The End of an Era?

Is the game finally over for consoles?

Many professionals have been asking themselves this exact question for the past few years. With the release of the iPhone, and all sorts of other mobile devices such as the iPod Touch, video game consoles are starting to lack purpose. Due to the open sourced nature of games on these mobile platforms, these games are usually free to play, made with very short periods of time. Often, these games are games that do not require a large time commitment, and are simple to pick up.

Sales of consoles in the U.S. dropped 21% in 2012 to just over $4 billion. Microsoft announced that Xbox revenues dropped 29%, while Sony announced a drop in PSP and PS3 sales of around 15%. Nintendo‘s new Wii U console also failed to generate much interest in the market. (Source: Time Business and Money, “Game Over?” Martha C. White, 2/11/2013) As these giants in the industry fall to their knees, does that mean the future of gaming is over?

Not quite. The video game industry, although seemly is suffering through a tough period, is actually the largest it has ever been. Outside of these large console makers are the smaller independent game development firms, and these firms are raising large amount of capital. Game developer Double Fine, at the end of 2011, realized that the future of gaming is changing. Tim Schafer (the founder of Double Fine, worked on titles such as Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango), decided to make a traditional point-and-click adventure game to bring back the past excellence of the video game industry. He turned towards Kickstarter for his funding efforts of the $400,000 he needed for the project. Within a few months, he raised $3.34 Million. This is currently still the world record on crowd funding amount raised. Kickstarter uses a mechnic where the public is able to “donate” money towards a cause. In this case, the public voted with their money that they want Tim Schafer and Double Fine to make this adventure game. (Source: Time Business and Money, “Why the Next Hit Video Game May Be Crowdfunded,” Victor Luckerson, 1/29/2013).

More and more games are now moving towards crowdfunding and open source play. With new releases such as the Steambox (console made by the video game digital distributor Steam), and Ouya (another very large crowdfunding open source game console effort), it is apparent that the game industry isn’t dying, it’s just changing. Game making is become more and more accessible with new accesible game engines such as the Unity3D or Unreal Development Kit, and programming is slowly becoming a staple of today’s education.

Instead of looking at this as an end of an era, this should be thought of as the beginning of one. Interactive media is changing, and the only way for it to go is up.

Feminism & The Video Game Industry

No longer can we ignore the fact that women play just as many video games as their male counter parts. Whether they are playing bejeweled, words with friends, or draw something, these are all considered video games and when they play with their friends or anonymous gamers on their phones they are technically playing online. A recent survey completed by Doritos found that 49% of women play video games compared to 50% of men and they even found that women tend to play online games more than men. Some women even enjoy playing their online games more than having sex!!

With recent research like this taking place and disproving the fact that boys are the only one that play video games, what does this mean for the industry as a whole? Well its hard to deny that the industry has been a very sexist since its inception, and with an abundance of macho male lead characters and helpless damsels needing rescue, we might start to see a change in the way characters are portrayed especially women.

Characters like Lara Croft from the Eidos series “Tomb Raider” might just be the best example of how women are poorly portrayed. With her high kaki shorts, tight t-shirt and extremely large breast Lara is a mix between a Barbie Doll and a gun toting badass. But is this really the best way to empower a woman in video games. Even though I’ve played all of the early Tomb Raider titles I do believe that the way the industry is heading and the negative messages that overly sexualized characters like Lara Croft tend to portray need to be toned down and developers need to focus on more on creating positive role models that will empower the women that play the game rather than strictly focusing on double D’s and duel desert eagles.

With that being said that is exactly what Crystal Dynamics has done with their recent reboot release of the Tomb Raider franchise. Rather than creating a sex symbol version of Indiana Jones, Crystal Dynamics decided to create a “realistic and relatable person”. While some sexism still exist in the title, with bandits stranded on an island being overly suggestive in the beginning of the game, this all soon fades away once the bad guys realize what a threat Lara has become.

Now in the grand scheme of things this is just one tiny step, but for Lara Croft this is a giant leap. By this change in character portrayal Lara has become not only a lead hero in a title once again, but also a positive role model that any woman could enjoy playing as. But Tomb Raider is just one game, what about the industry as a whole? Is there anything women who enjoy video games can do to change the way how the industry works?

