The 2nd Annual State of Games

The 2nd Annual State of Games Happy Holidays to everyone out there, I hope you have a wonderful finale to the year's end. For years, the Malacast Editorial has been a digital media blog, focused on the state of affairs in video games, eBooks, film, and television. Truly I post whatever I feel like on here, but I find it absolutely necessary to discuss video games on this site, because despite the ebb and flow of the actual industry, the medium of games is slowly becoming the main form of entertainment for the 18-34 demographic. This is the second annual State of Games post, and will focus on the positives, and negatives of the video gaming industry this fiscal year, which is quickly drawing to a finish. I am a strong proponent of video games, I respect them a great deal as an art-form, a business platform, and as a technological wonder. However, I'm not a fan of certain anomalies that take place within the industry, and poor choices the industry has made this past year. Obviously Gamer-Gate has become a story these past weeks, and for most people, has died down, but the stance is still causing a schism in the gaming industry. Many people really just want to bitch and moan, but others really do have a strong case against what is going on. I've written a great deal on this subject, and I'm sorry to say, I really don't care about this situation so much when it comes to the state of the video game industry, in-terms of actual games. I do however sympathize with both sides of this issue, it has no place in this particular post,,hence the extra blog post this past Monday. The video game industry is at a turning point: where we either separate the consoles from the tablets, or make them work in some symbiotic way, unintentionally destroying the idea of "hardcore gamer" AAA titles. Of course, I don't necessarily believe the latter will happen, it could very-easily happen in the upcoming years. As a gamer, I respect the youth doing what they want when it comes to certain gaming titles. I know that even though I am a completely different generation of gamer, I can still respect their intent, as they will be the ones that go on to mold the industry, and inheriting the market. Gaming is a tool, which functions only how the individual developer decides, and code monkeys bring to life with a bit of help from Autodesk Maya, or any other software engine that fits to the times. I don't leave out PC gamers here,because I consider them to be the defining pinnacle of video gamers, who help mold the MMORPG worlds, and make us all see that sometimes a keyboard and mouse still outdo the controller,,or in event years, the index finger. Video games are in that wonderful transitioning period, whee the purists will complain that games are losing their dignity, and the eldest of us, (I've been playing video games for close to twenty-six years now) that games will always change, and they don't always stay the way we expect them to stay, and that's not a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I think this wave of DLC is a great tragedy that has befallen many uneducated gamers. I hate that games on disc we never fully developed, even after seven delays, and come our so buggy, so glitchy, that they should come warranted with insurance, so you get a full refund! Games have always been buying, but AAA titles should never have so much aggravation, especially for close to eighty dollars for some titles! I've played video games for years now, and I know a drop in quality looks like, and the video game industry has never been honest about their graphics,content, and have shortened games to the point that they can be beaten in an afternoon, on the highest difficulty setting. I do not want to play a game for sixty dollars, or more, and have four hours of gameplay, and all I unlock is an alternative costume! This generation of games are already continuing the issues that plagued the last generation consoles, and that was prevalent this year with the major titles. This year has seemed terrible for games, in-that many big name titles were barely released, and delayed for so long, they've lost their fervor on release. Destiny is a prime example. People were so excited for the game, but it has met with the same likely criticism of every Bungie game to come out since. Speaking of a past Bungie experiences, the re-release of all the Halo games in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection was proof that without Halo, Xbox struggles, and eve. With Halo, the Xbox is, and always will be a pipe dream, which has helped ruin the industry tenfold. This year has been treacherous for software, and a lack of IPs has left me wondering why we even run out to buy these systems at launch. Both systems are barely a year into launching, and neither have show. Us anything. It salivating vapor ware that has yet to come to fruition. Even the Witcher 3 was delayed. Also, did Thief release? I know Infamous: Second Son released, and it got great reviews, but did it actually get great sales? The sad fact is that it seems like nothing is even worth playing! Of course I'm being a bit overly dramatic, but you know what? There's a little bit of truth in there. Aside from the yearly dose of Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty, which is always lacking more than it adds, there's very little worth playing. Say what you want, the previous systems (which are still selling, and getting the new games ported to them with full 1080p, and will for the next few years make it not even worth buying new, unless it seems absolutely vital to play the latest "greatest" games.) This is all obvious, and even Nintendo is falling victim to such complaints. Nintendo has become what it always strived not to be: a company that is below expectations, and seems to rehash old ideas, with little expectations to carry on a much stronger, creative concept, especially with their technology! And if they do get something Interesting with the technology, the scarcity of media advertisement leaves most gamers in the dark. The gaming industry is quite vigilant, and I said years ago that games are going the way of Hollywood, and that would be a potential downfall for how we play games, and the fact stands: games are becoming movies, and that means we are going to see a lot of counterculture creations in the near-future. This next generation of hipster kids will do at least one thing right by our generation, and that's make games worth playing once again. 