Often we will have arguments about the merits of game design companies like Electronic Arts and Bethesda, especially do to the current trend of there being a game development crash. While it’s true that nobody is saying it’s going to be like the first crash, I find it really part of a larger problem.

When a AAA company is churning out garbage for 135 dollars a pop (obviously the price increasing to account for the next economic situation, as long as capitalism continues to exist), not including the extra goodies, they’re having to compete with free and open source developers that distribute their game with their source code able to be modified at indivividual gamer’s convenience.

The way that stories would have to be written, would have to account for the fact that a game with a persistent plot (in the way that games like Final Fantasy have traditionally had) is simply not viable, unless there is a way to make that story constant through modifications to the source code. And that’s assuming such games aren’t being forked. We see this mainly in ASCII based roguelike games.

This is reflective of a larger economc trend in general, where people prefer to grow their own food, prefer to check the credentials of pet breeders, and other ways to make themselves more off grid and independant. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, not excluding myself, that the game design world would also reflect on this trend. It’s better to be preferred for this fact, that have the giant wave catch you off guard, and have that effect the way you run your business.

You get a larger bang for your buck, when your able to download a game for free, and can modify the source code to remove bugs, rather than have the game just have this bugs.

Often we will have arguments about the merits of game design companies like Electronic Arts and Bethesda, especially do to the current trend of there being a game development crash. While it’s true that nobody is saying it’s going to be like the first crash, I find it really part of a larger problem.

When a AAA company is churning out garbage for 135 dollars a pop (obviously the price increasing to account for the next economic situation, as long as capitalism continues to exist), not including the extra goodies, they’re having to compete with free and open source developers that distribute their game with their source code able to be modified at individual gamer’s convenience.

The way that stories would have to be written, would have to account for the fact that a game with a persistent plot (in the way that games like Final Fantasy have traditionally had) is simply not viable, unless there is a way to make that story constant through modifications to the source code. And that’s assuming such games aren’t being forked. We see this mainly in ASCII based rogue like games.

This is reflective of a larger economic trend in general, where people prefer to grow their own food, prefer to check the credentials of pet breeders, and other ways to make themselves more off grid and independent. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, not excluding myself, that the game design world would also reflect on this trend. It’s better to be preferred for this fact, that have the giant wave catch you off guard, and have that effect the way you run your business.

You get a larger bang for your buck, when your able to download a game for free, and can modify the source code to remove bugs, rather than have the game just have this bugs.

There is also another tendency among gamers. Even among games where there appears to be thin or completely absent storytelling, ones that are obsessed with particular series will make up head canon (what is not officially canon, but something they consider to be canon inside their own mind) in order to connect otherwise unrelated titles in a series. Consider the case of Ultimate Fantasy, a series that became beloved and well known for it’s drastic improvements in game play in the United States, before other games in that series were later released.

With any given video game series, usually role playing games, but it has happened in other genres, like fighting and platforming (I’m sure there is at least one game out there that’s a platforming title with a fighting game battle system), fans will come up with their own ideas of how stories connect with each other, and some series are written as explicitly connected. Lufia is one example, but there are many others.

But now, with game design switching toward a subscription based model, and with people only able to get certain goodies as a separate purchase, we heading toward a world where there is less engagement overall. And the only people that can really blame themselves is the AAA companies. I’m including the makers of Ultimate Fantasy in this diagnoses.

When we can tell each other our own stories, rather than the stories told to us through game development teams, it becomes increasingly less viable for linear narratives to become sustainable. Contrast with works of fiction in prose or graphic novels, where the plot is considerably more linear, especially with older classic authors like Thomas Hardy. For the longest time we’ve had games try to beat novels at what they’re simpler better at.

I was a gamer once.

An engineer of my own personal fiction.