Is the videogame industry becoming too stagnant and complacent? It’s a question that I often times spin through my mind. Most recently it came up with the whole Duke Nukem Forever debate, as I find that game to be a prime example of the sort of thing I fear is plaguing the game industry at the moment. The game industry currently is experiencing the largest growth since it’s inception in the 1970s, but is this a good thing for the long term health of the industry as a whole? The game industry is facing one major problem it’s never really faced until this past decade; stagnation.
Many people tend to compare gaming ideologies by categorizing them into “East” and “West”. Often times I find one side blaming the industry’s apparent problems upon the other. The simple fact is that both sides of the pond are experiencing similar problems, albeit in different ways. In Japan, much of the same lack of creativity in stagnation is taking place just as it is in the West, it’s just not made as apparent. Over there, JRPGs are stuck in quite a rut creatively, which I already covered in detail sometime ago last year. Here, a similar problem exists primarily with the loveable shooter genre and this was made even more clear recently. While I won’t limit this argument to just Duke Nukem Forever, it is a great current example of a point I’ve been trying to make about the industry for quite some time now. That game in particular represents an extreme case of raising the bar in all of the wrong areas. There are many games that face this problem, this one is just a prime example of it. Sure, it did it’s job…it provided much shock and awe and got people talking. Some people complained about how the game industry has gone too far…others have offered a counterpoint stating that it’s all in good humor, worse things have been done in movies, etc. But the fundamental point is missed here. As the years have gone by since it’s introduction to the world 3 decades ago, videogames have slowly but surely begun to raise the bar with it’s subject material, yet it continues to never address such material with anything other than childish humor.
In the past decade, the videogame industry has torn down many barriers in terms of what's acceptable and what isn't to put into a game. Games definitely aren't just for kids any longer as they've become more risque and more controversial. However, at some point, you'll run out of controversial material with which to shock and awe and at some point, in order to advance, a more mature approach to these themes must be taken. The industry has now stagnated as a result of this new challenge. Sure, the subject material has become more risqué, once taboo subjects are slowly eroding away, but the fact remains that the game industry, particularly in the West, is afraid to grow up. Increasing the level of shock value and debauchery does not equal maturity. When it comes right down to it, when the game industry tackles controversial subjects such as in the case of DNF, rape, it chooses not to address these issues in a serious, open manner, but rather hide behind a shroud of toilet humor. Duke Nukem Forever took a controversial subject and made a crass joke out of it. Instead of Gearbox taking a mature approach in addressing these issues, they instead played it safe and attempted to use" wink, wink, nudge, nudge" jokes instead of simply stating it outright because the industry itself hasn’t matured to a level where it can handle such material because it’s too childish to advance to that stage just yet. As a result the evolution of the industry has grown stagnant and it's coming to a head more and more as the years go by. The industry is like the college fratboy who never grew up. Your schtick was funny and clever maybe ten years ago, but at some point it's time to get serious, graduate and get a damn job. The game industry needs to get serious and begin innovating in the right areas again.
The first thing that needs to be done is increase the variety of appeal. Part of the negative aspects of the current success that the industry is enjoying is an overall fear to cater to only one type of demographic. It's clearly aimed at 18-35 year old males (while ironically possessing a maturity level of a male under 18 most times) , but is afraid to step out of a particular bubble to cater to any other type of interests that demographic may have. No, it's guns, burly dudes and more guns. That's what sells right? Of course it is when that is all that they are given. This narrow minded approach will sell a few copies today, but it can't help but have a negative effect on the long term for the industry as a whole. The game industry needs more variety as this stagnation has spread to not only maturity, but to approach to design as well.
The best eras in videogames have all been when there were games everyone could play. When a variety was available for people of all ages. The best eras in gaming to me were from 1985-1990 and roughly 1994-2001. The reason for this is because that's when the most variety of games were being offered for people of all ages. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to love about the industry today, it's just that given the technological advances and capabilities that the current gen has made, it's a shame the mentality and maturity level of the games themselves haven't advanced along with it. You could make a much larger variety of games that cater to different demographics, yet the industry is focused on one particular demographic even worse than in the old NES days when technology was limited and less design approaches were possible. Games made outside of that demographic are made for the girlfriends and children of 18-35 year old males. They too have suffered as the industry often assumes children could only possibly be interested in nursery games or that girl gamers just want to play dance games along with the assumption that 18-35 males only ever want to play games in which you hold a gun or kick a football.
It's a shame really. This industry could innovate and grow in so many ways, yet chooses not to. It's far more interested in making a quick buck rather than thinking of the long term growth of it. When games you can download off of your console are far more intriguing than most of the disc based retail games, there's a problem. Sure, a lot of games this generation have innovated; but for every Heavy Rain, Bioshock and as much as I rag on it, L.A. Noire offer in the way of the right ways in which the industry should innovate, it will never get the respect it deserves so long as 6 other games choose to be "shocking and controversial" while lacking the stones to address anything shocking or controversial in any other manner besides that of a childish, bathroom wall cuss word writing college dropout.
Roger Ebert will never recognize gaming as art at this rate.
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