Dragonlord, on 13 August 2012 - 10:57 AM, said:
Is there anything we as gamers can do about it?
Some way to influence the market to get the big guys to see that there could be an even bigger reward that would be well worth it if the are just willing to take the risk?
We as consumer have a voting power , selecting what we buy and when we buy it. Vote with your wallet.
Try not to support chain run games like Call of Duty, etc..
Pre-order gives additional funding and help the developer release a product. It denies us as a consumer to educate us on the game and we only get the developers point of view.
Do not do it.
Metacritic - Remove the scoreboard on metacritic, or develop a industry standard for rating games. Companies bases an entire IP success on that scoreboard. Some companies wont even hire you unless you have worked on an IP that have scored to low.
Only use metacritic to find reviews of a game and read the reviews. DO NOT use the score to decide to buy a game.Voice concern with metacritic and try to get them to either take away average rating or make an universal standard that IGN and other review sites can use.
Kickstarter is a two edged sword, on one side it is a great way for unheard developers to fund their ideas and get them financed as the recognized developers tend to focus on the safe model, but it is also used now as free PR for almost or finished products..
Console developers should probably band together and make a unified console and then Sony, Nintendo and MSN could focus on making a unique gaming experience. Mobile gaming market is the fastest growing one and believe biggest soon. Hence making a gaming experience unique and brilliant on console and PC works in favor of us gamers and will also ease the development for the developers as there is a standard.
Hence we as gamers should realize if the mainstream market gets more users, the niche market will also get more users hence we can see more original titles thrive in different genres.
We as consumer should hold developers accountable for crap products, if you get a product that flat out doesn't work or delivers a crap experience due to bugs.
Raise a complaint and go for refund. By not making it a hassle for the developer, we as the consumer accept their business model and more will do it. Make an educated post on forums explaining why you choose to abandon the title and warn others.
As consumers we want to see new and fresh titles and not the same rehash over and over again. We want a new fresh engaging experience,
Yet our wallets seem to support the publisher train of tought as we buy CoD1 , CoD2 and so on. Hence try to only support titles that deserve to continue. A game were the story has a right of life.
We want games with rich and engaging gameplay. Not new shiny graphics or even better both.
By buying games that is different challenging and not graphical pretty we tell the developers we want that, by communicating with the team through their forums we get a chance to influence the development process, yet it is their creative work, so they might not decide our ideas are what is appropriate for that title, but maybe they use it in another title.
So returning to your original question, how can we influence the game industry. We do so by being a proactive consumers, voting with our wallets, being interactive and communicating to the individual developer team as a interest group not as an individual. Also communicating with MetaCritic so ratings aren't skewered or removed entirely.
Komaru, on 13 August 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:
Crankwerk, thanks for bringing up the Witcher series. Fantastic games, fantastic books. I also picked up Wargame, but I'm having trouble getting the hang of it. Know of any good communities for it?
I have to admit I don't know of any good communities in it, I tend to play it with a group of friends. But if you want we can team up and play. Just shoot me and invite on steam Clockwork is the handle.