Over the last decade or so, there has been one recurring story sweeping the sports world. Doping. The taking of illegal, performance-enhancing substances, to give a person "the edge." This is a problem that has (in my opinion) set forth the decline of the world of sports in the long run.
I just recently saw a news article about a whole Olympics Relay team that had their medals stripped due to doping. Just recently before that Tom Brady got suspended for 5 games of the next NFL season (and fined) for the "deflategate" (as it is being dubbed).
Sports celebrities that people wanted to emulate and look up to, were testifying before a congressional hearing back in 2005. The greats of baseball at the time, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Jose Conseco, Rafael Palmeiro, etc testified and denied use of steroids. All 4 tested positive and/or admitted to using it.
Steroid use is now ingrained in essentially every sport. People are just so determined to win, they will destroy themselves for that. This as also spread into female sports as well.
What these people forgot is the fun. Sports were always meant to be fun. A bunch of athletes getting together and playing a sport for sport. People didn't need to cheat, because it was about just having fun and having a good time. Now, sports celebrities are overpaid and jaded. Sports celebrities have completely forgotten the purpose of playing a sport. It isn't the endorsements. It isn't the big vehicles and the agents. It isn't for the money, it isn't for the show. Playing sports is supposed to be about having fun.
Now, we have people who would cheat to win. Losing isn't an option. Honestly, if people were just playing for fun, win or lose, they are still happy. Maybe, slightly disappointed at the loss, but happy just to have gotten to play a sport they loved playing.
We as fans, used to watch athletes compete and have fun. We enjoyed the sport because they enjoyed the sport.
Now, honestly, with the doping, etc, sports have not become about fun. Sports are no longer about the sport. Sports just aren't fun any more. And when a sports start is caught doping, what happens? They get suspended from playing the game, and fined. Honestly, a drop in the hat. It is a slap in the wrist.
And at the current trend, people will become disgusted by sports in general. People will recognize that professional athletics is not a good thing. People will recognize that something needs to be done.
Well, I have an idea.
Sports leagues should disband. Professional sports should come to an end.
Just think about it. Professional sports comes to an end. People no longer will try to do anything and everything possible to win. People will not cut corners to try to achieve fame in sports. Those who do not enjoy the sport will be fished out. They will quit the sport completely, phasing out those who are just in it for the money. The people who play the sports for the money and the fame, they are the ones who are willing to cheat to get to the top. The people who are truly passionate about the game and care about having fun along the way, are the ones who will rebuild professional sports in a new image. Less people will dope just because there isn't the pressure to perform. People will play for the fun of the game again. That is what we need. We need people who will play for the fun of the game, and not for the fame that comes with it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Game Off - Where is gaming headed?
This is a blog post a long time coming. I would consider myself a gamer, so when Mortal Kombat X hit digital download for the PC, I was excited. I do not own a PS4, or an XboxOne, because of the way gaming has changed. I do have a gaming computer, however, and I thought, this would be great. I was... disappointed.
Not saying that the game is completely unplayable. The game is playable, and that's about it. There are graphical glitches, reported issues with online play, a faulty Faction system, inappropriate amounts of netcode, etc. These issues have plagued the PC release of the game since the beginning, and the question I have to ask is why?
On May 5th, a patch was released to fix all of these problems. Within a few hours of the patch's release, it was pulled due to a lot of gamers reporting that their save game files have been deleted by it. Great. If you spent hours and hours of your life searching through the Krypt unlocking everything to have it all gone, then congratulations on wasting your time. (Luckily, I did not patch the game as I took a brief break from playing it). I found it quite coincidental, however, that in the store, a person could play $19.99 to buy all of the content in the Krypt and have it unlocked for you. Yeah, we'll wipe your data, and THEN make you pay $19.99 to get it all back again (without the sense of achievement, of course).
Why have game developers started nickel and diming people? Why are they releasing games that aren't properly tested? I feel the big name developers have... gotten lazy. And the gaming industry will suffer as a result.
For those not in the know, back in 1983, there was an event referred to as "The Video Game Crash." Atari had inferior games (like "E.T. The Extraterrestrial"), and underpaid programmers who branched away and started their own company. An over-saturation of the market with floods of low-quality games that no one ever (or wanted to) play, and too many consoles resulted in the crash. People stopped buying video games and Atari went under. And then in 1985, The Nintendo Entertainment System came to the United States (dubbed as a "entertainment system" instead of a "video game console" due to people being apprehensive as a result of the crash). Eventually the crash game to an end, and gaming thrived. (At least for a while).
