Technically briliant but overlooked?

The main reason i feel so passionalty about independant companies are the for the fact they're the ones pushing the software to it's limits, they're the ones using a nintendo Ds's touch screen to it's fullest. They (in most cases) aren't the one spewing out the seem cliche nonsense just because it's tried and tested and they know it'll make them money.

I understand the point of a company is to make a profit, but i wish they'd just take a damn risk once in a while.

A perfect example of this is Scribblenauts,



Granted the game isn't amazing, nor is it visually beautiful but what it is, is innovative. Anything you want you can have (Well anything is an exaggeration but anything within reason). Independent companies make games like this but because they are "independent" the media doesn't pickup on the genius.

Has it always been like this?

Gaming was once a "Nerdy" past time, an often secluded session where you would separate yourself from the world and immerse yourself in your chosen game.

Nowadays though being Nerdy is as frowned on as it once was, gaming has spread far and wide. Families now game together and isn't considered as "secluded" as it once was.

With this though means that A LOT of trash comes out from companies trying to make a quick buck which in turn raises this argument. How can absolutely appalling games get more media attention than the gems that come from independent developers just because of the publishers.

The problem is as stated before gaming wasn't as mainstream as it is now resulting in games being few and far between, for this reason there was a lot less garbage coming through, i won't say EVERY game back in the days of Atari because i wasn't there to witness it all but i was lucky enough to own an Atari when i was young and managed to play (and remember till this day) a few games that stood out and they were good.

Nowadays it seems money seems to overlap quality now a days and Nintendo (And other companies) will endorse anything that they think will earn them a shed load of money even if they know the game isn't great. So they will go out on a marketing campaign making a game look good knowing it's poor JUST to earn money, it's a shame.

Excuse the poor quality video -



It's this kind of trash that annoys me, i remember when they were first released they had so many adverts running. It's absolute garbage and things like these are (for me) ruining the gaming culture.

I mean if they released a series of games (Insert stereotypical male jobs here) "Imagine : Miner", "Imagine : Manual labour" (last one was blatantly hypocritical to prove my point) no one would buy them, so why do they think female gamers will by trash like "imagine : babies" It's highly sexist and personally the most idiotic thing Nintendo have ever done to earn money (that's all it's about).

So..Independant games.

Due to the sheer amount of platforms nowadays (along with the readily available programs) independently created games are pretty frequent in there release, as said a few posts ago due to the consoles now having things like "Xbox live arcade" games made by indie developers are available for all to play. My arguement rests on the fact that most of these AMAZING games don't really get any media attention (Be it through gaming magazines or websites).

For this reason games like -

Lost winds


World of Goo

Sexism? In gaming? Surely not?..

Gaming is by trait a more masculine past time, the industries revolved around gaming are often jam packed with males adding a sprinkling of female for good measure. I think though that in the past few years this has changed drastically.

That said i remember seeing an advert "Games for girls" run by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS and getting hugely annoyed by the advert. I have always been a fan of Nintendo and was just stunned when i saw this advert. Nintendo have always prided themselves on "family play" but to see this advert pretty much saying "This is what girls will play" i felt they were slightly alienating there customers.

Funnily enough i can't find the video for it, maybe it was taken off for this reason, who knows. The best way i can show this is by the following video.



Girls aloud here showing that celebrities and females obviously all group up and play there ds's....obviously. I'd like to put this down to clever marketing but it just annoys me.

Indie gaming.

Lately through the release of things like DsiWare,WiiWare and Xbox live arcade - Independant game makers can get attention from gamers worldwide. Sadly though these rarely ever lead to anything significant.

The only gave I've really heard of going major is "Alien Homonid", a side scrolling shooter created by Behemoth. This had an absolutely HUGE following on the site Newgrounds and with high views and plays O~3 Entertainment picked them up, releasing it on Nintendo Gamecube and Playstation 2 in 2004.

Huge backlog incoming.

This should of been thrown up a few weeks ago, but instead i decided to do it now...why? Noone knows.

Anyway there'll be a huge backlog of work showing up on here.