If a console gamer from 1994 was frozen and thawed in the year 2009, what shocks would he see?
The technological progress of gaming he would very much notice. 3d gaming wasn’t yet fully embraced in 1994. He would be in awe of the production quality of games with their surround sound and movie matching cinema visuals. He would be startled by the controllers of the time with the dual analog sticks and all the buttons, but likely have a soft spot for the Wii-mote that reminds him of the NES controller combined with the Power Glove. He would be stunned that Microsoft is making video game consoles, as well as Sony but to a much lesser extent. He would be greatly saddened by the demise of Sega and would likely create a funeral pyre in Sega’s memory. The improvement of technology on the handheld would leave him in astonishment as he was familiar with the brick Gameboy. But, ultimately, the DS would not amaze him too much. The PSP he would look at like a strange absurdity. “Is this device trying to be a handheld or a console you can hold in your hands? It seems very confused.” He’d be scared that consoles can cost up to $600 and the build quality to be inferior to the consoles he was used to. “What madness is this?” he’d wonder.
The games would not be too surprising to this thawed gamer. He would be puzzled why all the games were trying to be like movies. He would also be shocked, and very saddened, that there had been no new console 2d Mario game since Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island. He would try to understand why there are achievements in games. “Perhaps there are achievements today because beating games, in this age, do not feel like an achievement.” Most of all, he would be very puzzled as to why everyone is playing PC games on consoles. “What are they playing on PCs these days if all the PC games are on consoles?” he’d wonder. All the online capabilities he would consider old hat. “We had online gaming in 1994. I guess the difference today is that you get to hear people cuss at you and have to pay money for the pleasure of doing so.” All the ‘great’ games since the time he was frozen, he would not think were great at all. “Did game journalists ever play computer games prior to the 16-bit generation? I should think that they did not as they call this game ‘new’ and that game ‘never-done-before’.”
The Wii surprise would not come to any shock to this once-frozen gamer. “What is wrong with these people, these analysts and game journalists,” he’d shake his head. “Do they not see the value in the Wii? Motion controls are taking gaming to places it has never been. This is something I have been dreaming about since the Power Glove.” Of course, since people of this time do not know about the Power Glove and the excitement it caused back in the day, he’d become frustrated. “No one remembers any history in this time,” he’d complain. “These people can’t even see the value of something like the Virtual Console. I mean, the NES, Genesis, SNES, and Turbo-graphx 16 games all on one console! Mario, Sonic, and Bonk on one console! This is HUGE! If I returned back to my time and told them of this future, no one would believe me. They could never ever believe that someone could play Mario, Sonic, and Bonk on the same console!” He would look at the ‘big hits’ on the Wii and remark how similar they were to games in his time, the time he bitterly remarks no one seems to remember today. “When Atari began, it focused its video games on sports such as tennis with Pong. Why should Wii Sports surprise anyone? I can see Atari’s Tanks in Wii Play. I can see SNES Mario Kart in its DS and Wii incarnations. I can see the Power Pad in Wii Fit. Why are people surprised by history repeating itself?”
But the most shocking thing he said was how he described gaming in general. “No one talked about the ‘Game Industry’ in my time,” he would describe thoughtfully. “There was just ‘games’. There was debate about whether the Genesis or SNES had better games, but the debate centered around the games and gamers. Today, all the talk is about this strange thing called the ‘Games Industry’.”
Out of all the things he saw, this chimera called the ‘Games Industry’ dominating all discussion, from console wars to games ‘revolutionizing’ a genre’ to developers trying to impress other developers and constant chatter about ‘new business models’, is what he saw was the biggest change. He put the issue this way:
”In the past, it was said, ‘What is good for gaming is good for the game business.’ Now, all I hear is, ‘What is good for the game business is good for gaming’. In fact, it seems like no one plays games anymore. They just talk about the ‘game business’. No one talks about games anymore. It is what that game will do to the ‘game business’, of what sales numbers it has, what it will influence, what it will add to the console war.”
This was a strong charge, so detailed examples were demanded. He gave them.
”I don’t understand what Blu-Ray movies have to do with gaming. I mean, they are movies. Why should any gamer care about them? Gamers care about games. I don’t understand how at E3 2009, from all three game console companies, announced hardware that had no software. Two console companies offered tech demos. But no one buys tech demos. The drive to cut out used game sales also is a good example I think of companies thinking of their business before their customers. The PSP Go, OnLive, and other devices that refuse to let gamers own games will fail. No one talks about gamers or customers anymore. All they do is say ‘market here’ and ‘demographic there’ and then pat themselves on the head because they are talking about ‘game business’. I see game developers get more excited about talking about new ‘business models’ rather than new game ideas! This is why I say this era believes what is good for the games industry is good for gaming.”
