there would be many more years of great gaming to be had in my life. However now it just seems to be 'entertainment.'
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You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive.
edit: Like you said, it's the players who make the game competitive. It's not how the game is designed, so don't worry about it. The SC community is the most competitive gaming community in existence, if anyone can make SC2 succeed, it's us.
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I just disagree. sorry but i really dont have to say more.
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True. And what aggravates the profit motive is that competitive gamers, who want to buy a game and play it for 10 years, complain loudly when companies try to charge them for it... There needs to be a profit incentive to create a long standing, competitive game which is why SC2 should be subscription based.
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On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive.
Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money...
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On June 17 2010 04:23 Misrah wrote:
I have been trying to hold off on posting some thing of this nature until the entire- SC2 sucks!!! Beta fails, Blizzard is so bad- typhoon blows over. '
Yah you havnt been paying attention. It isnt beta or blizzard fails. Its BNET 0.2 fails.
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On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money...
Did you read the next part of my post?
A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro.
Explain that.
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On June 17 2010 04:30 NevilleS wrote:
True. And what aggravates the profit motive is that competitive gamers, who want to buy a game and play it for 10 years, complain loudly when companies try to charge them for it... There needs to be a profit incentive to create a long standing, competitive game which is why SC2 should be subscription based.
There never will be any profit margin. Just look at this site- before drones, scv, and probes were not as common.. But now- just look how the entertainment industry has them swayed.
On June 17 2010 04:29 green.at wrote:
I just disagree. sorry but i really dont have to say more.
This one in particular ^^^^^
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Of course Blizzard wants to make money, but in order to do that, they have to maintain their reputation of making quality games. An RTS that's imbalanced isn't quality, and that reputation will go with that developer. Blizzard needs to make us happy in order to make money, the hardcore community is an asset. Your argument is flawed because if Blizzard has to make a competitive product for it to be popular and maintain it's reputation.
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On June 17 2010 04:31 Backpack wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money... Did you read the next part of my post? A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro. Explain that.
because a pro is 25 years old.
Also soccer is a mute point... it does not apply to the scope of this argument, this is a computer game. Soccer is not. Soccer is competitive, and nothing a 6 year old does should be considered competative- it's just entertainment.
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On June 17 2010 04:31 Backpack wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money... Did you read the next part of my post? A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro. Explain that.
You're missing his point. The fact that soccer is easy to play but impossible to master is irrelevant. Give a modern day example of a company spending millions of dollars to produce a "soccer" equivalent. You don't see it, because the "impossible to master" part is much harder to capitalize on than the "easy to play" part, which is what he is talking about.
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On June 17 2010 04:34 Salv wrote:
Of course Blizzard wants to make money, but in order to do that, they have to maintain their reputation of making quality games. An RTS that's imbalanced isn't quality, and that reputation will go with that developer. Blizzard needs to make us happy in order to make money, the hardcore community is an asset. Your argument is flawed because if Blizzard has to make a competitive product for it to be popular and maintain it's reputation.
blizz only has to make a product that provides entertainment. Not competition- maybe 'false' competition, or an extremely easy to reach skill ceiling... But no- blizz just has to cater to the masses to make money. Look at wow- anyone can be good at that game lol
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On June 17 2010 04:35 Misrah wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:31 Backpack wrote:On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money... Did you read the next part of my post? A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro. Explain that. because a pro is 25 years old. Also soccer is a mute point... it does not apply to the scope of this argument, this is a computer game. Soccer is not. Soccer is competitive, and nothing a 6 year old does should be considered competative- it's just entertainment.
Thank you for proving my point.
Starcraft is competitive. The pros play on a competitive level. A 6 year old (or a copper player) will be playing the game for entertainment. But they are playing the same game.
Starcraft BW was fine, SC2 will be fine.
On June 17 2010 04:36 NevilleS wrote:
Give a modern day example of a company spending millions of dollars to produce a "soccer" equivalent..
Starcraft.
