The facts are that the gaming industry are following in the exact footsteps of their predecessor and have already begun their downward spiral.

Exhibit A:  During the 90's limited edition embossed covers where all the rage and seemed harmless enough.  The problem is you get a lot of collectors of embossed covers and no fans.  So when they realize the comic is worthless because this "limited" edition actually sold 200,000 issues, they move on to something else.  Games have in the past few years been taking an alternate yet similar route to destruction.  Limited and collectors editions selling for $20 more seems like a fine idea, but psychologically the consumer feels forced into purchasing the "better" edition only to find there is little to no benefit in doing so.  This is also true for the reissue of handhelds every year.  

Exhibit B:  Currupt, and or unprofessional journalism played a very important roll in the demise of the comic industry.  Many fans and collectors looked towards the comic industry journalists to give them a clear view of what was really happening with their favorite comic only to be led to the slaughter.  This was never more true then with the Death Of Superman.  This event was actually the most influential event in the collapse of the comic industry ,but to this day has gone unnoticed.  Basically what happened was that DC Comics announced they where killing Superman off, which was fair enough.  This caused everyone and their grandmother to rush to the comic stores to obtain their piece of history.  Long before the issue was released it was obvious to anyone remotely into the industry  that this was not a permanent death.  There for it meant nothing.  First off, not a single Superman series stopped production.  How can you have a Superman comic with no Superman?  Second, super heroes die all the time, but they always come back,so why would this be different?  Every comic journalist realized this was a scam, yet decided to just go along for the ride.  The result is that the comic everyone thought would be worth hundreds is now barely worth the paper it was printed on, and millions of readers realized that nothing matters.  Readers ship confidence was dramatically weakened, but unfortunately no one noticed until Batman temporarily broke his back, Xavier temporarily died, The X-men were temporarily reinvented 4 or 5 times before going back to normal, and Spider-man became a clone of himself.  Despite all of this change, not a single one of them held on longer then a year or two, in fact the only thing it did change was the amount of people reading comics.  They went from print runs of hundreds of thousands to under one hundred thousand in a 5 year span.  The gaming industry is as bad if not worse off then the comic industry when it comes to proper coverage, mainly when a specific consoles is involved.  It's bad enough that game coverage is little more then advertisements, it's worse when they print a companies press releases as facts with no follow up.   Whether it's the red ring of death, the actual power or lack of in the PS3, or Nintendo's questionable business practices, we are left to fend for ourselves.  Occasionally they'll pat themselves on the back for saying Two Worlds wasn't the best game ever or that the Xbox 360 has a couple of design flaws ,but all in all gaming journalists are paid to sell you more games, and unfortunately this is the exact thing that can cause a collapse of consumer trust in an industry.

Exhibit C:  This is actually the bread and butter of the collapse of any industry and shows the lack of intelligence behind all industry.  It all begins with a surge in sales.  The industry, what ever it may be, misinterprets this "surge" as growth.   The difference is very important.  Growth is a steady increase in sales which eventually peaks ,yet stays relatively healthy.  A surge is a different beast altogether.  It explodes very rapidly over a 3 or 4 year period and then quickly drops to a normalized position.  The danger is that if you prepare for growth during a surge like the comic industry in the 90's or the gaming industry in the past 5 years, you are betting every thing on continued expansion.  If you do so and the industry suddenly normalizes you find your self bankrupt in a fairly descent market, because you borrowed and spent money based on estimated growth, and not on what you actually had.  You bet on an inflated market, not a normal one.  Marvel comics made the same bet when they bought TOPPS trading card company.  About that same time the market slowed in both non-sport trading cards and comics and Marvel went Bankrupt in 1999, following the largest surge in entertainment ever scene.  So where did all the money go?  They spent all of it, betting they would make more.  Was it their fault?  Yes, because they where stupid.  There are people paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to know the difference between a surge and growth, and they are wrong every time.  You see children, the trick is knowing that there is no such thing as growth in the entertainment industry.  Eventually only the strongest and smartest survive.  Ubisoft is a prime example of slow and steady.  EA and Activision are a prime example of jackass'.

Now, I realize that this could go on for ever ,but the rest is up to your imagination to figure out.  Will Nintendo's casual gamers leave them high and dry?  Probably.  Will the entire industry fall......no doubt.

A.) Paid for:  It would be insane to think that money does not sometimes have something to do with it, but actually not as much as you would imagine.  So, yes it happens, but not always.

B.) Culture Pollution:  The culture around gaming can warp view points and skew the minds of those tightly connected with it.  This happens in all mediums.  You ever wonder why Ebert always praised the crappiest movies and then condemned the biggest block buster.  As you grow to love a medium your mind begins to warp and you begin looking for the odd or unique, so much that you are drawn to the worst.  Take abstract art for instance.  It is not as good as real art, but it's different so those in the art world can't help but think it is something when it is in fact nothing.  They will of course defend it with opinion in the comment section, despite logic dictating that random splatters and circles are merely graphic design at best, and hold no deeper meaning other then, "sucker!".  A great example is the praise given to Street Fighter 4.  Though the game is some what enjoyable, it is a 2D fighter with good graphics and ancient A.I.  So the game is not bad, but it is less of a revelation and more of a novelty.  Yet, reviewers will go down in flames before they question why a fairly aged 2D fighter is the same price as Fallout 3.  This is the culture of games hard at work.  No 3D fighter, no matter how superior, would be allowed to surpass this gem.   Yet, we praise games such as Killer 7 and No More Heroes, despite not being all together playable.  That's peer pressure at work for you.  

