Re-Skin After Re-Skin, are Games becoming like Syndicated Shows?

                                                            Re-Skin after Re-Skin

Throughout Gaming History the idea of a Re-Skin wasn't even a coined word untill the last phew years. It did infact however still played an important roll. Back in the day the "Re-Skin" was more a Beautiful Fruit born from a almost Perfect seed. The best example, for the most part, would be Goldeneye to Perfect Dark.

The times though, they are a changin. Instead if something as diverse and a complete Next Level Gaming Maneuver, like Goldeneye to Perfect Dark, has now become hollow and lacking, ie. Call of Duty to Another Call Of Duty to the Mext Gene's... Wait for it..... Call of Duty. They ate pretty much an exact copy of the previous just with a new shaders, textures and short short short ass campaigns and nonsensical online that is Always bugged and glitchy. It like they took the Same game and changed the skin, hence Re-Skin.

With games like, COD, Assassins Creed, Gears, dare I say it Skyrim "It's a Re-Skin of New Vegas GOTY Edition (Al be it, Bethesda did by Far the best job, Still, Skyrim's True Awesomeness only shows itself once you add Mods). Even, to my dissapointed inner child and outer grown up, Batman Arkham Origins succame to the Re-Skin.

It's not bad to start off with a nice smooth game then try blow it out and Legitimize it as a Big Hitter with the follow up game. The problem is when Companies treat game like a Syndicated show. MUST pump out set amounts on set dates constantly like some box factory. Taking no real care into innovation and experimentation, as long as the key selling points are their, box it, stamp it and sell it.

People can watch a show and sometimes an episode is pretty boring compared to the majority but that's ok, you are invested in the show. It has the same characters, in the usual setting following the standard dynamic that the show is known for.

There is nothing that s Wrong with having a boring or "Meh" mission in a game, it's ok, you're invested in the game over all. It's not at all Ok to have a boring or Meh Entire Game. No one really cares about the franchise, even if they say they do, because unless a company has the history and pedigree of say Rockstar, the they are Only as good as their last game.

This might sounds drastic, but the world is getting more free and open both with minds and tech, games are still Very VERY Pricey. With new tool available like the lTest Unity and UDK modders and indie devs can now make Triple A quality games.

Either the price of games Has to drop dramatically or the games companies have to spend more time and love on their games to turn the tide.

It could be said that it would help Alot the money in the industries balanced better so the actual Designers, Modelers, Artists, Animators and Coders are the Big Ballaz of the companies rather than busy business people who are so busy being busy business people that they have no clue whatsoever of the a actual Real Business involved in the imagining, developing/creating and building of a game. At all, whatsoever. Not one iota.

My hope is still left burning when I play games like The Last Of Us, Far Cry 3 (Fruit born from the seed of Crisis. Crisis is a Shit Game, all of them are. Far Cry 3, the pinnacle of their work), and add on to that games to come out?

With the likes Watch Dogs by Ubisoft, Destiney by Bungie and Quantum Brake by Microsoft. Along with the indie side, thanks to games like No Man's Sky By Hello Games, Fract by Phosfiend Systems, Kindom Come Deliverance by Warhorse Studios and Star Citizen by Roberts Space Industries, I can safely say they are beacons of Hope still burning.

Whether it lasts out against the aforementioned Re-Skin lunacy driven by cold, clinical profits and loss, based around a retro and obsolete economic system, that is kept alive by greedy fat cat adult looking children who couldn't care for one second about the gamer or any member of the Actual Development Team that Actually create the Game, Only time will tell.

                                        By Daniel O’Keeffe