14 DAY TRIAL // Some might say killing is a strong word for ignoring, but, in the gaming world, ignoring something is quite similar to killing it. Electronic Arts, for the purpose of this article, is a placeholder for all the big publishing companies that were formed initially by gamers and lost their way while rising to the top of the industry on the shoulders of the gamers in their own generation.
When I say Electronic Arts, I also mean Activision, Ubisoft, Square Enix, THQ and all the others. The reason I pick on EA is rather childish, but I have to start somewhere. I was having a rather melancholic conversation with a friend of mine about the golden days of gaming, mainly because this is an important part of the “old gamer's” life.
We were talking about a game that the current generation has no idea even existed, despite it being launched only ten years ago. It was no "jewel" and even today, the few people left who remember it say it was a mediocre game.
The title in questions is Emperor: Battle for Dune, a strategy game developed by the defunct Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts.
Even though some say it was plain and faced with little commercial success (try buying one now on Amazon, it still costs 70 bucks) it still had something today's titles lack: it had fun built right in.
A type of fun we can't explain to the new generation because they no longer use their imagination to "complete" the game's graphics. They don't need to think because there are hints everywhere.
They are no longer challenged to defeat an opponent by any means necessary, because the developers already chose the appropriate strategies for them.
The problem is simple: old gamers are dead in the eyes of the publishers. We have kids, wives, mortgages, jobs and very little free time.
We are no longer the concern of big publishers and they focus on making games for the younger and less imaginative generation, hence the pure imbecility of some of the titles that are launched nowadays.
This text is a plead, a petition, or maybe just a simple request. Pun the fun back in games. Make them harder, let the players run wild and stop treating everyone like they're 17 years old.
We don't care about mature games, we don't need social stuff packed inside (we already have real friends we have made when we were younger), we don't need to post our victories in real time on Facebook and most of us don't really like multiplayer.
Sure we'll have an occasional match now and then, with our actual friends, and not the ones we never meet, from South Koreea, because we come from an age when gaming was a pure, self-entertaining act.
We want games like Red Alert 2, Command and Conquer Generals, Black and White, Dungeon Keeper 2, Emperor: Battle for Dune, and Battlefield 2. Electronic Arts and the others need to make old-style games for old gamers.
We also want to share a secret with you, one that is actually so obvious, that the truth of it is actually blinding. We have the money for these games. We don't need to ask our parents, we have real jobs, and despite what you might, our numbers are bigger than you could possibly imagine.
Most of my friends still play games and do so on a regular basis, but, from time to time, we reminisce about the past. When you ask a gamer over 25 years old what is the best game in some genre, he will always point to something that was actually launched 10-15 years ago, and not anything recent.
Big publishers have forgotten that fun and nostalgia are the forces that sells games. Who do you think buys all those 2D side-scroller shooters on Steam, PSN and XBLA? Teenagers? No, the buyers are people with credit cards and a desire to relive their past.
We only ask you this: remember us. Start building games for the people who helped you get where you are. We are not dead, but you are killing us slowly, or at least you're killing our desire to play your games.
For you, it should be the same thing.