Going over that brief history lesson, one thing can be gathered. History seems to be repeating itself. Games are being rushed out the door with no obvious play testing. The quality of games have been going down hill. Add on to the fact that game developers are nickel and diming their customers with ridiculous amounts of DLC, and we must start to wonder, is another crash imminent? Obviously, that is where we seem to be headed.
Back when I was a young gamer, one person could take a game and make it last a long time. For instance, Super C. I played that game repeatedly as a kid. And it was a HARD game. One hit, you are dead. And I managed to beat it, eventually. But that is what made the game awesome. Challenge. It set up a degree of determination in me. I WANTED to beat that game, and each time I played it, I got better and better at it, until eventually, I DID beat it (without help from Game Genie). There was a sense of accomplishment in it. I've beaten "Battletoads" another extremely hard game, and I did it without the genie or level warps. I took pride in progress.
Finding Easter Eggs and cheat codes in video games always added something fun to the game as well. The well-known Konami code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, Start) as well as variations of that code helped make people feel that they were doing something amazing in a game. Something secret, that they only knew about (despite the fact that anyone with an Internet connection could find the code on sites like gamefaqs or "World of Nintendo"). Games were about making people feel a sense of accomplishment by doing something in the game, whether it was finding a code or finally beating that level that plagued your dreams for months.
Nowadays, accomplishments are being replaced by money. It is too hard??? Give me $20 and I'll do the work for you. Secret modes in games??? Not any more. You buy them. If the game is too hard, I'm sure there are games where you can BUY an easier mode. "Mortal Kombat X" removed half of its core lineup, and are rumored to make appearances as DLC. The game industry has become a nickel and dime industry.
Video games are a luxury item. They are not required by any means, and the success of the video game industry hinges on the economy as a whole. As people are more strapped for cash, people will start to hold on to their money more. Video games will be the first to be given up to ensure needs are being met. Mortal Kombat X is a game that costs $60 almost for the base game. This does NOT include the $20 you have to spend to get the Kombat Pack with 4 fighters and the Samarai skin pack. YOU HAVE TO PAY TO HAVE GORO!!! Goro, a character that appeared in the very FIRST Mortal Kombat game back in 1992, is actually DLC now. (Or a pre-order bonus). This is absurd. They are even nickel-and-diming people for the base characters from the original game. All of this for a game that is glitchy and buggy.
And this isn't the only game with problems like that. This is just one from personal experience. The quality of games used to be a lot better. They rewarded people for achieving something in game, and people loved that feeling. Now, as long as you have cash in the wallet, you can buy something that leaves a sour taste in your mouth and a slightly emptier pocketbook.
However, it seems that indie games might bring hope to a seemingly dire situation. The big game developers are about money and profits and they do not care about quality or even the customer. Games like Minecraft, however, are HUGE. Indie game developers are just trying to get into the market, and so they will not cut corners to get a game out there without properly debugging it. Games like "Shovel Knight" remind gamers like what got me into gaming in the first place.
So, back to the original question at hand. Is a video game crash imminent? In my opinion, no. (Not that I'm an expert at the markets). People are still buying the games. Plain and simple. There is enough people still buying the games so that the big name developers can actually afford to cut corners to get game released faster. I would NOT be surprised, however, if the video game industry did suffer another recession. I would not go as far to say that it will completely crash, not with indie developers bringing some decent quality games into the mix, but frustrated gamers will start to become more hesitant to buy from certain game developers due to their history of cutting corners and releasing poor quality games. Times have changed since the 1980s when video gaming wasn't as established as it is now, and enough precautions have been put into place to avoid a complete crash, but the nickel-and-dime tactics need to stop. Games need to be tested. Games need to make people feel good when playing them, and not regretful of the choices they made to pay the extra cash.
Not saying that the game is completely unplayable. The game is playable, and that's about it. There are graphical glitches, reported issues with online play, a faulty Faction system, inappropriate amounts of netcode, etc. These issues have plagued the PC release of the game since the beginning, and the question I have to ask is why?
On May 5th, a patch was released to fix all of these problems. Within a few hours of the patch's release, it was pulled due to a lot of gamers reporting that their save game files have been deleted by it. Great. If you spent hours and hours of your life searching through the Krypt unlocking everything to have it all gone, then congratulations on wasting your time. (Luckily, I did not patch the game as I took a brief break from playing it). I found it quite coincidental, however, that in the store, a person could play $19.99 to buy all of the content in the Krypt and have it unlocked for you. Yeah, we'll wipe your data, and THEN make you pay $19.99 to get it all back again (without the sense of achievement, of course).
