Welcome to Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deeply insightful to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
Q: If you could ask for one thing this year from the gaming industry as a whole, what would it be and why?
Ah, the thought warms the soul. Just imagine waking up Christmas morning to see a DVD-shaped gift nestling snuggly between that tennis racket you never wanted, and yet another pair of socks. This mysterious box has a tag attached:
“To Lou, rock this shit, Playuh! - Gabe Newell”
I tear away at that wrapping paper like it hurt my family to reveal a shiny new copy of Left 4 Dead on XBOX 360. Oh Valve, how did you know?
This is gaming giving back at Christmas, but does it owe us a damn thing? I’d like to think our perpetual gift of money and dedication throughout the year is more than equal to the odd gift in the holiday season. But video games and EA-branded oranges aside, what would be the one thing to ask for from the gaming industry? That one, pivotal factor you think is more important than anything else? While I’d like to say 10 free games a year, as standard, I ultimately want to see the industry continue to be a progressive medium.
Gaming is constantly evolving. More so than any other entertainment form. While film and music are dynamic platforms, they are bound by many years of standards and traditions. They are also far less direct in their demands for the consumer to be an active participant in the experience, instead, with a lot of mateiral, you’re simply an observer or listener; you’re not part of the experience unless you choose to be. In gaming you must become part of the experience to connect with the game, and I don’t mean this on any kind of spiritual or metaphysical level. I simply mean that you’re required to take action when playing a video game; you push buttons, you traverse worlds, you have to act on your involvement to get anything rewarding from your investment.
Developers are certainly exploring the immersion of gamer and product on a physical level (we have more gaming peripherals than ever this holiday season), but perhaps in order to go forwards we need to take a step backwards and boil gaming down to the fundamentals. This is where independent development takes the spotlight, and websites such as PlayAuditorium.com become prominent figures in the progression of ideas.
So, this Christmas spend some of that holiday cash on XNA or PSN. Money talks, and those couple of dollars could say a lot about the direction we want the industry to be taking in 2009.
Other Blog Banterers:
What I want in 2009, The “Roxanne” Edition, Dear Gaming Industry, if the industry gave us all presents this Christmas, Demands for the industry, Santa, Don’t Bring Me Toys I Have To Share, All I Want for Christmas Is…, My Wish for the Year, Crossing Over, Checkpoint Unobtained. errr., Loading Requests, LISTEN BITCH!!!, One Wish, Dear Video Game Industry, More games like Portal and Braid, Imagine, Dear Video Game Industry, A Wish for 2009!
