The end of the year is upon us, and enough blogs and news sites have already written great articles on the best games of the year. Therefore, instead of being lost amongst the white noise of award features, I'd like to point out a few trends which I felt were especially important during 2005. These aren't just news stories and scandals, but largely new trends that have effected gaming.
1.) Sex and Games
Although game violence has always been a subject of controversy, this year really proved that sex and games are coming into their own. The infamous Hot Coffee mod proved that politicians and mainstream middle-America find pixilated, arrhythmic sex more offensive than drugs and violence.
Sure, sex has always been in games. Everyone's father owned a copy of Leisure Suit Larry, and I'll put my money on many a gamer buying Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the breasts and not the jolly sport.
Hot Coffee proved that more adult-oriented developed such as Rockstar are interested in pushing the boundaries and breaking ground beyond just showing C.J.'s car shaking. Yes, it was hidden. Yes, it required a skilled hacker to find it. At the same time, its mere production reveals a desire to break ground.
And regardless of its elusive nature, the publicity and backlash around Hot Coffee has raised a lot of questions in the gaming industry. Will sex be suppressed further due to the public attacks? Or, which I believe, was this just public shock at something new? Remember, Midnight Cowboy was rated X when it was first released, but has now become a respected part of cinematic canon.
Personally, I imagine diminishing returns in terms of shock at sex in games. For the next couple years, people will protest, and politicians will gain votes by condemning mankind's newest threat. But, really, as time goes on, non-gamers will begin to see sex in games with perhaps the same distrustful acceptance as violence, but still an acceptance.
If the critically and financially successful God of War is a sign of anything, sex will soon become an effective part of storytelling in mainstream games.
2.) Wireless Online Gaming
I live in New York City, one of the best wireless cities in the world. Almost every restaurant as a wireless router. In my apartment alone, I can log onto four or five unencrypted wireless networks if I so wished. Ergo the development of online gaming for the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS has been a godsend for gamers like me. And Nintendo's USB wireless connector has only made online gaming accessible and simple to even the most technically inept.
I can go to Central Park and play Mario Kart against someone in Japan in a matter of minutes. I can do it at a Starbucks. Maybe a quick game before going to bed. Or maybe while I'm at my girlfriend's place. I can take my portables with me wherever I go. And considering the ease at which both systems are set up for wireless, I can play online whenever and wherever I want to.
Yes, I love Live. And my City of Heroes and World of Warcraft accounts rarely run dry. But sometimes it's nice to have a system which I can just pull out while on my lunch break and play a quick online match. The portable systems have provided that and blazed a very profitable trail.
Online portable gaming has paved the way for MMORPGs and even more impressive strategy games. Furthermore, the DS's touch-screen capabilities make impressive ports of games such as Civilization, StarCraft, and Diablo possible.
3.) There's Room for the Both Of Us
Nintendo caused shock and awe and not a little outrage when it revealed its new controller. However, there was far less said about Nintendo's business strategy of being outrageously creative while letting the other two follow a more traditional model of gaming. And honestly, I think that's the bigger story.
If you haven't kept up, Nintendo has basically said that they know they can't compete with Sony or Microsoft in terms of straightforward gaming. Instead, they want to co-exist. Rather than creating a competing third console with pumped graphics and a two-stick joypad, Nintendo is made a console that will complement a console set-up.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Revolution controller will really revolutionize gaming. Although I love my Nintendo DS, I still feel that the touch screen and two-screen gameplay has remained largely untapped by most developers. New technology takes years to accept and it remains to be seen whether or not Nintendo can get third-party developers to try something a little different.
At the same time, Nintendo's business strategy acknowledges a very new trend in gaming - companies don't always have to outright compete. We in the game journalism business like to refer to "the system wars," as if one company must plant a flag in the gaming public and declare victory. Nintendo's new strategy suggests a different outlook in which different systems deliver fundamentally different experiences and therefore all warrant a unique purchase.
The strategy was already applied to the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable. In its initial release, many analysts predicted the PSP to squash the DS. The pure technology and multimedia applications available in PSP were thought to be so superior to the DS that gamers would automatically choose one over the other.
That hasn't really happened. Both systems have sold pretty well, and the experiences available in the two systems have brought in a widely-varied audience. Instead of competing, the two systems really complement each other in terms of gameplay and technology.
I desperately want Nintendo's strategy to succeed. Variety never hurts gaming. This industry needs a shot of creativity in light of all the bad sequels, spin-offs, and licensed games this year. I would far rather have to choose between two different, creative games for two different systems than choose which version of one game looks better and makes the best use of the controller.
