Back in late December of last year, I began to notice something really interesting. In the process of putting together my Year In Review, I decided to read every single post from both Joystiq and Kotaku from the year 2005. In a way, it was like watching gamers, as a community, interact over the span of an entire year, and patterns started to emerge. There was one in particular that caught my eye: gamers almost never focus in on the present.
It's actually a curious wave. As hardware or a game of any prominence comes closer to release, it starts getting more and more hype amongst gamers. At first, it's just a low buzz, like people talking about how such game might be interesting, or you could do intriguing things with this hardware. Before long, people start discussing how amazing it will be. Others say that it will become the greatest example of its type ever, without ever having touched the hardware or software in question. Of course, this will be soon countered by people who hate everything the company does and stands for (or at least stands for in their minds). By the end, you have a fever pitch of discussion about the project in question which reaches a crescendo with its actual release. The next day or two is a flurry of discussion, during which time everyone gives it either a perfect top score or perfect bottom score depending on their views. This is followed by everyone abandoning the discussion to talk about the next big thing.
My personal favorite example was Dragon Quest VIII. I heard that it might be good. Then I heard it might be great. Then I heard it might save the Japanese-style console role-playing game with its old school action. This, of course, was immediately followed by those who think the Japanese-style console role-playing game is a blight upon the gaming landscape and open pining for Fallout 3. Finally, the game was released to much fanfare by critics that don't start their nom de plume with numerals, and then promptly forgotten by nearly everyone. Outside, of course, from one article that tried to delve into why more Americans didn't give a deep-fried rat about the game (again, I'm going to advance the theory that it was only slightly above average).
Don't get me wrong; some games do manage to break this mold. You can regularly find stories about Guitar Hero, God of War (though even that is growing more focused on the game's sequel), and Animal Crossing: Wild World. However, these instances, particularly compared to the number of games that come out each year, are extraordinarily rare. At best you'll see two games a month get this level of treatment. And between all platforms, how many games per year are released? 500? Maybe more? Pretending that my guess is accurate, less than 5% of games are apparently worth discussing at all beyond their launches. When you look at a figure like that, you think that rating inflation is even worse than it first sounds.
The problem is that gaming media, as it currently stands, is not built to establish a dialogue. We push to get reviews of both hardware and software as quickly as possible, in many cases before the product is even commercially available. However, we don’t dialogue with each other about the product in question; we just stand on our soapboxes and pontificate. Meanwhile, the average consumer, who doesn’t have the access to the new release before the official release, can only watch and give opinions formed solely on previews and marketing hype. By the time most people have played enough to start discussing it with facts and authority, the critics have already moved on to discuss the next game.
This problem ultimately manifests as an obsession over the future. It seems more often than not that nobody wants to talk about the games we already have, so the only thing left is to discuss what isn't here. But to only focus on the theoretical future (even if it's backed up by things a company has done in the past) can't sustain much insightful thought about video gaming at large. But by not considering the present more, it's stunting the growth and appreciation of video gaming today. It's like video gaming is stuck forever being a child and playing pretend about the future, instead of taking a step back and thinking realistically about today.
Now, I'll grant that message boards mitigate this problem tremendously. It's nice knowing I can go onto Netjak's boards and talk with people about games I've gone through that they've had the chance to clear. Sure, sometimes they disagree with me vehemently. In fact, many times, they disagree with me vehemently. But I'd rather have that disagreement, even when it turns vicious and nasty, than moving on past a game before anyone else has had a chance with it.
Really, that's what video game writing needs more of – reflection on what we've been playing recently. Obviously, not every game is going to be worthy of such reflection. However, if we start looking back more frequently on what we’ve been playing and discussing that, we'll soon find that gaming as a whole will mature. There’s nothing wrong with looking into the future. However, video gamers need to take more time to focus on the present to really appreciate video gaming as it is.
