Sittin Back with Sam
A quick talk about New Industry and Video games with Sam.
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>Prologue
Sam is a guy I've known for quite awhile now.
I met him back in highschool, and hes always had this deep passion for New Media and for video games as a whole.
I’m not talking about someone who knows the release dates of all the upcoming games, and has notifications turned on for the biggest youtubers.
I’m talking about a man who so deeply loves video games, that he looks at them for their unrivaled unique way to get across entertainment and storytelling. Video games are an active experience, unlike a passive one, such as found in Movies and Tv shows.
You are the action that moves the story forward.
I, personally, would never have come to a conclusion like that if it wasn't for one of the very many conversations I’ve had with Sam.
When I was thinking of people in my life that I want to interview, Sam was a no brainer.
Let's get this interview going.
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The Interview
Jacob
“Hey Sam. Thanks for aggreing to talk to me.
I’m trying to think of a good place to start…
As we move forward in time, more and more industries become available, and older ones become obsolete.
Full time YouTuber wasn’t a career choice when you and I were in school, and really didn’t become a thing until late in high-school.
Do you feel that as we move more forward kids will say, at age 15, “I want to be a let’s player”, or pod-caster, instead of saying an actor, or a stand up?
I feel now, more than ever someone can become a full time artist and make a living on the internet, more than ever before.
Back, 30 years ago, if you wanted to be an artist someone would say “prepare to starve then””.
Sam
“ I love how the entertainment industry is a little more decentralized and accessible to independent up-and-coming content creators.
Just 15 years ago, like you said, not a lot of people were finding any kind of financial success with homemade videos, or video games, or any other art or media. Young people today and in the near future are able to look at people like Toby Fox, who found financial success not only with video game design but online comic writing and music production, or small teams of independent video creators like Kurzgesagt, and see that someone with enough talent and dedication truly can make it on their own.
A teenager today, for relatively little investment, can buy or borrow a camera or a beginner’s programming tutorial and start making content and uploading it for free.
They can make money with donations or ad revenue, and that’s absolutely awesome.
There’s a flip side to that though — because it’s so easy to start making content these days, the market is super over-saturated. For every Jake Paul there are a hundred thousand kids with a handful of Let’s Play videos with a dozen views each.
In order to succeed in a market like that your work has to come from a place of passion. You have to be able to not only keep trying until you make a big break, but be okay with never finding recognition or financial success at all.”
Jacob
“Speaking of Lets plays, do you feel that Video games will ever be as celebrated as TV? I feel like by the time we’re 40, it might be treated with the same respect as the Oscars or the golden globes.
There are experiences that you can only have with video games, and it blows my mind that there’s still a stigma attached to games in general.”
Sam
“I think video games are, by and large, already as celebrated as TV.
There are people who would disagree, but those only come from a relatively small demographic of older folks who were raised on television exclusively.
Almost anyone 30 years old or younger can point to a video game that gave them just as much emotional connection or pure entertainment value as even the best television series.
Sure, you have generic mass-market stuff like Call of Duty and Candy Crush but there’s also schlock television out there to match.
I can name games that mean as much to me as any Game of Thrones or Mad Men — Spec Ops: The Line, Inside, Mirror’s Edge.
You’re right that there’s still a stigma, but that’s disappearing fast. The average video game player is in their 30s. Even in the last 5 years or so I believe the stigma has mostly left the medium, and with more independent game designers being able to find success, I see video games going nowhere but up.”
Jacob
“Games come out in earlier and earlier forms. There isn’t a single piece of software that is developed in secret for five years, and then is released with no updates.
Software is an ever evolving updating thing and because of that software developers have 60 hour weeks at max.
They don’t have a “crunch” period like the gaming industry, which leads to a higher than usual mental health issue percentage across the board. So with early access and online, do you feel games are slowly taking note from the software industry? And if so, is it for the better?”
Sam
“Yes, in a sense they are, and it’s a double-edged sword. Spend 10 minutes on Steam and you’re likely to see far too many generic “early access” games following the trend of whatever happens to be popular at the moment — for example, right now it’s survival, crafting, and open world games.
So many of these are uninspired, shameless copycats or straight-up IP theft that’s put into “early access” as a way to farm out a woefully incomplete game for free, public QA and bug testing.
These games are supposed to see constant updates but often they’re lazy cashgrabs with only the bare minimum effort put in, while the players who test these games for free walk away with wasted time and disappointment.
But of course there are games that take the software development approach and do it right.
Minecraft famously released first as an open alpha, then an open beta, with players continually discovering bugs and suggesting new features. Mojang did it right though, by consistently putting out new versions with more features and bug fixes. I’ve heard horror stories from developers and especially game testers within the industry who’ve suffered under intense publisher demands and tight deadlines.
A couple years ago, a sequel to the Mass Effect series came out. It should have been a smashing success. A long-awaited new entry in one of the greatest RPG series of all time?
