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For Whom the 'Anthem' Tolls

How 'Anthem' is the future or destruction of AAA gaming.

By Devon FallsPublished 7 years ago 8 min read
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Let's begin with some nostalgia. It's June 2006, you're a pimply-faced teenager fresh into the summer vacation and you're hyped about this year's E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo). Once the convention begins, every major publisher of AAA gaming announces their flagship title, and as you're already ecstatic nerves absorb all of the video game glee of hearing names like Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Gears of War, and Mass Effect, you think this is the meaning of being a part of this community, a community of dreamers.

The convention was a cornucopia for video games; so many original IP's (Intellectual Property) were being developed, so many different worlds and adventures were waiting to be explored, so many memories waiting to be created. Each of the above titles listed went on to create their own myths and legacies via sequels and standalone tie-ins as the years went by. In turn, a fanbase was birthed, holding fast to each respective IP, that only grew and matured right alongside the fantasies from which the group originated. As I grew and matured so did the games (and characters!) grow and mature as well, establishing an emotional tie akin to a spiritual connection that enriched my sense of self, and made me experience life interactively via the only existing medium that has that capability to do so. That's what gaming is about, I thought back then, as looked at myself in my bathroom mirror staring at the rhino horned-pimple growing upon my nose. And that fact will never change, I thought.

Fast-forward a decade. It's 2017, it's June again, and the 2017 E3 convention is underway (for the 22nd time, WHOOT!). The loyal fan that I am is ready for the reveals, thrills, and nostalgic feeling I've always looked forward to upon the arrival of E3. Upon watching the Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and PC conferences my hopes were soaring high once my eyes would gleam upon the prolific reveals of the newest adventures I would be able to soar, hop, shoot, and flourish in. And what were the big names of E3 2017? Such names as Far Cry 5! "Nice!" I thought. God of War, again! "Cool!" Star Wars Battlefront II! "Alright!" Assassin's Creed, again! "Ok." Mario! "Umm..." Sonic! "What-" Skyrim...for the Switch! "..." Let's just say that yearning sentimentality I had hungered for was unfortunately left unabated.

Before the pitchforks and torches carried come my way, let me explain myself (please!). Don't get my wrong, each one of the titles listed above is a (potentially) great game in its own right, and comes from developers and publishers who have earned their acclaim through a loyalty of consistency and transparency (more or less). But my point is this: the tabula rasa of gaming, the blueprint to which we can create imaginative new worlds and vistas that the old and new generations of gamers have never seen before feels...well...nonexistent. Sure creative ways to produce never-before-seen content is still being made, which based off this article sounds like an irony to my point. But you see, that is my point. We have innovative developers delivering neophyte IPs, this is true, but it's occurring on a level that just doesn't feel...impactful. Instead, we gamers are being given rehashed and repackaged adventures we've seen before but with a new car finish. On the other hand, this isn't always a bad thing. But when it's the only type of game the big names developers are creating, then for me, that's a problem. And to be even more honest, it's a problem we the community made.

We gamers harbor a gargantuan appetite for games. Which isn't bad; we enjoy our gaming. This, in turn, leads developers to be persistent in the delivery of said games. In a utopian world, this symbiotic relationship would be ideal, but in our world, one tiny detail keeps getting more and more in the way: money. The benefit-cost ratio for creating games is getting wider with each passing year, and since we jumped ten years into the future, the stretchiness of the dollar is nowhere where it used it to be. The bout with mass marketing an AAA IP that remains untested on the global economy has become a multi-million dollar risk that unfortunately many game developers are no longer willing to take (at least not as often). This balancing of scales, of creative content versus marketability and profit, has always been the dark, never-spoken conflict that has embedded and stuck itself into any game's creation. It's an intuitive birthmark, really. Combine that with the massive amount of capital involved in any new IP venture and you have a potential bomb of such magnitude it has the capability to literally sink a company. So if new IPs are too risky, what's the next best thing? I think American businessman Bert Lance said it best: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And so, we have Far Cry 5.