C.)  They are stupid:  What I mean is they think we give a crap about what they think, when we don't.  We want to know if the game works properly.  You see, opinions are like ass holes, every one has one, but few want to see them.  Reviews are supposed to focus more on the actual logic of whether or not the game is good for it's intended audience.   Example:  I loved playing Bikini Samurai Squad, but the game was terrible.  The graphics where ungood, the camera was piss poor, and the over all game felt cheap.  Me liking it was merely a matter of me liking stupid stuff sometimes, but I would never recommend the game to anything living.  I'd give it a 4 out of 10 despite playing for hours on end.  So, see how that worked?  I loved the game, but understood that it was bad at the same time.  Thats Logic vs. opinion.  I know that most will hate the game so I review accordingly.  Now I would also leave in the fact that I enjoyed it ,but stress that I'm insane for doing so.  Another example would be Call of Duty.  I don't like them ,but I realize that it's just me and it does not factor in to the over all quality of the game, so I'd give it a 8 out of 10 or something. 

In conclusion game reviews are nothing more then 20 to 30 something nerds flying their fanboy flag with no grasp of what they are actually supposed to be doing and occasionally they get paid to say they liked an Eidos game.  THE END

Sexuality in console games has always been some what of a no no, and only recently have nipples blazed a brave trail for all us polygonal perverts out there.  On the other hand the PC has had every possible perversion converted into an interactive extravaganza of one handed gameplay.  This, of course is because a console and the games released on it are under the direct control of one company, where as PC's are open to anyone and their grandmother.   

Online porno games have reached insane heights of technical prowess, such as the 3-D sex sim Sexvilla, which is in many ways comparable to any Xbox 360 game in terms of graphics .  Across the great blue oceans of yore, the Japanese have been crafting interactive nudicities that range from the casual dating sim that work much like an anime gallery, to virtual monstrosities that would make the most violent sex offender shutter in utter blood vomiting horror, but I digress.  Console games have slowly edged forward, (or backward) in terms of sex in games, and it is now quite common for nudity to play some part in some M rated games.  On the hand it's surprising the games that don't have nudity.  Like GTA 4, or Saints Row.  I can shank and old lady, or shoot some one in the knee and then stomp them to death as they try and crawl away, and now that I think of it you can even do the nasty with a hooker, or go to a strip joint, yet through all this not a bare booby in sight.   Part of this is due to American's view that violence is better then sex, but industry wise it is more complex then that.  Many games in the past that have had strong sexual themes rely on that alone giving some one the impression that anything with strong sexual themes is automatically bad.  A few games have braved the storm in the past few years opening up developers to try and be a little naughty.  Mass Effect had human on alien action, and GTA upped the hooker animations, but most of all God of War has pushed a lot of Dev's to start adding boobs to their action games, in an almost random fashion.  CHOP, CHOP, BOOB.  It's actually hilariously stupid.   The attempts to keep games censored has actually made things worse.  Eventually it will burst wide open spewing the most nastiest gut wrenching porno you've ever hidden under your bed across your screen in mind shattering 1080p.  It'll be like being locked in a tipped over  port-a-potty with a grenade in your back pocket as you careen down the interstate at 80 miles an hour into on coming traffic.......and for some bizarre reason you gotta boner.   

I don't think that allowing obscene sex in games will in any way help the industry, or open doors for artistic freedoms.  It's more about the danger of repression and what that can spawn.   Even more absurd is the bizarre contrast of allowing gun shots to pop Nazi heads like a porcupine at a balloon festival, and then screaming in terror when a boob sneaks a peak out side the conservative safety of a wonder bra. 

Now, I'm not a real big fan of Star Wars, but as a kid I liked the original movies, and I find it odd that they stick to a 40 to 50 year time period in an unknown galaxy.  What if there was one super race that spread all of the technology and then died out?  What if an Ewok was a Jedi?  What if the first Jedi could destroy planets with their brain powers?  What if they focused on someone other then Skywalkers?  Just a thought.  A lot is wasted with the franchise, out of fear of leaving the safety zone of the battle between the Jedi's and the Empire.  So much that it, has in so many years, made the universe of the Skywalkers feel shallow in comparison to that of similar franchises.  Boring it has become.  Care, I do not.

 

A few examples that reflect this are Too Human, and Kameo.  Kameo was in the works for 3 console generations before landing on the 360 in 05'.  Though the game was above average, nothing reflected the extensive time spent on it.  Like wise Too Human saw delay after delay before finally reaching store shelves to a luke warm reception.   Too Human was delayed due to problems with the Unreal Engine and the team had to start from scratch leaving little time for polish.  A delay does not equal utter failure ,but it in no way symbolizes success.  A similar situation can be seen with early game demos.  Writers will repeat over and over that it is an early build and that they will surly fix the problems before release.  Let me tell you, they NEVER FIX ANY THING IN A DEMO.  What you see is what you get.  When the Halo 3 Beta came out every one thought that they would surly gloss up the graphics before the release........nope.  By the time a demo is released they are too far along for fixing anything.  

In the end it is the developers job to meet dead lines and to, at the same time, produce a quality product.  I understand that the job is not easy ,but there are a lot worse jobs out there, trust me.  200 men, should be able to, with in 2 years create a beautiful game, with amazing story telling, flawless execution, and unique engrossing gameplay.  If you think these guys are under paid, then your insane.  Construction workers are paid a lot less and a lot more is expected from them.  It is time for the Gaming industry to grow up and take responsibility for itself and it's actions.  I understand if a game must be delayed, but don't act like we should like it.