Bulletstorm and the gaming industry's immature obsessions
Fri, February 25, 2011 at 5:07 PM I found an article the other day that I thought rather brilliantly summed up the movie industry’s current creativity drought. Put simply, the entire industry is aimed at immature teenagers with no taste. Why? Because focusing their efforts on this group makes a butt-load of money and it’s an easy sell. Said immature teenagers are in no danger of developing better taste, so movie studios have found a comfortable rut to lie in.
Now, I’m no expert on the film industry, so I’m not capable of a detailed critique of this argument. Generally, I feel it’s right on the money for the most part but perhaps exaggerates just a tad as to the implications and side effects of the issue.
More important to my own interests is the parallel I see between where the movie industry is now and where the game industry is quickly heading.
A little game called Bulletstorm was released on February 22. This title has managed to generate quite a lot of controversy due to various misguided articles by poorly-informed Fox News writers and the intelligent responses to these ridiculous accusations. Whether or not Bulletstorm’s dialog will, in fact, cause an increase in rape is not my concern right now though.
You see, Bulletstorm is the perfect gaming equivalent of the immature movies bringing down the film industry right now. You simply couldn’t ask for a better example.