Competition (or lack thereof) - bluengold34_OS's Blog

bluengold34_OS's Blog

Competition (or lack thereof)

Posted on April 5, 2013 at 10:31 PM.

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Competition is always a good thing. No matter what walk of life you may be from, your educational or financial background, it just doesn�t matter, competition pushes one to be the absolute best they can be and draws on ones pride and self worth to extract every last bit of effort they have deep inside. Competition often finds every-day ordinary people doing extraordinary things, things they could have never imagined doing without being pushed to the brink by the simple nature of competition.

The gaming industry is no different. If we are being honest here, there is a reason why the quantity of quality titles has diminished rapidly over the course of this current generation of consoles, and sports titles have been hit the hardest. While there a some examples of developers not resting on their laurels, there are very few.

It�s not always about the quality of gameplay, but rather the pushing of new modes, new mechanics, and new graphics that fall into this category also. Some developers may still put out a highly reviewed title that scores well with the critics and fans, but are they improving and adding enough depth for a yearly title to warrant another $60 purchase. As gamers we like to believe that they are, but in most cases they simply are not.

For those who say how much can you really add to a yearly title, well the answer to that is plenty. It�s no secret that the majority of developers hold back on implementing certain things each year, so they can sell the consumer on the newest mode, graphical upgrade, or new player models the following year. In the day and age of each sport title only having one developer that is dedicated to delivering its digital replication to the masses, it allows developers to be complacent and unwilling to take financial risks. Who loses in the end? We do, and we are the ones who have allowed it to happen.

In the weeks leading up to the annual release, we search high and low trying to find a certain titles early, we start threads on forums to spread the word, and heaven help us if we do find it, because we typically are willing to pay almost double for the game itself and the cost of shipping. Then we jump on the forums and talk about this being the greatest iteration of said title ever, and that folks is called the newlywed phase, and we fall for it every year.

There is a great slogan used in the world of sales, and that is �The key is not to call the decision maker, the key is to have the decision maker call you� and that folks is exactly what we are doing, we are the ones that have created this type of environment, and it�s only the consumer that can change this. The question is, how do we do that?..........................