*Sigh*
Generally speaking, my overall attitude regarding business is good. I like business; it interests me. Journalism gets a *very* skeptic eye from me, though. Seeing bias in the news is nothing new nowadays, and it seems to skew in the favor of the current readership, or the exploitation of them. Tweaking their pull strings, rapid and constant pushing of certain buttons, these journalists seek to maximize their traffic with sensationalism in lieu of real stories (which is why I linked to a summary, and not the actual podcast). On one hand, I get it; exciting headlines bring in the traffic. On the other, though, anyone can shout loudly about something and get attention; it's something else if you actually have something to say, and I'd rather get news from people with news to tell.
Going back to before, I like business. What I don't like, though, is industry. Industry as a word brings assumption of a group or groups in charge of an entire sector of business. The lack of a threat of being taken over, disrupted, or otherwise lost in wealth and career makes people in that sort of power comfortable and overconfident. I know I'm not the only one who's noticed a pattern or formula in established media.
Game Industry as it is now is neither comfortable nor overconfident in their position now, as evidenced by "stories" like this one (it's not just arbitrary categorization, it's also a misrepresentation of data by splitting it this way. Who says what is casual and not anyway, if that is even the right term? It's like the book industry splitting up the best seller charts so that Harry Potter won't show up on top of the regular list). It's easy to find the ones with an angle that doesn't prove much by looking at the "goal posts", or the conditions of proof. The more complex the goal, the more BS it is.
Whatever happened, by the way, to the customer is always right? Okay, in big business, you have to alter this a bit: the customers are always right. If the people say no, and they vote with their money, that is your loss, and not theirs. I think that many corporations are failing lately have a lot to do with ignoring this idea. Never mind the failing economy, how did the economy fail in the first place? Tricking customers, no matter who they are, will see consequence somehow, even if the top executives get by on a golden parachute. Averting corporate failure with bailouts is the same as propping up a dead parrot and selling it off if you ask me.
See how ridiculous it is?
Anyway, I'm getting off track.
Seeing the game industry suffer and flounder this way tells me that it will either shape up, and bring new and real talent into the fold, or collapse and die. Either way, video games as we know them now will never be the same. Nearly everything will change, and I'm confident that it will change in the next 5 years or so, maybe less. The old way just isn't sustainable anymore.