Well in a recent Forbes article written by Gabrielle Toledano, executive vice president and chief talent officer of Electronic Arts, explains how women can get involved in the industry that is in desperate need for their talents. To explain how to get involved Gabrielle first describes the three dirty little secrets of the video game industry:

• Women play games – a lot of them
• The video game industry wants to hire more women
• There aren’t enough to hire… yet

First women need to admit that they are in fact gamers, whether its games on Facebook or simply Rock Band on their home consoles. Second the success of a video game titles depends on diversity, since all titles are built and developed by teams, diversity fuels greater teamwork experiences and more diverse characterizations. Third more women in the engineering and technological fields must think of the game developing jobs out there as more satisfying and rewarding f options, and need to think of these industry jobs as a more viable career opportunity. With these three secrets now revealed it is now up to women to cease the opportunity for a rewarding and impacting career.

I leave you now with a video by Anita Sarkeesian, an author whom has focused much of her professional career on feminism and the much-needed change in the video game industry. With the video’s focus mostly on the history of the damsel in distress and the lack of female hero characters within video game titles, Anita takes us on a very informative ride through the history of feminism and industry practices. Enjoy!!!

Video Game “Reality”

In an age where health is becoming commonly viewed as a premium that only a select few have the luxury of enjoying; technology has started changing the Iniquitous perception that accompanies video game usage. Traditionally video games have been viewed as a hindrance toward physical realization and as an impediment toward reality. Thanks to XOS Technologies, video games are no longer being used solely for escaping reality—they’re being used to enhance reality.

XOS Technologies is trailblazing a path for the re-appropriation of video games by introducing the XOS Play Action simulator. The simulator combines the entertainment of EA Sports video games and the practice of XOS Play Tools to create a serious training and evaluation tool designed to serve the needs of both the collegiate and professional levels. At its inception, XOS Technologies, Inc. was founded by Dan Aton, a technology consultant, in the beginning XOS began by offering facilities design & integration services then graduated to developing video-editing system. Evolving thought the years has resulted in XOS becoming a leading provider of digital asset management solutions, facility design and integration services and digital coaching technologies for collegiate and professional sports organizations.

Since 2007 XOS with the aid of EA Sports has developed the simulator to allow teams to load their plays, and those of an opponent, and then give its players a 3-D look at what they might expect to see on game day. The simulator is primarily used by quarterbacks in an auxiliary capacity.  Former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux was quoted as saying: “Whenever we hit a play, that play would automatically match up with the defense that we would see or blitz we would see … If you make the wrong decision, it’s an automatic interception or it’s an automatic incompletion.”

According to the University of Oregon [Ducks] coaching staff the simulator allows the team to prepare for a diverse amount of situational football. “… All these situations that you want to prepare for, but that aren’t common enough that you’ve got a lot of video evidence to teach, you can use a simulator and describe any scenario you want, exactly the way you want [players] to see it.”

One would think that the XOS simulator would be cumbersome—It’s not. The simulator can be used by way of a laptop or a gaming console e.g. Plastation or Xbox. By way of XOS Technologies athletes are better equipped to be successful. To be successful requires being present. The simulator allows the athlete to get extra reps without the physical stress on your body. This subsequently will lower injury for many teams because athletes will have less wear and tear on their body.  This is a technology that a majority of college programs should consider because the benefits are manifold.

The Most Stable Job Market in Entertainment

As the next undergraduate student coming out of college sit in front of his computer looking for jobs, what kind of jobs would he or she be looking for? The title “game designer” flashes across the screen as the student scrolls on, dismissing even the possibility of any stability within the job market for video games.

Poor kid: The video game industry is not only stable, but one of the stablest there is.

First of all, the video game industry is bigger than anyone would ever imagine. In 2005, the video game industry market totaled up to 45 billion dollars, that comes to more than twice the size of the film industry. When you talk about celebrities like Tom Cruise or Ellen Page, they are dwarfs in business comparison to video game giants such as Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto.

The highest grossing first day movie ticket sales during the mid 2000s was the movie Spiderman 2, netting around 40.4 million dollars in one day, highest in film history until that point. The game Halo 2 which released November of 2004 had first day sales of 100 million dollars, two and a half times more than Spiderman 2.

(Source: Nicholds, David, Tom Farrand, Tom Rowley and Matt Avery. Brands and Gaming: The Computer Gaming Phenomenon and its Impact on Brands and Businesses.)

(Multi-million dollar game Halo 2’s trailer)

In addition, the video game industry hires in all fields, including programmers, artists, sound engineers, writers, animators, quality assurance, testers, designers, producers, and all other business functions such as finance, accounting, marketing, operations and HR.

