Thanks for all the hatemail!

Hi again:

I didnt expect such a response to this article because as I said it was something I wrote some years ago. Sorry for the spelling mistakes.

One more thing; I received emails from people who appreciated the article and agree with what I said. I dont expect all of you to agree with me, that's why the Games Industry is as it is now.

Sorry but I just try to open your eyes.

And no, Miyamato is not God.

pd.Thanks to Bluesnews for the link 

Games are Dead

This is an analysis of the games industry.

There are 3 main groups in the videogame world:

- Those who play
- Those who sell
- Those who make

- Those who play
We are talking about the gamers here. They are divided in 2 groups, those who play to only one platform or those who play to more than one.

- Those who play to one platform are Casual gamers and Hardcore gamers. Both are ignorant, the former because they don't know and don't want to know and the later because they are victims of their own fanatism, they are blind.

Casual gamers don't have a real interest in games, for them games are just one more distraction among many others like cinema, music or sex.

For hardcore gamers, games are their life, they read online news daily, they debate and fight in forums attacking others machines and defending their platform be it by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo…whatever.

Casual gamers can be forgiven because they are not really interested but Hardcore gamers are just plain fools. They don't know how to distinguish good from bad, they are arrogant and immature. Most pirates fall in this category. With time they get a girlfriend who doesn't allow them to play or they just get tired of all of it and change to the next group.

Gamers who play to all the platforms. They are usually open people, without malice and who really love games. They read the english magazine EDGE. They are informed, buy many original games and debate in forums too. Sometimes they fall into elitism thinking themselves superior to the previous groups but they don't realize that they are just one step above, nothing more. From all the gamers, these is the group that truly enjoys games

Those who sell
These are publishers, journalists and the distributors

Publishers are the people with ties in the industry, they just see games as money and want to get as much as possible. They don't understand what is good or bad in a videogame. They are just the pigs who control the money.

Journalists are divided in 3 groups:
Those who think they are gamers
Those who think they are writers
Those who want to be developers

Those who think they are gamers have ended up working for a magazine after going through all the gamer stages ( casual, fanatic ) until they ended up loving games and wanting to write about them. They don't know how to write but this doesn't matter when the reading public is composed of uneducated hardcore gamers.

Those who think they are writers didn't go through all the stages as a gamer. They use to write before and now found an opportunity to write about something they like. They see the difference between a good and a bad game but they dont know how to do it.

The third group is common in many industries, be it Film with frustrated directors working as Film critics, undiscovered rock stars writing in music magazines etc. These journalists envy developers because they are capable of doing something they would like to do but they lack the talent to do it.

Those who sell are just ants in the industry and don't need any more attention. They just sell.

Developers

They are divided in:
Those who don't know
Those who think they know

Those who don't know are pitiful, they work hardly for years in pathetic games, wasting their lifes in something they don't really understand but thinking that they do. With time they end up getting tired of it or they start in some other place without making any evolution.
Some see gamers as inferior to them because they have the technical knowledge but they don't know that this is not the main thing.
Amateur developers fall in this group too because they just copy the games the second group of developers do.

Those who think they know are divided in 2 last groups: those who look more on the technical side and those who look more on the artistic side.
The first think that they revolutionize the industry with their engines etc. They see games as a collection of technical obstacles they have to overcome. They sometimes think that they have an artistic or creative side but these is just because they envy the second group.
Those who look more on the artistic side. These are the bohemians, happy with their original creations. They don't really understand interactivity but follow their instinct. Some think they make art but they are wrong. The problem with this group is that they because they don't understand interactivity they cant break with the norms and they end up making the same game the rest of their lives.

The interactivity industry had a promising beginning, people imagined immense possibilities but with commercialization all this stopped and now has fallen into a deep dark well. Technical achievements and small advances in design is all what games have seen in the past 20 years. In the next 20 we will finally hit the reality in realtime goal and then everybody will have to rethink what is all this interactivity all about.

Every few years we see a new generation of consoles, graphical improvements, input improvements but still nobody seems to understand interactivity.
Playstation 3 or 4 or 5 will not change this, nor Nintendo Wii, Uss or whatever, nor Xbox 360 or 720.
What is failing here is the underlaying understanding, the whole philosophy behind making games. Not being able to see the difference between interactivity and everything else.

If somebody stopped to think for a moment we would be able to see changes, real innovation, games for everybody. We woudn't even call them games because they would be something much more superior.
I hope that in the next decades this becomes a reality.

Honestly,
E.G.A.

Los videojuegos estan muertos

Esto es un analisis de la industria de los videojuegos.

Hay 3 grupos en el mundo de los videojuegos, los que juegan, los que venden y los que hacen los videojuegos.

Los que juegan
Los jugadores: Se dividen en dos grupos,los que solo juegan a una sola plataforma y los que juegan a mas de una.

