Cathode Tan - Games, Media and Geek Stuff
logo design by man bytes blog

Monday, May 02, 2005

Costik and the Meme

Oh, well. What I take away from both Dvorak and Elixir is that the meme is spreading; the lack of creativity in gaming is starting to bother a lot more people than me... Even if, in some cases, the people who adopt the meme strike me as a little off key.

-- Greg Costikyan

I think that kinda nails it. I've certainly been guilty of ringing the gloom bell when it comes to the dearth of innovation in games and how the "hollywood" influence is edging out the original design theories that pushed games forward. However, it's important to strike a balance when railing on about this. Dvorak's clumsy take on it somewhat shows that it's very easy to take a glib stance and decry that nobody out there is trying. And while it's easy to take the Elixir closing as a sign of gloom, it should also stand as a reminder that market pressures aren't conspiracy - they're a cold hard fact of any industry. Both Elixir and Troika had a fundamental problem with their games ... they didn't sell as well as they should have.

So we can't focus on just the meme. We gotta look at it from all the angles if we're to try and find a way out.

No comments: