GameblurgKids Talking About the Future

Environmental expansion and technological upgrades are “obvious” solutions to approach the process of “amplifying franchises” and raising the bar. The broad question “How do we make our game better?” is often answered by the stereotypical theory that “bigger is better”.

Luckily, in the videogame industry, this does not always work. You can only get so many “thumbs up” through our vicious pyramid of reporter to blogger to consumer before someone calls foul on a weak attempt at evolving a franchise.

X-Play’s adamant co-host, Adam Sessler, recently expressed his concerns on the diminishing relevance of gameplay on his personal blog, Sessler’s Soapbox. Throughout the video, appropriately titled “Bigger’s Not Better“, Adam touches on the significance of interacting with games, and precedence that gameplay serves over graphics.

“Maximize the quality of the play”, Adam insists, stressing the main focus of his methodical gripe during the video’s conclusion. The entire video lists notable instances where respectable companies implicate the theory of making things bigger, and ultimately form dents inside the popularity of many franchises.

An appealing look in videogames is expected. The design aesthetic exists to visually captivate an audience by way of quality (shininess), imagery, and/or distinctive style. As you will hear from many developers, building an alluring world is no easy task. But if the question is what I value more in the preference of interacting with that said world or admiring how pretty that world may be, the winner is always gameplay.

Visuals are a borrowed feature from other forms of passive entertainment that we incorporate into videogames to make them easier to explore: the art form that is creating that exploration, that gameplay, belongs to us, the gamers. Pretty objects are great and championed features that play a prominent role in the goal to deliver a quality game, but the player’s interaction with a game’s universe, from avatar to environment, will always take precedence.

It was relieving to hear many points that I wanted to express explained in the video, so with fear to retreading said opinions and facts, listen to Sessler’s video as he speaks upon occasions of games faltering because of management’s goal to make things “bigger, better, and more bad—.”

Links: Adam Sessler: Sessler’s Soapbox-”Bigger’s Not Better“

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