Seeing Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” on its opening night was a surprisingly illuminating experience for me. For one, I learned that – in my case, at least – introspection and trying to not get trampled by an ocean-like mass of 200 some-odd frothing, cosplaying fans are activities that go hand-in-hand. But as I watched/avoided becoming a doormat for a bunch of Wonderland wannabes, I realized something else: these people didn’t brave the cold (and the dark corners of their parents’ closets) because of their undying love for the timeless tale of Alice and her oddball companions. They did it because Tim Burton’s name was attached to the film. It could have been Tim Burton’s “Barney the Dinosaur” and they’d all have donned purple dinosaur costumes in a heartbeat.
I highly doubt that Infinity Ward’s planned not-Modern Warfare 3 project would’ve been received with such open arms. And evidently, so does Activision.
After all, former Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella felt so creatively confined as to allegedly defy their contract with Activision and start making eyes EA, so clearly someone wasn’t exactly gung-ho about the Call of Duty creator’s bold new direction. Knowing Infinity Ward, though, regardless of the form the new project took, it probably would’ve been a fantastic game. So what gives? Well, at this point, I can only speculate, but money talks, and it’s telling me that Infinity Ward’s mystery game simply wasn’t a guaranteed mega-hit like Modern Warfare 3’s destined to be. Activision, in case you’d forgotten, likes money quite a lot.
So, what’s our Hot Topic-friendly pal Tim Burton have to do with all of this? Well, like many other big-name directors, he’s a commodity all on his own. Fans flock to theaters to see his movies – regardless of whether or not they’re associated with a well-known brand. Generally speaking, the same cannot be said when it comes to gamers and triple-A development studios. Hell, I’d wager the majority of Modern Warfare fans don’t even know what an “Infinity Ward” is.
Which is a problem. A big problem, in fact. So long as gamers see Infinity Ward as “those guys who make Modern Warfare” and, say, Bungie as “those guys who make Halo,” publishers like Activision and Microsoft will be able to push them around. (Hell, Bungie was even forced to buy back its freedom from Microsoft in order to finally work its way off the never-ending Halo assembly line.) We can ramble on-and-on about how much we want innovative ideas and original IPs until we’re blue in the face, but money will always have more wind in its lungs.
And sadly, even execs who seem to stick their fingers in their ears and scream “lalalalala” can still hear what gamers’ money is saying: “More of Big-Name Franchise X! More, more, more!” Need evidence? Look no further than Call of Duty, whose development changes hands every other year, yet its sales never miss a beat. That development strategy works because we let it work. Or rather, because we add fuel to its fire.
Believe it or not, game developers are very creative people. Many of them are chomping at the bit to push boundaries and forge new paths, yet time and time again, they’re stuck working on the same franchise for five-to-ten years at a time. And while it’s easy to point the finger at corporate greed and save your conscience from a little heavy lifting, the reality remains that we’re in a position to do so much more than that. If we start paying more attention to
who’s making the games we play and less to what those games claim to be, we’ll be much better for it. After all, the wolf
claimed to be Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, but that didn’t stop him from swallowing her whole the first chance he got. It’s not the name that matters; it’s the person behind it.
By only judging our proverbial books by their covers and not reading further into who created them, we risk allowing quality to suffer as well. It’s simple logic, after all: if you can spend less time and money on a project but still reap just as large of a profit from it, why go the extra mile at all? For that reason alone, it simply doesn’t make sense for us to ignore people in favor of brands, yet for some reason, many gamers do it anyway.
So, what happens when gamers actually start valuing creative talent? That’s when we get developers like Valve, Blizzard, and BioWare. When these developers dive headlong into a “risky” new project, gamers’ fears of the unknown take a backseat to reassuring utterances of “Oh, it’s Valve” or “BioWare’s never let us down before.” And lo and behold: those developers are dishing out some of the most interesting, innovative games in the business, and we’re eating them up. Dragon Age and Left 4 Dead are two of the most successful new IPs in years. And believe it or not, at one point, World of Warcraft was a tremendous “risk” on Blizzard’s part. Just look how that turned out.
It’s a mutually beneficial system, you see. We get better games and developers get to move forward, unconstrained by demanding publishers and fearful investors. Of course, right now, Valve, Blizzard, and BioWare are exceptions to the rule. It remains to be seen, then, if this particular exception can become the rule. Oh hey, would you look at that? Is that a ball? Did it just bounce into your court? Well, that’s some excellent timing. I had this big concluding paragraph prepared, but the improbably convenient ball-court symbol’s so much more effective. So I think I’ll just leave it at that.
