kevinhiggins.org

Gaming Industry State of the Nation

Periodically, I come across a blog that warrants the effort of link distribution. Not because there's necessarily something to be found at the URL as startling as a magic bullet for some of the problems strangling the game industry--especially the ONLINE GAMES industry--but because there are calls to arms that are worth the breath that went into the bugle.

Greg Costikyan's blog is probably worth a look. Whether you find Greg to be part of the problem or part of the solution, he at least is articulate about the problem and his opinions are worth a read:

http://www.costik.com/weblog/2003_03_01_blogchive.html#90490621

Along a different note, this artcle on GameSpot introduces a forthcoming push by Microsoft to to standardize game controllers for the PC.

Though this isn't the direction I like to preach, when I declare (with the fevered conviction that makes people nod nervously and begin edging away) that the next major revolution in gaming will come from a change in the way we interface without computers.

This may, however, begin to erode one of the "obstacles" to mainstream adoption of games that require more than a keyboard and mouse to play effectively. As the games industry becomes larger and larger, it's not inconceivable that a "standardized" game controller might begin coming with a lot of computers, thus opening up the types of games that people might feel inclined to experiment with.

-Kevin

Posted by khiggins at March 17, 2003 05:55 AM