Signs of the Apocolypse

The gaming industry is not unlike Lennie from John Steinbeck's 1937 classic Of Mice and Men.

For the unfamiliar, Lennie is a gigantic mountain of a man with the temperament of a cheerful toddler, who traveled Depression Era California with a close friend, George Milton. These displaced migrant ranch hands were searching for some stable work, and a place to call their own. At several points in the story, Lennie's strength and power, of which he is unaware (much like the aforementioned toddler) leads to tragedy, culminating in the accidental murder of a woman, Curley's Wife, while he was trying to stroke her hair.

The connection I am making here is that this industry (developers, publishers, journalists, and consumers) has grown so fast and has become so diverse and pervasive culturally that it has the strength to hurt itself, or enable itself to flourish, but lacks the self-awareness to choose a proper direction.

We exist in a market where: new products are shoe-horned into a set price point of roughly $60, regardless of quality or amount of content; developers and publishers work according to budgets that make it next to impossible for all but a few quality titles to recoup their investments; journalists become so tied in with the game marketing and development processes that they no longer represent the views and opinions of the consumers; and new modes of content delivery have not existed long enough for there to be reliable and fair pricing points.


The explosion of the Nintendo Wii's motion controlled gaming console attracted so many casual gamers that the other two big companies, Sony and Microsoft, tripped themselves up trying to emulate their success. Much of that rush came at the expense of the core gamer, whose purchases over time allowed the industry to climb to the heights it had reached in the first place.

And so here we are...

As a core gamer myself, much of the noise surrounding the industry is frightening at best. The advent of these motion controls depict a potential shift away from the classic way that games have been controlled and designed. We have been raised for twenty-five years on analog buttons, d-pads, and control sticks. Now we are being shown "ice cream cones" and controller-less games that all look the same. The constant threat of a shift in the pricing point creates a situation where the core gamers who keep the industry alive by purchasing five or more (definitely more) games per year are going to soon be faced with the hard decisions between rent and food, or the next big game.

It is discouraging at best, and so wide spread that it is difficult to pin down. And what makes it even more difficult to swallow is that there is no "magic bullet".

The gaming industry was built on the backs of the consumers. We were the ones who allowed for different chances to be made. Without our support of Super Mario 64, for example, there may not have been a big push into 3D and polygonal environments. Without our support of Gears of War, the 3rd person cover shooter, would not be a genre at all. But we are also the segment with the least amount of power and influence.


When EA announced Left 4 Dead 2 and released the game not even a year after the original was released, there was an uproar among the consumers who made the first Left 4 Dead such a success. Fans of the series put together a, surprisingly effective, boycott (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott) in hopes that somewhere in the industry existed someone who cared about the gamer's and their pockets. Ultimately, this boycott failed, when the developers of the games, Valve, flew the boycott's organizers out to their studios to look in on the game in progress (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176490).

What was the result of this internet phenomena? Record sales for Left 4 Dead 2 (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176779), a title that, while quality, never resonated with the community the same way that the first one did.

Look, the morale of this winding and twisting tale is that this industry develops so quickly that it seems unfair to everyone involved. The consumers are taking the brunt of the blow here, as we are only able to consume what is out there. The media, which is supposed to exist to serve and protect our interests is so intermarried with the development and publishing area of the industry, that we are not necessarily heard, or fought for.

This industry needs to develop standards and quickly. It needs to recognize its core who created the buzz, and will remain after the casual consumers have moved onto something else. And it needs to be fair about how content is delivered and priced.

Without cooperation and understanding from all parties, there will reach a point where the industry accidentally murders its bread and butter, leading to a mob that chases it off the ranch with pitchforks and torches.

2008 GotY: Fallout 3

I have a major problem. I can't stop playing Fallout 3. I am sure that I am not the only one with this issue. But, it is rapidly becoming alarming. It's not even like I started a second character. Irulan, the beautiful African-American daughter of James continues to roam the Capital Wasteland doing good wherever she can. Be it donating water to the countless dregs, clearing the various dilapidated structures of the former Greater DC area of Raiders and other forms of filth, or searching for the most obscure unique weapons and armor. The point is that I CANNOT STOP!

For those of you who are so locked into Horde mode in Gears of War 2 that you haven't been outside in several weeks, Fallout 3 is an open world, first person RPG brought to you by the good folks at Bethesda Games. Set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC the player takes on the role of the wanderer, a young man or woman who has escaped from Vault 101, one of several safehouses that some people were able to escape to and avoid the nuclear apocolypse, who is searching for his/her father. Along the way you will encounter an enormous cast of characters, all of whom have their own slant on what survival and life means in this desolate wasetland.

Anyone who has played Bethesda's Oblivion series is already familiar with the way these games are designed. While the game's main quest will take you to various locations, the world of Fallout 3 is enormous and is to be explored at the player's own pace. There is no need to rush, as things are not going anywhere. Feel like following a trading caravan around the wasteland for a day, enjoy. Wondering where the Potomic River will take you if followed westwards, hop in and go for a heavily radiated dip.

The world that Bethesda has created is insanely immersive. The sound goes a long way towards pulling you in. It's more the lack of sound. The lonely wind whispering into your ears while a cloud of dust is blown up into the air. Or the skittering legs of a giant cockroach approaching you from the back, these are the things that really make the world come alive.

My save file is approaching 135 hours, but I think that I have finally done all that there is to do in the former nation's capital. But, in true Bethesda fashion several updates have been announced with the most recent one having been released several days ago. The first of these downloads, Operation: Anchorage, takes the player through a simulation of the battle to push the invading Chinese forces out of Anchorage, Alaska (trust me it makes sense according to the game's lore).

While it was refreshing to have some new content to devour (I finished it in about 5 hours), this first content add-on did not really convey the "feel" of the Fallout 3 universe. That said, it was entertaining and did provide access to some new neat pieces of gear.

Fallout 3 has already won several game of the year awards, and I would not be surprised to see a Collector's Edition released in 2009 including all of the downloadable content as a way to put the game in the mix for GotY 2009. It is the best RPG available for these current generation consoles, and is one of the greatest crafted video game experiences that I have ever been a part of. While it is not for everyone, it is the type of game that everyone should give a fair chance.