A casual revolution

Games are undoubtedly becoming more mainstream, they grow in popularity daily and gaming is no longer seen as solely an activity for nerds and children, now entire families are gaming (well so we are told anyways). The Wii in particular has a special niche in this casual family friendy environment, but it is not the only attractive platform for the ever increasing audience. The problem is with increased audience are we truly getting the same polished material as we used to be, or are we instead getting over-hyped fodder created because so many people are out there looking for games that they don't need to satisfy the core gamer crowd because ultimately they'll still turn a profit. It's one of the sad facts of the videogame industry that top quality products get drowned in a sea of ever so "meh" games. If i think about the games i have enjoyed most over the years, i don't know if i can say that any of the ones i've loved were particularly well marketed and nor did they become the sellout must have games of a season. Instead the games which i believe have been of the highest quality are those with an active, small and enthuastic fanbase. Of the games which excited me most upon seeing the advertising Brink (2011) i think is the most poignant reminder of how overhyped a game can be. This game really excited me, i preordered, i watched all the videos, i was even pre-thinking strategy, it had the potential to be gamechanging, it promised to be gamechanging, it was not. This game had such basic flaws that not only did it fail to exceed other games in the sometimes tired FPS genre, it actually failed on a very basic level, it was not fun, it was not that interesting after a while, it ended up in the bargain bin of every game selling shop i've walked into since- selling as low as £2! Was it a victim of my high expectations, maybe. But the fact remains that they released a frankly unfinished game knowing that they have the audience who will buy it in enough numbers for them to make their money back. This is what i believe the casual revolution has led to, a dumbing down, simplyfying and lazy approach to making videogames. The decreased power of the individual in a market which is much bigger than it used to be means that people are forced into desperate attempts at boycotting or petitioning games producers and publishers in order to get what they want.

But still, if somebody will buy it, they'll put it out there, what we as consumers need to do is exercise what little power we have and avoid games and biased journalism which means that we are not receiving a quality product, when a game is good it's fun, when a game is brilliant it's an art form.

Hello and welcome!

This is a brand new blog i'm starting to look into some of the more interesting elements of game theory (ludology for those in the know). It is to be noted that in this case the term ludology is not used in opposition to narratology, but instead as a standardisation of the term for the study of games.

I intend to cover some of the interesting contemporary issues within games, focusing particularly on their use as social apparatus and conversely what they can tells us about the society we live in. So feel free to leave a comment, this is a discussion not a conclusion!