The Early Bird Gets The Worm

*Warning Sleep Deprived Blogging
When it comes to videogames, they are stuck in a hard-place, they exist in two planes that of Art, and Entertainment. There has been concern lately brewing from many industry makers, and this is only echoed at some of the recent D.I.C.E keynotes. Some argue that violence is a means to the narrative, a way to reach out and involve a player through more then just the art of millions of frames of images. To try to bring out emotions deeper then just felt from looking at the screen. Others argue, that violence is inferior and a means to no end, that the amount of violence isn't the way the industry should progress.

There's more then just a problem with the industry, but if there's definitely one which sticks out like a sore-thumb, it's the lack of self-confidence the industry has in itself. Seasoned and unseasoned developers, publishers and journalist, often cite the industry as "young" or "needing to grow up" you had Warren Spector call Lollipop Chainsaw for instance a "game that should not be made" Warren argued the industry needs to grow up.


This was once considered "young" "violent" and "needing to grow up, ironically, it only got senile in old age

Self-confidence is the problem with the Industry. This lack of self confidence has caused it to have been ingrained with rigid laws, rigid generations of consoles and much like politics separated by Elder Statesman, by iterations of consoles and large AAA companies. Games are, and do represent freedom for those who play them, they're meant to take us to place of wonder, relaxation, or adrenaline pumping entertainment. Yet the industry is like a bird which has fully grown, yet feels afraid to leave the nest, it's wings have become ossified by its time in the nest, and it's afraid of changes from the nest its lived in for so long.

Like with Warren, there seems to be a ever-growing number of flightless birds in our industry, their passion and temptation to try new ideas becoming ever more debilitated, like their ever fossilizing wings from old age. Each iteration brings less and less, yet frequently the industry is demanding more from the fairly elderly mother bird, it's become old, yet still believes itself young, and demands more and more worms to satiate these demands, and when these demands are not met, the industry blames the tinier nest next to it, with the birds whose mother wouldn't be capable of feeding them, and who had to learn to fly or die.



The industry is going to face a crash at this rate, and the only reason the industry will remain able to survive, is because of the smaller, more efficient clever and free birds. The elderly birds will eventually suffer one of two things, their mother will be unable to feed them, and they will shrivel and die, or eventually they will collapse the nest, on the glut of their own laziness.

Right now the big individuals in the industry are going to be outcompeted by the more free and smaller indies, by the better and more stable nests of the PC, by the freedom to move their nest easily and the lack of expense in building the new one. The industry needs to learn to take advantage of its own unique and natural talents of being a big bird, while it may not be a hawk, it does have its talents, it needs to give respect to its talents and stop trying to live off pathetic excuses like a Free to Play meal where it only works extremely hard trying to make up for 1 day out of the rest of the week, it needs to use the wings it has grown in a more unique manner, and it needs to evolve these wings further.

Only one part of the industry can be said to be free right now, and while naturally it's a big bird and can't fly easily, it has kept flying under it's own strength, and slowly been changing it's way of flying and the shape of it's wings, this would definitely be Nintendo, meanwhile the PC is threatening to evolve into a even stronger Hawk with devices like the Oculus Rift, and threats of incredible immersion like The Witcher 3 or Star Citizen.

Right now the way the industry has been operating, all the other birds shun Nintendo for always keeping in shape, and call it a cheat for selling the most, now they escaped from the Nest, and only follow Nintendo and bully it out of some of its meals by pretending to hunt in the same spot, with the same tools. If the Industry truly wishes to be able to sustain itself and eventually fly again to a era of reinvention, then it needs to stay true to what it has, for Microsoft, Kinect, and for Sony, the technology of their handheld Vita.


Making Out Optional

The PC isn't going to stop evolving after-all, it never stops, and you can't expect to immediately mutate into a Hawk if you're a turkey, but you can make progress towards becoming your own kind of hybrid hawk, which consoles have and show always be able to do best, you can enjoy the greatest population, because you have maximized a way to get food, but consoles need to take this skill further now, or the Hawk will consume the food before the consoles can catch up, and face going the way of the dodo.