Dear Video Game Industry,
I'm writing to you as a life long gamer. A person who has owned and played just about every game system that has been made to date. I say just about, because I do not own either the Xbox One or PS4. Why don't I own either of these machines? In short, because there aren't any god damned games for them that are remotely interesting to me. Note, I used the term god damned to emphasize how much it frustrates me that you seem incapable of making any good games anymore, not as an indictment of gaming in general. This is a problem that you could easily fix, but probably wont. This isn't a problem unique to the new gaming systems. There are few new games worth buying for any system currently.
So, how did we get to this point? This point being producing new hardware for games that don't exist. I think a lot of it has to do with the video game companies EA and Activision. Both of these companies work in very similar fashions, they buy up existing video game makers who have successful intellectual property (IP) and then cut costs, cut quality, and shit out sequels until no one wants to buy any more. Then they liquidate the company, fire all the staff, and look for their next acquisition. The end result is that most quality gaming studios get killed. Perfect example of this is when Activision bought Blizzard. Blizzard made the old War Craft strategy games, Diablo I & II, and Star Craft. These games were all hugely popular in the gaming world. After they were bought by Activision, they crapped out Starcraft II a game decidedly inferior to the original in every way except graphics. Then it did the same thing with Diablo III; worse, they didn't have enough server capacity so the game constantly crashed thanks to the required always on internet connection. Diablo III is in every way worse than Diablo II. If I could return it to get my money back I would. I don't even like the graphics any better. And just so you don't think I am shitting on Activision exclusively, here's one for EA. Bioware was a software company that made such games as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. Once EA got a hold of them, gaming quality quickly deteriorated. Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3 were roundly criticized and were, again, in every respect worse than the games that went before them. And since EA and Activision dominate the gaming industry, the end result is no new quality games.
So how do we get around this and get to a point where new gaming studios can flourish? First and foremost, game makers, when you have a successful game that is roundly adored, DON'T SELL YOURSELF TO EA OR ACTIVISION! I put that in caps to stress how important that is. Follow the lead of Bethesda, just keep on trucking and making quality games. Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was such a huge hit that people are still playing it religiously years after it was released. The fear here is that even Bethesda is somewhat susceptible to the money game, after all they did license their Elder Scrolls IP to another company to make an MMO (I have no idea if the MMO is any good because I hate MMOs so haven't even so much as read a review of it). Second, have some faith in the IP you are making. You do not need to sell out to these companies to take advantage of their huge marketing infrastructure. If you are making a good game, people will find out about it and buy it thanks to the internet. And lastly, you do not need to keep making the same cookie cutter games to generate sales. Not every game is going to be Call of Duty, and more over, as creative people, you should aspire to better. Innovate with new and novel ways of telling a story. Invest in quality writing. I can't tell you how important a good plot and strong characters are in a game. If you create a world with a compelling story and good characters, you may well be surprised by how many people will be willing to pay you money to explore it.
I love video games. I have spent a large portion of my life playing them. It pains me to see where the industry as a whole is today. The once proud dynasties from Japan now an afterthought, most new IP being sequels or first person shooters, the new hardware coming out without any compelling launch titles... It's a sad state of affairs. I can't tell you how disappointed I have been watching it happen. Video games for me were escapist fantasy, interactive combinations of books and movies where I was the hero. They told me stories and created worlds that I had never seen or heard of before. They sparked my imagination in myriad ways. Gaming can be this again, but it is going to take some help from you, the industry that makes them. Because otherwise, kids are going to start playing outside again, and we can't have that.
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