1.) JUDGMENT DAY!

            Welcome ladies and gentlemen to my first blog post. Now, if you read the title and or saw the picture, I am not referring to the bible or the movie Terminator where artificial intelligence becomes self-aware and starts a nuclear strike. No, I am actually referring to the game industry. Is gaming dying? Is the second big gaming crash upon us? There is something that we need to fix. Some of you are probably reading this and thinking, "Wait... there was a crash in the gaming industry? When did this happen?" Allow me to explain.

            Back in the 1980s the gaming industry experienced a huge crash. Basically, long story short, the gaming industry lost consumer confidence and when they could no longer sell the videogames to the consumer, the product became worthless and the entire genre almost died. This led to a bunch of cartridges being buried into the desert because they was simply no way to sell them to the consumer. A lot of the circumstances that were surrounding the original crash are actually beginning to happen today. These exact symptoms are happening right now in the gaming industry. For my first blog post, I want to talk about the potential of that happening, what caused it to happen originally, what similarities there are now and what you can I can do to prevent this (Judgment Day) from happening.  To start off, I will say the gaming industry at the moment at large is doing very well for the most part. The industry is selling millions of copies of a huge variety of different games made by different developers and different publishers.

            As it stands, the gaming industry is probably more profitable then it has ever been. However the exact same thing was true back in the 80s when the initial crash happened. It was a very profitable business, there were consoles in every home and department stores were filled with games. What led to the crash is simply this; there were far too many low-quality videogames and not enough high-quality videogames both for far too much of a price. Ultimately, the consumer lost confidence because of this. Consumers realized not only could money be wasted if they purchased a game that they picked off a shelf, but they had no way of knowing which games were good and which games were bad. So time and time again, they felt burnt and ripped off so gradually they began to turn to other types of entertainment instead. Unfortunately, this stuff sounds awfully familiar to the modern gamer.

            Right now, there is a huge variety of games that have some very hefty price tags and its almost impossible for the modern consumer to figure out which games are worth purchasing and which ones are not worth their time and money. So who is to blame for all of this? The simple answer is all of us, but I will explain it further.

BLAME # 1.) GAMERS (You & I)

            Okay, now many of you are probably reading this thinking, "Oh no he didn't!" Alright, let me explain. As consumers, we ultimately make the decisions whether or not we are aware of it. We also ultimately make the policies, even if we are not directly involved in developing these games. Every time you and I make a purchase, that is a confirmation that what the creators and publishers of that product are doing is somehow right. If you are not skeptical and you don't choose to vote with your wallet then you and I are not the problem. Every time we buy a bad game, or one of these games that are chopped up on micro transactions, or every time we buy a poor sequel, then you and I are part of the problem. So that is the first thing we need to fix.

BLAME # 2.) EA

            Electronic Arts is playing a very pivotal role in eroding consumer confidence. It doesn't really matter which program you point to. Whether its franchises like Madden that continues to be published in worse and worse forms, every time they publish a new game, consumer confidence is being destroyed by EA. With that said, they are certainly not the only AAA developer that is doing this kind of thing. Activision and Blizzard did this with Call of Duty and Diablo 3. Gearbox did this with the Aliens game. There is a huge list of games being published by AAA developers that are not just kind of boring or living up to the hype, but simply just not as fun.

BLAME #3.) The folks over at STEAM

            STEAM allows you to self publish a game and that sounds great until you realize that is what caused the crash in the 1980s. This is similar to the issues surrounding self publishing Xbox Live Indie Games on Xbox 360. Any company who could afford to hire a couple of programmers for a couple of weeks could write any old program, slap it on to a cartridge and self-publish it onto to one of the available systems at the time. There was no checks and balances system so a lot of these games turned out to be not so great. The STEAM Greenlight program does allow small companies and independent developers to design games and self-publish them. Are the games worth their purchase price? That is a hard topic for me to discuss because I myself am an indie developer and some of the most beloved games I have ever played were created by a couple of people in their bedroom and self-published. With that said, I am so grateful to be living in a time where we can do that. Gamers are growing frustrated because they feel as thought they are not getting their money's worth with majority of programs that make it on STEAM as of right now, but I am optimistic that this will change soon.


Motivation for Indies
          If you are self publishing, ask yourself is my game ready to be on the market. Market test your product. Don't give in to the outside pressure from the game community to release your product when you are not fully confident with it; especially if you know it still needs to be further developed. Learn from your mistakes after your game has been out for a bit and create patches and game updates. Try not to take any criticism too personal, even ones that might be biased and toxic. Our job and the work we do as independent developers is crazy, beyond challenging and overlooked at times, so stay passionate about what you do and persevere. After all, it takes time to succeed at doing anything well. It won't happen overnight. 

