Mass Appeal in Video-games

With my thirtyish birthday nearing, I came to the realization of having consumed video-games more than any other entertainment medium. Regardless, video-games struggle for mass appeal has lead to a damaged reputation. Video games has lost it's art form.

Art, not in the Ebert sense of the word, but as a distinctive artistic form. My main issue with video-games, as developers push for a universal medium, games lose their distinctiveness. How so?

Walk into any video-game store, can you name the difference between two off the shelf shooters? How many titles feature bald space marines as the main protagonist?

Limbo is a video game that should influence other developers look at their respective genre. Playdead Studios took staple video game mechanics, some a given in their respective format and choose to be unique vis-à-vis another Super Mario rehash or clone.

With the early buzz on Tomb Raider Guardian of Light; there is hope that developers are starting to think outside of their comfort zone of established franchises.

The medium craves it.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1