Solid Block of Ise

The other day I read on my favourite news-source that Activision and Blizzard will be merging. This is quite huge, but I didn’t really sit down and think about it until now, this since my mother-in-law is here and we’re just having too much fun together. Yeah, I’m one of those freaks who actually get along with my in-laws.

Anyway. I’ve had time to think now, and even though I think that this might be a boon for gamers in the short run, I’m convinced that it will mean crap for them in the long run.

I’m not much of a gamer these days. Hell, I never really was much of a gamer, but I did (and still do) enjoy the occasional game of Quake $NUMBER or driving around in Need For Speed $VARIATION. But my very little gaming took a big hit after I got deep into Free/Open Source software. What small gaming needs I have now is either covered by free software or by my Nintendo DS.

But back to the topic. I really don’t think that this merger will be good in the long run. Why? Look at Electronic Arts. They’ve been swallowing up every independent developer they can lay their hands on and while this was good for gamers in the beginning everything owned by Electronic Arts has now been turned into an endless rerun of old crap. Every year a new NFL/NHL/NBA/Sims/Tiger Woods/Whatever game comes out, and it’s just a glazed over remake of the same thing that came out last year. Electronic Arts isn’t interested in making good games, they’re interested in turning everything possible into a franchise that they can run into the ground.

EA seems to be run by people without any passion or love for the business they’re working in, and instead cynically re-releasing every game year after year with only minor improvements.

I’m afraid that BlizzardVision will mutate into the same. I’m also afraid that if this trend of merging into bigger companies continue, then gamers of the future will have only one source of games - and those games will be even more devoid of imagination and passion than anything Electronic Arts produces today.

I’m no market analyst or expert on the gaming business, but I’ve observed this time and again. Each time two already huge companies merge it rarely makes things better for the customer. ActiBlizzard will according to my gut instinct become the same, it’s just a matter of time.

This all also ties in with my worries that game reviews stopped being real reviews long ago. I mean, every other game today gets at least a 9/10 from pretty much any reviewer you choose to pick. I remember in the mid-90’s when a 9/10 game was freaking excellent, and the award itself was handed out less often than the Nobel prize. Today it’s just become another part of a business that is becoming more and more corrupted in the name of profits. Consider also the reviewer that got fired due to writing a negative review of a game that his employer had merchandising ties to.

Me, I think that the writing’s on the wall. Game quality has steadily fallen over the years, and there doesn’t seem to be anything to change this.

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