Did you know that the “Game Industry” makes the best and most fantastic games ever?

The problem is not with the “Game Industry” or with the ‘games’. No, the problem is somewhere else.

The problem is used games.

The problem is piracy.

The problem is the Wii.

The problem is the recession.

The problem is the business model.

The problem is retail stores.

The problem is the publishers.

The problem is the customers.

At this point, it would be more revealing to ask who isn’t being blamed for the Core Implosion. The only people who are not being blamed are the developers. And more specifically, it is developers’ creativity that is not being blamed.

Here are two scenarios. Which sounds more plausible?

That a swarm of insidious forces have conspired against our genius game developers including the used games market, retailers, pirates, the media, and even customers….

…or…

That the game developers are not putting out quality, accessible content in games that is rapidly increasing the used games market, pirates, media scorn, retailers demanding to be more dominant in their publisher relationships, and even begin to have customers turn against them?

The entertainment business is a tough business. The video game business is especially tough. Most businesses fail in video games. Yet, there seems to be this expectation that video game demand is constant, never ending, and can only go up, up, up. Video games, we hear, are a ‘growth business’.

But every industry has once been declared a ‘growth business’ until it races into inevitable decline.

It is breathtaking to watch an entire industry go into full denial. It is human nature to never blame oneself, especially one’s own “creativity” and “craft”. Witness the newspaper industry. It is collapsing with newspapers shutting down all over. Do they blame themselves? Do they blame the content they put out on those newspapers? No. They blame everyone else but the content, but the work they do. “The business model needs to be repaired,” they said.

What I am hearing from the “Game Industry” is the chorus of “the business model needs to be repaired”. The games, themselves, are never said to be need ‘fixing’. Developers making games for themselves instead of for customers (who are the ones who buy the games) is also rampant and rarely criticized. Just the general attitude of the “Game Industry” seems to be totally disinterested in the customer and his/her lifestyle concerning games. As for Expanded Market customers, sheer hostility is unleashed upon them. What crime did these new gamers commit to deserve such anger and ridicule? Apparently, their buying purchases made investors insist to publishers to serve this new market. No one should have a problem, unless you believed that gaming revolved around the developers and not the customers.

The vast majority of people have jobs they do not like. In these jobs, they are often told what to do, when to do it, and how much of it needs to be done. Many people do not even get to work in air conditioning or even sit down to work. The idea that game developers believe they are entitled to work only on games they, themselves, want to play is laughable.

If you want to do what you want, you have to own your own business. But even then, you have to fund that business. And the result is the business owner doing things he/she never imagined to be doing, to be working harder than he/she ever was as an employee. A business doesn’t get to do what *it* desires. It’s success is tied entirely to the desires of customers.

“Video game business is complicated. It is not black and white.” It most certainly is ‘black and white’. There is the world of the ‘industry’ and the world of the ‘customers’. The ‘customers’ are giving clear indicators about where they want to go. They are buying DS and Wii systems. They like their games shorter with less BS. They are making it very clear they do not want digital distribution for all games. But, incredibly, they are not just ignored but mocked.

It is not a secret that most people in the “Game Industry” entered this business solely because they wanted to make the games they wanted. Thus, they resist and grow hostile at making games that they, themselves, would not like.

It is clear to me that most people in the “Game Industry” shouldn’t even be in this business. And this raises the question: what is this business about? What is the business of gaming?

It is not about making games.

It is about making gamers.