Who enables gaming careers?

Now it is time for an amazing quote from Treyarch:

“What, in your mind, is the biggest problem facing the games industry today, and if you had the power, how would you fix it?”

“Personally, as a community manager who lives in the media or social media world every day, I think the social culture of video games is moving in a more negative direction as technology and social media continues to grow. Rather than growing with it, the trend seems to be devolving. More and more gamers seem to forget what this industry is all about.

“It’s a creative industry – the most creative form of entertainment in existence. Too many developers who try new things are getting burned by “pundits” and angry entitled fans who look to be contrarian, sometimes simply for the sake of being contrarian. The only thing this attitude aims to achieve is stunt that creativity and innovation even further, which is something that no rational gamer looking to be entertained would want to do.”

Did the reader know that you can do anything you want in your life… so long as there are customers behind it?

“I want to sing and dance!” This is possible if you somehow get people to pay to watch you sing and dance. Some people can do this.

“I want to play basketball all day!” If you can get people pay to watch you play basketball, then it will be so.

“Then I want to play video games all day!” This is possible so long as there are people willing to pay to watch you play video games all day. Never say never.

“I want to sleep all day! Yeah!” If you can get someone to pay to have you sleep all day, then it will be so. Even something as ridiculous as this may not be ridiculous if you sign up for a scientific study or something.

The point is that customers are the liberators, not the en-slavers. Careers do not exist in a vacuum. What allows any career are customers.

Treyarch is making the most common mistake that the reason for their job is to be ‘creative’. It is not. The job is to get customers. The reason why you see game developers attacking customers is because they have been misled into thinking their mission is to be ‘creative’ and sense customers as an impediment to that ‘creativity’. It is the other way around.

The reason why any gaming career exists is because of customers. Customers liberate people from jobs they don’t want to do and allows them to have a career in gaming. Thirty years ago, game developers were very honored and felt fortunate that they could make video games for a living. Today, game developers believe game careers exist as an act of nature and their purpose is to ’embrace their personality’ through ‘creativity’.

If you get customers, you can do anything you want. You can make a video game about baboons, if you want, so long as it makes customers.

Anyone remember the movie Gladiator?

Pictured Above: Malstrom (i.e. Proximo)

Malstrom tells the servant, “Bring the Game Developer in…”

Pictured Above: The Game Developer (i.e. Maximus)

Malstrom looks at the torch and turns to the Game Developer.

“You’re good, Game Developer. Really good. But you’re not as good as you should be.”

[Curtly] “I am instructed to make games. So I make them. There is nothing more to it.”

“But you could be so much more.”

[Screaming] “I am a slave! I don’t know if I’ll have a job next year or next month! I try to do the best that I can! I try to be the best technologically and to be the best creatively. But nothing is ever good enough!”

[Calmly] “I was once like you. But as you can see, I am free. And do you know how I won my freedom? It wasn’t because I made the best games technologically. It wasn’t because my games were the most creative. I was the best because the crowd loved me.”

“What?”

“Expand your awareness from the arena and take in the entire coliseum. Customers fill the coliseum. You don’t have to be the best in the arena. You are not in the arena to fight against your competitors. You are in the arena to win the heart of the mob. Win the crowd and win your freedom.”

“But things are different now. Everything is stacked against me. The market is rigged. Lions come after me, and only me, and are pulled away from my competitors. The evil Emperor of Recession makes the fights unfair.”

Pictured Above: The Evil Emperor ‘Recession’ now rules over the games and makes market fights unfair.

The Game Developer is frustrated. “How am I supposed to win against such a stacked deck? How can anyone win with Emperor Recession ruling?”

“Turn your back on him,” advised Malstrom. “Mock him. Emperor Recession will try his best to destroy you, but if you win the mob, you win over the Emperor as well.

“But my creativity!?”

“You’re fighting for your life. Win the mob, win your freedom.”