Some games are going to a model that is free to the user, but hosts advertisements to pay for the reoccurring bills and the development cost.  Many users think this is great, and it is nice on the surface, but there's a problem.  What?  There's a problem with getting to play games for free?

The problem is that now the developer is working directly for the advertisers and not the gamers.  Sure, without gamers you can't sell your advertising, but you are getting all of your money from your advertisers.  Who do you think has most of the power here?  If the advertiser tells you to do one thing and the gamer says to do another, which one do you think most developers are going to listen to?  Personally I would say listening to your customers is the smart thing to do for the long term health of your company, but since when do people or companies do what is smart for the long term?

Everyone does remember a firing at a popular gaming site recently, supposedly, at the demand of an advertiser, right?

Anyways, at a minimum advertising splits a developers loyalties which can be a bad thing for gamers.

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One of our forum users (Paladin Sponge) brought up the point that gaming is based on innovation and when games stop being innovative it dies.

Innovation is dangerous for companies though.  It is a unknown risk.  It is much easier to pick a sure thing like a clone, a sequel, or a movie license and keep the innovations to a minimum.  This is what most of the larger developer and publishers tend to do.  It's a fairly logical risk/reward thing.

The problem is Paladin Sponge is correct.  If an industry stops innovating it might not die, but it will at least stagnate.  It needs innovation.  It needs change to keep it fresh.

There are luckily lots of companies that create completely new types of games, combine genres in interesting ways, bring back genres from the past, try different settings, and in general try out many innovative things.  Unfortunately, these companies tend to be smaller and don't get as much press and attention as the big boys get.

The larger companies see all of this of course, but they aren't likely to copy any of these innovations unless it is proven to be successful.  It's that risk/reward thing again.  So they will continue to stagnate.

This is where consumer power comes back into play.  If consumers buy these games that innovate in enough numbers, then the big companies will bring those ideas into the larger market place and they will filter throughout the industry.  This will bring about at least some change that keeps the industry from stagnating.

So again, support those little guys that are creating innovative games!  For that matter, when a larger company does make a cool, innovative game support them too.

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If Soldak made Diablo clones, I would be terrified right about now.  However, since we don't, I'm excited about what is likely to be a pretty cool game.  Of course, who knows when it will actually come out.

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I've talked a little bit about this before, but I was thinking about it the other day so I thought I would write up some more of my thoughts.

Lots of people seem to complain that there are too many clones, there is too little innovation in the industry, the big publishers seem to just push out sequel after sequel, graphics keeps improving but gameplay seems to be stagnate, games used to be better, and they just wish things would change.

Well none of this is going to change until YOU do something about it.  Stop buying games that have good graphics and advertising, but crappy gameplay.  Buy more games that actually innovate even if they aren't as polished or have as good of graphics as the AAA games that you constantly hear about.

What gamers don't realize is that the games market is really controlled by the gamers.  They have all of the real power.  Not the developers.  Not the publishers.  Not the retailers.  All of the real power resides within the gamers themselves, because they control the money.  Developers, publishers, and retailers (which I will simplify to devs for the rest of this post) go wherever the money tells them to go.  Gamers can direct the industry in whatever direction they want.

Just some quick examples.  If gamers stop buying games from a particular developer or publisher, they will go out of business or if they decide to buy tons of copies of a game like Diablo, the industry will gladly make them a ton of games just like Diablo.

There are 3 main ways that gamers can use their power (ie money): they can buy a game, they can choose not to buy a game, or they can pirate a game.

Each time you buy a game you are supporting all of the devs involved, that specific game, the game's genre, the game's platform, and the game industry as a whole.  It also supports anything that the game did that was different than other games.

So why do you want to support all of this?  Well if there are enough sales the devs will create more cool games and very likely sequels or expansions to the game that you bought, other devs will notice and make other games in the same genre, and devs will continue to make games for that platform or even switch to it from another platform.  Also, any innovations, anything unique, any twists on old ideas will be noticed, copied, and used in other games.  If you like the game, this is exactly what you want.

Now what happens if not enough people actually buy the game?  The devs will struggle and possibly go out of business.  If they do manage to stay in business, they certainly aren't going to make any sequels or expansions.  Other devs definitely won't copy anything from a game that failed.  Other devs might even steer clear of the entire genre or platform if this seems to be part of a larger trend.  Now if you don't like the company or genre, then I doubt you care about any of this part and that's fine.

Here's where piracy comes in.  Some of the impact of piracy is the same as just not buying a game.  The more this happens, the more likely the devs will go out of business, the less likely other devs will make similar games, the less likely other devs will copy cool aspects of a game, and the less likely your platform will be supported.  The thing is if you go and pirate a game, you would think that means you actually enjoy that game, but you are not supporting anyone and you are loudly telling the industry that you will not buy these types of games.  Beware what you tell people, because they will listen.  Unlike the non-buyer, you are actively encouraging the industry to stop making games you actually like.

While I'm on the topic of piracy, let me tell you two things about piracy that aren't talked about very often.

You are just one person.  One pirate can't hurt anything, can it?  Well, pirating games encourages other people to pirate games.  It's like an epidemic, the attitude is contagious.  It only takes a few people to pirate something before a ton of other people think it's acceptable also. 

The other thing is devs responses to piracy.  Regardless of the full monetary impact of piracy (which is a lot), it scares devs.  It scares some devs less and some more, but in general it scares devs.  Pirates try to justify their actions by saying they wouldn't have bought the game anyways, but even if that is true you are still scaring the devs.  What's the natural human reaction to fear?  Fight or flight.  In the case of games, fight means DRM and flight means leaving the genre, platform, and/or the industry. 

People can try to justify piracy however they want, but it still damages the industry and what's worse is it specifically damages the games people pirate and thus like.  I have said this before, but piracy kills the thing you love in the long run, which is pretty dumb.

So I'll leave you with this, use your power wisely.  When you find things you really like and want more, support it and the industry will make more.

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