A Prime Example: Xbox Live Indie Games on Xbox 360

            I will use my own personal experience as an example to sound less harsh towards any indie developers or aspiring indie developers reading this. With Xbox Live Indie Games, all developers had to make their programs and content from scratch because you could not use a game engine to create a game on the platform. Because I was and still am currently learning game development, after I made my first game, I decided not to publish it. After all, it was only my first game and I knew that it wasn't something I would publish. I knew how hard it was to make a game from scratch and I new how much time and effort I put into my first game. But just because it was hard and just because I made a game did not mean that the game was great and somehow sell-able. I realized my game has to be truly fun and I have to actually like my game myself or I was going to erode consumer confidence. This is what eventually happened with Xbox Live Indie Games in the beginning because anybody and anyone could publish a game on Xbox 360 if they paid for the dev kit. People have always been quick to criticize  Xbox Live Indie Games for being a cesspool of low quality "fart" apps, avatar games and Minecraft clones, but the problems ran much deeper than that. I am not going to sit here and say there were not low quality games on the system, but marketplaces like the ios app store have them as well and have been far more successful.

            Contrary to popular belief, the submission process was too cheap. It was only $100 a year for anyone to submit up to 10 games, which was later increased to 25 games. Right now you are probably reading this thinking "What?! Too cheap? Isn't that good for indies?" It would seem so because this lowered the barrier to entry, but if the barrier is too low, than it actually isn't. If the price was higher, developers wanting to put their game on the platform (especially a major console) would have taken their work far more serious. The biggest complaint about the system, especially from moderators, was the appearance of cheap apps, vs. actual robust games. The reason that these existed was that they had setup a system that made this work on an economic level. So anyone willing to pay the $100 could put up their game in front of millions of people since Microsoft did not regulate whether or not these games were worth publishing. Now you are probably reading this thinking, "If Microsoft didn't fully regulate the submission then who?" 

            Most people are unaware of how Xbox Live Indie Games made it to the system. Microsoft, to avoid obvious legal problems, devised the following system: You would submit a game or update to a game on the system and it would go in a review list. At this point other developers on the system (yes, your direct competition) would review your game (yes, before it released to the public or anyone had seen it). At this time, the reviewer would either submit a pass or fail vote on the game. If the game received 7 passes, it would appear on the system. If it received 2 fails for any reason, it would get completely booted out of the system. Whether your game passed or failed, a 7 day wait period was imposed on the title preventing you from resubmitting or updating the game in this period. If you resubmitted the game without fixing the issue, you risked being permanently banned from the entire system.

            After 30 days if your title did not clear the system (for example people weren’t interested in it enough to vote on it at all), you failed automatically and needed to restart the process. If you needed to release a Multi-language title, in addition you need 2 reviews for each language you want to release in (this made releasing or even updating localized titles nearly impossible). Aside from the obvious problems that arise from letting your competition see early releases of your titles and ultimately deciding if your game should make it to the system, Microsoft intentionally left the criteria for review vague with rules like, “Your game cannot be frustrating or confusing”. With rules like that you could have fun imagining the creative ways that one could judge a title unfit to release. Each fail costing the developer another week plus the time it takes to accumulate the votes again, potentially holding titles in limbo for months.

            It would seem that this would quickly degrade into the chaos of developers maliciously failing each other to prevent them from competing with them, however in practice, as if in some sort of odd social experiment, the opposite actually occurred. Everyone had a mutual goal of getting their title though this tedious process so it became common practice to do “kickback reviewing”, where one developer would “review”(pass) your game with the expectation that you would do the same. This became so prevalent that it actually degraded the quality of the titles on the system as a whole. Because the barrier to entry was so low to create an XBLIG (Xbox Live Indie Game) on the Xbox 360, I am starting to see similar things like this happening now with games being released through Steam Greenlight.

          Surely Microsoft would step in to enforce order. Due to legal reasons, no one at Microsoft was allowed to view any content on the system until it was officially released to the public. Not even the discussion that occurred in the game’s review forum. Their solution to this was the moderators or MVPs. These MVPs ran essentially unchecked by Microsoft and had ultimate power over the system. They single handily had the ability to make it so your game would or wouldn’t go out. To be fair, these people had a VERY hard job and were not compensated at all for it. They were reigning in complete chaos and it always amazed me how devoted they were to the system. With that said, their “war-torn” demeanor at times became combative and rude. Some of them had very strong opinions that they were quick to bluntly express and they were the ultimate law on the system.

