Monday 26 April 2010

The Industry today

The games industry today is still considered to be a new industry and too many industries are considered a risk to invest in. However, over the past 20 years it has become obvious that the popularity of interactive entertainment is growing and shows no signs of stopping. From being confined to arcades, games have crawled their way onto personal computers, consoles, mobile phones and today is breaking free of control pads and buttons and moving onto motion detectors to allow consoles to read the players body motions and put them into game. With Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo leading the games industry, other areas of the entertainment industry have taken note of its potential. Even the BBC has taken a leap of faith with the release of episodic gaming for the Doctor Who series. Despite the economic down turn, the games industry is well and truly on its way up.

Personally I would love nothing more than to be part of such a creative industry. With games being considered by some as an interactive was of telling a story, modern games and films like Avatar can’t help but inspire me to want to create my own and contribute to an industry which can invoke such an emotional response by the gamer/viewer. Today, increased specialisation of jobs in the industry means that about 70% of studio is made up of game artists whether they specialise in environment or character design, special effects work or 3D modelling. Personally I would be much more interested in the development of character design or environment, mostly due to the fact that I would want my job to be satisfying to my creativity but also presents a challenge. However, with 3D modelling being among the better paid jobs, I doubt I’d complain if I was to stumble into that position.

However, my only issue with the Games industry thus far is the fact that it is starting to show the same annoying patterns of the Hollywood film industry. Endless sequels for the sake of profit and the same kinds of repetitive game play and generic plot which are seen over and over make it obvious that some games lack passion and creativity and money is clearly the primary objective. Although I don’t that I could ever fall out of love with games, if the games industry were to completely fall into the hands of the money thirsty corporate giant, the creative element of the industry which has caused people’s emotional responses to the industry, would be quickly lost.

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