2015 claims to have great titles coming out, but with how this damn generation has yet to get gaming proper, the delays are truly hurting the systems. I am sure most of you can look forward to a new a Metal Gear Solid, or even Batman: Arkham Knight, but most of you are still on edge over if these games are going to come out, or become so delayed, the wait will kill the actual anticipation for these games. That's why I hate announcement trailers. I hate to see something bright and shiny, and then, all we get is some fodder that looks nothing like the quality of that preview trailer. Granted, it's a business, and an art, and I do see the business side, which is not that bright, and the model will have to change in the next few years. Remember, people were expecting us all to be playing the Atari 26,000,000,000 by now! So these companies are replicable, and with steam boxes, and other things, like tablets, PC, and future tech, we may just see a few of these companies go bye-bye. Remember, in the vast global economy, there is no IP, or established company that is safe from the wrath of the market. You now have competition from tablets, phones, iPods and such, and guessing that these are nothing more but trends, is foolish. Of course the hacking of Sony, and but a few years before, the hacking of the Playstation Network, was not just an accident, it was the folly of the market not able to catch up quickly with the times. I don't care about network play, I'm an OLG (Offline Gamer) so I don't care about setting up accounts, or downloading content. I don't care so much about the hacking, hacking takes place all the time, and Sony hadn't learned from their past mistakes, so the market will hurt them for that, in people not buying their products in the future,'if security is a serious concern. Gaming is the hub of our homes, and even though the console game is an old concept, and we no longer think of gaming in a stationary position, we play on our phones, we play on the bus, in the car, against the world, we don't have borders, and games don't have regions, they are in-fact, region-less, and we are now on a global playing field for the second generation of home consoles. Sony and Microsoft are now major systems that everyone looks to for the future of gaming, and consoles like Nintendo are being left behind, but they hold on, barely by the skin of their hypothetical teeth. Nintendo's Wii U was as innovative as a Play school toy. If the Wii U was the Wii, it would've been truly revolutionary, and in an age with the iPad, it's just another expense that really is about five years behind. I know the fan base is looking forward to how their favorite characters will play out on the Wii U, with it's touch screen remote, but I believe most gamers, including kids, not nostalgic about playing Mario for the ten billionth time, will look towards Xbox One and Playstation 4. Microsoft has been desperate to get you to buy their system of over a year, and they are still struggling with the PS4 leading the charge, even after all the scandals. That's because gamers know not to give into the hype the media tries to twist and drip out of every catastrophe, like this is really the end of the world, it's not. Microsoft has rehashed old ideas, taking a page out of the book of Nintendo, and it still pushes it's Kinect system, which to me was as asinine as the U-Force technology nearly thirty years before! Nobody wants to wave their hands like morons, as the PS Move had also proven. If you've read the first of these articles (Peripheral Apocalypse) you will know just how I feel about the stupidity of these controls, or lack thereof. Microsoft and Playstation are on equal grounds this time around, but I feel like both are not anywhere near what the newest systems could be, to be quite honest, the major difference between the PS3 and PS4 seems to be that the majority of the PS4 games are in 1080p, where most of the time the PS3 games were in 720p, if you were lucky. The PS4 isn't that much different to it's predecessor, in-that it really isn't as revolutionary a jump from playstation 3. The games are nowhere near as compelling on this generation's systems, but seeing as the jump from PSX to PS2 were huge, and from PS2 to PS3 were nothing short of revolutionary, with the added abilities HD, I think the Playstation 4 will shine once it can utilize Sony 4K. Personally, I would love to see a full Ultra High-Def version of Dead Space on an eighty inch 4K screen, because that experience is one of the reasons I want to become a horror fiction writer/filmmaker. Microsoft has lost this "Console War" but to call this a console war, is just another media term that is supposed to get us all excited about nothing. The truth is console wars are barely decided until the very bitter end. Most gamers don't run out and buy the system the second it's released, because the prices are extravagant, and used games make up quite a large percentage of game sales, which I'm glad is still supported, because it allows lower income, and budgeting gamers to play a game, and the artistic genius of those developers is being seen by a much broader audience. It also allows for games that would not normally be purchased a second chance to gain an audience. As a gamer who looks towards what games will become, not necessarily what they are, I think story has become the major improvement in gaming so-far. Games like Farcry 4 and The Evil Within, are centered around stories, along with atmosphere, that pulls the player in, and has them wanting more. It holds your attention, and in a world where a lack of concentration is as normal as "Oh look! A shiny butterfly! Huh? What were you saying?" That is impressive. I really don't have much more to say on the topic of games for the year, because it's just been a personally bad year for me, and with-that, I believe I'm going to leave this State of a Games report. Next year, I'll have a much more extensive outlook, as that will be the big year for the current generation of titles. Oh, I could add that Super Smash Bros. was released, but I find that game more repugnant than the newest rehash of Tetris, which of course Tetris has a movie being released theatrically in the near-future as well, so yeah, the world is going to Hell. Thank you for reading the. Malacast Editorial, i appreciate it, and I'm thanks for everyone who gives me a second of their time. Also, thank you for everyone reading the Mortal Kombat History post, I can't believe how strong that post is going. For the amount of views it gets, I'd swear it had pornography on it. Still I was proud of writing that whole amalgamation of posts about Mortal Kombat during the Midway era, and I'm glad my hard work paid off. Also, I will be checking my email soon, I've been busy lately, that I've not had the opportunity to get to it, so if you've sent me something, I'll be answering your comments and such this week. Twitter: twitter.com/mcasteditorial or @mcasteditorial E-mail: mcasteditorial@yahoo.com. by Malacast Agent, Lead Writer for the Malacast Editorial