You know, it doesn’t even remotely surprise me that The Grinder has gone multiplatform.  It sounds just stupid enough for them to pull.  People were originally seeing this game as a Wii Left For Dead clone, but to put it on those systems where the REAL game in many of their eyes exist?  Recipe for a sales disaster waiting to happen. Now HVS was probably banking on the hype from the “unrivaled Wii visuals” and “Ultimate Wii FPS” marketing spiel to sell The Conduit in blockbuster numbers. When that didn’t work out for them they probably decided that instead of making a better game, they’ll make The Grinder multiplatform since their realization that Expanded Audience Wii owners don’t ask “How High?” when they yell jump.  Too bad it’s gonna backfire, as MANY 360/PS3 games are probably gonna look better AND play better than The Grinder.

Now IGN has been full of it lately with all their Wii shenanigans and such, and once again the site lives up to it.  What Matt said in that thread concerning The Grinder going multiplatform was just a sight to behold. “Sorry guys. Fact is, Wii is a really tough market for a game like this. Can’t really blame High Voltage for not wanting to sink everything into a Wii-exclusive just so nobody will buy it because it doesn’t star Mario and doesn’t come packed with a Balance Board.”

Insulting most of your (in this case former) base isn’t all that smart, but since he wants to be like that about it, let me tell you from my perspective as a Expanded Audience FPS player (yes we do exist) why The Conduit actually fails at life and why it wasn’t gonna sell blockbuster numbers in the first place.

They broke the controls:  What felt absolutely perfect in Metroid Prime 3 and Call of Duty WaW at the time was completely butchered on here.  The camera lagged behind your movements outside of the bounding box, and it’s something I never got accustomed to.  I found myself dying more often than enough because I was fighting the control scheme more than I was the enemies.  Why can’t I use nunchuk tilt to peek around corners like in Metal of Honor? (this was a PSP port and it played better)  The gestures worked pretty damn accurately there too, but blow here.  Why?

No Zapper support at all:  Call of Duty and Metal of Honor Heroes 2 did it, and both benefited heavily from the extra support a second hand gives to your aiming. That’s not even including the extra immersion factor of feeling like you have a gun in your hand.

What added even more insult to injury was the fact that certain functions could NOT be mapped to a certain button or gesture.   No matter how I tried to set the game up with the Zapper, there was ALWAYS one or two crucial functions that were either largely out of reach or unavailable where I wanted it to be.  It felt like HVS was telling me that playing with the Zapper isn’t Hardcore and that they chose to ignore it.

Single Player was mediocre at best:  With a trying to be serious but failing miserably storyline, not to mention all the action stopping with just trying to find those damned lights with the ASE, it just falls apart at the seams.  Also, every area looks dull and repetitive.  Doesn’t matter how long or short the game is when it starts putting you to sleep a quarter of the way through.  Did I even mention the glitches?  It’s competition, Call of Duty and even Metal of Honor Heroes 2 were more enjoyable on this front, though part of that probably had a lot to do with both originating on systems where third parties actually TRY.

The Multiplayer was probably the best part of the game.  I will admit, there’s a lot of features here which they did promise and deliver. For all intents and purposes they’re nice to have.  However, that’s about where the praise ends.  The maps are so textbook average.  Every map is symmetrical to a fault (I understand this for CTF but damn MoHH2 did this MUCH better on a whole), and there’s nothing really interesting about them.  Most of them are small, and the larger ones are too enclosed except for a spot or two. Unless you’re in a room with 10 or more people you’re not gonna see too many people moving around in some of the more enclosed maps. While in single player you can speed up your default walking speed, in multiplayer you’re as slow as hell.  The ability to sprint temporarily would’ve alleviated this issue, but HVS didn’t seem to have the foresight to do something like that.

I HATE the voting structure for the weapons.  Like automatics, you better hope the rest of the group votes for them because otherwise you’re out of luck.  You have to play with what the majority votes for, which is crap because not everybody can use Drudge weapons like they can Humans or vice versa.  What makes this even worse is that the majority of games that you join are loaded with people who only want to play with the Explosive artillery set.  If you hate playing with those kind of weapons like I do, you’re SOL in about 60% of the games being played.