The thawed gamer was pressed on why he believes this is bad. What is wrong with putting what is good for the games industry as the center of all thoughts? He then gave a remarkable answer.
”There was no ‘game industry’ back in the day. You know what there was? There was a game movement. We were all nerds back then. We were nerds because we played games. We were nerds because we made games. We were nerds because we loved computers. There was a drive, a mission, to make gaming popular, to expand it everywhere. Gaming was a movement, not an industry. Back in the day, many companies wanted to turn gaming into an ‘industry’. They would come in with their fancy suits. But they didn’t understand gamers. All they saw were the massive profits that gaming could produce.”
Still, what was wrong with a ‘games industry’? It seemed necessary to have an ‘industry’ for gaming to grow, correct?
”No. The gamers of this era have turned into cattle. They are constantly milked, over and over again, until they are milked no more and then sent to the slaughterhouse. Gamers becoming bored and ceasing to be gamers are no problem to the ‘industry’. They believe growth will continue forever. You will be milked to purchase ‘horse armor’ in irrelevant downloadable content. You will be milked to pay for online and constant hardware repairs. You will be milked by paying for games you will never own all under the fraud called ‘digital distribution’. You will be milked paying ‘subscriptions’ to online games that are not really games but a series of Pavlovian system of rewards. You will be milked purchasing the same games over and over again, all labeled ‘franchises’ with little new put in. And the slaughter comes when Next Generation comes, and you have to do it all over again. Sure, the customers can protest, but they might as well be cows mooing at the farmer. The description and talk of ‘customers’ as only subhuman ‘markets’ and ‘demographics’ is fitting. Gamers are no longer kings to be served, but wallets to be harvested. Gamers are cattle to corral to popularize new formats and new platforms. You might see yourself as a gamer, but the gamer’s relationship to the game industry is like that of the cow’s relationship to the farmer. Games aren’t even made for your enjoyment anymore. They are now frequently made for the enjoyment of those inside the games industry. If you do not like the games they make, then you, the customer, are considered the problem.”
Would not the progress of gaming mean that the game movement is still strong?
”No. All the talk about games ‘maturing’ and stuffing games with violence, overt narratives, and tacky sex scenes is nothing more than nerd guilt. Instead of making gaming more popular, the drive is to make gaming ‘less nerdy’ which is why you see testosterone stuffed space marine games and all the stereotypes we associate hardcore gaming with. It is not unlike the phenomenon of comic books becoming ‘darker’ and ‘more violent’ to assuage the guilt from those who grew up with comic books.”
But you were frozen in sleep. The PlayStation popularized gaming and brought in everyone to play. Look at the worldwide sales of the PlayStation and PlayStation 2! Amazing!
”Every era has their myths and the PlayStation popularizing gaming is the biggest whopper myth of them all. For all the talk about ‘demographics’, no one seems interested in discussing ‘population growth’, ‘population decline’, or any of the things demographic discussion is about. There is no mention of multiple console ownership. There is no cynical review over the numbers console companies, such as Sony, reports to verify with the independent sales reports.”
Why is this myth so prevalent?
”There is a bias that runs through all analysts, all game journalists, and the hardcore gamers that gaming will forever grow, not unlike the American housing market, the stock market, or the Dot Com companies prior to 2000. They have taken growth for granted. They have missed the true reasons for gaming’s growth such as population growth. Now with the demographic wheels beginning to turn the other way, with population decline becoming a demographic cataclysm in Japan and Europe, we will be finding that gaming is not growing. Add in a depression instead of the relative constant economic growth since the video game industry was founded. And if people don’t wake up from the Hardcore Fairytale enchanted view soon enough, gaming will begin to rapidly shrink and eventually implode. The big difference between twenty years ago is that gaming hasn’t increased in relative popularity, but it has massively increased in costs. If gaming decreases slightly enough below the sales necessary to make the current high cost games industry sustainable, the games industry will go nova.”
Any last words to the viewers, oh frozen gamer for fifteen years?
”This generation will have two bookends that define it. It began with the sudden appearance of a market. It will end with the sudden disappearance of a market. All the people who could discover this new market, companies like Nintendo, simultaneously warn that the old market is doomed. Everyone ignored Nintendo when they originally said they were planning to expand gaming. Today, they are currently ignoring Nintendo in hearing that the old market is going to be facing massive decline.”
”My advice is to treasure the games you have with you now, for they will never come again. Stay close to Nintendo as they are the only console company to successfully ride the waves and maelstroms of the gaming market whereas all other console companies have left the market or gone bankrupt. And watch out for the hardcore, their ways and mannerisms will swirl down the drain first. The so-called ‘casual gamers’ will be the inheritors of gaming. They will be the last man standing.
”If a market can suddenly appear, then a market can suddenly disappear. Remember this.”
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