Gamers unitE

I am not one to be a casual fan of anything. I research it, live it, and crave it. I have been obsessed with the videogame industry since my first encounter with my dad’s Odyssey 2. The idea that the game industry was to be my life happened when in Toys R’ Us; I stumbled upon an N64 demo unit displaying ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’, it was then I realized what the industry was to become, the new mainstream. When you eclipse the movie and music industry in revenue on a regular basis that is what you become. Lately the industry seems to have been ramping up efforts to pander to the main stream. With ad campaigns that mimic what you’d see for a Hollywood picture, celebrity voiceovers aplenty, and a game for every activity know to man (no matter how mundane). None of these are actually necessary if you think about it. All they do is drive up the cost of production and force the executives at these companies to stick to tried and true IP’s instead of giving innovative ideas (the ideas the industry is based on, and also keep it afloat) a chance in production.

I might be alone; but I think this generation of gaming has become criminally stagnant. This is a generation that hasn’t produced any new fighting, sports, or racing franchises, and there are only two titles I can point to that push the art form: Red Dead Redemption and Dead Rising. Not saying the vast landscape of FPS’s isn’t bursting with innovation, but they’re all in essence FPS’s.


Being a “historian” of the interactive entertainment industry, the previous sentence raises some concern. In the mid 90’s arcades and gaming as a whole had become over-run with walk and shot/punch type games. Each a little bit more innovative than its predecessor. The problem was arcades were empty and game sales were not awesome as a result. A crash (like the one in 1984) was a possibility if not for a radically new concept in gaming. The game that recharged the industry was Street Fighter II. For the first time the gamer was able to pick from a variety of characters and develop strategies in a one on one type fighting game setting. This was a landmark moment for the industry and one that needs to be repeated soon. I want new experiences, right now. I need to feel the rush of interacting with something I’ve never experienced before. I want to feel the way I felt when I played Wolfenstine 3D for the first time… Alive!

Please don’t let me down.

Lex