Triple Threat: 3 Hurdles That May Hinder The Evolution of Gaming

 I often praise the gaming industry as well as the direction it seems to be going; hell my first post was almost exclusively about the evolution of the industry and how it was transforming into an artistic medium.  That being said nothing worth having ever comes without struggle or opposition.  While I believe gaming will continue to evolve it won’t happen instantaneously nor will the mutation arise unopposed. So, as a man with opinions (or rather an opinionated man) I decided to name the three biggest threats to the evolution of gaming to provide a little warning so we may avoid these potential pit-falls.

-The Economy

   It’s no secret that the gaming industry has felt the recent recession, console sales are down and more developers seem to be closing shop and going out of business.  While initially this leads to less games being made, it also leads to less diversity in the industry which (in my opinion) is HORRIBLE.  A lack of diversity dilutes the competition.  Competition that would force developers to manufacture and introduce new I.P. in order to gain an edge over the competition.  But as the competition continues to wane the successful developers can continue to play it close to the vest and release generic titles while still earning a considerable profit margin because nobody is there to challenge them.  Evolution appears as a result of environmental pressures, consequently, if developers are allowed to become stagnate and still make money doing so, there is no need to evolve.

-The Public Eye

   As much as I’d hate to admit it, there is still a stigma attached to gaming.  It hasn’t been completely accepted as a creative medium mostly because older generations still view it as being an activity reserved for those of us who don’t excel in the real world or the simply view it as “just a game” or a way to “kill time” our predecessors see it in the same light as they view high brow cinema or music. That being said I don’t see this as a major obstacle because the changing of values and norms seems to correlate with the rise and fall of generations; to put it  in laymen’s terms: as we grow older and take the spot of our parents, we take our societal values with us, as they did with their’s and so on.

-We The People

 
 It’s odd to think of ourselves as an obstacle to the evolution of gaming, but we may be the most dangerous threat of all.  In the paragraph about the economic hazards I emphasized the importance of competition as a deterrent to complacency.  Well, the only way to enforce the importance of competition is to demand it.  As consumers we dictate how the industry progresses by the way we react to the products we our offered- If we only buy generic, mindless shooters then that’s all we will get offered to us.  The fact that we live in a market driven world means that we can command innovation and not settle for mediocrity.  We have the power to ask for more!  So ,as a gamer, I humbly ask my constituents to only buy games that validate the price and lead to the progression of the industry as a whole, don’t settle for anything less than excellence, While we may not have any say in how games are priced, we create the demand.  So demand more!!!

    As the industry continues to grow the aforementioned hazards are real, and while they may not be insurmountable, they’re still very formidable.  With that said ultimately the fate of the industry will be a representation of how we reacted to said threats.  Personally, I remain optimistic and retain my belief that gaming will continue to improve but only time will tell.
 
-Ron