Unfettered Blather

Welcome to the latest installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza created by bs angel and coordinated by Game Couch. 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 deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

From Crazy Kinux, Does every game need to be a grade-A blockbuster title? Would you be willing to play more average games or should every game shoot for the 10.0 rating?

Good public speakers and stage thespians understand one important rule -

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Comedian Louis Ramey Jr., who recently appeared on Last Comic Standing, once talked about how he was booked for a gig at a ski resort and when he got there the staff was flabbergasted and said that no one had showed them a picture of him. As it turned out, they had booked him to be the closing act to end a meeting for a white supremacist group. Louis Ramey Jr. is black. I think Mr. Ramey would agree that the type of audience you have is important.

What does that have to do with this month’s topic?

The question for this month’s Blog Banter “Does every game need to be a grade-A blockbuster title? Would you be willing to play more average games or should every game shoot for the 10.0 rating?”. I think anyone who is a regular reader would know who I feel about the overhype surrounding Metal Gear Solid 4 or Grand Theft Auto IV and how put off I am by the current game review pedastal of holding up a game with the nebulous criteria of being “more polished” than it’s competition. I suppose if I go Brasso a cow turd I could call it art. I don’t consider myself a hardcore gamer by any means but I’m far from any definition of casual you might try to apply. I think of myself as a gaming enthusiast. That said, what I get enthusiastic about isn’t necessarily games in general. I suppose I’ve talked around the main point long enough.

The easy answer is that I’m not too concerned with the quality of a game so long as it offers a good experience. I’m not demanding the greatest graphics, the best writing, or the latest technologies. I do expect game designers and developers to use adequate tools for the job though. However, pretty pictures only count for so much and if I want to see dazzling graphics the Internet has plenty of screenshots for me to peruse. If a game scores “average” but I enjoy it then I have no regrets. The real difficulty for any game is convincing me why I should buy it. I feel it’s fair to ask “what’s in it for me” since not only do I have to spend money on a game but devote time to playing it. In fact, I’ve passed on games that are cheap enough for me not to blink at the price simply because I’m concerned my minimum time commitment will be wasted.

However, for an average game to get my attention it’s going to have to offer me something I can’t get anywhere else. For example, I really have no interest in some mediocre military style first person shooter when I already own Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Vegas, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, etc. This is a field with plenty of titles that range from merely good to excellent. Why would I care for a middling to poor experience? Yet I also purchased, after an extensive search, History Channel’s Civil War, a title as mediocre as they come. Why? Well, to put it simply, how many Civil War shooters are on the market right now? Sure, they could have done better, but the game found a place in my library for its uniqueness.

If a game developer knows they don’t have the time or money to develop a AAA title, then they should not focus on trying to do something everyone else has done and has been able to do better. I will grant that my example of Civil War was poor because it was not a hot selling title, but there are plenty of other games out there that have not been graced with high review scores and universal praise that have still sold well. If you want to get attention in the market, then do something to stand out instead of trying to be like everyone else.

Participants : Zath!, Delayed Responsibility, Silvercublogger, weblog.probablynot.com, Crazy Kinux, Gamer-Unit, Unfettered Blather, MasterKitty, Game Couch

Other Reading from Blog Banter Participants -
An Editorial on Video Game Journalism
The Free World

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