Lemmings On The Move

For starters just wanted to state that I had not forgotten to blog yesterday but to be honest ran out of time. Though I don't have an urge to really blog today about my day but rather attend to my promise of having an entry about a random topic of my mind and going on a rant about it for a bit. While my days can vary from a good bit interesting (like the power outage yesterday) to the typically day having some deviation of thought seems like a good idea. For tonight's topic "Lemmings On The Move" going to go over I guess "follow the crowd" / "peer pressure". Without further a due.

For those that know what the actually creature 'lemming' is its not exactly what I'm referring to. While I must admit they are adorable creatures and probably have the same mindset as to what I'm about to rant on about not precisely the same. The first thing that comes to mind when I think 'Lemmings' is the old dos game in which the player is given access between 2-10 abilities and must exercise them to save a certain percentage of humans. A bit similar to the human race relating to entry into a certain colleges. Schools can only admit a certain number of students due to capacity, fire regulations, number of avaliable teachers and so forth. A lot of this stuff his fairly basic I mean the art of mimicry is learned at an exceptional young age and encourage in some respects. If anythings it the primary learning engineer of our brain.

Equally though that could be why 'TV' in itself is viewed as a non-constructive devise. It can certainly demonstrate a mass multitude of activities however many of them are difficult to duplicate with the exception of some children shows which seemed to do a fairly good job. On the same note though humans need a sense of interaction from other people otherwise there overall mentality can be completely different.

One element I certain do miss (partly due to the growth of online game and internet as a whole) is the arcade scene. There was a recently documentary that was done by Shoryuken forums where they obtain the views of various fighter fans prior to EVO2k10. Certainly there's the whole portion in which you can chat via voice chat, in game chat, and so forth but that distinct visible element no longer exist. Equally the whole concept of arcade beat-ups doesn't seem to have a major holding anymore. The most notable one as of recent has been castle crashers but even then the lack of a joystick and feel of the arcade makes it lack a bit luster. This is of course much more prominent in fight games but that's a topic for another day.

To get back on topic a bit I find that in the current gaming medium its no longer about what games are actually interesting but several other elements that play a role beyond game play. To name a few they are graphics, quotes, and everyone else owns a copy of it. Graphics seem to be a large factor and of course can be argued always has been a considerable factor when deciding to pick up a game. Though whole evolution of evaluating a title has of course increased greatly. In days long past one would previously go into a video game store look at the box, see how cool the box art is and from there look at the back of the box. In some cases the back of the box (similar to an instruction manual) may not even be read and based on the how it looked...it would either be rented or purchasing.

Purchasing a game back when Cranky Kong created the dinosaur was a fairly large endeavor. I specifically remember only owning about 8 GameBoy games before I retired it and got a GBA or choose to read instead (I use to read the Bible a good bit back in the day on trips back from where ever). Thus buying a game as a kid I guess would be similar to getting another TV for the home. Renting however was King and in some cases a luxury as I do recall an occassion in saving up enough to rent a Super Scope...that was glorious however never a Saturn...twas a bit much.

Back to my point in where graphics have always played some way of a role however there was a slight stagmented period in which game play seemed to be superior. This of course is during the era of SNES and Genesis prior to the advancements of 32 bits graphics. When technology could no longer make things pretty we (the game) as a de facto received some of the greatest titles I've played till this day. Sonic Series , Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, the handful of Final Fantasy Games, Zelda: LttP the list honestly goes on. The same of course can be said for the PC environment while we had Doom and Quake the number of mods are of course countless (any recall Simpson Doom Mod?).

However I'm not saying that the trend did not continue after this generation, if anything it may have improved in terms of how much punch we got out of our games. Where most roms had graphic and size limitations the compact disc would over come this and provide us with a few treats. I would say that this in itself is a blessing and a curse. On one hand if you make any sot of game now its capable of adding a great deal more length if your don't mind watering the graphics down from their full potentially (anyone recall blocky Cloud from FF7? or Crash Bandicoot looking a bit silly). On the reverse note though it did create the element of 'well you know people can now watch their games as well as play them and we don't have to invest as much in having the player play through crucial parts, we can show them'...I'm personally not a fan of this simply due to the reason that we rarely see games now in which we spend a good portion watching little bits and pieces.

However don't me wrong if done correctly it can be a fantastic driver (one that particularly comes to mind is the way in which Parasite Eve 1 demonstrate this. The first showing of the rat like mitochondria creature, the 3 headed dog at the police station along with the melting of the audience at the park...all well done) I just wish not to see it done to an extent where I'm sitting there thinking I bought a $40-$60 interactive film (Xenosaga and Heavy Rain pop in my head). This is where I feel gaming has kind of hit a rut (at least in the main stream) that and fear of trying new IPs.

The fear of trying a new IP really does confuse me though with larger gaming companies. Its really a sign of stubbornness which we as a consume (as a whole) don't mind accepting. Equally familiar in the movie industry however its a bit more understanding there. The fact that their investing millions dollars into a project their banking on a high turn around. That and word of math of a bad film can linger for a bit. The same can be said for a game however through possible the gamers own fault (I'll explain) we don't mind enduring redundant products from major developers or consider that its 'ok' for them to do that.

I'll start with why i think its our fault. Back in days long past we played games a past time and equally developers enjoyed making games not for profit margin but for the fact of knowing the crowd would enjoy them (<3 indie). This unfortunately is no longer the case sense gaming is such an obsess behemoth cash cow. Let's Miyamoto for an example shall we. Back in the day sof 8-16 bit graphics Miyamoto was free to make whatever games he pleased without any question. He would go to his group of programs and be like 'were going to make a mario game but this time his going to do, xyz'. Sometimes this would lead to great creations such as Mario RPG (with help from Square), Super Mario World, and say Super Mario World 3 (aka Wario World on the GB). Equally this of course had its failures such as Mario is Missing, Mario's Time Machine and several others I wouldn't hurt your memories with. Now a days Miyamoto has to go through 3 advisors before he can even start work on the project. Is there more at stake now? Of course but it would be similar to giving an artist a budget on a mural which would cover the side of a building. While I'm sure they have a budget its more of 'let them do as they please.

So before I keep myself up any longer what point am I getting at (Though I hate to rush my point, but I do need sleep). The influences which current exist leads gamers to believe that sense Sam Max and Clark are getting the latest version of Slipper King Madness that he himself also must get it otherwise he'll miss out on inside jokes, and possible rantage. For anyone that has played and quit any mmo with a group of friends you know the feeling I'm talking about. I just find it difficult to believe that many individuals will drop money on major IPs simply because 'they know they'll like it'. Take a game I say go out their and exercise that creativity muscle a bit. The one flow of the great age of information is that it creates an extreme structured and equally randomization of thought....

Bah almost side track but my point is... its best to be yourself and do what you enjoy, following the masses is silly and the only way we can truly tell a gaming company 'there doing it wrong' is with (which i hate to say) our wallets since the day and age has changed. Unless there Indie then they'll listen. Its kind of like my conspiracy theory with Warcraft. The reason why the patch process takes so long is Blizzard has to evaluate any equally number of things that will fix the game and equally make it more balance. Simply because if the game was perfectly balance no one would want to stick around. The hope is that if its unbalance then you sit around and wait of the next patch (or expansion cycle) and hope your class gets address, either that or a roll an alt either way Blizzard gets an extra 15 bucks. Don't believe me, look at the Shaman class and tell me how long they've been meaning to fix them... ya thought so.

Anywho I'm off to bed would love to rant more but need more than 6 hours. Nite all!