However, what really burned me up about Multiplayer was it’s lobby setup.  Getting into ANY game, friends or random, can take up anywhere from 4 minutes or MORE if for some reason it drops the room on you because the game fails to “Authenticate” everyone.  With every other FPS I’ve ever had, Wii or PC, usually this procedure takes no longer than about 30 seconds and you’re in.  Now here where it gets really dumb.  When you finally connect to a game and you’re waiting on the system to load the stage/models/etc., keep in mind that there’s only a 1 in 10 chance that you’ll actually get to play.  Why?  Because someone during testing fell completely asleep when it came to making sure YOU ACTUALLY GET IN THE GAME!  9 times out of 10 upon your first game connection you will glitch out and be spawned in a wall or something.  You cannot move or get out of this state.  You MUST restart the game.  You MUST go through the 4 minute waiting procedure again and HOPE that it doesn’t screw up a second time.  If it doesn’t glitch out, you’re good to go as the glitch only happens on the very first connection to that specific game.  Either way, it sucks because something like this should never have been allowed to get through testing.  By the way, I can’t help but to notice that big name reviews haven’t mentioned this issue either.  Yet another reason reviews irregardless of the platform, are absolutely worthless these days.  Either give us the whole story or keep your mouth shut!

I didn’t bring the so called superior Wii graphics into this because, like always, in the grand scheme of things it’s irrelevant.  All the bump and normal mapping in the world doesn’t make up for a poor game.  The extra art stuff and all that came with the game could be summed up as them patting themselves on the back for creating the ultimate Wii Hardcore FPS.

I returned the game shortly after buying it at launch.  It just wasn’t compelling, and felt like it was half finished.  This is why comments like the one Matt made get under my skin.  Mario 5 and Wii Fit/Fit Plus FEEL like finished, polished, complete products that are actually GOOD.  They sell, because they’re GOOD, and they appeal to a wide variety of people (me included) because they don’t insult your intelligence on what good game design is, not because it has Mario or includes the balance board.  We all know if Mario was what sold games, then Mario Galaxy wouldn’t have failed in the grand scheme of things (I sold that too).  If third parties even put half that kind of effort into their games they would be so much better off.  Instead they’d rather give us quarter effort games like Need For Speed Nitro and The Conduit and then wonder why they can’t sell a game worth beans on the Wii.

It has been a longtime complaint of Old School gamers that games are not as good they were before, and that they are trying too much to be like a movie and all. Games have become soul-less and manufactured as if from a sausage factory.

As I’ve said before, game companies like Nintendo and Blizzard did not have the ‘exceptional quality’ reputation back a decade ago.Companies like Westwood were seen as equals to Blizzard. Sega, Capcom, Konami, and others were seen as equals to Nintendo’s software output (with the exceptions of Mario and Zelda). The quality of gaming truly has been on the decline.

This leads to a curious choice to the gamer. Should the gamer lower his standards and buy crappier games? Or should the gamer stop buying games? What differentiates the Old School gamers from every other gamer is that the Old School gamer refuses to lower his/her standards for the product.  Current Core Gamers either have accepted increased mediocrity or they are too young to know what a quality game is.There has been data showing less and less younger people getting into gaming. This correlates with the decline in quality of the software. As for the current Core Gamer, they have more money than time (whereas when they were younger they had more time than money) so they are carrying their childhood habit with them and buying more games. However, they have shelves full of “Industry Event” games that are rarely, if ever, played. They have large backlogs of games they bought due to hype, yet haven’t gotten around to playing.

Concerning High Voltage Software, the reason why they are going multi-platform is likely due to the publisher demanding it (Sega). However, going multi-platform is not going to increase their sales. You need to differentiate yourself from the competition. HVS, whatever their quality, was at least differentiated by being on the Wii. Now, there is nothing different about them.

