On Monday night I went to my local cinema to check out Deadpool. I enjoyed it a great deal, as I suspected I would, and I didn’t really pay much attention to what else was on around the same time. However, a quick look shows that there are currently twelve other films showing at the Brighton Odeon, ranging from things I want to see, like Spotlight and possibly Hotel Transylvania 2, to films like Dirty Grampa, The Good Dinosaur and Zoolander 2, which hold absolutely no interest for me.
The thing is, I don’t care that the cinema is showing these films; it makes absolutely no difference to me. These films are all very clearly not targeted at me, and they simply don’t interest me. Yes, The Good Dinosaur is a Pixar film about my favourite thing, dinosaurs, but it’s also oriented toward small children and families, much as Zoolander 2 is meant to be enjoyed by people who, for some reason, still enjoy Ben Stiller comedies.
The thing about modern mass media is that it’s a broad church; there’s something for everyone. Despite what people say about Hollywood only making superhero films these days, there’s a huge range of films that come out, which should cater to most if not all tastes. Whether it’s books, music, TV or films there’s always something for everyone, and it’s important that the same holds true for games.
Whether it was a reasonable criticism or not, games have frequently been called out for not really containing a lot of variety. In my opinion, it would be fair to say there wasn’t a huge amount of variety in gaming from the late 90s to the mid-2000s, particularly in the West. Shooters seemed to become incredibly popular as dual analogue sticks on console controllers enabled the modern form of FPS controls, and other genres seemed to fade into the background as a consequence.
The fact that indie gaming has thrived in recent times, leading to the most diverse selection of games we’ve ever seen, is only a good thing, despite the complaints that often seem to come from some areas of the gaming community. Having a wider selection of games doesn’t mean that the games that you love are dying off or going anywhere, they’re simply part of a growing collage of titles.
Take games like The Witness and Firewatch. Do you honestly think they would have been released to nearly as much fanfare ten years ago? Do you think they’d even have been released on a home console at all? It seems incredibly unlikely, and yet here we are, with two unique and distinctive games making big splashes.
It’s hard to argue that they don’t deserve it, even if they may not be to everyone’s taste. Releasing this games has only served to enrich gaming further, to potentially widen its appeal and to, possibly, bring new people into the fold.
That last point is key, as more people playing games is only a good thing. It makes the industry as whole stronger, more inviting and, crucially, more appealing to investors. The more it appeals to investors the more likely it is that games in all shapes and sizes, including the games that you enjoy, get made. That’s not to say that you have to support games you don’t like, but it seems equally dumb to become actively angered by them, or to claim that they’re “ruining” gaming.
Similar things could be said of the reaction to last week’s news that Quantum Break would be coming to Windows 10 as well as Xbox One. It certainly plays into the hands of those who see Microsoft as a duplicitous and unsavoury company, especially after how Rise of the Tomb Raider’s timed exclusivity was handled, but at the same time, this opens the door to more people to play.
As Phil Spencer replied to an angered fan:
@The_CrapGamer You cancelled a pre-order for a game you want to play because someone else get's to play the game on Windows?
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 11, 2016
Perhaps it’s the outsider status that gaming and gamers have held for quite some time – and in Quantum Break’s case, loyalty to a brand you’ve chosen over another – that’s brought about some of this anger, but opening up the gaming world to more people and potential fans is the only way that the outsider tag can ever be shaken off. Why not share our love for gaming with others, even if we don’t all love the same games. Where’s the harm in that?
Tuffcub
I am very disappointed David Tennant and Olivia Coleman did not write this.
Carrot381
I spend a lot of time playing video games and I really don’t care if the ones I personally enjoy are judged as ‘proper games’ by someone else. Maybe that’s an age thing or maybe I’m hardened by years of my FPS loving mates taking the piss cos I’d much rather spend 5hrs powering up a fishing rod in a jrpg than play online with them.
The kind of whiny entitlement and ridiculous sectarianism in that twitter timeline is rather depressing though and plays right into the cliched view of ‘a gamer’.
Thank goodness most users are making fun of TheCrapGamer’s heroic stand against the evil gaming companies.
ron_mcphatty
Good article. Shame that immature playground antics give those outside of our hobby a bad impression, but I think the wider opinion of the games industry has changed positively in the last decade. Games aren’t something you need to ‘grow out of’ anymore, something my wife has finally come to accept! Firewatch is great and you’re right, it wouldn’t have happened a decade ago.
Starman
As much as he’s a buffoon, crapgamers issue is this adds to suspicions that xboxone will not have any exclusives any more and MS are probably preparing to exit the console market and promote xbox as a windows 10 gaming brand. Someone said to Phil that for console & pc gamers there is no reason to get an xboxone over a ps4 now. Would as many people have got ps3/ps4’s if Uncharted, Killzone, TLoU were on PC?
Avenger
Forza 6, Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, Crackdown. You can count all the other exclusives in unless you have a spare £500+ to spend on a good solid gaming PC. I can’t help but feel Quantum Break is simply one game. Alan Wake made it to PC too, not long after a time when there were a couple of other 360 exclusives on the PC. I don’t really think it means that much, especially when MS clearly said they would unify Windows 10 and Xbox One through the same DirectX 12 packages for some games as well as certain cross-buy/cross-save initiatives. Also people buy consoles for more than one reason, and I’d still buy a PS4 if most of its exclusives were on PC.
Starman
If it works out that in a few years this has resulted in more xbox/pc new ips & sequels then I’ll be fine with it. But I have a creeping suspicion it’s the preparation of an exit strategy. Hopefully I’m wrong.
bunimomike
With digital delivery (love it or hate it), you can’t deny that it’s given us huge diversity with regards to pricing, size of game and content. From Journey to Oxenfree to Limbo and anything in between, our beloved hobby has far more diversity than cinema simply because of how the delivery system works. Thankfully.
Kris Lipscombe
I don’t think that’s true. I think it has more diversity than what’s shown in your local cineplex, but cinema is incredibly broad and experimental. Films shown at film festivals etc… have a huge range. Sites like Vimeo make it easy for creators to make these films available, in the same way that digital delivery does for games.
Avenger
I tend to think people are miffed about the Quantum Break thing because their ‘privilege’ status is now gone. To be fair, there is such a thing as loyalty but the argument goes both ways. What if MS said they were approached with making the game compatible on PC but refused so they could be loyal to XB1 owners. That would probably put them in an equally bad light. I do get that Quantum Break was pinned as XB1 exclusive and people may have bought a XB1 for that game, but things are allowed to change during the development process, surely?
Whilst in general, better access to games is great, often exclusivity can be what makes a game great sometimes. If Uncharted had been multiplatform, it wouldn’t have looked as good as it does, not to mention that financing might have been completely different. Unfortunately that comes at the cost of not everyone being allowed to play the game, but then the exclusives are rather special productions with interesting and sometimes different gameplay. That’s what makes them catch my eye rather than the ‘privelige’ of owning them.
Nocure-fd
What this has ultimately meant for me, is that many of the staples of gaming that were around in my youth have seen a very strong resurgence over the last year or so. Turn-based shooters (xcom, wasteland) and space sims (star citizen, elite dangerous, no mans sky) not being the least among them.
Digital distribution, and financing methods other than large development studios/publishers has made this possible. And I doubt those types of games would have seen the light of day again if these factors had not come together in the way that they have.
Yes there are some shady goings on. And some less than stellar efforts being made. But on the whole, I really can’t complain.
Forrest_01
I can usually appreciate standing true to your principles, but in the case of TheCrapGamer he’s just throwing his toys out of the pram for no real reason.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face comes to mind.