GameDaily: What We Could Learn From Board Games

[Brother None]

Steve Meretzky, industry veteran best known for his work with Infocom, has taken note of the recent positive trend in board games and negative trend in computer games, and jotted down some interesting thoughts. This should all sound very, very familiar to glittering gem readers:<blockquote>It's a great time to be a board gamer, and the horizons of the field seem to get broader by the day.

The horizons of computer gaming, on the other hand, seem to be in the midst of a long contraction. While in terms of technical wizardry and production values, electronic games continue to leap forward, in terms of theme and gameplay, the choices seems to get narrower and narrower. Warfare dominates, in various forms: historical battles, fighting in Tolkienesque worlds, mech-style combat in post-apocalyptic landscapes, even that stylized version of warfare known as football. How did this come to be?

The reasons are as familiar as the problems are intransigent. Exploding development costs force executives to make conservative rather than daring choices; sequels and imitative products are the result. Consolidation results in giant, bureaucratic publishing empires, where the executives making the decisions are far removed from the development trenches where creativity occurs. An immature game reviewing community is easily swayed by graphical sizzle even in the absence of gameplay steak. The retail channel is strangled by a few giant outlets with no patience for a game that doesn't immediately leap off the shelf. Market forces are stifling innovation.

(...)

But for big-budget games that sell through the retail channel, the present is grim and the future shows little sign of promise.

I'm not advocating that everyone in the electronic games business quit their jobs and start making board games. Instead, I'm hoping that we'll take a look at the variety of innocent delights that board games offer, and try to bring a little of that into our industry. For executives, when you're planning your product roadmap for next year, you can still throw $10 million at Squad of Heroes V, and $25 million at Trolls 'n' Treasures Online, but also toss in a million here or there for something more offbeat; just think, if that low-budget game turns into a hit, the ROI will be incredible!</blockquote>Link: What We Could Learn From Board Games by Steve Meretzky on GameDaily BIZ

 

[Brother None]

The most fascinating thing here is the combination of the desire for better designed and more original games (the gamers' perspective) with "the long tail"/"niche market" economic theories (the publishers' perspective).

It's very well written, but let us know if you disagree with NMA posting way peripheral things like this.

Personally I think it applies directly to Fallout, and Bethesda taking this kind of writing to heart would be teh awesome. We're getting closer to a breaking point in the industry anyway, why fight it?

 

[sanyok21]

Very good read, I'm getting most if not all of the articles about the gaming industry from here, because i don't read any gaming journals/visit gaming sites, so these kind of articles are welcomed. besides, there's no harm whatsoever posting them, so why should anyone object to posting something like this?

 

[Bernard Bumner]

The general state of the games industry is of interest to any Fansite, so I think that this kind of article is relevant even without its topical pertinence to Fallout 3. I have to say though that this article has some fairly big holes in it. Board and other gameplay types typically not seen on the PC are very well represented on mobile phone platforms (possibly a fortunate product of the limitations of the technology). Equally, what Steve Meretsky calls Board gaming is now turning to computer games for inspiration - often as direct tie-ins (cash-ins?).

Surely some of the game types he references in terms of boards games are already well represented in computer gaming?

Over the past few months while board gaming, I've played a sheriff in the Old West,... a colonial-era governor, a 19th-century railroad magnate, a bean farmer, a Vegas casino mogul, and an Egyptian deity.

I'm not sure that there is any lack of games which explore those themes.

The horizons of computer gaming, on the other hand, seem to be in the midst of a long contraction.

Steve Meretsky seems to be yearning for a golden age that never existed; how many Pong clones were produced? (Ditto; Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pacman, R-type, Mario Brothers, Tetris, Civ, Doom, Monkey Island, and so on ad infintum...) Sequel-itis, Trendiness, and Band-wagon riding are problems for all forms of media, from literature to film (and even advertising). I'm not sure that there is anything that special about the games industry. That moneymen tend to back what they see as surefire winner is inevitable in every single walk of life, but it isn't an absolute rule.

Warfare dominates, in various forms: historical battles, fighting in Tolkienesque worlds, mech-style combat in post-apocalyptic landscapes, even that stylized version of warfare known as football.

As though it doesn't in what he calls board gaming? There are very few non-competitive board games (the Lord of the Rings was one, but it pretty shit). If he's going to claim that football is stylized warfare, then I could equally claim that competitive gaming in general is stylized combat.

I can't hepl but feel that this piece is more of a polemic scattered with truisms than an objective assessment.

 

[SuAside]

it's more than welcome, Kharn (as long as you don't post about your My Little Pony PC game addiction).

the article is a very interesting read. it's good to read eloquent texts from people with well thought out ideas about the market etc. makes you believe there might be hope for the industry afterall...

 

[Goweigus]

Yes, good article, is relevant to Fallout

its Toxicate Interactive is the new company behind AfterFall

I believe very much that this game will do wonders as long as people know about it when it comes out, and before hand to get it support.

I'd gladly start giving donations regularly if it was easier than sneding it to bank account numbers in Poland....

 

[Davaris]

the article is a very interesting read. it's good to read eloquent texts from people with well thought out ideas about the market etc.

Like this guy, I used to complain about playing the same types of AAA games over and over and then one day I got fed up and stopped buying and playing them.

makes you believe there might be hope for the industry afterall...

I don't think there's any hope for the AAA industry until the average Joe gets over their addiction to flashy graphics and that isn't going to happen.

Steve Meretsky wrote:
Over the past few months while board gaming, I've played a sheriff in the Old West,... a colonial-era governor, a 19th-century railroad magnate, a bean farmer, a Vegas casino mogul, and an Egyptian deity.