You know, I’ve been thinking long and hard about why games keep getting worse and worse (and it isn’t because I am Cranky Kong, there is less and less excitement concerning Core Games). And there are many theories one can point to and I do think the big reason is the Industry making games to service “Industry” rather than gaming. But another thought:

There has been a rise of the ‘Lifestyle Game Developer’. What is the ‘Lifestyle Game Developer’? Let me use an analogy.

The worst type of writers are those who look at it as being a ‘lifestyle writer’. They like they idea of sitting at home all day, typing away, sipping green tea, doing book signings, and, most of all, they feel they “have a novel inside me somewhere”. These ‘lifestyle writers’ are the reason why your local bookstore is filled with crap.

I think what we are seeing are kids who grew up with video games that want to develop video games because they feel they “have a video game inside them” and that they are “the next Miyamoto”. They look at the video game business, which is entertainment, to think that it will be an entertaining lifestyle for them. The rub is that while it is entertaining, it is supposed to be entertaining for the audience and not for the developers. The video game developer is not there to “play” and have “recess”.

I think the wrong type of people are becoming video game developers.  The early 80s had video game developers be so only because they were insane. There was no money, no status in video games. And it was considered a ‘fad’. Iwata admitted that when he went to work for HAL that his parents wanted to disown him. That type of dedication was the type of person you wanted as a video game developer.

Video game developers seem as if they have gotten dumber and don’t seem much different from a frat house. In order to make games like “Civilization”, a developer would have to have a strong grasp of history, a good sense about economics, and all of that. Today, I no longer see that sense. Today’s developers seem as if they are very literate in the latest comic books or movies and technology trends, but they seem dumb on rocks as to Human Nature and do not appear to be Life Questers. What is a Life Quester? It is someone who goes through life trying to explore it and every part of it to better himself. Think of Benjamin Franklin and his journals and all. The reason why Miyamoto can invent something like Nintendogs or Wii Fit is because he is a life quester. He doesn’t just go to work and then go home to exist like an animal in front of a TV with beer. He is more interested in exploring at what life holds. And this keeps coming across in the games. People buy Wii Fit because they, too, are on the life quest of ‘getting fit’.

Why do all the games coming out seem like clones of other games? While the Industry is to be blamed, it cannot be the blame for every game. I think many developers are satisfied to just be ‘lifestyle developers’ where they are a game developer purely because of the lifestyle it has. Many computing jobs are in the corporate world, and they are making games just so they can fashion themselves as an ‘artist’ and wear long hair. These are the wrong reasons to be a game developer.

No one ever wants to admit that they suck or have been sucking. Why didn’t your game sell? Is it because…

A) Nintendo/Activision Blizzard have such brand recognition that no game can compete?

B) Recession

C) Industry pigs pushed the game out too fast.

D) Piracy

E) You Suck

No one ever chooses option E. It is always something else.  This is why I like to say: “The Business Model is fine. The problem is that YOU SUCK.”

If I had a question for HVS, it would be, “Why are you a game developer when these are the type of games you want to make? Why be a game developer if your mission is to make uninteresting games?” I would get a reply of something like “It is because that is what we wish to do. This is the job we’ve wanted.”

Too many young budding game developers are interested in getting a job as “game developer” instead of asking what they want to develop. Once upon a time, the job of ‘game developer’ didn’t exist. Hell, the job ‘web master’ didn’t exist until the 1990s.

A classic game like Montezuma’s Revenge was made by a 16 year old kid. Today, all the “young budding game developers” have ample access to computers. And what do they use it for? To play ‘analyst’ in message forums! You, yes you, the amazing and glorious reader, could be developing your very own game RIGHT NOW. And you could even sell it and make money! And the reason why you are not developing your own game right now is very simple:

You don’t want it badly enough.

If you want it bad enough, you would already be doing it. There is this one writer who gets invited to speak at “Writing Classes”. He goes there in front a sea of wide eyed students and says, “If you want to write, why the hell are you here? You should be writing, not taking classes on writing.” Then he turns toward the door and leaves. This is why I have never understood ‘video game classes’. You have a computer in front of you. You can make a game now. What you might need a class for is for programming or for art or something else. But certainly not for games!