An entry level programmer in the game industry can start with a comfortable average salary of around 50,000 per year. A few more years of experience lead to major roles in the company such as lead project programmers, making 90,000 per year. Seasoned programmers and technical directors with solid industry knowledge can go up to 200,000 dollars per year.

2006 survey shows that artists and animators are being paid increasing amounts in the game industry. Entry level artist and animator positions can sit at around 45,000 dollars per year, while a few more years of experience helps it to grow to around 80,000 per year. Seasoned artists and lead animators can go above and beyond to 220,000 dollars per year.

Game designers, producers, and testers are no jokes either in bringing home the bacon. Each role has around an entry salary of 50,000 per year, and a few years of experience can easily double or triple that amount. Lead designers and testers can easily make more than a lead programmer on a project, while lead producers would net even larger amounts.

(Source: http://www.animationarea.com – video game salary)

Next time you hear someone say that they want to go make video games for a living, you might actually tell him it’s a great idea. As the video game industry grows, these positions would only become more solid and more stable. In such a competitive economic environment, the video game industry continues to grow, indicating its strength at building a solid workplace and a great atmosphere for some serious work.

Video Games: Cultural Impact that Surpasses the Movies

After reading the Forbes article, “ Why Video Games Are More Addictive And Bigger Than Movies Will Ever Be” I realized that in fact because of the authors outlined reasoning, we may be moving into a generation where video games have more of a cultural impact than the movies do. In the article, author Christopher Correa, outlines his reasoning behind these idea with three key topics, which includes all stories are the same, by the numbers, and the (meta) physics of video games. Along with focusing much of his examples on the theories of Tobias Batton the author takes us on a journey explaining how these three topics will be the reasoning behind the cultural shift in influences.

By focusing on the similar stories that have filled humanities literature and films over the past century we are shown that all the stories have been nearly identical in terms key plot elements that drive the plot.

Here are three example from key popular stories that the author used in the Forbes article.

• “Our hero, Luke Skywalker, lives an uninspiring life before meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi who ushers him into the fantastic world of the Galaxy. The hero learns of an evil plot to terrorize and control the Galaxy and masters the Force in order to prepare for this conflict, ultimately triumphing by defeating Emperor Palpatine.”

• “Our hero, Neo, lives an uninspiring life before meeting Morpheus who ushers him into the fantastic world of Zion. The hero learns of an evil plot to enslave humans and masters the manipulation of reality in order to prepare for this conflict, ultimately triumphing by defeating the Machines.”

As you can see just from these two examples many of the stories that become our popular culture have the same foundations that have been used in story telling for centuries. Through this proven model of success video games have tried to follow what movies have done in the development of their own story arcs. Whether its the introduction scene in Mario with Princess Peach being kidnapped or John Marston realizing a greater calling to undo the evil of his past ways in “Red Dead Redemption” most successful games in recent years have had hero characters and story arcs that all have followed these proven models.

Unlike movies and literature, what games are able to do is give users the ability to change these story arcs to their own choosing. Instead of being the full on hero, gamers can choose to become an anti-hero that better fits to their own enjoyment of the game. While the main story of John Marston in Red Dead Redemption follows the parameters of the similar story arcs used in the past, the users in-game choices has an effect on their character in the story arc.

The video below on Red Dead Redemption, explains how a gamers in game decisions and actions will effect John Marston:

Purely from a profit stand point the numbers in recent years haven’t lied. Opening weekend for a video game is exponentially more profitable than opening week for a movie. Avatar in 2009 opened with $232 million, while Modern Warfare 2 sold $550 million its first week released. Even though a new console game like Modern Warfare 2 goes for $60 and a movie ticket goes for around $8 these numbers can’t be ignored.

What isn’t mentioned in the Forbes article that I also realized is that the video games are being enjoyed in ones own home for hours and hours with out the massive overhead of having brick and mortar that movie theaters require. Making the cost of getting them to the consumers even lower than any Hollywood box office success.

Most recently 2012 biggest Box Office success “The Avengers” compared to that years highest grossing game Black Ops 2:

The next point that needs to be made based on Batton’s theory is that operant conditioning plays a key role in game design because games give users an interactive role in in-game decision making that movies can not replicate. “It is for this reason that games are better tools and a more effective form of psychological learning.”