The film 'The Godfather Part II,' directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was the first film to be a sequel that instead of a subtitle display showcasing its secondary nature in reference to the original film it comes after, Coppola literally used a number. The Godfather Part II is the first film to use this marketing ploy. And yes it is a ploy. The first Godfather was such a hit, that to keep the same audience as the first, what better way than to just add the number '2'? The idea is that the same experience, the same first-time feeling evoked from watching the film will happen again for the viewer. Once Coppola used it, it spread in nearly all forms of consumer media like wildfire. Flash-forward to today. We have now in the gaming industry another Mario, Zelda, Metroid. We have Call of Duty # does-it-matter, Madden the-number-of-this-year, and on and on it goes. The appetite for that experiential ecstasy of being thrilled and happy is so pervasive and powerful in our brains that despite the quantity of the same IP being presented again and again (and again!), we the gaming consumers feel that tingle run up our spines once we see the title appear on the big announcement screen. "TheSameGame: #7!" Even with the slog of yet another rehashed experience being stuffed down our throats, the nostalgia of the new sequential number makes the ingratiating experience as sweet as can be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing always. Some games can use a well-oiled character and make them shine in ways that are nearly as new as an entirely new IP (Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii is a great example). But with this year's E3, the standard for video gaming has shifted. Shifted in a way where the value and content of gaming has lost significance against the reality of the cost it takes to make them. The prudency and practicality of what it being made today seems like a justifiable answer to the monetary issue of creation, but if that issue is at the cost of the very reason the gaming industry exists, is it worth it? When games are the nature of them are set aside for the means to find a profit off of them, then the only game we the community (and inherently the developers too) will be playing will be specifically one of a zero sum.

So how does this relate to this year's announcement of Bioware's new AAA IP "Anthem"? Well first off, there were many new IPs announced at the E3. Multiple small and indy developers showcased their own original games which gave new and clever games that hadn't been seen before. This is good and deserves the praise and attention warranted. But the truth is that none of the small developers can surmount the backing necessary to produce an AAA. An AAA title is called so for the amount of time, energy, and finances put into it. It's a flagship. It's meant to be big, and do big. As for the big developers who did present new 'IPs' (I use the term loosely), most were in all honesty repackaging of different version or style of game already to come before it (take Ubisoft's Skull and Bones, for example, AC: Black Flag anyone?). With both of those statements holding somewhat fast, (and if you don't believe me, check the respective conferences of E3 and the mediocre or non-existent applause that was garnered from their announcements), the only new AAA IP worthy of that title at this year's E3 was Bioware's Anthem. Anthem is a game world with a graphics quality as equal to its story content. It is a whole new original story with a development team and production company with such austerity that there is nothing within the imaginative voice and technological skillset the IP cannot do. It is original, daring, fantastical, wondrous, and new. And it is that newness at such a grand scale that sets it apart. Like what was previously said, venturing out to produce new IPs is a risk all its own due to the cost-risk ratio and the emotionally-driven mood swing market we gamers have created now. And Bioware could be taking a major dive with this endeavor. Or it could be the very 'Anthem' that will bring about the next renaissance of gaming into the future.

There's been a major focus on VR, sequels, Early Access, DLC, and Multiplayer content in the gaming community as of late. Oh, and 4k. 4k,4k,4k. Everything must be 4k. And that is truly the centerpiece of this article. The gaming world is one of the people. People are its heart, its blood, its bones. We're its captains, its sailors, its passengers, its carpenters. And within each of us beats a reason why games so infatuated and enraptured us to where each of us has a memory of staying up till 3 a.m. playing a game with friends or alone, wanting to know what's around the next corner or hoping that the next try will finally defeat the boss. That fertile ground in our hearts is still there, waiting, hoping to have the seed of the next great adventure planted within it. In a world of marketability and minor transaction profiteering, the allowance of grand worlds and stories to be made seems forsaken, lost, left behind. But I still hope. With the launch of 'Anthem', and other similar titles in the future, I believe there can be a return to that time in of a dusty summer in 2006, when a wild-eyed and eager young boy watched as his future heroes he would grow up and bond with would be introduced to him, their hands held out to his, ready to take him into magical worlds, mystic spaces, and ultimately into the heart of himself.

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About the Creator

Devon Falls

A fan of the fantastic, heroes, and beyond.

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