Mar 26, 2010

Death and Destruction in Gameland

According to Gamasutra and an article I didn't bother to read, it seems that The News Of Console Gaming's Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated. How very shocking. I mean, really, who'd have thought? Consoles aren't dead? Oh, dear, what's next? Space camels? The again, all hope is not lost. Shock aside, it happily seems that news on the death of PC gaming have also been quite exaggerated, as have been news on the death of adventure games, the western RPG, the strategy game, games in boxes and oddly the death of Tetris clones. Actually, I'm pretty sure that each and every bit of the gaming world has been proclaimed dead at least once in its, err, lifetime.

But, really, what is it with overpaid "analysts" and gaming's parasitic golden boys and their morbid fascination with extinct genres and platforms?

Simple really. First of all, these people tend to talk right out of their arses, which -as most scientist will tell you- does little to help any discourse. Secondly, they only care about profits (rising profits or rising profit percentages to be exact) and units sold. They can't seem to grasp the simple fact, that even after all these years both the ZX Spectrum and Interactive Fiction are alive and kicking, though sadly not producing any (or at least not any worthy of a true bastards inhuman appetite) profits whatsoever. Thirdly, it's the simplicity of the declaration.

"Death!" -so absolute, so shocking, so inline with all those mindless top tens, worst evers and next gens. So inline with mainstream scientific thought, where everything has to be either good or bad, 0 or 1, yes or no. So boringly, stupidly, apolitically positivist. And always simple minded and obvious-seeming enough to cater and help reproduce a mindless, consuming, apolitical audience that can easily be dazzled.

Please stop being dazzled. Thank you.

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3 comments:

  1. Forms of art only ever slumber. Even if they're forgotten outright, they can be reinvented.

    "So inline with mainstream scientific thought, where everything has to be either good or bad, 0 or 1, yes or no."

    Not so sure I agree with this. The founding principle of science is uncertainly. Even the most mathematical sciences devote considerable effort to quantifying the potential inaccuracy of what they quantify.

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  2. I really like how you brought all those famous news of "deaths" together.

    Though I'm not that optimistic about Interactive Fiction to be honest. It is kept alive, but a group of fans and may very well die with them. I wonder if they would be turned into Interactive Audio Books how well would they do.

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  3. @Pacian: We can easily agree on the mostly undying status of most -contemporary at least- forms of art. On the other hand, I had been mostly referring to social sciences where the mainstream does try to oversimplify. Not that posivitism -despite a variety of ways it can mask itself- isn't still ruling with an iron fist. On the mathematical science fronts, I think you do have a very valid point though.

    @Igor: Ahh, but my friend interactive fiction is far from dying, as it does gain new fans. A few, but always does so. It is after all a sort of gaming that doesn't quite age. Interactive audio books do sound like an interesting idea...

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