Could this be why countless companies use virtual reality trainers to train their employees? I like to think so because not only is it more cost effective to train a pilot in a flight simulator than putting him in an actual plane, but it is through this virtual reality that environments can be controlled giving specific situational training that is hard to replicate in real world situations. This is also why the army has invested money in games such as Socom: Navy Seals, for the benefit of training and entertaining troops while they are over seas.

Finally by focusing on Maslow’s, “Hierarchy of Needs” the author shows us how when a video game focuses on all the aspect of the Hierarchy they successfully meet the needs of users.

Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”:

Role playing games, especially, are able to hit on a lot of these aspects, which helps give gamers a wide range of satisfaction from their in-game interactions. Games like Skyrim allow users to go as far as marry other characters along with many other decisions that bring one’s own morality into play.

While movies will always hold a special place in my heart it is hard to over look the expansion of video games into our culture. With the immense interactive decisions that gamers control, enjoyment and the overall value of these products are growing within our culture. Either way you look at it the development and advancement in the industry has made an everlasting mark on society that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

Nintendo: Turning Video Games into Money Machines

Many people consider video game development to be a fools errand in the world of business. A video game project usually takes years to develop, and the start-up costs are always higher than the eventual revenues. Are video game developers bound to fail in a such a competitive business world?

Not true. Here’s a great example of why: Nintendo.

Founded in 1889, nearly a century before the invention of video games, Nintendo Ltd. was a playing card company that turned interactive entertainment into business success. Throughout the years of video game industry development, Nintendo was attributed, and profited from, two major industry turning points: The video game crash of the later 1980s, and the industry shift towards casual gamers in the mid 2000s.

In the late 1980s, video game consoles were dying out. Atari games are too rudimentary to be widely accepted as entertainment, and new consoles cost too much to the consumers to have a place within every household. The video game industry was dying out. Enter Nintendo, a brand new company from Japan with a new idea: video games with identifiable characters, and clever level design. In an era where video games were considered a dying fad, Nintendo released R.O.B., the “Robotic Operating Buddy.” R.O.B was a robot which plugged into Nintendo’s video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and served the purpose as a 2nd player to play with kids. Although R.O.B. never ended up being a commercial success, it created a positive light for video games and revived the industry as a whole. By giving additional exposure to the public, Nintendo was able to sell games like Super Mario Brothers through the same console. The revenues for Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES, in 1993, was around $500 million: within the field of entertainment, only the movie ET grossed more at the time. (Source: David Sheff – Game Over: 1993)

(Due to the game’s popularity, even decades later, people are still reminiscing through creative mediums such as piano arrangements of the game’s theme song)

Nintendo did not stop there. Decades later, when games slowly became defined as a “private club” for young boys during the early 2000s, Nintendo found a new way to explore new markets. Nintendo announced the “Nintendo Revolution” due to their ambition in how it will revolutionize gaming, and that is exactly what happened. The “Nintendo Revolution,” later renamed the “Nintendo Wii,” became a hub for non-gamers to join in on the fun. Coming packaged with Wii Sports, the console became a machine that anyone in the family can play and enjoy. The control style was revolutionizing because players no longer have to press complicated button patterns. Instead, the controls were changed into motion controls, with purely movement of the hands. By 2008, the Wii took hold of 68% of all Japanese video game home console shares, and 30% of all global home console shares, both numbers way beyond shares of its competitors, the Xbox360 and the PS3. (Source: Osamu Inoue – Nintendo Magic: 2010)

The Rise of Social Media

Do you remember the days when you would enter the freezing room of a video arcade and play with an arcade machine surrounded by both friends and complete strangers? One might think this as social gaming, since video games have innovated themselves into the solitary of our homes. However, this doesn’t mean gaming the gamers aren’t social.

Within the last couple of years the entire gaming industry has shifted its focus to social media and game developers and brand want to invest their time and money to build social platforms so gamers are able to interact together.

Currently, there is XBOX Live and other platforms that allow you to play against each other but these developers are hoping game embrace social sharing. Enabling gamers to compete against each other on MMO, or Massively Multiplayer Online, Xbox Live while simultaneously sharing the experience with followers on social media.

One of the major developers creating a very unique program is Failbetter Games. The company is best know for a video game called Fallen London which allows the gamer play alongside Facebook and twitter friends and asking them for guidance. This is could very well be the future of gaming. These social platforms could be developed to link with Xbox live and MMO’s.

Currently, Failbetter is exploring new social avenues by continuing to add social tools to its StoryNexus platform. I hope you’re as curious as I am to see how the gaming industry with adapt to the influence of social media.