Video Games - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 26

developers and the readers/gamers. The top ten video games sold 2010 are
as follows (Entertainment Software Association [ESA] 2011):
Despite noticeable seasonal variations in this top ten list there is an
unmistakably discernible pattern as concerns the most salient video game
genres during the last two decades—most video game content is contained
within this short genre list: action/fi ghting, sport, racing, shooter/FPS,
RPG, family/children's entertainment, strategy and adventure.
In fact the video game industry thrives on this limited list of highly
formalized and rigid game genres and has done so practically since the
“golden age of video games” in the 1980s (Kent 2001). The industry contin-
ues churning out endless numbers of sequels, copycat games “inspired” by
successful competitors, quick-and-dirty movie-based games of subpar qual-
ity, “content incrementalism” (usually sport titles) and other path-depen-
dent genre strategies. Boosted by astonishing technological innovation, the
industry produces an impressive number of titles with extremely sophisti-
cated graphics and visuals, while paradoxically maintaining a low level of
creative/artistic/gameplay development—a type of “creative conservatism”
(Dymek 2010). Although this claim would require substantial quantitative
research ef ort to statistically and stringently validate, and even though not
every game industry professional, game researcher or gamer would sub-
scribe to this view, few could totally denounce it. The low artistic quality
and creative innovation of many (most?) video game titles is a fact that is
hard to contradict—most vividly confi rmed by the lowbrow/pop cultural
status it enjoys in culture/media research/discussions, as opposed to a sta-
tus of a truly innovative digital art form.
The Industry Spiral
From a purely industrial perspective: what role does the industry have
in this subculturization process of the video game medium? A repeating
chain of events within the video game industry will be presented in order
to explore this dynamic. This spiral sequence of repeating events describes
specifi c consequences that contribute to the reinforcement of the subcul-
tural process. There are eight distinct steps in this process (Dymek 2010):
1) Video game consoles are designed. This requires expensive development
of hardware and software technologies whose design solutions infl uence
the rest of the industry in terms of business/economy, game development
process/technology and the video game medium itself. In many regards,
the most infl uential video game medium development is done by console
manufacturers.
2) Game console manufacturers propagate their visions. Game console
manufacturers are simultaneously present on two markets: consumer
and developer. The consumer market is subsidized and generates all the