Even though, at times, the game publishers and game houses competition in the graphics front seemed to feed on the expense of the innovation in the game design, for game industry this phase was inevitable, because game industry needed to make it to the popular culture. To be honest, I like the outcome, the gamer demography today is very broad and diverse, which also makes room for richer gaming innovation. Something that the geeks tresured has become somehting housewives enjoy.

Good example of this evolution for many gamers started from the game that was like a movie in late 1990s, the Final Fantasy VII, and after Final Fantasy XIII many hope that it was the final stage of that very same path of evolution (to be honest, I didn't like the game as a game but played it as a movie, I wanted to see it through, not play it through. After playing it for an hour I always though that there was something wrong with the TV picture, well it was the standard definition and lousy use of colors of the real world).

The infrastructure of the game industry is starting to look like pretty much the same as recording and movie industries, but wihtout as well organized indie alternatives. Every state of culture has a counter movement and for the game industry of majors the counter culture is in indie/retro gamers, who find the sequels boring and new games a bit boring and not innovative enough. Of course the majors can produce the rare gems, but better way to satisfy your hunger is to try out the indiegames that are not as spectaculous, but are fresh from the game mechanics perspective. Flash games are important new player in this front of shareware and freeware games.

The future of the game industry will be much more like the music industry than the movie industry. Why? Because for making an indiemovie you need a bigger group of people and wider range of skills and equipment. Bands only need one to five members to make music and same goes with the team size of game developers, you need the code, the music (not compulsory though) and the graphics. There is 8 million bands in MySpace and very soon there will be even more game development teams all around the Web, since this generation of youth did not grow up with music, it grew up with games.

In music industry, if you are not a product made by a major label, you have to start from grass roots, mening, performing many gigs at small venues show casing your music for audience, hoping that some of them will become your fans, and that eventually you will get recognized by indie label after years of hard work. This is where game industry and music industry differ, because games are best show cased in the Internet and there is very little loyalty to the local scene. No one has the urge to see games live, unlike they have urge to see bands live. Also games, at least today, are merely a format of entertainment, while music can provide much stronger emotional connection for the fans, be it the sex appeal of the lead man, political views or life attitude.

I believe this is where the games will evolve during 2010, games will become more arty, more political, more emotionally engaging and I would really enjoy seeing the rock star game designers who can create something that the opposing sex is attracted to, even if it would mean that the game characters would become real persons, just like actors, there needs to be idols. There is nothing wrong in being just entertainment, however the general public tends to engage better to entertainment that is not just entertainment but actually makes a stand about who you are if you are a fan. This is something that can not be achieved by technically advanced graphics, good AI or illusion of real-world simulation, this can be done by game designer who is aware of the cultural side of entertainment and can make a stand using the game as a format. Though of course the plain old fun is equally important too, but in order to make it to the next level as a format of art, cultural context becomes important.

Quote: Original post by Morri
the gamer demography today is very broad and diverse, which also makes room for richer gaming innovation. Something that the geeks tresured has become somehting housewives enjoy.

And it's called Farmville. Do you know how that came to be such a success?

Quote: Original post by Antheus

Quote: Original post by Morri
the gamer demography today is very broad and diverse, which also makes room for richer gaming innovation. Something that the geeks tresured has become somehting housewives enjoy.

And it's called Farmville. Do you know how that came to be such a success?

Besides Facebook, no, enlighten me!

Farmville is a success because it's a well-tuned skinner box made easily accessible to the masses and incorporates lots of viral elements.

It's not too hard to copy their template.