5 Reasons This is a Great Era for Gaming

From time to time I hear people saying how much they used to like games and how things have gotten rotten. I've also heard many people saying that the industry is dying in various ways: PC games are dying, this will be the last generation of consoles, so and so publisher is trying to rob our children, etc. There are a lot of bad things going around, sure. But there's also so much good. People tend to forget how archaic things were in the nostalgic past, hoping things will go back to how they were.

Well, I sure as hell don't want that to happen. And I also don't want certain things to get out of hand. Let's take a moment to reflect on what's going on now before Big Money crashes the whole industry around us.

Here's five things that are pretty awesome about NOW.

5. Little to No Ad's

There are five Coke logos in this shot alone. All facing the camera.

I know there are examples of advertisements in video games- like the Playboy magazine posters everywhere in Deadrising 2- but for the most part they do not happen. Compare games to movies. There are TV commercials that run for 45 minutes before having 20 minutes of movie trailers. Then the movies themselves usually have Coca-Cola cans or other stupid crap facing right at the camera. And how about theme parks that have rides that exit through the damn gift shop?

It's really funny because we've all seen an advertisement in a game at some point. And every time players see one, we IMMEDIATELY get annoyed. Yes, video games are expensive. But so is everything else. It's quite amazing that we're allowed a break from something that fills every second of our lives otherwise.

4. The Majority of Games are Rated "M" 

PG-13 zombies can't act like zombies.

Many people (IE: not gamers) are concerned over this one. But the plain reason this is the case is simply due to marketing: most of the money the gaming industry makes is from people old enough to play M rated games. It has nothing to do with violence. At least, not excessive violence. Take Halo for example. I don't think I've heard a single F-bomb in the entire franchise. The blood is rather minimal, and there's absolutely no gore. It barely counts as M.

So why is this significant? Well, it means games are free to be more adult. Even though many games lack any intellectual depth, the freedom to pack in heavier stuff is great. And think about my example, Halo. It's one of the best-selling games of all time. Yes, it's about shooting a bunch of machine guns at aliens. But it's not anywhere near as obscene as something like God of War.

Why is that freedom important? Look at movies. Most movies are PG-13. The reason being is that EVERYONE goes to see movies. Something that is PG-13 means it's heavy enough to interest adults, but not too heavy for kids. How many kids frequently watch R rated movies? How many adults frequently watch PG or G rated movies? It's marketing! But that kind of middle-of-the-road rating is limiting. Think of a game like The Last of Us as a PG-13 movie. It would have no grit, no teeth, no realism.

Freedom is a good thing. Freedom is American.

3. DLC and "Pay-to-Win" Not as Thieving as Arcades

This is a game where you took damage just by breathing air. Better pump more coins in!

Everyone complains about DLC pricing and free-to-play games that are "play-to-win." I complain about that stuff, too. But do you remember arcades? Yeah, I'm sad they're gone, too. But around 2002-ish they were completely out of control. You could easily spend a whole dollar on a measly 5 minutes of gameplay.

Considering many DLC missions last at least an hour of gameplay and add ons can be used for the whole game while pay-to-win games generally offer endless gameplay hours, it maths out to be way better now, man.

2. The Internet!

You can ask it anything!

Holy crap! When I was a kid, this was not a thing. Want to know if a game is good? Duh, buy it and find out. You can't just go to Metacritic and read what everyone is saying. Want to know where all the secrets are? You can't go to Gamefaqs and read a walkthrough, you need a strategy guide. Want to play some multiplayer? See if your friends can come over. Oh, you're not in school any more? They're probably all busy then.

And then there's digital downloads. So if the game isn't available in your country but you have internet access, then you can still get it. My word, how this one thing alone has made gaming ten times better than it was before!

1. Indie Gaming is Bigger Than Ever

And then there's XBLA, iOS and PSN, too! Indie games everywhere!

While games like Call of Duty soak up all the money so that players are able to buy little else, Indie games still get by. And they do more than get by. Tools like Steam, Unreal Dev Kit, and an internet connection let ANY ONE make a game out of their house and then send it up for the whole world to see on the web. Steam in particular has gone insane with it. Every time I load that thing up they've "Greenlit" another dozen Indie games.

The real problem, though, is the middle tier. Some gaming companies are much too big to be considered an Indie studio. It's just too hard for smaller dev teams to compete with triple A titles, and yet they're too big to made due by squeaking out a little game. And that does make me sad. Games like the Witcher series and XCOM: Enemy Unknown get made by smaller teams still, but they are few and far between.

As time goes on, Indie games will get smaller while triple A games get bigger and in the middle will be a vast nothingness. I don't look forward to any of those things. There's already way too many Indie games out there. I'm not kidding when I say any one can do it. People who have no business making games do it. Ugh.