There will be no more games like this. The Myst series ended in semi-obscurity, and the Uru community is waiting more or less patiently for one final gift of love from Cyan, who are once again down to the bare bones and, like some Sixties pop star, desperately repackaging their one big hit again and again for a market which has no room for things that only do moderately well, or only enthrall a few thousand people. Meanwhile the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cells and the Haloes and the Half-Lives continue to proliferate and get all the expensive advertising, because there's no point giving publicity to something that wouldn't sell big without it, is there?
Yup, that's it right there. There's no room in the gaming industry anymore for games that have "beautiful, strange, immersive worlds and a compelling storyline". No one wants to publish games for people who want to explore, think, learn, discover. Players brains must not be challenged with anything deeper than finding the right combo of spells/weapons/power.
It's frustrating, really, to see Cyan sink so low, while the games that get the fanfare are just another FPS clone, just another kill-loot-level MMO. It's all about the marketing and the numbers anymore. No one cares about making an original game, just one that'll make money.
2 comments:
I think we're on the verge of something great. Services like Steam allow small, independent developers to get their games in front of lots of eyes without megapublishers. World of Goo is a great example of a "thinking" game. Mirror's Edge and Portal are not your typical games as well.
It's not that "beautiful, strange, immersive worlds" are disappearing, it's that every game is becoming one. (Most are still lacking story, however.)
Crossing my fingers and hoping so. I've got a few games of my own simmering, if nothing else, I can at least share those with people who'll like them.
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