Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Incompetence . Many of the people doing the writing for sites like
IGN, GameSpot, and 1UP seem not to be experts on the subject
of games. In their writing they display huge gaps in their knowl-
edge and understanding not only of game genres but also simply
of how games work.
Superficiality . Insightful game reviews simply don't exist in the
mainstream. Reviews are shallow, often contradictory, and very
rarely have the courage to actually come out and say something.
Most game “reviews� are limited to a description of what a game
is and a numbered score at the end.
On the other hand, however, we have bloggers: independent people
who write just because they're passionate about games. Just as indie gam-
ers will be the ones to lead us into producing new games, bloggers will
be the ones to lead us into a new journalism of games. We just need to
collectively decide to drop the resistance and allow progress to happen.
Rise of the Indies
A lot has already been written and said about the rise of the independent
developer. Most of us who pay even limited attention already can prob-
ably name between five and ten independent game developers who came
out of nowhere, released a game on Steam or the iPhone, and are now
well-known with full-time careers making games that they designed.
The indies, it seems, have begun to seriously compete with mainstream,
AAA (big budget) game developers and publishers.
Developments
The rise of indies obviously is partly due to platforms like Steam, iOS,
Android, PSN, and Xbox Live Indie Games that make it possible for de-
velopers to get their games out so that new audiences can easily see and
play them. These platforms were necessary for indies to thrive, but it
would be a mistake to think that their inception is the larger catalyst
behind what's happening in the industry.
Another important (yet less recognized) reason for the indies' in-
creasing ability to compete with the mainstream is that people have got-
ten very comfortable spending money online in the last decade due to
services such as iTunes, Amazon, and PayPal. For instance, even if Steam
had been around in the 1990s, the service probably wouldn't have taken
off—people simply weren't comfortable with the whole idea of putting
their credit card information out on the Internet (and probably for good
reason). Since the mid-2000s, however, the percentage of money spent
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