The Death of a Games Salesman....

You know, I have just about had enough of being ripped off by video games designers.  I don't understand how you can pay forty quid for a game like Oblivion, then pay exactly the same for a complete pile of pants like Deadly Premonition.  There are a few basic prerequisites I expect when parting with my hard earned cash, and graphics that challenge the consoles I've paid a small fortune for is one of them - not blocky, glitchy stuff that I wouldn't have put up with on the N64.  And the game that's prompted this rant?  Dungeon Siege III.  Thank goodness I only downloaded the demo.  Well...to be fair, this isn't the worst game I've ever played - I think Deadly Premonition holds that accolade - but it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.  I understand that there are probably reasons for it, but as a consumer, I'm not here to prop up the fragile egos of designers trying to cope with smaller budgets.  If I pay forty quid for something, I expect forty quids worth of product.  But then SquareEnix isn't exactly a small company with small budgets.  Maybe carrying a popular name is all they think they need to pass a so-so game off onto the gaming public who will quite happily pay top-whack for something that they expect to be in the same vein as Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts.  Which Dungeon Siege definitely is not.

Of course, it's not just the video games market that does this.  The publishing market is exactly the same.  A popular name that's sold well in the past will instantly get published, no matter if their latest offering isn't fit to wipe your backside with.  Are editors afraid to point out to a Big Name that they really have lost the plot, so to speak?  Oh, that's okay...it'll sell anyway, because it's got a Big Name.  And of course the British never complain about anything, so they get away with it.  And don't even get me started on the deals made with people like Jordan, who couldn't string a sentence together if her life depended on it.  I'm not sure who's worse - the publishers who encourage them, or the poor saps who buy it.  Drives me insane.

So that's it - no more buying games or books from designers/authors who have lost touch with the reason they  started out on the creative road in the first place as soon as money becomes involved.  Money strangles talent and results in the kind of mass-produced, soulless offerings that are tomorrow's bargain bin fodder.  It's about time a lot of people in the industry started remembering what made them great in the first place, while the public may still be interested.

Glad I'm not the only one to think so, too....  DSIII Review