The Biggest Problem with the Gaming Industry - the Hardcore Gamer

The gaming industry has grown exponentially over the last decade. You would be hard scrapped to find a household without at least a portable console; after all, there have been about a billion Nintendo DS’s sold since they were released a few years ago. With everything right with the gaming industry, there are several things that are wrong with the industry we all love. Games and consoles are expensive, the market is flooded with low budget ‘shovelware’ games for the Wii, and the industry itself is constantly criticized for being a negative influence in gamer’s lives. While I agree, the before mentioned things are annoying, but to me the biggest problem with the industry is not the influx of casual gamers or the Wii; rather, the biggest problem with the gaming industry is the hardcore gamer. That’s right, it is us.

One of the ways we are hurting the industry is the fact we are never satisfied. It doesn’t matter that a developer has spent millions of dollars and teams of people have spent at least the last year working on their latest game, we will still nitpick every little thing we don’t like about a game and spread our disliking all over the web. We will only focus on what we don’t like about a game and overlook the many positive aspects of the game. How would you feel if you spent a year and half working on a project only to have millions of people around the world unfairly critique your work and smear it for all to see? Personally, I don’t understand why some developers keep trying their hardest to impress us, knowing that they are likely to fail.

Another way we are hurting the industry is by not putting our money where our mouths are. All of us have complained about Nintendo during the last couple of years. We have begged, we have pleaded, and we have been very vocal to Nintendo to release more hardcore and mature games on their system. Nintendo hasn’t necessary complied with our demands, but third party developers have stepped up and provided some quality titles for the system. How have we responded? Let’s look at the numbers.

Game & Worldwide sales (in millions)
Madworld - .43
House of the Dead Overkill - .60
The Conduit - .39
Dead Space Extraction - .22

Now let’s compare the numbers to some recently released casual games. New Super Mario Brothers Wii has sold 12.22 million copies and it has only been out since November and Wii Sports Resort has sold 13.87 million copies. If you were a developer and had to choose between a casual / shovelware game or a more hardcore title, what would you do? Keep in mind, they don’t do it for the love the industry, they make games to make money. It is as simple as that. You cannot blame them for focusing on titles that will sell well so they can make money. They need all of their games to sell well so they can fund future projects. Without funding, they will close their doors which we have seen happen to a lot of great studios this last year.

To me, the biggest blight on the gaming industry is piracy. I get it, games are expensive and with many great games coming out this year we are all going to be strapped for cash. It is a very attractive prospect to spend $30 or so on an R4 card and download some ROMs on it for a fraction of the cost of purchasing all of those games. As a result of piracy, developers lose millions and millions of dollars each year. That money that could be used to fund future games but instead it is lost. Piracy doesn’t just hurt the developers, it hurts all of us gamers. I can imagine that piracy is directly responsible for inflated game prices and I cannot blame developers for trying to recoup some of the lost profit from piracy. It is because of piracy that we have to deal with ridiculous DRM on games. You cannot blame developers for trying to prevent illegal copies of their games from being distributed. I read an article last year that talked about how the developer of World of Goo estimated that 90% of the PC copies of the game were pirated. 2D Boy (the developer) did not add DRM to their game and we can see the result.

Finally, the hardcore gamer is disrespectful. I cannot stand to play on Xbox Live because 99% of the communication is absolutely filthy. If you state your opinion on a forum that is contrary to what most believe, you will quickly be berated for daring to be different. Apparently it isn’t enough to be disrespectful, but some gamers need to cheat to get ahead of the competition. The release of Modern Warfare 2 showed us how people will do whatever they can to give themselves an unfair advantage over others. There were numerous glitches that were used to cheat in multiplayer matches. Some make the argument that it isn’t cheating and that they are just taking advantage of glitches. I don’t care how you justify it, it is cheating. I am glad Microsoft passed out temporary bans for people who used those glitches.

