Why the Game Industry is crashing, and why I can't wait for it to happen.

This is ridiculous.

I just ended a prophetic conversation with a good friend of mine, and we've both agreed on something. The game industry is a sinking ship, and soon, it's gonna explode.

Now, I for one, definitely DO NOT condone half of the actions taken by the internet, especially since it dilutes the main message of what everyone is trying to say. STOP dumbing down games. STOP catering to casual gamers.

Think about it for a second, games industry. Would casual gamers spend their time and money going to conventions? Would they trawl the internet, spend time on forums, lovingly think about games like non-casual gamers do? I know you're getting a lot of money out of this - and fine, I know as a profit-maximizing company, this is preferred. But do you realize you're alienating you're most fanatical fanbase? The amount of rage and hate generated by the comments on removing the gameplay from games is testament to the passion actual gamers have for the whole industry, and the whole ideal of games.

This is the fanbase that are willing to spend hours upon hours stuck in games, maximizing each character, losing part of their lives for imaginary creations. These are the people that love games so much that they sacrifice a portion of themselves so that they can play games. And this fanbase is now being ignored in exchange for people who only play games on mobile devices because they don't want to give anything in return to the games they play, or play Farmville while waiting for more important things to happen in their social lives in Facebook.

Bioware, we want to have innumerable options in our games. We want to have complicated and intricate gameplay. This is like the movie industry, all over again. Yes, Michael Bay movies cater to more people and generate more money. But how many truly good, truly beautiful movies have been thrown to the side in order to churn out more cash cow movies? You want to make a good story-game? Look at Bioshock. It is lauded as the best story in any game, ever, and why? Because it merged the story and gameplay perfectly. Not tell a narrative where the player basically watches one long cinematic.

One last thing - Mrs Hepler, I'm sorry for the abuse you endured, welcome to the internet, in a sense. What we did was not right, and I apologize for that portion of us. But, I do want to ask, as you said yourself, you worked in and loved pen and paper RPGs. I love them too. But what would happen if you took away the gameplay, took away the rules in these RPGs? You'll have a bunch of people telling a story around a table, which is not necessarily bad, but it's no longer a game. There's no longer a reason for some people to play it. Not only that, but also you dilute the beauty of the story somewhat, in that there's no effort made anymore, there's no immersion of yourself into the story. There's no feeling of rolling the dice and being your character. That's why it's a ROLE-playing game, see? I know you had good intentions, but please, please save the games industry if you can. I'm sorry that you had to take the brunt of it, but the hate you feel is mostly due to the fact that we've been ignored for so long, our protests unanswered. Sometimes, you have to do something drastic, just to be heard.

But if you can't, if the games industry keeps catering to what brings them money instead of their actual fans, then I'll wait.

I'll wait for the crash, and glorious it will be. Hopefully then, after it rises from the ashes, hopefully, we'll see golden days. But right now, except for a few games that push against the tide, the slow slide into casual gaming and general apathy is incredibly depressing.