Eh. although I agree with this article 100% I just don't know exactly what else to do to help the industry... I already buy a lot of niche games that I actually enjoy (Ys, Legend of heroes, Okami, Muramasa, Bayonetta, Tales of) and I do try to advertise it and ironically enough that seems to be working for me.
But quite honestly (and I may be criticized for what I am about to say) I want region locks.....Yes, I the person who loves Tales games and Japanese RPGs that rarely come to this country wants region lock on his consoles...why? because I don't want to have to
1) pay almost $70 or more to import a game i am not even sure it is any good.
2) having to play a game in a language i don't understand...I can do it (I did it for 13 years when Spanish was my only language)
3) having to mod my console and resort to "piracy" in order to patch my game into English thanks to a fan made patch that might ultimately ruin my console or not work at all.
I don't think just giving up and importing a game is fair... I think that we should push for localization. But well I guess region locking won't really solve the issue either because people will still find a way around it....(for the record I have only made 1 import and that was with tales of eternia for the PSP)
And as far as games getting sequels over and over again....well It's a hit or miss for me. I love when I can revisit the universe of a game i previously played or play around with improved gameplay mechanics of a game I already loved. However I also gotta remember that my favorite genre of gaming are RPGs and even when RPGs get sequels they do play wildly different or they have a completely different story altogether... I guess my only problem with "Sequelitis" is having a sequel come out every single year. I am ok with having all those Mario, Zelda, God of war, Ninja gaiden, Trauma center, Ys, and metroid games get more and more sequels because they don't receive constant sequels every single year, and even when they do receive a sequel they feel different from the last.
What I don't agree with is the CONSTANT yearly sequels that appear time after time after time (like call of duty and Madden) and most cases gameplay does not change much at all.
But honestly I think the only problem this generation is just advertising... If i sit down and explain to my friends what Ys or Sora no kiseki or even tales is all about I bet that I can convince them to try the game out, or if they saw a trailer or a commercial on TV there will be a lot of people who will think about it and buy the game....if there was more advertising of newer IPs this whole problem would probably be solved.
sorry for the long post but I just had to get all of these controversial thoughts out of my head because....I have actually enjoyed this generation of gaming... you see for me last 2 gens (gamecube/N64, PS1/PS2 Dreamcast.. etc etc etc) were really the gens that got me into gaming since in the era of the NES and SNES I didn't play videogames that much due to the fact that I had no choice in the matter of which games were given to me, i was far too young. But last 2 generations helped me develop who I am as a gamer and what kinds of games I like, it introduced me to so many genres and I picked the ones I enjoyed the most.
This generation of gaming, now that i am an adult and I can not only pick the games I wanted but also work my butt off for them is where I got to know in-depth more about the genres I have picked as my favorites, and was introduced to many different new videogame series, as well as helping me open up to not be a "nintendo only fanboy".
what's the point i am trying to get across from my brain? that although most of those points in that article are true... as a gamer, I don't think I feel abused or that this generation was terrible or that it had less quality games than previous generations, in fact... I don't care...all i care is that I have had lots of fun with the games introduced to me this gen and that's what makes it succesful for me, not that some games sold or others did not but that I got the chance to enjoy them.
Followed by the UK.