4.) Console Indie Development
Again, the big story with the mainstream press was the release of the Xbox 360. Beautiful graphics, long lines, sexy celebrities, and embarrassing sales problems made for great copy.
In my mind, the more important story was the amazing possibility for indie-development on the Xbox 360. The new Live system is great, and, if you haven't heard, some of the best games available for the 360 right now are games such as Geometry Wars.
Hopefully with a little elbow grease and some sass, garage developers will soon start offering their wares on Live. Imagine trying out a college thesis from the comfort of your couch. Simply neato.
How is this different from the independent games available online for years? Well, first of all, it reaches a wider audience. The days of shareware are long gone - the majority of gamers now downloading independent titles are more informed and technically adept. Only PopCap has really pulled through to become a successful independent PC developer. Even the best indie game won't reach that wide of an audience.
And indie development on consoles has never been strong. The only two independently developed console games I can think of off the top of my head are Alien Hominid and Devil Dice. The process is just too expensive and corporately difficult for two college kids in a basement to produce something creative on a console.
However, with a system of distribution like Live (Steam for the PC is also beginning to do this to a lesser extent), mainstream gamers can check out and try the latest and greatest. No searching, no wading through spyware and sign-ups for hosting sites. Just a quick, painless download.
Consoles also mean a consistent platform for development. Indie game makers can spend less time optimizing their game for every possible system (difficult with the limited resources presented to poorer developers) and more time producing a quality product to be seen by thousands of Live gamers.
And if Nintendo uses its online structuring and stylus to allow indie developers to release adventure, puzzle, and text adventures, I swear to God, I'll need a change of pants.
5.) Gamers Fight Back against Critics
Both Penny-Arcade and VG Cats call Jack Thompson on his bullshit, even amongst threats. The ESRB grows a pair and lashes out against the NIMF. Politicians try to create bills to limit games, and courts regularly overturn them (thanks Kotaku).
In 2005, as politicians grew more ferocious in their attacks on gaming, the gaming community has responded intelligently and carefully. Sure, there were the death-threats that gave Thompson even more publicity. But the overall reaction of the gaming community to criticism has been very calm and very effective.
With Hot Coffee, one would think this would've been a boon year for anti-game politicians You could almost see Hilary Clinton and Jack Thompson salivating over the awkward sex to be found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
But the ESRB really did its job quickly during the GTA scandal. The game was pulled off shelves, fixed, and replaced for any owner who wanted it. Major retailers such as Gamespot and Electronics Boutique refuse to take unfixed used copies. Gamers were generally satisfied and politicians had little to complain about in terms of industry response.
The ESRB is no longer the notoriously ineffectual institution it once was. When the NIMF wrote a scathing report about the ESRB's ineffectual relationship with parents, the ESRB responded directly and pointedly. It was a mature, if somewhat bitter, response that used direct research and statistics to make its point.
And when Jack Thompson got his face all over the news offering up a charity reward to anyone who made a game in which a man violently murdered game developers, it was up to Tycho and Gabe to pony-up $10,000 after Thompson refused. They didn't draw a dick on him, they didn't put a target over his head, they didn't call him an idiot. They simply made him look foolish by following up on his own broken promise.
Meanwhile, bills to limit certain games in multiple states were quashed or frozen by the courts. In fact, rulings tend to emphasize the importance of the First Amendment in references to games. Judges are acknowledging that games are a legitimate form of self-expression, necessitating protection. The strained cry of "what about the children" is being considered against games as an avenue of artistic production. And you know what? Finally, games are gaining some ground. Even if Ebert says that games aren't art, judges around the country are acknowledging their importance in a national cultural discussion.
Gamers and game advocates really gained ground this year against the industry's critics. In the past, people in the industry have often just argued that research on game violence has been inconclusive and used the old "hey, look at me - I haven't killed anyone" defense.
This year, however, gamers publicly and prominently responded to the critics. The louder politicians raised their voices and screamed that we were raising a generation of cannibalistic zombies waiting to shoot hookers and have dangerous unmarried sex, the more foolish we made them look by beating them at their own game.
At the end of this year, Jack Thompson, for decades one of the industry's most annoying opponents, appears mostly burnt out and embarrassed. Clinton has thanked the ESRB for its help. And enforcement of the ESRB ratings code is stronger than ever, sans any censorship laws.
That's it for my list. Feel free to disagree with me. I'm only one man and I've probably missed many issues that effected you, so please help me out with anything you think was important in those wonderful things we call comments.
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Posted by: outsider | 04/16/2006 at 02:05 AM
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