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Everything is awesome!

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Andy: No butts about it this week. Last week we focused on the squeaky wheel syndrome in the gaming industry – well, society as a whole really. In that someone nit-picks a small (sometimes irrelevant) issue and proceeds to scream as loud as they can about how bad things are. They seek to find instances where there view is supported and offer them as damning proof that they are right. All the while, tossing aside instances that don’t support their case. They so desperately want people to get their torches and follow in line as they blaze a trail for change that they fail to see anything else.

Admittedly, we have spent our fair share of time discussing some of the negative things in the industry, but there is an old adage that says, “be the change that you want to see.” So in interest to that adage, and to show others that the game industry is in fact not all doom and gloom, filled with sexism, misogyny and money-grubbing companies, I would like to take our time this week and talk about the good stuff. Either from the industry as a whole, developers, gaming communities or gamers themselves. Let’s put the squeaky wheel off to the side for at least a week and focus on the stuff that people don’t usually talk about because it’s not as flashy.

To get things started this week, let’s go real general. When I say “let’s talk about the good stuff going on”, what is the first thing that comes to mind for you?

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Nicholas: Hopefully I don’t sound like a broken record when I say this, but the first thing that pops to mind is Need For Speed actually. Yes, I didn’t enjoy the game as much as I thought I would when it launched, and I’ve also had a hard time getting back into it, but I can’t get over how much Ghost Games have been supporting their latest title post-launch. Maybe I just don’t see it as often as it actually happens, but it’s really the best example I’ve seen of a developer listening to fans and giving back this generation (perhaps second to The Witcher 3). Just last week they’ve announced they’ll be introducing hot rods and drag racing to the game, and that’s honestly something I never expected to come out of a NFS title.

So that’s the first thing that pops to mind when I think about some of the good stuff going on. How about you though? What’s your stand-out example of a gaming developer or publisher that’s breaking the mould to do something different and bring about positive change in this industry?

Andy: I have to admit the amount of support that developers are now allocating to games is nice. Of course there are varying degrees of support, but it’s a far cry from the days of buying a cartridge and what you bought is all you got. Now, if you get a game and there are some bugs or glitches most developers will kick out updates that fix – or try to fix them. One can certainly argue that a game shouldn’t release with bugs and that a developer should fix what doesn’t work. That is of course true, but with reality of how big games are now and how many people have their hands in making one, it’s not hard to understand how things get missed.

For me when I think of a stand-out example of a positive thing in the game industry there is actually one thing that comes to mind above all others. Choice. Choice is everywhere in gaming right now. From AAA games to small indie titles, but also within a specific genre as well. Take the racing genre for example. It’s no longer just Pole Position, I can choose from Forza Motorsport or Need for Speed, I could also go with Dirt or MX vs ATV if I want. It all depends on my mood and what I am looking to do. You can even get more specific within a sub-genre which is really unheard of before. You can pick any genre and find the same thing. Choices, choices, choices. Of course with all those choices it’s sometimes hard to decide what to play and the list of games you want to play never stops growing, but that’s a great problem to have.

I want to change things up here and maybe throw you a little bit of a curveball and make you think a little – I know it’s hard for you, but just try for me. What is something positive with the industry right now that you never thought you’d see, or never thought you would see as a positive?’

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Nicholas: Ooh, that’s an interesting question. I’ve given it some thought and there are two potential answers, but I’ll give you my top choice – crowd-funding. Initially I didn’t warm to the idea of a company asking the community for money to back their project, but there’s been two examples that come to mind which I think have worked out really well, one of which has come to fruition and the other not being far off. Those two are Project CARS and Yooka-Laylee, respectively. I guess the reason I didn’t warm to the idea to begin with was because I saw it as somewhat greedy for a big business to ask their consumers for money to create their product, not just buy the final version, but when you see the passion and drive from those smaller studios and something as little as $10 or $20 is enough to see their dreams become a reality, it’s hard not to appreciate it.

Project CARS turned out to be a fantastic track-racer and I’m so excited to experience some of that childhood Banjo-Kazooie nostalgia in a new game by the older developers. If a company like Electronic Arts were to ask for money via Kickstarter I’d be a little put-off by it, but for those smaller studios, yeah, I think it’s OK. At the end of the day too, if you don’t like the idea then you don’t need to support it.

How about you though? If you’ve put the question forward to me I assume you’ve given it some thought yourself. What’s an example of something you initially thought was a bad idea, but that’s turned out well for either the community or the industry?

Andy: Interesting choice with crowd-funding. Actually that’s not something I expected you to say, so I appreciate that reply even more. Maybe you’re not as predictable as we though – although you did mention Need for Speed already. Crowd-funding isn’t something I have paid a lot of attention to, nor have I ever supported anything via that type of platform but as you said it does have its benefits and if it helps bring more games to the table then it plays into my choice answer above. So it’s a win-win situation when you think about it.

As far as what I think is a positive that I never thought I would say is actually a positive. There was something that came to mind right away actually that led me to ask you about it. Something that, when some gamers talk about it – it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. It’s three simple letters actually… DLC. Now, before you get your pitchfork and start to gather your mob let me explain. Yes, the pricing model for DLC leaves a lot to be desired. But I want to just talk about the DLC. It’s awesome that developers – like you said – support their game. As a gamer when I am playing a game I love, take Fallout 4 for example, and I finish it what more do I have to do? I go back and finish the side quests, explore areas of the map and get all the achievements, then what? I’m done, no more to do so the game goes back in its case, and on the shelf to collect dust.

