Online Gamers

Change is a comin....

Published on August 12, 2004 By Baze0195 In Welcome

Who are online games? If you're reading this, you're probably one, and if you aren't, you probably know who they are already. Online Gamers are basically gamers who go online to extend their gaming activities, whether this means playing games like Counter-Strike and Everquest, checking out the latest Penny-Arcade strip, or looking up the latest gaming news from IGN. Online Gaming, both "physically" (playing actual games online) and not (reading up on games/discussing games on forums/etc.) has become an active past time for millions of people. Yes, millions. And its big business too. To get premium gaming news, such as video previews and the like of upcoming games, you have to subscribe to sites. Yes, pay cash for PREVIEWS of games that you probably wont even play for one reason or another. But I'm not talking about that, I'm trying to say that "online gaming" is getting big, and that its going to start changing things.

For one, "mainstream" games are going to start losing their appeal. Don't get me wrong, licensed games are still gonna sell, and they're gonna sell quite a bit. But the quality of a game is going to become more important to publishers. Need proof? Look at Warner Bros. After the "Enter the Matrix" debacle, they began telling their developers to basically cut the crap and make better games, or they wont pay them. Of course, this in itself is funny because with licensed games like "Enter the Matrix", developers working for companies like Warner Bros. are under a tight schedule to finish the game in time for a marketing tie-in (in this case, the new Matrix Movie). But nonetheless, I doubt any future Matrix property, and any other large franchise with Shiny as a developer attached to it, will sell very well.

And whys that? Simple. As I said, millions of people now access info on games everyday, and it doesnt take very long for them to find out which games suck and which games are good. This new "threat" leads publishers to either bribe, intimidate (cough, DEREK SMART, cough), or, dare I say it, make better games. This means, releasing games that are actually FINISHED and don't require a few months worth of patching to work (Star Wars Galaxies anyone?). Because, after the games launch (especially if its a big name title), the verdict is already going to be out on the game. Game Reviewers don't tend to do "updated" reviews for patched games very often.

But enough of my rantings and ravings. What do you have to say? Is anyone even reading this? If you are, for the love of god, give some feedback, it takes two seconds

Comments

web_poet

on Aug 12, 2004

I dont do much gaming myself. Can you teach me ? Are they fun ?

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!