When American newspapers declined, it wasn’t so much the classifieds or advertising going to the Internet that did them in as it was the decline in the content. There was no reason to buy the newspaper. So why should advertisers stay? (Many in newspapers who don’t want to realize that their content was the cause of their demise insist, in shrill tones, that content had nothing to do with it.)
American newspapers once had a standard or, at least, was thought of to uphold a standard. This standard tended to be ‘print what is true and accurate’ and that editorials belong on the editorial page. As consumers saw editorial content appear more and more as news content and there were increasing number of stories printed that were not true, there was no reason for the consumer to continue purchasing the newspaper. (Keep in mind, some newspapers are flourishing such as local or specific interest papers.)
The clearest sign of decline is to declare that the customers do not know what they are talking about. It is the death knell. If anyone crosses that line, you have crossed the Rubicon. You have entered a period of terminal decline. If customer reaction will not be used a ballast to right the ship of the company, then the ship will eventually drift toward the rocks. The audience is always, always, always right.
So on the Gameindustry.biz’s webpage, two stories on EA were at the top. The first reads, “EA defends itself against thousands of anti-gay letters” and the second reads “EA responds to Worst Company label from Consumerist”. It is quite poetic the two stories appear beside each other.
Let’s talk about the first story. If it is true that thousands of consumers are complaining, there’s usually fire where there is smoke. Considering that Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, the two games mentioned in the piece, have disappointing sales (especially SW:TOR being a disaster) there could be a connection. “Are you saying that gay content led to bad sales?” No. I am saying that Anti-Audience content led to bad sales. I think the Gay Content is a symptom of a mindset that is “We don’t care what pleases the audience, we only care what pleases ourselves.” Entertainers fighting the audience is as stupid as politicians fighting their voters. The audience makes the rules and sets the standards. If you cross the audience, they possess the power to ruin you. The entertainer cannot ruin the audience. The audience is the boss.
Television is in full decline. Men fleeing television has been especially noteworthy. One of the reasons why is that television shows have been frequently having more and more ‘gay content’ which is causing the audience to flee. While traditional media commits suicide, this is the time for video games to rise and become the dominant medium. However, this will not occur if people in the Game Industry make the same mistakes as Hollywood or the television studios.
The pattern for business success in gaming revolves around making games and consoles for the family. Hello the Wii. Hello to games like Mario Kart.
Once upon a time, the Game Industry has games like Custer’s Revenge which had many complaints. While, graphically, it looks ridiculous, Custer’s Revenge was attacked by the audience because this is not what they wanted video games to do. They do not want video games to be pornographic or trend in that direction. This is why you do not see these adult games be made. It is why you won’t see any console manufacturer ever allow a pornographic adult game to be licensed on their system. The market won’t stand for it.
But here’s the thing, do great video games require porn? Of course not. Porn doesn’t really have anything to do with what a video game is in the first place. The Game Industry understood that (and perhaps due to the crash) and we’ve seen wiser heads prevail on this subject.
Political porn is just as abrasive to the market. People do not want politics in their video games. Period. And no, those aren’t ‘cultural issues’, those are political issues. A cultural issue is Texas eating barbeque while New York eats bagels. Or Japanese video games featuring ‘robots’ while a Western video game features ‘cowboys’.
The people at EA need to stop being children and grow up. There is a reason why they got voted the worst company in America by the Consumerist.