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| The Game Industry and the Economics of Failure |
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SamuelCope Member since: 11/9/2004 From: United Kingdom |
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 Posted - 11/9/2004 10:20:33 PM |
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| I would agree with you that things have become sad in the industry. Take Sonic, for instance, i loved all his appearances on the megadrive(except spinball) but all the ones after on the 3D consoles just do not give justice to the original character. Sonic was loved for his speed and awesomely simple gameplay and that was all he was supposed to be loved for. Why try to add something else to something so magical? I would like to add my own gripes to the modern industry. Most employers expect a 2.1 in either a computer science degree or something else highly numerate. I am one of the old school coders who taught themselves how to write games from a young age. I had schizophrenia and thus failed my final year exams and cannot join. I have a game demo(24000 lines) with a supporting 8000 line modding application but because of my past I cannot join! I'm hoping that I may be able to release my code in shareware but only if I can find a decent artist. Sam |
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Charles B Member since: 1/17/2002 From: France |
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 Posted - 11/10/2004 12:51:17 PM |
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| EDIT: pointer to the article (Had to Google to find it back ;/) United Indies ? (think United Artists) "The economics of failure" is how the balance is reached when the buisiness men and the publishers take the commands. Too much money leads to a concentration of power and incomes in the least productive hands. This current system is anti-economic and anti-social in terms of employement for guys like Samuel or other people like me, that are fed up to be lead by managers who understand nada to game development. Gaining the possibility to have indy dev that succeeds in the console market would also be a strategic step. My contribution to this alternative ideology and utopy is to provide a cross platform math library of the highest quality for free. There are physics engines, rendering engines, game engines also available. The matter is just to irrigate the independent networks with fresh cash and common means. Online payment, free promotion and distribution are available. The ground is fertile. The only issue is having enough "farmers" cooperating and harvesting this new wild west. Is the pioneer spirit still vivid somewhere ? [Edited by - Charles B on November 10, 2004 12:51:51 PM] |
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Alpha_ProgDes Member since: 7/5/2002 From: Silver Spring, MD, United States |
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 Posted - 11/10/2004 2:03:20 PM |
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| frankly this depresses me. but it sounds like a call to bring back the days of shareware. high-speed makes demo and small games quite accessible. also CDs can be made cheap. so why not? |
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abstractworlds Member since: 10/9/2001 From: Wellingborough, United Kingdom |
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Posted - 11/11/2004 4:47:50 AM |
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Great article. Thank you.Quote:I particularly like this law. I think that this law applies to parties who are directly between you and your customer (publisher, distributor, retailer, press, marketing, advertising) and those that are indirectly standing in the way too (brand and license owners, investors, commercial toolmakers). For example the retailer will prefer branded content, e.g. game based on the latest film, so the film owners have you by the balls, they know that they can charge huge amounts in upfont costs for the licence because they know it is in demand. To this extent I certainly wouldn't class companies like Hasbro and MGM as part of the solution to this crisis. As brand and licence owners they are part of the problem. Remember the Hasbro lawsuits against small developers and publishers a few years back. If brand owners really want to help this industry they should think about offering much cheaper upfront (or royalty only based) non-exclusive licenses on their less popular properties (e.g. films made 10 or 20 years ago). Nowadays the licencing and branding industry in general has reached ridiculous proportions, with names and brands being the most important thing, forget about the product. I still have a problem with the idea of when is it true licensing and when are they expecting you to pay for the privilige of advertising their brand. Quote:I definitely agree with this. Sneering is a good word at it certainly sums up my feelings about some of the elitist comments and recommendation on gamedev and other game development forums to people who are attempting low-cost game development. By low-cost I mean getting a job done the quickest way, not the most elegant, academically, technically or professional way. Using more simple development tools like VB, DarkBasic, BlitzBasic, 3DGameMaker. Using simpler APIs like Direct Retained Mode rather than Immediate Mode (sneering and elitism killed off Retained Mode). Using simpler algorithms, brute force methods etc. Not using the latest versions of DirectX, the latest effects, etc. Generally, using the right tools for the job, if you want to make low-cost games then stop trying to copy the methods of the game-makers who are making the multi-million dollar games. Quote:In a recent news article, even Eidos, owners of Tomb Raider, reported that they were too small to be profitable in the game industry. When the warning signs go up at Eidos we should all worry! Quote:I would add a fifth idea to the list, and that is to promote alternative games to the public. In the music world it is cool to be into indie bands (the self-funded), cool to be into the guitar bands (those bands which use traditional tools of the trade), and somewhat uncool to be into pop (popular, usually overproduced, usually high tech instruments, commercial, money making bands). Yet with the games on retail shelves this is almost equivalent to a 'pop-only' game culture. Spread the word to your gaming friends about how the industry works, how its governed by money, where exactly the money goes for the game you buy, educate them a bit more and hopefully they will realise how uncool it is and how uncreative it is and start looking at alternatives. The ideal thing would be for someone to create a mainstream Game Tycoon game, where you have to try and make a game and make money from it exactly the way the industry works now. Just seeing that initial multimillion pound budget dwindle as you pay for licensing, development, retailing, marketing (wanna get a big review in a magazine? only if you advertise with us), advertising would be an eye-opener. Now that really would make gamers realise what a joke the industry is. |
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Alpha_ProgDes Member since: 7/5/2002 From: Silver Spring, MD, United States |
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Posted - 11/11/2004 5:02:28 AM |
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Quote: i disagree. having your flagship title be released as 3 to 4 horrible and crappy sequels, will have that effect on you. so we all should worry first if our flagship title hss gone to the crapper, like TR, before we worry about the size of our company or profits. |
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Charles B Member since: 1/17/2002 From: France |
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Posted - 11/11/2004 6:56:56 AM |
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Quote: That's what my "United Artists" analogy was trying to express. Also tell the negative about the current industry is one thing. There are many great great commercial games nowadays. The positive side of indy dev must also be promoted. As you stated quality of indy bands is reckonized. So there has to be some form of "cool" elitism, technical or artistic. OK to have 80s like games concentrated on catchy game plays and original ideas, made by a few coders and artists, eventually 2D, whatever. But it would also be good to show that indy development is able to compete with the industry. Take for instance two guys, one expert in physics and one 3D graphics coder and you can make a very original game (based on bricks and tricks for instance), with interactive features (everything dynamic and breakable)more advanced than what's been done by the mainstream industry. So to me the deal is here : find market niches and focus on original game play ideas. This may require cheap techno or very advanced techno. What an indy game does not need is coslty graphics and animations made by hundreds of artists. The goal is surely not to make the next Final Fantasy. One of my long term goals is to show one block buster is possible through www distribution with indy means and ideology. I am certain to have enough capacities to do anything I wish for a game in theory. I am not blocked by any technological barrier. But I don't have enough manpower alone, of course, that is basically time. That's why I believe in high quality Open Source. Step by step brick by brick and indirect cooperation in win win deals. Now let's dream a bit : one multimillion game actually quakes through the www. 100% of the incomes for the indy team, that is the coders, artists and game designers. This represents so much money, that they can now promote and sponsor other indy studios (taking some royalties from inhouse-made libs for instance). This becomes really big. And now billions are accumulated. ;) Breaking news : "The Indy virtual government (consortium) launches its low cost online console at a 100$ starting price, you can plug in any high speed modem on the USB2, and play all the indy games previously released on the PCs !". Some fat CD publishers and gross retailers would surely start piss in their pants. Quote: I think this has already been done, if memory serves me well. There are thousands of games released per year. |
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