Now, I consider myself a hardcore gamer and I myself am guilty of some of the things I mentioned above but I am also sick of the stereotype of being a hardcore gamer. As gamers we should just be happy the industry we love is doing well, that console sales are growing, and that there are so many wonderful games that have been recently released and so many AAA titles that will be released this year. It is a wonderful time to be gamer.

[lh_swe]

Hardcore gamers are annoying needy, far too critical and utterly egotistical when it comes to many things but then again...It's what's making games good, better with each new IP. If every developer knew the fan-base to such a great extent would be satisfied with a game that has numerous flaws games would evolve at a much slower pace, it's this anal and super-pedantic attitude that makes some games just shine in almost every aspect because the developers want to stay loyal to these needy, obnoxious a**-holes because they are just the same and appealing to them is like appealing to themselves, why most game devs make games in the first place.

We can't e happy that the industry is doing well because if we did, devs would get lazy and find ways to make more money because no-one cares for those extra hours put in, the angry wife and the missed soccer game of a son, that sacrifice to make the game people could truly pick apart and still find soo few faults in it or let the faults be dwarfed by its strong qualities.

Another thing, I don't know what you meant by the whole piracy bit but it's not a result of hardcore gamers but effectively many hardcore gamers get a pirated copy of a game otherwise not worth the purchase, because other games outshine it and that is good, struggle is good, that is why this fanboy thing is doing the gaming industry wonders, pushing both sides to out-do one another which again makes games greater and gamers happier ergo it may be d***ish but if you haven't noticed the world of consumer goods is a fierce place and by the principle of the more adapted or suited individual/company makes it while the lazier and less skilled gets thrown to the dogs and that my friend is fair game.

edit- on the rudeness thing, well hey thats how people are and more specifically kids, but this is a worldwide problem and does not occur simply in hardcore gamers, if you get truly annoyed by this attitude then you should know that you'd be better off ignoring the issue because they feed off your frustration, why? because they are d***s thats why. Can that change? Well no, not with the piss poor super-liberal attitude teachers, parents and any and all rolemodels take to their freedom of expression, don't mistake me for saying they should be closely monitored and dissiplined but some level of action vs consequence should be established as their attitude is unknowningly creating a detrimental downward spiral to moral and social evolution which in turn slows tecnological and scientific evolution/progression.

[SilentNegotiator]

"Game & Worldwide sales (in millions)
Madworld - .43
House of the Dead Overkill - .60
The Conduit - .39
Dead Space Extraction - .22"

These games really weren't even that great. And Rail shooters are NOT "Hardcore"

[fatstarr]

So basically you want us the hardcore to just willingly give away our hard earned money which adds up to billions as a collective group to some lazy dev that made a cardboard tasting game? after all the video games industry is making its way up there in terms of grossing a lot of money. just like other businesses if people aren't satisfied something isnt right. and in terms of the wii i say 17% of the 50mill are hardcore gamers. some felt ripped off that the games were rail shooters, or not that good, or to pricey for a new ip. to get hardcore interested you need to have a significant amount of hype and a game that's not trash to begin with. just my opinion of the current gen.

the hardcore gamer makes the industry
Zelda wouldn't be Zelda
halo wouldn't be halo
Rpgs wouldn't be rpgs
there would be no forza or gran turismo just physics-less damage less cars.

each genre has its sets of hardcore and with out them games would be dead. take for instance if some "hardcore" shut in from the 90's didn't mail in hate mail. we would be playing the same unchanged game from the 90's or probably video gaming would be dead. the hardcore is the last line of defense in the video game industry to prevent companies like Activision taking over the market and marketing video-games like it was the new Walmart.

piracy has no effect on prices. and without pirates we would have crappy security and we wouldn't have the advances that we have in storage medium. IMO next gen if games take the leap to 15 gigs min piracy will be all but dead until the next leap in internet speeds hits the worlds.

in the end people should know video-gamers and hardcore people were here first. just like the internet before the casuals came to it. we set the rules we set the laws live by it or get lost. if you don't like the heat stay out the kitchen.