There are more opportunities for the ‘young budding game developer’ today. Instead, they are more interested in becoming a ‘lifestyle developer’ where they join a company and ‘make games’ without realizing they are going to get chewed up by the ‘Industry’ and spit out. The ‘Industry’ really is taking advantage of all these naive ‘young budding game developers’.

You don’t have to ‘join’ the Industry to make and sell a game.

This comment, following the most Twilight Zone analysis I’ve seen, made be laugh.

“James Brightman is a veteran games journalist with more than six years of experience. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz”

Dear experienced games journalist. Did it not occur to you to even question or counter-balance the ramblings of this “analyst” given that mere weeks ago, the Wii sold almost as many units in one month as the PS3 did all year in the US market?

This is a comment I wish I wrote. I love the ‘Dear experienced game journalist’ part. Hahahaha.

Now listen to Brightman in a response below:

To the people talking about shortages, we in fact have covered that. We’re fully aware that Nintendo is dealing with shortages. There are two possibilities on that front: 1) Either Nintendo is holding back on Wii shipments to create more shortage frenzy; or 2) They really screwed up their allocations, because shortages just shouldn’t be a problem at this point.

I also agree with Anthony: the Wii market is automatically going to slow down because Nintendo has already sold a ton. That said, I feel the Wii market is governed by a very different set of circumstances. It’s not at all like a traditional console, and it seems that its sales are now becoming much more seasonal, as opposed to 360 and PS3.

It is incredible that someone who runs a BUSINESS website would even possibly put stock in the “Nintendo is holding back supply to create demand”. That is not how business works. Nintendo doesn’t like the Wii sold out because that means they could lose a customer to a competitor. Why doesn’t Brightman offer a third possibility: that demand is up again? It is economics 101 that supply is affected by demand. And judging from December’s sales, there was tons of demand for the Wii.

Wii becoming a seasonal console? Hahaha.

It’s been too long since we’ve had a good “Wii is doomed, price cuts imminent/necessary” article from a video game “analyst.”  So, let’s rejoice in the newest one!

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27255/Analysis_Nintendo_To_Slow_In_2010_As_Arc_Natal_Lure_New_Casual.php

This guy didn’t get the memo.

Old Way: Nintendo is about to exit the hardware business.

New Way: Nintendo is about to come out with new hardware.

Dear Malstrom,

Glad you liked my comment on “IndustryGamers” daft reporting of Mike Hickey supposed analysis that the Wii needs a price cut. I found it via VG247 (and made a similar comment) which at least appeared to have it’s tongue slightly in it’s cheek at the sheer lunacy of it. It seems to be a day for daft articles given similar reporting of a Sony executive spouting all kinds of nonsense, though ignoring Nintendo as usual.

It’s something that frustrates me no end actually, both as someone interested in the “Industry” and being in a position where I have to work with publishers during the week. There is little to no actual *journalism* going on the vast majority of the time. Trade press, blogs etc. are seemingly happy to sit there, wait for press release and regurgitate what is spoon fed to them 90% of the time with little to no thought as to why they might be saying something or reading between the lines. Everything is taken at face value. Thus we have the daft situation today where it is now commonly accepted that the PS3 was supply constrained during January (despite Sony having previous in over-exaggerating or just plain lying about supply constraints as Penny Arcade remembered) and little to know discussion that Nintendo might have actually been supply constrained themselves (only commentary I’ve seen on that has been from Bill Harris’ blog).

As I tweeted, seems to be a day for “industry” bollocks.

Anyhow just wanted to say cheers for pulling my comment out and how much I’m enjoying your blog which I’ve been reading since the Birdmen article, something I usually point people to when introducing them to the concept of disruption.

