Three Steps to Success: Summary
July 6th, 2008
With these topics discussed it’s time for me to tease out some conclusions. Basically I wrote the past three articles to analyze what I see as our most significant issues holding our industry back from going to the next step. These are by no means guaranteed solutions but rather a few suggestions of my own that I think if adopted will do some good.
Implications with Classification of Hardcore and Casual
When using the terms hardcore and casual in reference to games we need to ensure that we recognize that they are just loose terms to roughly describe a set of games or players. Caution needs to be taken to not use them in a polarizing or overly definitive manner.
Fanboys and How to Deal With Them
The only way in which we can defeat fanboys is to embrace them and take on board their enthusiasm. Attempting to prove their interests invalid is unfair and not the kind of culture that we should be encouraging. Players should not feel pressured by others if they have a strong interest in a particular game, console, company or brand.
Game Reviews: Critique, Subjectivity and a 10 Point Scale
The checkbox way of analyzing games has to go, in favour of describing your personal reaction to the experiences within the game through critique. Subjectivity, much like fanboys should be embraced and we need to reform to a 10 point scale in order to alleviate ourselves of the petty arguments generated over a bloated grading system.
Fanboys and How to Deal With Them
July 1st, 2008
There has been some interesting discussion around regarding fanboys and how best we deal with them. Of all the commentaries that I’ve read, I find Leigh Alexander’s conclusions to be particularly standout. Her idea is basically that subjectivity is natural. When we repeatedly see something that exempts a positive or neutral feeling towards us, we ally ourselves with that and form an affinity with it. She used the brilliant example of a news reporter and a stalker.
In video games, the same is true, you play a good game for a while and you begin to form a relationship with the characters within the environment.
The concept of people forming these relationships through repeated meetings leads to them becoming fans and enthusiasts of what it is they are playing. Seems pretty justified huh? Now let us turn to our culture and look at how we deal with fans and fanboys.
No matter where you stand, being a fanboy often leads to tension within a community. Game reviewers get crucified for showing subjectivity, forums turn into literary battlefields, you don’t need the examples.
If we break this situation down into its core products, in essence we are fighting our friends and our brothers because they obey their natural instincts to like what they play. Why does it have to be this way though? Why must we be so aggressive towards our peers? Don’t we all play games, read about gaming and interact with other gamers just to have fun?
As suggested in the aforementioned article, the only way in which we can beat this ‘epidemic’ is to accept it. Being a fan, a fanboy is natural and there is nothing wrong with it so why all the hate then? Once we accept fanboyism then we can end the tireless bickering that rages on our message boards and comment streams. And when this ends, what is left is a friendlier environment for us all and who doesn’t want that?
Three Steps to Success: Introduction
June 27th, 2008
Several times already I have attempted to pull apart and logically analyze various issues of interest regarding the evolutionary growth of our medium (video games). In the majority of cases though this has resulted in some awkward, inconclusive answers. While many of my ideas come inspired from favourite bloggers of mine, I always seem to draw blanks when it comes to logically grounding my ideas.
After some further thought and collaborative thinking with others I finally think that I have it packed down. So I would like to put forth my ideas in a new “mini series” of posts, sorting out one issue after the other.
As I said in this post; I feel that the video game industry is currently moving through very prosperous times. Yet despite our success, more needs to be done to main and extend this golden age into the coming decades.
For us to become fully recognized and taken seriously by mainstream global media . To get there we don’t just need to change, we need to reform and remodel our opinions towards crucial themes and issues holding us back. This selection of posts intends to break down those issues and suggest some conclusions which we can adopt. Here is the list and order of posts:
Introduction
Implications with Classification of Hardcore and Casual
Fanboys and How to Deal With Them
Game Reviews: Critique, Subjectivity and a 10 Point Scale
Summary
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