-Los que solo juegan a una sola plataforma se subdividen en dos a su vez, los jugadores casuales y los fanaticos. Ambos son ignorantes, los primeros porque no conocen y no quieren conocer y los segundos porque son presa de su propio fanatismo, son ciegos.
Los casuales no tienen interes, ven los juegos como una distraccion mas dentro de otras muchas como el cine, la musica o el sexo.
Para los fanaticos los juegos son su vida, leen noticias a diario y pelean en foros defendiendo su maquina o atacando la de la competencia.
Los primeros son perdobables porque no tienen un interes real pero los segundos son necios. No saben distinguir entre lo bueno o malo de su propia opinion, son arrogantes e inmaduros que no saben simplemente. La mayoria de los piratas estan en este grupo.
Con el tiempo o encuentran una novia que no les deja jugar mas o se dan cuenta de su propia estupidez y cambian al segundo grupo…

- Los que juegan a mas de una plataforma. Estos suelen ser gente abierta, sin maldad que verdaderamente ama los juegos. Suelen leer la revista inglesa Edge. Estan informados, compran muchos juegos originales y opinan en foros. Suelen caer en el elitismo creyendose superiores a los del grupo anterior pero no se dan cuenta de que ellos son simplemente un nivel mas. De todos los grupos este es el mas sano de todos porque es el que mas disfruta con los juegos.

Los vendedores
Estos son los editores, periodistas y vendedores.
Los editores son la gente de traje de la industria, ellos son los que ven a los juegos como dinero y quieren sacar el maximo posible. No tienen un entendimiento de qué es bueno o malo en un juego. Son simplemente los cerdos que controlan el dinero.

Los periodistas se dividen en 3 grupos:
Los que se creen jugadores
Los que se creen escritores
Los que quieren ser desarrolladores
Todos se equivocan:
-Los que se creen jugadores han llegado a trabajar en una revista pasando a traves de todas las fases como jugador, casual, fanatico..hasta llegar a amar a los juegos y querer escribir sobre ellos. Les falta el detalle de saber escribir pero como los que leen suelen ser los fanaticos no importa.
Los que se creen escritores no han pasado por todas las fases como jugador, escribian antes y han encontrado una oportunidad para trabajar en una aficion que les gusta. Saben ver lo bueno y lo malo pero no cómo hacerlo.
El tercer grupo es comun en todas las industrias, sea la del cine con directores frustrados trabajando como criticos, estrellas de rock no descubiertas escribiendo en revistas etc. En los juegos es igual, ellos envidian a los desarrolladores porque son capaces de hacer algo que les gustaria pero no lo hacen porque no tienen el talento o inteligencia para hacerlo.

Los vendedores son las hormigas de la industria y no merecen mucha atencion. Simplemente vende.

Los desarrolladores
Se dividen en:
Los que no saben
Los que creen que saben

-Los que no saben son lo mas triste, trabajan duro durante años en juegos pesimos, desperdician su vida en algo que no entienden realmente y ellos creen que si. Con el tiempo acaban cansandose y comienzan en otro sitio desde cero pero sin haber evolucionado nada.
Algunos ven a los jugadores como inferiores a ellos porque carecen del lado tecnico pero no ven que eso no es lo esencial.
Los desarrolladores amateur entran en este grupo porque simplemente copian las pocas ideas que el segundo grupo tiene.

-Los que se creen que saben se dividen en dos tipos:
Los que miran mas el lado tecnico
Los que miran mas el lado artistico
Los primeros son programadores que piensan que revolucionan la industria con sus algoritmos, engines y demas. Ven los juegos como una coleccion de obstaculos tecnicos que tienen que sobrepasar. Suelen creer que tienen un lado artistico o creativo pero es porque envidian en parte al segundo grupo.
Los que miran mas el lado artistico. Estos son los bohemios, felices con sus creaciones originales, innovadores etc. No entienden realmente la interactividad pero siguen su instinto. Algunos creen que hacen arte pero se equivocan. El problema de este grupo es que al no comprender la interactividad no pueden salir de lo ya establecido y crean siempre el mismo tipo de juego durante toda su vida.

El mundo de la interactividad tuvo un comienzo esperanzador, se imaginaban inmensas posibilidades pero con la comercializacion se estanco y ha caigo en una cienaga de la que le es imposible salir. Mejoras tecnicas y pequeños avances en diseño es lo que han visto los juegos en los ultimos 20 años. En los proximos 20 se chocara al fin con la dichosa realidad en tiempo real y tendran que replantearse para que servia en realidad todo eso de la interactividad.

Cada cierto tiempo sale una nueva generacion de consolas, mejoras en graficos, mejoras en el metodo de interaccion pero nadie entiende en realidad de que va todo esto de la interactividad.
Ni Playstation 3, 4 o 5 van a cambiar esto, ni la Nintendo Wii o como se llamen las siguientes ni la Xbox 360 o la Xbox 720. Lo que falla es la filosofia, el concepto detras, el no haber entendido la diferencia fundamental entre la interactividad y todo lo demas.
Si alguien se parase a pensar realmente, veriamos algo realmente diferente, innovador y apto para toda clase de publico. Ya no lo llamariamos juegos porque serian algo increiblemente superior.
Espero que en las proximas decadas esto se haga realidad.

Con humildad, E.G.A.

Thanks to Alberto2kd for the translation