Incidentally, I’ve been trying to write a couple of pieces in a similar vein of late. Firstly that in my opinion the iPad can be seen as a “bridge” product to move iPhone / iTouch users introduced to Apple products up the chain of Apple products and secondly similar to a blog you just posted about how the traditional “industry” isn’t really growing at all, at least since 2005 (despite frequent dick waving about YoY increases up until last year). The first is just a theory which I’m still not concrete on and the second is difficult as little hard data exists, particularly with regard to what software marketshare Nintendo say did have in 2005. Hopefully I’ll get there eventually on that one.

I’m constantly amazed at who reads this little site. I didn’t think I’d get an email from the comment guy when I posted his comment!

It is pretty funny how the ‘Industry’ is becoming more and more defensive as they are getting stuck in a corner. I’m suspecting now that all the ‘crazy utterances’ we are hearing from analysts and company heads are all targeting investors. Investors calling up third party companies and demanding they put games on the Wii back in 2007, when the Wii exploded, is why they went to the Wii in the first place. (Prior, EA’s “Wii software” was holed up in some place in Canada.) Much of the talk of “Wii is doomed! Natal and Arc going to dominate!” are, I believe, directed at the investors so they won’t demand third parties to stop ignoring the Wii install base. Also, the constant recitals of “Third party games cannot sell on Wii, Nintendo steals all the customers!” is also aimed at the investors.

I’m suspecting that the ‘Game Industry’ is attempting to deceive investors. The investors have the power to decide what platforms these companies make their games on. As with the famous incident with Trip Hawkins at Electronic Arts back during the NES rise, the investors get their way even if you are president and founder of the company.

Lately, I’ve been watching the melt-down of Michael Pachter with considerable amusement. Any mask of ‘objectivity’ has been torn off. In his latest ‘Pach-Attack’, he says i-Pad will take away Nintendo handheld sales because people will play Tetris on the i-Pad. Well, Tetris was available on the iPhone and iPod Touch and that didn’t impede any sales. And how can a button-less device be taken seriously as a game interface especially for games like Tetris? First Pach-Attack, he declared victory for the ‘hardcore gamer’ (haha). For January NPD, he blamed the Wii. For December NPD, he blamed the Wii. He even started a NeoGAF thread to attempt to drive discussion toward ‘why can’t third parties sell on Wii’. In Bloomberg, Pachter claimed that Wii sold what it did in December because of Wal-Mart’s special deal but, alas for Pachter, the console sold out everywhere which means there has to be more than just Wal-Mart. Month before that, he said that as PS3 lowers in price, it takes away from Wii’s sales. All throughout 2009, Pachter kept driving and driving discussion about Wii HD and did everything to make it appear to look like it was ‘inevitable’ and ‘coming out soon’. My favorite point came last year when Pachter told Reggie Fils-Aime that as President of NOA, Reggie should go outside and that he (Reggie) had no idea what Iwata was doing in Japan. In my life, I’ve never witnessed an analyst behave in such a way. And when you point out this bizarre behavior, he gets upset about that and demands you do not question his behavior. Well, when you go out of your way to make yourself such a public figure as Pachter has and infiltrate every website and forum, behavior is fair game as is comments.

There is a disclaimer on Pachter’s reports that Wedbush does do business with some of the companies it is suppose to analyze. I am very curious as to what sort of “business” this is. And yes, I am in contact with some of Wedbush’s clients (but let us keep that a secret between you and me, dear reader).

With each year, the claims that Wii is just going to drop dead and PS3 will magically rise to the sky become more and more absurd. People ask me, “How can these people say such stupid things?” The answer is because being correct in the ‘analysis’ is not the objective. The objective is obviously something else. But I suspect it is to do and say anything to make sure investors do not insist for their companies to make games on the Nintendo system. All the “Industry” lines all seem to revolve around trying to persuade investors on that basis. Remember, all these companies started off this generation not wanting ANYTHING to do with the Nintendo system as they were heavily invested in the ‘Next Gen’ machines. “Wii is a fad.” “Third parties can’t sell on Wii.” “Only ‘casuals’ are on Wii.” “No one can compete with Nintendo.” “Once HD Twins have price cut, sales will skyrocket!”Casual bubble is popping…” Even the “Nintendo is coming out with new hardware right around the corner!” to “Arc and Natal will destroy Wii,” also clearly fit as if all these loony phrases are arrows aimed at the investors. The HD Twins have been marked down by 50%, and they still aren’t moving. So what are they going to say after Arc and Natal? With Sony going ‘rah rah’ over the new 3d technology, I guess we have our answer.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me where all the PS2 gamers went. No one seems to have an explanation for it. Worse, no one else seems to be asking the question.