Why have game developers started nickel and diming people? Why are they releasing games that aren't properly tested? I feel the big name developers have... gotten lazy. And the gaming industry will suffer as a result.
For those not in the know, back in 1983, there was an event referred to as "The Video Game Crash." Atari had inferior games (like "E.T. The Extraterrestrial"), and underpaid programmers who branched away and started their own company. An over-saturation of the market with floods of low-quality games that no one ever (or wanted to) play, and too many consoles resulted in the crash. People stopped buying video games and Atari went under. And then in 1985, The Nintendo Entertainment System came to the United States (dubbed as a "entertainment system" instead of a "video game console" due to people being apprehensive as a result of the crash). Eventually the crash game to an end, and gaming thrived. (At least for a while).
Going over that brief history lesson, one thing can be gathered. History seems to be repeating itself. Games are being rushed out the door with no obvious play testing. The quality of games have been going down hill. Add on to the fact that game developers are nickel and diming their customers with ridiculous amounts of DLC, and we must start to wonder, is another crash imminent? Obviously, that is where we seem to be headed.
Back when I was a young gamer, one person could take a game and make it last a long time. For instance, Super C. I played that game repeatedly as a kid. And it was a HARD game. One hit, you are dead. And I managed to beat it, eventually. But that is what made the game awesome. Challenge. It set up a degree of determination in me. I WANTED to beat that game, and each time I played it, I got better and better at it, until eventually, I DID beat it (without help from Game Genie). There was a sense of accomplishment in it. I've beaten "Battletoads" another extremely hard game, and I did it without the genie or level warps. I took pride in progress.
Finding Easter Eggs and cheat codes in video games always added something fun to the game as well. The well-known Konami code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, Start) as well as variations of that code helped make people feel that they were doing something amazing in a game. Something secret, that they only knew about (despite the fact that anyone with an Internet connection could find the code on sites like gamefaqs or "World of Nintendo"). Games were about making people feel a sense of accomplishment by doing something in the game, whether it was finding a code or finally beating that level that plagued your dreams for months.
Nowadays, accomplishments are being replaced by money. It is too hard??? Give me $20 and I'll do the work for you. Secret modes in games??? Not any more. You buy them. If the game is too hard, I'm sure there are games where you can BUY an easier mode. "Mortal Kombat X" removed half of its core lineup, and are rumored to make appearances as DLC. The game industry has become a nickel and dime industry.
Video games are a luxury item. They are not required by any means, and the success of the video game industry hinges on the economy as a whole. As people are more strapped for cash, people will start to hold on to their money more. Video games will be the first to be given up to ensure needs are being met. Mortal Kombat X is a game that costs $60 almost for the base game. This does NOT include the $20 you have to spend to get the Kombat Pack with 4 fighters and the Samarai skin pack. YOU HAVE TO PAY TO HAVE GORO!!! Goro, a character that appeared in the very FIRST Mortal Kombat game back in 1992, is actually DLC now. (Or a pre-order bonus). This is absurd. They are even nickel-and-diming people for the base characters from the original game. All of this for a game that is glitchy and buggy.
And this isn't the only game with problems like that. This is just one from personal experience. The quality of games used to be a lot better. They rewarded people for achieving something in game, and people loved that feeling. Now, as long as you have cash in the wallet, you can buy something that leaves a sour taste in your mouth and a slightly emptier pocketbook.
However, it seems that indie games might bring hope to a seemingly dire situation. The big game developers are about money and profits and they do not care about quality or even the customer. Games like Minecraft, however, are HUGE. Indie game developers are just trying to get into the market, and so they will not cut corners to get a game out there without properly debugging it. Games like "Shovel Knight" remind gamers like what got me into gaming in the first place.
So, back to the original question at hand. Is a video game crash imminent? In my opinion, no. (Not that I'm an expert at the markets). People are still buying the games. Plain and simple. There is enough people still buying the games so that the big name developers can actually afford to cut corners to get game released faster. I would NOT be surprised, however, if the video game industry did suffer another recession. I would not go as far to say that it will completely crash, not with indie developers bringing some decent quality games into the mix, but frustrated gamers will start to become more hesitant to buy from certain game developers due to their history of cutting corners and releasing poor quality games. Times have changed since the 1980s when video gaming wasn't as established as it is now, and enough precautions have been put into place to avoid a complete crash, but the nickel-and-dime tactics need to stop. Games need to be tested. Games need to make people feel good when playing them, and not regretful of the choices they made to pay the extra cash.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)