I sometimes wonder why I endure the expense that comes with playing games.  For an example; here is a list of products that I have purchased in the last two years:

Xbox 360 and an extra joypad  £320

Laptop PC with a AMD Athlon Turion x2 1.6 GHZ £750

A dual screen Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ PC £1400

Toshiba WTL66 42” 1080i/720p LCD TV £1169

6 in 1 Component box £70

8 channel Portastudio Mixer £100

4x 19” LCD PC Monitors £600

1 22” LCD PC Monitor £250

Athlon XP +3000 PC and extra 160 Gig HD to make 320 Gigs of space £400

Some Headsets that for some reason won’t work with my mixer, due to the fact that the mixer only likes mono jack plugs and all PC headsets that I have found use stereo headsets. £100

So in total I have spend in the last two years on gaming is £5169.

I must be crazy!  By the way.  For you Americans, that is $10338 in real money.  I did buy a Nintendo DS Lite but never used it; so I gave it away.

With the money I have spent over the past couple of years and over the 18 years as a gamer, I could have bought a house and should have done.  The question I ask is why do I spend so much money on what is essentially a hobby; when I could be doing something more useful with my cash?

I find it funny when companies talk about the expense of producing games but at the same time talk about being mainstream.  The thing is; Movies cost ten times the amount a game cost and they don’t charge $60 for a game.  The actors that appear in the film are handsomely paid.

Here is an example that might make you realise that the games industry has a long way to go before you can call it mainstream.  Keanu Reeves was paid a basic wage of £20 million and a share of the ticket sales.

Just for Matrix Reloaded; he was paid over two hundred million pounds (double that in US Dollars).  I don’t think any programmer anywhere in the world has been paid a tenth of that amount for staring in what was basically a crap sequel.

So the question is why does the gaming industry stick so rigidly to the same formulas?  An example of this is the First Person Shooter.  I have yet to see anything as ground breaking as Half Life 1 was when it was released back in 97.  The graphics do look better, you can now lean around corners and I’m sure the slow-mo feature was mildly interesting to use but do they make the game a more immersive experience?

If you were to put these new FPS games on old technology to play the same games, would you enjoy them any less?  Somehow I don’t think so.  Unreal 2 wouldn’t have looked much worse on the unreal 1 engine and I would have enjoyed it none the less. 

I personally think that the games industry must first of all ask itself the question.  Do we want to be the biggest niche market or do we want to become mainstream and make bucket loads of cash?

If they as I expect want the latter; they need to sell their games at a sensible price and keep the hardware for a long enough period that someone who for instance purchased the hardware 6 years from now will still be able to play the latest games and both have to be affordable.

Do you think that DVD would have infiltrated the market by such a high percentage if it cost £425 for the system and between £50 and £60 for the games?  Do you think the movie studios would have re-mastered the back catalogue for a system that was owned by a small percentage of the public?  How many copies of Gone with the wind would have sold for the prices above?  A hundred maybe but not a lot more than that.

I want to see a price tag of £10 to £20 for games and I want to be able to play them on a system that has a ten year cycle; Similar to the promise that Sony Is making for the PS3 but only true this time.  If I am going to want the cutting edge of technology, I will buy a PC (which already has surpassed the Playstation 3 with the new dual Quad Core Intel setup with up to 4 PCIe 9800GTX graphics cards).  All I want is games that will run straight away.  I don’t want a selection of the same hardware that is slightly improved.

For example:  The Playstation 3 has had 3 models and the XBOX 360 too, has had the same amount of models.  Unless there is a big difference between the models, I don’t want to know.  The average person on the streets couldn’t tell you what Z-buffering is for and to be honest; neither could I.  I don’t care about the fact that it is 10 times as powerful as the previous iteration; all they care about is how much fun is it and can their friends play at the same time.  Could I still play this game when I’m drunk. 

They do not want to have to connect to the net because the game has so many bugs that it stops you completing the game.  The average person doesn’t even use the full functions on a 3G mobile phone (which the new IPhone doesn’t even offer).

The only problem with the industry is everything is extremes.  Either you have the ultra cute Pokimon types of games or the ultra violent types of games that seemed to really get noticed by the mainstream.  Where are the independent games that might only appeal to a few people?  Where are the old school types of games?  Where are the ridiculous types of games that only work when you’re drunk?  Well if you searched the net, you’ll find them I hear you say.  The question is.  How do I look for something that I have no knowledge of and do you think the average person wants to go looking for a game that they have never heard of? 

So this is what I suggest. 

1:  Try and get a film made about the product.  Even a crap movie will at least get the publics notice and might even get them to want to play the game.

2:  Toy models; Depending on the type of game, you could get models made for the game.

3: Comics; Their will always be a small group of fans that want to learn more about the games background story.

4: Books; see above

5: Try and get sponsorship for the game.  If you have the latest BMW in your game, why not try and get a little money from the manufacture.  It won’t really spoil the game, as the car was going to be in the game anyway.  Things like Mac Donald’s for example.  If you have a grand Theft Auto type of game, why not put a Mac Donald’s in it. And in return get Mac Donald’s to pimp it to the max (as long as the market is the same market the game is aimed at)

6: get the music recorded by new bands that are just starting out.  You use their music and they get to tell the world that they wrote the music and pimp the game at the same time.  Get them to wear T-Shirts that have the logo of the game on it.

7:  Get proper script writers.  Some of these scripts that get put into the average game are terrible at best and downright insulting at worse.  The trouble with the games that are released in general, is the fact that no one seems to pay much attention to the plot.  If you were to watch a movie with the same script as say Doom, Final Fantasy, Fear, etc.  Do you think that it would appeal to the entire audience?  Of coarse not; it would probably do relatively well but will never win an Oscar; put it that way.

8:  Put a television program on a channel that is mainstream.  It is nice to go find a games show but not if I have to wade through 300 channels or more to find it at some god awful hour in the morning to see some game running.  Put the program on at about 10PM-ish.  You can advertise you products and the public can see how the game looks and whether it appeals to them.

I know that not all these ideas are sensible but if it can spark a debate as to the maturing of the games industry; then I would have achieved something.  I am not a journalist, I don’t work for any games company and I am not a cum-chugger.  I am just one man with an opinion.