Salazar said:
What baffles and irritates me most, really, is the proposition that consumers are to blame for the mega-budget graphics arms-race predicament. And not just on a collective level. When I read that thread, same with the used-market arguments, it's like I'm supposed to hang my head and admit that I, individually, asked for this.
Like fuck I did. I have watched videos of porn starlets being talked into triple-anal, but I am just completely stunned by people's acceptance of the notion that we consumers have somehow enslaved these corporations.
Yep, spot on. Some of the best games this gen have been relatively low-fi affairs without the ridiculous blockbuster-movie aping production values. Look at the best of xbla, psn, wiiware and PC equivalents. Pixeljunk monsters, geometry wars 2, world of goo all are excellent examples. All under $15. All better than 95% of full priced games.
The problem is that we had one or two big games this gen that were blockbuster games and insanely so. Call of Duty is that game. The other mega blockbuster games were probably made on a budget maybe a tenth of that and didnt see many companies try to do a similar thing. Those games were New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart Wii.
So many people in the industry seem to think they have to do it exactly the same as the brashest, loudest, most bombastic "AAA" $50 million venture in gaming. Just because Activision do.
Well, just like music, look at modern day pop videos. I personally dont mind that R&B is a big part of music culture, but at what point did it become
all of it? (In the minds of major labels, that is).
Gaming is currently a market with little diversity at the big end of town, and the sooner the rot is cut off the better.