Gaming Around the World
DQ reader Florian Schwarzer on the state of gaming in Germany:Do you remember the good old days? When game devs where a bunch of enthusiasts coming together with a common goal and created stunning, complex game experiences? When publishers were not only driven by profiteering, but also by love for the medium? When consumers were willing to try a game that required the use of more than two buttons?
Well, Germany still kind of lives there, and let me tell you, it sucks at times.
Don't get me wrong. We have as many Counter-Strike-geeks as anybody else. There are sports fans (admittedly playing soccer instead of football), JRPG-nuts, and, since DSL became widespread some four years ago, MMO-addicts. Most of Germanys gaming is identical to the rest of the world. But if I had to summarize what I perceive as typical for us, I'd say it's that our industry puts strategy into the games, instead of its own organization.
Mainstream games made in Germany have, for the most part, always been more complex than those seen elsewhere. See the first two Gothics, with their complex combat system. Take The Guild, a simulation of - for lack of a better description - medieval life. Or, take the most successful natively produced titles, the Settlers and Anno franchises.
There seems to be a market for these somewhat more ponderous products here.
Electronic Arts recently investigated Germany's gamer demographics, and determined that a large chunk of us are actually older, more casual types, many of whom have grown up with Atari and Commodore, and who tend to prefer relaxing sandbox-style affairs or cerebral challenges over more hectic fare.
And who provides them with their games?
The German developer scene is in many ways still larval. A very few bigger players like Sunflowers (Paraworld and Anno) or Crytek (Far Cry) aside, developers - and publishers - are indeed mostly composed of a few wily enthusiasts with little capital and big plans. Some of them succeed. But even then, you can still tell where they started. Mostly consisting of people with skills directly necessary for the production of a game, and with little managerial talent on board, these studios often approach very ambitious projects, heedless of the associated costs and risks.
The result for the players, if the product ever makes it into the players' hands: bugs.
Anyone who bought The Guild 2 or Gothic 3 by launch will attest that these games were in worse shape even than some of EA Sports' products. It's easier to forgive the flaws because it's apparent that the games were released because of simple financial necessity - the developers had no choice but to release, and did not do so out of calculation. But still, these games, which shine with potential, often remain unplayable for months on end.
Whether the ambition outweighs the flaws is best left up to individual opinion.
I for mine will follow a proud German tradition and keep moaning about the state of our games while regularily paying for the cause of my whining.
I think Florian's perception of games coming from Germany matches the perception of U.S. gamers in regards to bugs--some of the buggiest games I've ever played have come from there, even though the game designs were always tremendously ambitious. But some of those same games, after multiple patches, wind up being very fun to play.
Ironically, the one clear-cut exception to this is Paraworld, a beautiful, engaging game that was highly polished when it was released. In spite of that, though, it just doesn't seem to have gotten any traction in the U.S.
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