Lets quickly talk about a paradox in the video game industry that makes my head do a one eighty in an attempt to look away from the madness.

In the past decade games developers have had tons of attempts at trying new things on what they have had available to them. We have had titles such as Shadow of Colossus, Majora’s Mask and Deus Ex all games that have tried something different. Even titles before that have had the balls to go nuts with a game and see how it pans out such as System Shock 2 or Fallout.

So what’s this paradox I’m talking about? Well back in the old days publishers used to actually publish titles like this, probably because they didn’t have a clue to it’s success or perhaps simply because everyone saw on opportunity to do something new. Nowadays we see titles that are obviously inspired by other popular games being pushed out to sell units, nothing wrong with that right?

So why is it, the developers and publishers who have the money to make meaningful experiences that push the boundaries of games design are content with just getting a game out that doesn’t even bring anything new to the table while indie developers are almost expected to make brand new experiences with nothing and take all the risks. The indie developers may have nothing to lose but it seems unfair to put so much pressure on them and expect them to sell their titles for so cheep or even give them away for free when some of these experiences kick the crap out of what the industry is producing.

I don’t even want to be cross to the developers working on games right now because it isn’t their fault. To make a game that actually makes some money you need to advertise it and you need to make sure it looks nice or you get a slew of “looks crap” comments from the gaming population that’s sprung up in the past few years. Developers are so scared of doing new things that it’s almost depressing to look at games that show so much more promise. While I know development can go crazy and one change can spiral into a hundred changes just to fix the chaos, experiments and mistakes help people learn.

I suppose what I want to see is more titles on the market that make me think, not only the story but the game play. Games that give the player choices about everything they decide to do. Games with Agency and Urgency that gets the player’s blood pumping.

Or perhaps I’m just picking the gems out of a trash pile with a pair of rose tinted glasses.

I don’t know, what do you all think?
Are you happy with the games being released now days?

First impressions on the internet are hard and this will mostly read like it was stripped from my “About me” section or visa versa. I like to think of my self as a games designer, I have a degree in Games Design, I spend my free time writing about Games Design and tearing games apart for their design and when I’m not doing either I’m reading about Games Design (I just don’t have a job in games design as of writing this).
I am still learning however and one of the best ways to learn is by learning from others and your own mistakes (this is important, if some one else makes the mistake, you wont learn why it was a mistake without understanding the process).

So let’s give a quick break down of who I am.
- I love Zelda: Majora’s Mask, it’s the best Zelda game by far, you are wrong for thinking otherwise (opinions be damned!).
- I think the Yakuza series is awesome; this is mostly because Kazuma is awesome.
- Mega man is probably my favourite video game series; don’t ask which one, the answer is all of them.
- I love video games with giant robots.
- I love games that have agency and urgency.
- Capcom is AMAZING.
- I think Sega are cool guys.

That doesn’t really say much about me, but probably enough for an introduction. So HI Destructoid community, I hope I can get you thinking and in turn you get me thinking.