While Call of Duty: Black Ops may be Treyarch’s best contribution to the series to date, there are some out there who think that the game isn’t all that great. They’ll say that the story is confusing and poorly written and the multiplayer is full of broken spawns, latency, and on the PS3, dirty hackers. They might also say that the game is basically the same it’s been for the last eight years.
As the underdog studio just released the First Strike Map Pack (available exclusively on Xbox LIVE, kids), Treyarch community manager Josh Olin gave a little interview with NowGamer about how patches are important to the online experience and what Treyarch are doing to keep Blops going strong. At the end of the interview, however, the writer asks Mr. Olin what he thinks the biggest problem with the game industry is:
Personally, as a community manager who lives in the media or social media world every day, I think the social culture of video games is moving in a more negative direction as technology and social media continues to grow. Rather than growing with it, the trend seems to be devolving. More and more gamers seem to forget what this industry is all about.
It’s a creative industry – the most creative form of entertainment in existence. Too many developers who try new things are getting burned by “pundits” and angry entitled fans who look to be contrarian, sometimes simply for the sake of being contrarian. The only thing this attitude aims to achieve is stunt that creativity and innovation even further, which is something that no rational gamer looking to be entertained would want to do.
What he’s basically saying is that the current problem with the games industry is you, or more accurately, those negative gamers who can’t be pleased no matter what. While I think he’s got a point, this is kind of funny coming from a member of the studio that just released the eighth Call of Duty title.
It’s true that there are negative gamers and “pundits” (Yahtzee?) out there that dump on studios no matter what, but I think that the industry is doing themselves a disservice by listening to this segment of the population. What do you guys think? Are we to blame for the stunted creativity in the industry? Are we forcing everyone to play it safe?
Source: NowGamer
That’s a tough call. If anything is ‘wrong’ with the industry, then it is likely several things instead of just one, but the ‘mainstreaming’ of video games is likely a large part of it. Haters who whine about everything is a side-effect of this, I believe, as the demand for bigger+faster+better increases with every passing title. The fact that CoD has come out every year like clock-work with a game that looks (so far as I can tell) just like its past incarnations with a new skine-tone (granted, I did hop onto the scene after Modern Warfare) is an indication of this, I think.
The question of whether or not these occurences are mere cash-grabs or the results of meaningful innovations is anyone’s guess – and probably a bit of both – but to me the video-game industry has gotten to the point that it has become so mainstream that the quantity of games increases while the quality decreases.
Like movies, you have loads of games that flop, many games that make good sales but are only ‘B’ grades at best that sacrifice spirit for quenching the thirst for action, and then you have the few spectacular games that stand head and shoulders above the rest as being truly amazing.
That’s my take on things at least.
Part of the problem is the indecisive idiots who won’t let the designers get on with their job and try new things.
I used to get worked up about things but growing up and being more mature solved that problem. IOW, its probably young’uns who are impatient to see how it evolves.
The other part of the problem is for devs to obey almost every complaint they recieve.
I think he’s bang on. People are more negative these days. I’m a pretty negative person on a lot of things, and I think it’s a good thing. But people who are “contrarian simply for the sake of being contrarian” makes up an enormous part of the internets, and thus, gamers.
There’s one way to solve this. Permabans!
I think the nature of the industry, not necessarily JUST people. They want to make money. Game X makes them a ton of cash and has great fans. They make Game X2. Make tons of cash. Repeat.
Sure gamers who want the same ol or are never happy may ‘stunt’ the industry, but that doesn’t mean its just our fault. Ok then use that creativity and give me something new and innovative other than Call of Duty: Same-as-before-but-diff-time-period. Give me what you think is new an innovative. When did I say ‘Only make COD games’ Here, let me insert this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7r9RqWBdl8 Ok see? Some gamers arnt happy with the same old. But then maybe its not just the “same old thing” that he is talking about. Maybe its guys who say they do bad no matte what. Ok, ignore them. Guess what they are still doing, logging time on that game most likely. Trust me, I do not like BO Multiplayer as much as COD4 but hell I still play it. Ignore them.
If the industry could be evolving so much, then guess what, you must be sitting on a gold mine. EVOLVE! Do it, push the envelope, and change gaming. Dont be slaves to what we want. If you did only what was super successful all MMOs would be WoW, all FPS would be COD or Halo, and all RPGs would be FF7. Do it then, innovate. Just because you get a bad review from someone or all the dredges of XBL are yelling at you doesn’t mean ‘stop everything you just did and revert’. While I agree we have problems with negative gamers and I think many people are too picky, we are not halting the evolution of games. The developers decide what we GET. We say what we want but THEY are the tools that make the game.
Whether or not Mr. Olin is entitled to talk about gamers’ attitudes, he’s still right. There’s no way to deny that. Even questioning his “right” to say it is pretentious. He’s right. He deals with a lot of shit from dumbasses on a daily basis, and gets paid for it. He’s made games that grow off of hype and popularity. It’s his fault he’s making money.
Sometimes, and I admit that I’m guilty of this too – no doubt – gamers get very defensive about…anything, so they blame the developers and producers and whatnot. There definitely is a trend of negativity in the gamer community because gamers want to sound smart, and they think that being cynical and contrary makes them sound smart when in reality cynicism is childish and egotistic and counterproductive in excess; and it’s excessive in the gamer community. Yahtzee isn’t the only source, but unfortunately people take him seriously. That’s like taking Stephen Colbert literally. Whether or not Yahtzee is actually a misanthrope, he’s not the most effective face of the gamer community. I love Yahtzee, well at least I like laughing at him, but his cynicism has become somewhat of a plague amongst pretentious gamers.
Essentially, gamers need to add positive input and constructive criticism or shut the fuck up. And who the hell would do that! The fact of the matter is that these complainers are the ones who generally make the most noise, and I have a feeling it just depresses developers. Games are not easy things to design, program, and maintain, and a lot of gamers just demand so much from AAA titles that they forget that it takes constant work, and not everything will be a resounding success. It’s not about giving developers slack when they fuck up, it’s about knowing what’s actually good and what’s actually bad in a game, and then trying to improve games and the community by forgetting the cynical bullshit and complaints. Gamers need to stop being so adolescent and learn what it means to have an actual credible, respectable, and worthwhile opinion.
I sound like my math teacher, if he played games. Or had a computer.
Edit.
“It’s NOT his fault he’s making money.”
Fuckin’… I always do that.
The guy who just released Black Ops is saying that we are the problem for the lack of innovation in gaming? Sounds a bit ironic.