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by Jerry Whorebach 08/08/2014, 11:52pm PDT |
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No one who cares about value for money has paid $60 for a new game since they stopped coming on cartridges with expensive ROM chips and limited production runs. The entire AAA business model is predicated on flooding the market with millions of copies of a product that has a shelf life of about three months; if you're releasing an indie game at $19.99 right now, your competition isn't one-third of whatever AAA game came out last week (do they even release AAA games in August?), your competition is the Game of The Year Edition of every single AAA game that came out last November, all of which IGN called 10/10 must-play experiences and each of which take about a billion hours to actually finish. (Or your competition is two of them, if your prospective customer is really so hard up for cash he doesn't mind peeling the stickers off his previously-enjoyed DVD cases.)
Now obviously this year's Jeff Minter game is worth more, objectively speaking, than last year's AAA Ubisoft game, just like last year's Jeff Minter game is still going to be worth more, objectively speaking, than next year's AAA Ubisoft game. But how many people are really complaining about Jeff Minter games when they spit "indie" like an epithet? "Indie" games, as IGN uses the term, are games characterized by their utter LACK of play value - but it's okay, guys, really, because their cheap price point reflects it. Right now for $15 on Xbox Live I could buy the narrative-driven 2D side-scrolling puzzle-platformer Valiant Hearts which, despite being developed by a team of at least a dozen and published by fucking Ubisoft, still qualifies as indie according to the author of this stupid fucking article because I guess the guy's who made are all real hip dudes who are just sort of experimenting like jazz to try and capture a feeling or whateverthefuck kind of backwards nonsense logic goes on this idiot's brain, or I could buy an entire armload of classic Capcom arcade games, each developed by small teams of about a half-dozen highly-skilled, over-worked, and under-valued professional designers, programmers, pixel artists, and electronic musicians over the span of no more than a few months, many of which I've never played anyway and some of which were never even released in my region to begin with. Which of these models really favours the consumer?
"Indie" games are charity games. You buy them if you want to support a good cause. There's absolutely something noble and admirable about a big corporate site like IGN promoting the thousands and thousands of deserving innovative boundary-pushing completely interchangeable narrative-driven 2D side-scrolling puzzle-platformers being developed in basements and bedrooms and hip open-plan Ubisoft studios around the world, right alongside the puff pieces on the big budget tripe that draws the clicks that pay the bills. But here's a quote from a New Yorker profile of fellow comically out-of-touch space cadet Ben Stiller that I think perfectly encapsulates your readership's entirely predictable reaction:
The New Yorker's Tad Friend wrote:
When I go on Twitter and say, ‘Hey, check out this article by Paul Farmer’ ”—a doctor heavily involved in health care in Haiti, where Stiller’s foundation has built schools—“people respond, ‘You have the worst tweets! Be funny!’ ” |
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Why Do So Many People Hate Indie Games? by IGN by skip 08/08/2014, 10:25pm PDT 
The whole value proposition is stupid to begin with. by Jerry Whorebach 08/08/2014, 11:52pm PDT
Oh man, some of those numbers are way off. IGNORE ANY NUMBERS IN THIS POST. by Jerry Whorebach 08/09/2014, 6:23am PDT
This thread does bring up a critical reason for why people hate indie games by serial malcontent 08/09/2014, 8:08am PDT
He didn't save all the kids. NT by Worm,Ed Gein 08/09/2014, 8:49am PDT
Here are some random comments. by Ice Cream Jonsey 08/09/2014, 8:02am PDT
Re: Here are some random comments. by serial malcontent 08/09/2014, 8:14am PDT
Re: Why Do So Many People Hate Indie Games? by IGN by Souffle of Pain 08/09/2014, 10:09am PDT
I've started relying more on video reviews too by skip 08/09/2014, 5:29pm PDT
That's the real reason companies try to shut down Let's Play videos by fabio 08/10/2014, 4:42pm PDT
That's the real reason companies try to shut down Let's Play videos by fabio 08/10/2014, 4:46pm PDT
Count me as someone that never wants to play another sidescrolling platformer by E. L. Koba 08/09/2014, 6:46pm PDT
Understandable, though to me the type of platformer matters a lot. by Jerry Whorebach 08/09/2014, 8:07pm PDT
That's a touch unfair by skip 08/09/2014, 11:41pm PDT
Wait, aren't you the guy who takes narrative dance classes twice a month? by Jerry Whorebach 08/10/2014, 5:56pm PDT
I liked Dear Escher... by blackwater 08/14/2014, 10:33pm PDT
Why critics love Mountain, but Steam users are calling it "worthless" by PCGamer by skip 08/22/2014, 5:23pm PDT
Re: Why critics love Mountain, but Steam users are calling it "worthless" by PCG by E. L. Koba 08/22/2014, 6:21pm PDT
People used to pay money for interesting screensavers. by Fullofkittens 08/22/2014, 7:27pm PDT
Re: People used to pay money for interesting screensavers. by Butterface Loving Lollerson 08/22/2014, 7:41pm PDT
I feel like we as a species solved this riddle a long time ago. by Jerry Whorebach 08/22/2014, 8:42pm PDT
Digital leisure is a good term for it. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 08/22/2014, 9:53pm PDT
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