Everyday Gamer

This was a piece I wrote a while ago. I felt it is still somewhat relevant to I decided to repost it into our newer Blog format. Let me know what you all think.

One of the things I appreciate most about gaming in today’s era is the amount of support, feedback, and accesibility that developers give and look for through various mediums. That usually comes by way of internet forums, but it can also come by means of open beta tests, gaming tournaments, trade expos, or company sponsored community events. Gaming has become a much larger and accepted multi-billion dollar industry in every way and companies are constantly attempting to appeal with every demographic while still maintaining a quality product. Recently there has been a large push to incorporate females in this male dominated industry, Ubisoft’s Fragdolls are proof of that, and competitive gaming is at an all time high although it’s still relatively in its infancy. Just a few years ago gamers were “stuck” playing only on online ladders and now we have MLG, the now defunct WSVG, WCG, and the GGL just to name a few of the major professional gaming leagues. My primary focus here is to mainly discuss how the community is currently shaping the game industry in various ways and to ask the question if this is always a good thing.

Community support is almost always viewed as a good thing outside of the random forum disagreements. They provide a medium to discuss various titles, a place to meet like minded gamers with similar interests in gaming, provide a way for the company to get feedback on their products, and they can generate hype for a game. They also help developers see what changes fans and gamers who may not have liked the product would like to see implemented in gameplay, within reason, in the sequel, update, or expansion pack. In a lot of ways these are good things but in a lot of ways they aren’t. For all the ways that feedback can help are the sames ways it can hurt. My personal opinion from my experiences is that gamers are gamers, developers are developers, and there are a small percentage of people who can reasonably do both. A good example is a couple years ago Far Cry came out on Xbox and it allowed you to create maps, share them with friends, and play them online. Needless to say most maps created were beyond terrible because most people don’t understand level design, what makes a good balanced map, and how to make a good multiplayer map based on a certain number of players. Several maps I played was so bad that I had to end up leaving the rooms early because there were too many ways to get trapped in certain locations with no way out except to kill yourself. There were a few user created maps however that were extremely well done and better than many of the maps made by the creators of the game. This is a less extreme case of a game design issue but another great example which was very real to some fans even today is how several gamers complained about the difficulty in playing Rainbow Six 3 on Xbox, which is well known for being a game only for hardcore players. This led to the creation of Rainbow Six: Lockdown, which by it’s own right wasn’t a terrible game, but it wasn’t in the same caliber as the previous games and thus many of the hardcore fans of the previous games went back to play the older versions again.

In conclusion should developers listen to the community more or should they go about their own way of doing things? I guess there really isn’t a right or wrong answer to the question but I will say I rather see developers lean more toward innovation than mainstream personally. Games like Super Mario 64, Half-Life, Halo, and the Tom Clancy series are great not because them emulated another style of game but because they set the precedent for their style of gameplay. There would be no good reason to go out and buy another FPS game that plays exactly like Halo if I already own it. I do however understand the business side of things and know that ultimately a game company has to be profitable both for shareholders and advancement of the company. This is a continuing debate that I’m sure can and will linger in various gaming forums in various forms. There is a lot to be said for those who respect the opinions of others but it’s also important to know that they are just opinions in the end.