Email: A somewhat interesting point about the game industry….

And game modifications I was thinking of recently, in case you were interested, is that it seems the modders/hackers make the exact same mistakes as the games industry, with a very similar mentality, to the point it seems any game modding/hacking community is basically a microcosm of the current games industry.

For example, I’ve noted it one community (for modifying Mario World), these same trends as in the games industry:

Increased focus on story and cut scenes.

Emphasis on flashiness rather than being fun to play.  Graphics especially.

More and more puzzles and less actual platforming

Game God worship?

A kind of dislike for any sort of challenge or high difficulty level.

I don’t think there’s any Wii hatred or the like, but you can certainly see where the gaming industry has influenced the fans and hardcore gamers if you look online, even if their own creations resemble the kind of content found in the current day 3D Mario and Zelda games and Metroid Other M.

I don’t share your hatred of game mods and ROM hacking personally, but just thought it interesting (and I’m guilty of all the things listed bar the story aspect) that fan communities tend to resemble the current day gaming industry and apparently ‘progress’ along similar paths.

You’re right in that the modders/hackers will imitate and have similar behavior as the ‘professional’ developers.

But here is where it gets interesting. Mods/hackers have no businessmen. A businessman would say, “Stop doing that. It is driving customers away.”

In gaming, it is perceived that the ‘suits’ are always bad, always at fault, always ‘messing up’ whatever the glorious game developer is doing. Rather, I think the fault is not businessmen themselves but businessmen who do not understand gaming.

Since gaming is a young medium, the developers understood gaming as they were gamers. The businessmen were not. A capable businessman would not go in ‘gaming’. A capable businessman would probably go somewhere else where the job feels sexier and cooler. The PC revolution stole much business talent away from gaming.

I think what is holding back gaming is not lack of quality developers but lack of quality businessmen. We’ve watched game companies destroy themselves just because of stupid businessmen who didn’t have a clue what gaming was.

Why does every call into gaming always have to be as a developer? There is so much competition anyway as a developer. Perhaps the young man should consider going into gaming as a businessman. The game industry desperately needs good businessmen.

Being a game developer is very hard as games are tough to develop. But a game businessman would also be very hard as the business of gaming is ludicrously tough to predict. But it would be fun.