I'm not sure that there is any lack of games which explore those themes.

Can you name any recent AAA releases? At the very least I'd like to check them out.

Steve Meretsky seems to be yearning for a golden age that never existed; how many Pong clones were produced?

Cloning was a major problem back then as it is today.

(Ditto; Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pacman, R-type, Mario Brothers, Tetris, Civ, Doom, Monkey Island, and so on ad infintum...) Sequel-itis, Trendiness, and Band-wagon riding are problems for all forms of media, from literature to film (and even advertising).

All of the games you've listed have radically different forms of gameplay (especially the ones from the 1980s). Can you offer any evidence of diversity in AAA games today? I can help you start your list with 3D simulations of people in combat/sport and vehicle operation. After that nothing else comes to mind apart from the Sims, but the money men tried to kill that project didn't they?

 

[Daemon Spawn]

Excellent article. Good news post. I also rarely visit other game sites, and rely on the Fallout sites particularly for news about the gaming industry in general. What was said about the "glittering gems readers" recognizing the topics in the article and recognizing the shifts and analogues in both industries was right on point.

Not bashing mobile phones here, Bernard, but personally I dislike mobile phones, and consequently the games therein.

 

[Bradylama]

Anything that concerns the post-apocalypse, plays on its themes, or involves issues which concern roleplaying in the veign of Fallout isn't "too peripheral" in my opinion.

 

[Bernard Bumner]

Can you name any recent AAA releases? At the very least I'd like to check them out.

Ah, well, you've cheated there slightly by setting the constraint of AAA productions. The biggest money is always going to go into the safest bets! Look at Hollywood for a direct analog; how many super-budget films really offer innovation and novelty?

I think that there is a very good argument to be made that quality has suffered as games become more technologically complex but deadlines remain tight. Too many unfinished and poorly executed games are finding their way onto the market. I'm not sure that it is inspiration that is lacking, so much as a business model which allows inspiration to be fully realised.

Having said that, some of the best selling games of recent years have been god sims, tycoon games, and sports management sims, as opposed to warfare (which the original article claimed was dominant). Football Manager (the world's greatest interactive spreadsheet) is a consistantly big seller in the UK; not a hint of 3D about it, just little disks moving about on a green rectangle. The Sims itself is the best selling game of all time, and was fairly novel. Second Life has a similar novelty (insofar as it pulls together aspects of gaming and online community in a fairly fresh synthesis), looks like a pretty poor business model on paper in many respects, it is also a massive success.

There is certainly an argument to be made that the majority of games lack originality, but I don't think that problem is specific to computer gaming - actually it is also true of Board gaming. How many Magic clones appeared on the market? Warhammer, D&D, Risk, Monopoly, even Pokemon have set trends that were immediately copied by the industry.

It seems self-evident to me that, for every innovative product released in any media format, there will be a much greater number of imitators. T'was always thus, and always will be.

All of the games you've listed have radically different forms of gameplay (especially the ones from the 1980s). Can you offer any evidence of diversity in AAA games today? I can help you start your list with 3D simulations of people in combat/sport and vehicle operation. After that nothing else comes to mind apart from the Sims, but the money men tried to kill that project didn't they?

The games in the 80's were exploring the different kinds of gameplay available because producers were pioneering the media. It isn't a huge surprise that they managed to find virtually every mode of gameplay possible. Of course, many of those games actually weren't the product of AAA production methods, but the industry itself has changed since then. That was the decade that changed the gaming industry from a polar mixutre of bedroom programmers and massive hardware corporations, into its current state where venture capitalists of one kind or another are funding gamers to make big games (and it isn't a huge surprise that most of then expect a guaranteed return).

Have a look at a calendar of PC releases. There is a still a fair degree of diversity in those releases - the quality of those releases is not so assured!

e.g. http://www.gamerstemple.com/calendar.asp

(I'm looking forward to Hot dog King in March!)

 

[Davaris]

Ah, well, you've cheated there slightly by setting the constraint of AAA productions. The biggest money is always going to go into the safest bets! Look at Hollywood for a direct analog; how many super-budget films really offer innovation and novelty?

Yes because I knew it would stump you and if it didn't, I'd find out about some great new games.

I do think there is hope in the Indie scene, as you can still find lone wolf game makers who are willing to risk all on a single idea. However the Indie scene is starting to be damaged by cloners, some of whom have deep pockets.

Plug:
One of my favourite Indie game makers is www.Positech.com, because he has the guts to make games that are different from the mainstream and he's actually making a living from them (when the pirates aren't killing him). Keep up the good fight Cliff!

I think that there is a very good argument to be made that quality has suffered as games become more technologically complex but deadlines remain tight. Too many unfinished and poorly executed games are finding their way onto the market. I'm not sure that it is inspiration that is lacking, so much as a business model which allows inspiration to be fully realised.

Yes the problem here is smaller companies are trying to compete with large companies who are outspending them. Buggy unfinished games are usually released, because the makers have underestimated the funding that is required to finish them properly.

For me the problem is boring/mindless games. Big business or big money is risk adverse and if you use the same engines and IP that made you money before, its safer to do the same thing again. Well thats how business people think and they rule the industry these days, not the designers.

<flag_waving>
So my advice to hardcore players is to give up on the AAA's. Try looking to the Indie scene or join it, because the AAA's have no choice but to make the types of games that make the maximum returns and those aren't the sorts of games that hardcore players enjoy.
</flag_waving>

 

[Darkkender]

As others above have said Kharn the choice of posting news while stretched away from the main theme of NMA the underlying relevance to this community is most assuredly worth the read.