With DLC, I have a reason to revisit a game I loved, explore new areas, get new weapons and extend the experience I had with the game that I came to enjoy. Some DLC extends the existing experience, some adds completely new experiences and some dramatically alters the base game adding different ways to play, more things to do etc. Most gamers, rightfully so, tend to get so caught up with the price of DLC and the frequency it’s released that we miss the part that no DLC has ever taken anything away. DLC always adds to the game in some way or another. If I don’t like the game I don’t get the DLC. But, when I do like a game and have the opportunity to add to my experience with that game, that’s a pretty good option to have.

You were probably trying to anticipate the next question I was going to ask you. So in an effort to keep you on your toes and keep you guessing here we go. What is something good about the gaming industry that we (gamers) take for granted? Something that is just there but really doesn’t get enough credit, or get talked about as much as it should. What comes to mind when you hear that? (I know I am a perfectly logical answer to that question, so feel free to use that if you want.)

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Nicholas: Perfectly enough, you’re question leads right into the next positive thing I wanted to highlight from the community, and which ties into a point I made earlier on – the dialogue that exists between developers and the community. When I was younger and I’d be playing the latest Pokémon game or iteration of Need For Speed, the thing I always wanted to do was give my feedback to make the next best game, but it was always a pipe-dream and nothing more than a conversation you’d have in the school yard amongst friends. Nowadays though, games aren’t just being slightly shaped by the feedback from gamers, in some instances gamers are directly responsible for what does and doesn’t make the cut.

It might have started off with gamers posting their thoughts on a forum and a developer might have stumbled across it, but now there are entire AAA games which are being created from community feedback. Whether you liked it or not is irrelevant, but Mass Effect 3 had its ending extended because gamers were vocal about it. Project CARS was made off years and months of community testing and feedback, to the point that ‘CARS’ is an acronym for Community Assisted Racing Simulator. In addition to that, DiRT Rally that’s due to launch for consoles next month has been developed with community feedback too. No longer are games always just a developers idea and creation, but they’re becoming increasingly shaped by the fans that demand them to begin with.

I think itself is perhaps the greatest and dare I say, most unappreciated element of modern day gaming that we don’t discuss nearly enough. Gaming isn’t just a one way street anymore, and in a time where complaints are rife about bugs, characters’ clothing and whether we like a story or not, that’s a really awesome feature that I think we should definitely be more appreciative of.

What about you though? We’ve discussed in the past how you’re usually the one to talk about gaming whereas I tend to focus more on the industry, is there a positive feature of modern gaming that you think is underrated?

Andy: OK, clearly you forgot to mention me, but I’ll just assume that you’ll mention me before this article is over. It’s interesting that you talk about the community feedback and how more and more the community is influencing games. I have to admit I have learned something writing this article, I never knew that ‘CARS’ in Project CARS meant that. That’s actually really cool. I think it’s a testament to developers being willing to listen and adapt, but also to gamers being able to better articulate what they want in a way that the developer will listen to. It’s not just about screaming about everything that’s wrong, it’s about saying “Hey, I love the idea but I think this could make it so much better because of <insert idea>.” It’s awesome that we’ve got to that point.

There is one thing that I really wanted to talk about that I think is really underappreciated by a lot of today’s gamers. Gamer’s from my generation don’t necessarily take it for granted as much, but I think many of us do to some point or another. I’m of course talking about one word, the Internet. I mean think about it from the first time I connected online with my PC and dialled into my brother-in-law and we played a game against each other my gaming world changed. Then, I vividly remember connecting my original Xbox to the internet and my brain literally exploded. Here I was in my home playing against other people who I had never met and it was amazing. Now-a-days we turn on our consoles, hop into a game against people from all over the world and we don’t think anything about it.

As an aside to that, not only has the internet allowed like-minded gamers to connect and play their favourite games with/against each other but take it a step further. The internet has allowed us to connect on those forums, message boards, developer specific sites and mediums like Twitter. Literally, if not for Twitter I wouldn’t be writing for Stevivor today. Nor would I have met (virtually) many of the awesome people I have gotten to know. The Internet is one of those thing that we just take for granted because it’s always there. It also allows us to get all that DLC and game updates that make our games better and add to our experiences. So yeah, that’s what I would say for my last thing.

As we wrap up this week’s discussion, which I am really happy with, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that it’s really easy to focus on negative. To complain when things go wrong and to just coast by when things do well and are going right. It takes just as much energy to write something positive that it does to write something negative. But man, I sure feel better when I’m done typing something positive. Is there anything else on the more positive spectrum of gaming that we haven’t talked about yet, but that we would be doing an injustice by not mentioning? When all is said and done, it’s a damn good time to be a gamer is it not?

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Nicholas: Perhaps nothing new to add, but to really re-enforce something you touched on at the end there – the community. I mentioned earlier about talking about features we wanted in our games with friends in the schoolyard, but how fantastic is it that we can do this on (quite literally) a global scale? This article itself is a perfect example of just that – two people from opposite ends of the world, talking about games, with people from around the world reading and contributing too. Of all the great things that gaming has to offer, as much as gaming is central to everything, so is the community. The expression of ideas and just the kind of discussions that can be had today as opposed to 15-20 years ago is amazing.

Of course, there will always be a few bad apples in an orchid, but like we’ve done today, I think it’s important that we spend time focusing on the positive, and just over the past five or so years, I know for a fact that there’s a lot of that across the millions of gamers out there. You’ve said it best there, it really is a great time to be a gamer.

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.


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About the author

Nicholas Simonovski

Events and Racing Editor at Stevivor.com. Proud RX8 owner, Strange Music fan and Joe Rogan follower. Living life one cheat meal at a time.

About the author

Andy Gray

From the frozen land of Minnesota, I was the weird kid that begged my parents for an Intellivision instead of an Atari. My love for gaming has only grown since. When I’m not gaming I enjoy ice hockey and training dogs. I’m still trying to get my Elkhound to add to my Gamerscore though, one day this will happen.