            If there was a serious issue or debate about your game it could be deferred to Microsoft. However since Microsoft could not see your title directly or the discussion that transpired, it would become the moderator’s job to present your case to them and deliver the verdict. You could imagine if the moderator was not on your side this would never go well. Regardless, Microsoft’s de-facto response was always “You guys decide as a community” which in reality meant, “The moderator makes the decision”. If the moderator gave the community the license to pass or fail a game that is what happened. As a reviewer, if you disagreed and didn’t follow suit it usually resulted in some sort of disciplinary action. Any meaningful discussion about how the system could be improved or be changed was almost always immediately silenced.

Could Steam Greenlight Phase Out?
          If you are unfamiliar with Steam Greenlight, it is a service created to help bring a more variety of games to Steam. Users would choose which games were added to the service. This gave independent game developers an opportunity to showcase, as well as build beta versions for Steam users. If users pledged so much support for these games, then Valve would help to make the top-pledged games available to the Steam service. So developers were able to release their games without publishers hovering over their shoulders governing whether their games should be published or not. While Steam Greenlight helped more and more developers bring their games to Steam, it led to an overabundant number of games on the service making it difficult for a single title to stand out. If the folks over at Steam aren't careful in not making similar mistakes with indie games on 360, this service might potentially phase out. 

BLAME # 4.) YouTubers, Publishers, Gaming Journalist & Blogs

            The primary function of games media should simply be this:

To inform the consumer about a game or a product so that they can make an informed decision and determine whether or not the game is worth its price tag.

       That means we are publishing screenshots, gameplay, and facts about the game to help them make an informed decision. Also, unbiased first looks at the game and unbiased reviews is the most important thing game reviewers are suppose to do. Now I am not saying that you can't be entertaining while you do it. Just look at the Angry Joe Show on YouTube. I first found out about the Angry Joe show through my friend Lafe when I expressed my concerns to him about the game Destiny. I will probably talk about that in a later blog post.

       Angry Joe is a great example of being informative and entertaining at the same time. He provides excellent reviews and doesn't just say games are bad but provides reasons why and what developers can do to improve them and make it better. As long as games media is not providing unbiased information that allows the consumer to make an informed decision, then yes - we as game reviewers are part of the problem. It is important for game reviewers to remind consumers that they have all the power and for them to treat consumers that way.

       On one hand, you have a bunch of not so great AAA titles being developed and on the other hand, you have a bunch of not so great indie games being developed. So when you put these two together, you have a terrible sandwich. On top of that, the people who are here in games media whose job it is to help the consumer cut through the not so great games to find the ones that are great, are simply not doing good enough of a job. All of these elements are adding up to create a brand new game crash where we lose consumer confidence because they have no one to trust and game consumers keep getting burnt over and over again. So its not all bad news because I think this can be fixed but I won't assume it will be easy. So if you are reading this, here are some ways we can prevent Judgment Day from happening.

Solution #1: Trial Modes

            So that consumers don't feel like they are not getting their money's worth, game developers need to allow players to try their games before purchasing it. By making a trial mode, this can be a great way to lure players and give them a taste of what is to come. Trial modes can also be a great way to advertise and showcase the rest of the game's features if purchased. We have seen this feature work well with Xbox Live Arcade games on Xbox 360.

SOLUTION #2: Game Consumers must realize they have all the power

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       We as game consumers have the power and the purchasing decisions that we make result in the types of games that game creators make. If we choose not to purchase a "bad sequel" or a not so great indie game, eventually they will stop making them. As an independent developer, I know how hard it is to make a game, especially one from scratch. So instead of just hoping they'll eventually stop making them, my hope is that they can listen to our feedback and improve upon them. Thanks to Xbox Live, PSN, and Steam Updates, game development companies can potentially make changes and patches to their games.  We as gamers whether we realize it or not help play a crucial role in game development companies learning from their mistakes and taking risk. Now we can put the blame on game publishers as we should but here is the reality:

If a game publisher can knowingly sell a half-baked product at full price, why would they stop?


       Its not until the consumers wake up and choose not to purchase which will lead to publisher making changes. The people that do have power, and yes I am kind of pointing fingers at Microsoft, Sony, Valve and the Apple Store who make the consoles and devices need to determine whether or not these games are worth publishing and allowed to be on your storefront or online marketplace to begin with. For those of us who do have a voice in the industry whether it be a YouTube Channel, blog, Twitter Feed, or a giant gaming journal - we must take the hands of consumers and guide them through the not so great games and make sure they find the games they know consumers will enjoy. If not, then we are failing the entire industry. Now Judgment Day does sound pretty crazy and I truly hope that I am wrong, but if we make these changes, no harm can come of it. The industry is only going to get better. So lets prevent Judgment Day from happening. Thank you for reading.