Click here to read today’s latest Industry Propoganda

“What publishers have said is they’re not going to spend the resources on Wii… In my job, we compete against Microsoft and Nintendo, and we’re competing for resources. So when I walk into a publisher, I ask, ‘Where are you guys pushing your resources?’ In the past, it was ‘Look how hot the Wii is,’ or ‘Look how hot the DS is,’ and ‘We should put resources there.’ They did that and realized, ‘You know what, third-party product just doesn’t sell on that platform.’ So now they’re taking those resources, coming back to us and saying, ‘Sony we’re going to be able to provide you with that exclusive content,’ or ‘We’re going to put more engineers on it and figure out to maximize the Blu-ray and get more out of PS3.’ That’s what we’re seeing now,” he stated.

Dyer continued, “And I don’t even have to fight for their hearts and minds; I just show them the TRST data with regards to how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the Wii, or how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the DS. Not many. It’s not a hard story to sell, and they get that. Unless they’ve got a particular franchise that’s worked well on the Wii, you don’t see a lot of innovative new IP coming out on that platform.”

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One of the reasons why reporting on Nintendo is so poor is because journalists are applying the same cookie cutter template of the Industry to Nintendo. Nintendo has its own values and direction.

Consider this story.

This is the first line:

With Sony and EA recently unveiling bold new moves to counter what publishers see as the threat posed by the pre-owned market, Nintendo has refused to rule out taking similar measures with its own products.

Now, how did MCV get this story? What are the sources?

Sony has now also adopted the model for upcoming PSP release SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3, as well as requiring internet validation to unlock the multiplayer component of the game.

When asked by MCV if it is planning to do the same, a spokesperson for Wii and DS platform holder Nintendo stated:

“Nintendo has, and will continue to take steps and examine new ways to technically protect our hardware and software products in an effort to foster and encourage the development and creativity of new games on our handheld and console systems.”

How on Earth is this Nintendo standard reply taken to mean a position on pre-owned video games? MCV doesn’t explain and apparently doesn’t care. It just lumps the quote with everything else.

And what is the other source for this story?

The firm is no stranger to aggressively protecting its IP. In the last month alone it has successfully prosecuted two men found guilty of selling or supplying DS piracy device R4 and won major damages from a man who uploaded an illegal copy of New Super Mario Bros Wii to the internet prior to its release.

Now this has nothing to do with the pre-owned market. This has everything to do with piracy. Piracy is illegal. There is nothing to discuss about it.

Iwata, himself, corrected Reggie Fils-Aime in 2008 when he made a comment about getting rid of pre-owned games in a questions from investors. Iwata said that pre-owned is legal and Nintendo cannot do anything about it. However, Nintendo can and should do something about piracy.

Why is this MCV story trying to lump Nintendo’s fight against piracy as fight against pre-owned games? Nintendo doesn’t even suffer from pre-owned sales. If Nintendo did, NSMB Wii, Mario Kart Wii, and others would not still be selling.

Pre-owned games are nothing more than a symptom of disinterest. Gamers do not wish to sell their games. But they will if the games suck. Behind every pre-owned game is an unhappy customer. Look at the software in a used game store and you will find the shelves lined with crappy software. There aren’t very many good games as used games.

Used games are critical for game collectors in case they want to get a certain game. These collectors keep the spirit of gaming thriving even if the Industry goes off a cliff (as they did in 1984).

Anyway, the solution to pre-owned games has always been the Virtual Console. It makes no sense that I have to plug in a NES to play Legend of Zelda when the console at my TV can certainly play it.