Hell yeah!
But the game came out a buggy, inconsistently written, cheaply produced mess and fulfilled neither players’ expectations nor publisher sales goals.
Do a bit of internet sleuthing and you’ll come across tales from the game’s creators about a disorganized work environment that became intensely stressful as the deadline approached.
People dropped out or simply mentally checked-out of the project as the pressure from leadership mounted close to crunch time.
Under conditions like that, it’s no wonder the game failed to live up to expectations. Now, producing a big-budget singleplayer triple-A title like Mass Effect probably wouldn’t work as an early access development plan.
That unfortunately came down to bad management. But I do think we’re going to see more and more games move towards the early access model and I’m cautiously optimistic for it. But we as consumers need to be more discerning with our time and money towards them.
Stop throwing money at every asset-flipping “early access” game just because. Give good developers a chance to show some goodwill to the community, and make sure what you’re supporting can actually deliver on the promises. The early access model can work but there needs to be goodwill and a discerning eye from both players and creators.”
Jacob
“So, Talking about the early access model of games, do you think we’re moving away from one and done single player experiences? The current trend seems to be large multiplayer games with occasional single player elements, rather than the large scale single player games if years ago.
It seems that triple A gaming has a large focus on multiplayer or multiplayer elements (leader boards, connected world’s) rather than one and done here’s the game. Now you do have outliers to the rule, like Bethesda games, or the recent God of War game.
Adversely in indie development single player and multiplayer join hand and hand. In fact indie development seems more focused on finding an interesting game play loop and expanding on that, versus the all in one package so many Triple A titles try to bring to the table.
So, do you feel that triple A studios will ever do single player, no DLC games again? I don’t think so, as it’s not viable financially”
Sam
“I’ll just come out and say it:
Games need to cost more.
Game prices have stayed steady for many years. But if you take into account, games sell for less than they used to, even with drastic increases in development cost. That’s a large part of the reason so many companies are pushing costly DLC or multiplayer microtransactions. I’m happy to increase prices by 25 percent or so if it means a drastic reduction in crappy expensive DLC or pay-to-win multiplayer.
Every other industry on earth copes with inflation by either rising prices or shrinking product amounts. It’s a natural part of living in a capitalist world and there’s nothing wrong with it. Gamers can’t have their cake and eat it too; if you want companies to stop nickle-and-diming you, you need to pay up front.
But if you take into account inflation, demanding both a removal of paid DLC/microtransactions AND demanding to keep paying $60 for games forever is total nonsense.
I believe if players are willing to accept this we can start seeing one-and-done, quality single player games more often. The current state of the industry is largely due to the financial conundrum developers are in and a price increase would solve that.”
Jacob
“I agree but I also think that companies need to adopt more pricing ideas. I’d gladly pay $25 for a purely multiplayer game.
Or $40 or $30
I think we need to have a variety of prices.”
Wrapping up here, I want to thank you for agreeing to talk to me.
I know we’ve known each other a long time, and I’ve always found your takes on internet culture and the games industry super interesting.
Is there any projects or things coming up you would like to tell people about? And do you have any last words on the subjects we’ve talked about?
Sam
“S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is just got announced for a 2021 release.
You might not think that’s a huge deal, and a lot of people probably don’t even know what it is, but it’s a long-awaited sequel from a company a lot of people thought was defunct.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a Ukranian survival/horror/FPS taking place in a fictionalized Chernobyl exclusion zone. It and its two spinoffs were extremely influential on horror, atmosphere, and open world gaming. It’s something unique that no other developer has really been able to replicate, and it holds both a special place in my heart and a spot on my top ten games of all time list. I highly recommend any PC gamer to check it out.
Nintendo’s Labo just got released, and though I don’t own a Switch, I’m interested in the possibilities it brings. A lot of people, myself including, think it looks a little childish and gimmicky so far but I think a creative enough developer could potentially do something truly groundbreaking with it. I’ll be keeping an eye on it for sure. I’ve always respected Nintendo for trying new things and taking risks, even though they don’t always pan out.
To close this out: I’d like to remind everyone to be a smart consumer! Read reviews before buying.
Hesitate before you preorder.
Consider company ethics before making a purchase.
Take a chance and support small game studios and indie projects.
And most of all, don’t stop having fun!”
Jacob
“I think I’m definitely going to interview you here again as I feel like we’ve barely scratched the service.
I think we should return after E3 and do a bit of speculating about where the industry is going.”
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>Beginning Epilogue…
And so ends my chat with Sam
I want to, again, thank Sam for agreeing to talk to me. I know your schedule is really busy and I really appreciate you making the time to do this.
If you would like to be interviewed about anything, and I do mean anything, drop me a line at IdontknowJacobBrown@Gmail.com with the subject line “Interview”.
Until Next time,
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