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The gamining companies has not changed. More than likely you view of the games has. (and just to clarify i agree with some of your points)
I will however say that no matter the argument. Blizzard has ALWAYS delivered on every single game. Until that changes, this whole thread in fairly pointless, mainly due to the fact that you are complaining about a BETA product.
The products is not ready for realease, does bnet 2.0 has some critical errors, ehm, yes, doubt anyone will dispute that. But give them a little time and im sure that we will end up with the product we want. They need to keep us happy to keep the money comming for the expansions.
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I don't think gaming has died at all. It's just changing and people seem to want it to stay the same. I personally think it is changing for the better 
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On June 17 2010 04:37 Backpack wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:35 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:31 Backpack wrote:On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money... Did you read the next part of my post? A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro. Explain that. because a pro is 25 years old. Also soccer is a mute point... it does not apply to the scope of this argument, this is a computer game. Soccer is not. Soccer is competitive, and nothing a 6 year old does should be considered competative- it's just entertainment. Thank you for proving my point. Starcraft is competitive. The pros play on a competitive level. A 6 year old (or a copper player) will be playing the game for entertainment. But they are playing the same game.Starcraft BW was fine, SC2 will be fine.
lol soccer is not a video entertainment it's a physical sport. Once again it has no bearing on the scope of this argument. Everything in my OP is the reality of the games market today.
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You, my friend, and this thread... are entertainment!
It is simply mind boggling how much you fail to see and how much you have been influenced by threads throughout the beta.
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On June 17 2010 04:39 Talic_Zealot wrote:
You, my friend, and this thread... are entertainment!
I want to be entertainment. Because i am sick of all these new 'entertainment' seekers coming in and telling me what gaming is.
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On June 17 2010 04:36 Misrah wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:34 Salv wrote:
Of course Blizzard wants to make money, but in order to do that, they have to maintain their reputation of making quality games. An RTS that's imbalanced isn't quality, and that reputation will go with that developer. Blizzard needs to make us happy in order to make money, the hardcore community is an asset. Your argument is flawed because if Blizzard has to make a competitive product for it to be popular and maintain it's reputation. blizz only has to make a product that provides entertainment. Not competition- maybe 'false' competition, or an extremely easy to reach skill ceiling... But no- blizz just has to cater to the masses to make money. Look at wow- anyone can be good at that game lol
What you're saying doesn't make sense. Blizzard wants to sell their game, which means it has to be accessible, but it has to appeal to as many markets as possible, including the hardcore. There is competition in SC2, I don't know what you're saying when you say there isn't. WOW isn't unlike Diablo, or Diablo II, you collect items and that gauges most of your characters strength, not your skill, it's a totally different genre. Games are played for entertainment, whether you find that because of the complexity and depth, or because of the mindless fun and accessibility, it doesn't matter.
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On June 17 2010 04:35 Misrah wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2010 04:31 Backpack wrote:On June 17 2010 04:30 Misrah wrote:On June 17 2010 04:28 Backpack wrote:
You fail to realize that a game can be easy and remain competitive at the same time.
Look at any non e-sport. Kids start playing soccer or baseball or hockey when they're 6 years old. Does that mean the sport is made for little kids? Try telling that to the professional athletes and die-hard fans.
Just because it's available to more than just the top elite players doesn't mean it can't be competitive. Nope that's called entertainment. Stop kidding yourself- understand what everything has becoem in the pursuit of money... Did you read the next part of my post? A 6 year old can play soccer just fine, but he will never be able to compete with a pro. Explain that. because a pro is 25 years old. Also soccer is a mute point... it does not apply to the scope of this argument, this is a computer game. Soccer is not. Soccer is competitive, and nothing a 6 year old does should be considered competative- it's just entertainment.
following this logic, how can you cite the activities of middle schoolers to prove your point?
you create a distinction between pro soccer players and 6 year olds, but not a distinction between middle school players, and top tier players
edit: additionally i think the crux of your argument is flawed. you assume companies did not care about making money in the "old days" of gaming, but now it is suddenly a big deal.
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EPT