The reason why pre-owned games are hurting the HD Twins so much is because their games are absolute garbage. Their games cannot hold their value. It is hilarious seeing these once hyped $60 Next Generation games cost $5 in some nameless bin.

Make games that hold their value, that people do not want to sell, and pre-owned games cannot be a problem. The disease is dis-interest, the symptom is used games. Many companies are fighting the symptom but not assaulting the disease.

But in order to declare war against disinterest, you must first admit that your product sucks. And I do not see anyone in the Industry doing this.

Making games for ‘customers’ as opposed to yourselves is getting some people to think that customers have a say in design decisions or level design and all. This actually is not the case. And it greatly offends the developers when this is done.

The relationship between the gamer and developer is the relationship between the diner and the cook. The diner consumes the food the chef makes. The purpose is for the diner to have a pleasant eating experience. If the food tastes funny or tastes badly, what the chef says doesn’t matter. It is the consumer’s taste buds that matter, not the chef’s. I’ve noticed in life that a chef’s taste in food is very different from the average consumer. Their taste is far more elaborate. The diner may not desire all the ’special spices’ and ’secret sauce’.

Not everyone likes the same type of food. Some people love fish. Others hate fish. Some people love Mexican food. Others hate Mexican food. As with gaming, there is a taste with some people liking RPG games, other people liking FPS games. Neither is *wrong*. They are just different tastes. But even despite tastes, even if you hate fish, you can tell when a fish meal was prepared well or not. If you hate Mexican food, you can tell when the dish was properly made or not. Taste doesn’t equal quality of the product.

Let us say the chef says, “I have imagined a new dish that uses truffles. This customer ordered a pizza. A pizza is a casual meal. I prefer a real meal. And I prefer to use my artistic skills as a chef. Therefore, instead of making the stupid pizza, I will make my truffle souffle!”

When the waiter brings the meal out to the diner, the diner is shocked. “Where’s my pizza?” “This is a truffle souffle.” “What the hell is that?” The diner tries the truffles and spits them out. “This is abominable! I demand the pizza I ordered!” And then the chef, standing at the door, watches all this. The chef charges up to the diner and says, “What! You do not like my truffles? This is because you have no taste! I will force my taste on you!” And then the chef opens the diner’s mouth and begins cramming his truffle souffle down his throat. “Behold my artistic vision!” laughs the chef as the customer chokes.

As ridiculous as that it, it is equally ridiculous for the customer to barge into the kitchen to tell the chef how to cook the pizza. “It is my pizza. Therefore, I insist the chef use that pan instead of that pan, to have the oven on at 400 degrees instead of 350 degrees, and to use that dough over there.” This is greatly offensive to the chef as that is the chef’s profession and the customer is a rank amateur. The customer is, of course, pushed out of the kitchen. The customer’s role is to eat the food, not to cook it. Likewise, the chef’s role is to cook the food, not to eat it.

“Hamburgers are too casual a meal. I insist we cook only gourmet meals.” Any chef who says that would not have his restaurant be in business for long. Who cares whether or not the game is something the developers want to play. What matters is if the market wants to play it. If kids come in, does the chef say, “I don’t make kiddie meals”? Everywhere I go, I find that kids are given food that they will eat.

However, imagine this scenario. Imagine if you are dining at a restaurant and, all of a sudden, you heard donkey sounds come from the kitchen. “Eehh Ohhrr Eeeehhh Ohhrr!” The customer would be thinking, “What the hell?” and the customer would likely stand up, walk over to the kitchen, and poke his head in and say, “What is going on in there?”

In the same way, when games are coming from studios that are resembling a movie instead of a game, or games that keep raising the price or demand DLC, the customer is, rightfully, going to poke his head into the kitchen and go, “What the hell is going on in there?”

When the gamer is being hit by ever increasing prices, games that are not games, invasive DRM, and downloadable content the customer doesn’t want, the gamer is going to poke his head into the developer studios and say, “What the hell is going on in there?”