E3 2016 is Coming Soon, But How Exactly is the Industry Going to Present Itself? My Ramblings on the Industry for 2016 and Beyond

E3 is just two months away, and although that seems like a lot of time, it's going to be here quicker than you think, and it's going to be all gaming journalists talk about for months to come. Look at my situation...I've been discussing, whether in little, or great detail about E3, ever since 2015's convention ended, and it becomes the epicenter of many blog posts throughout the year. 

  I'm ecstatic about this year's trade show, but being a major fan of the medium, I'm also concerned on just now great, or how wretched this year can be, but it's Bethesda's second year having a press conference, and that alone will force them to perform at even greater variables. That means they will have to showcase, to some degree, a game or several that will be performing and coming out soon. Dishonored 2, Doom, which will have had been released before then, and although I've discussed this already in my E3 predictions, I reiterate here just for continuity, I truly believe we will see Elder Scrolls VI. 

   So gaming is at a very precarious position momentarily, because every game announced last year has been held back, or so it seems. This means that studios that would be moving onto new IPs, new software, and producing games to look forward to either this holiday season, or sporadically throughout the next year are what we the fans expect, but the reality is seeing more footage of games we've already seen, with maybe one major announcment, rather than several huge announcements. 

  The problem with the gaming industry today is that it's too over-regulated, there are few risks taken, because if you do not have a return, you aren't here next round to produce games for the mass market.  Sometimes it's the business that kills creativity. Even the independent studios are afraid to fail, because they see only the business side, they count numbers, and don't produce quality. In-truth, the gaming industry is slowly becoming the movie industry, and that will curtail many of the reasons why gamers began playing in the first place. 

 However, I'm not here to be a digital downer, in-fact, games like Shenmue 3, although it's not a game I particularly care for, will bring back an old school feel in all the right ways. The Last Guardian is surely worth the wait, and even if it isn't going to be as successful as I expect it to be, I would not be surprised that it stil breaks certain records, like longest developed game, or most setbacks in gaming history. As a creative person though, I want to see games that speak to me as a horror fan, and as I grow older, I kind of leave the gore behind for more suspense and pure terror, but I also want some disturbing, bloody, and often monstrous scares as well. The gaming market has seemed to leave horror behind, or more horror noir, rather than classic horror. 

  Regardless, the industry is plateauing, and sometimes that great, because it is constantly having return business, but it needs to grow, and it needs to get people playing again. FPS games as well need to sort of go away, at least stifle a bit, and allow for more story to take over. Call me crazy, but I want more story games, and although promises like Mass Effect 4 tend to be the sort of games to fill those niches, I also want to see writers showcasing new ideas, not hesitating to take risks, when you do that, games like The Last of Us transcend multiple console cycles. The game is last generation,,and it's still replaying again and again, because of sturdy dialogue, familiar gameplay, and enthrall ing story that puts many Hollywood blockbusters to shame. Joel and Ellie are more symbolic and thought-provoking than anything Call of Duty has put out in three console generations,mand I make that statement with blatant sincerity. 

  Even Batman: Arkham knight gets nauseating with parlor tricks and repetition that the mediocre story gets buried behind the bit mapping. Rocksteady will move on to bigger things eventually, but the point is story is what we want, we're not imbecilic gamers that were stereotyped as morons that push buttons all day back in the eighties and nineties of the slacker generation, but we're a group of millions that wants to be engaged, we want to have empathy for the characters we play, and we want to watch  a story be played out that demands our attention, and we then want to claw and scrap to return to again and again. 

  However, I find it irritating, and I get very pissy when these enjoyable forms of entertainment are turned into causes, or artistic expressions that derail the entire medium. It is a cautious trail to mow when making political, religious, or personal statements that may not bode well for the developer/writer/publisher. Not so-much that people cannot handle contrarian views, but because in this over-politicized world, we are even sick of having our own views spewed out of every orifice that a talking head can speak from, and we are bombarded with this autocracy of viewpoints until we want to do nothing more but spit up retorts that fall on deaf ears. 

  I've written on this topic before, but I repeat it here now in distress of how the markets are swinging, and the business of electronic technology is going. I'm certain that the future of gaming regardless of social trends which impune bad decisions on the gaming market will still be inevitably bright, becaue the future generation, my grandcholdren's and their children's generations are set to be the most enturepinerial, and enthusiastic generation to come forth, especially with the focus on creativity and art to be so crucial to this world, it certainly impedes conventional methods, and the gaming industry will thrive because of such methods.