Tuesday, 15 March 2011

I'm an exclusive whore!

No, its not what you think.

When I say that I am an 'exclusive whore' I don't mean, well, you know what I mean. I am of course talking about the partially dreaded, mainly loved idea of exclusives within gaming. Since game consoles where first introduced, each different iteration has somehow prided its self in a certain game, or even a franchise. Whether it be Super Mario for Nintendo or Halo for Xbox, each console has a certain exclusive that is almost certain to draw in customers and sell the console in huge quantities.

Now, I'm not going to lie; I love exclusives. The one thing that makes me happy on this earth is rubbing the beauty of Uncharted 2 or the size of Gran Turismo into a fellow gamers face. 'Just look at Drake, how the water drips from his curves'. Alright, maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but it is true. The main aspect of any console war will be the exclusives, no doubt.

But, is it all a good thing? In my opinion, although I hate to say it, exclusives are the bane of gaming and without them, we would all live a happy life in harmony. My point is this; when an amazing exclusive is released to wide critical acclaim, such as Halo Reach or Heavy Rain, the critics imply that it is a must buy and a masterpiece in gaming, an opinion that surely means we should all play it. But, what if we cant? As we lock horns in the flaming console war, we have forgotten why we got involved in gaming in the first place, the games. We all love games and that's why we live are lives by them, who cares if it is Xbox or Playstation. Gaming is like films, a magical film deserves all the attention it can get, but unlike gaming, it is open to everyone. I wont deny that I want to play Halo or Alan Wake, and I imagine many of the 'others' will want to play Uncharted or LBP, but we cant, we just cant.

So, surely exclusivity is getting in the way. Companies that fork out millions of pounds for an exclusive franchise are destroying what gaming is all about, it should be a friendly community who all want to experience the best things that gaming has to offer. Take Heavy Rain for example. It was a magical game that showed me what games could achieve. I felt it deserved GOTY in many categories, but it had one major fall back. It was  only on PS3. In my opinion, everyone needed to experience this game, everyone needed to see how games have developed into something close to an art form, but this damn exclusivity is getting in the way. Same can be said for Mass Effect 2. When originally released, it was hugely praised and received some of the highest scores ever seen, but only a select few could play it, even though everyone deserved and needed to play it.

And here we are, gone in a full circle. This generation have forgotten why we love gaming in the first place. Instead of discovering and playing the all round greatest gaming experiences, we just fight that our game is better than yours. The whole gaming community need to open their eyes as we have all become a little to close minded and tunnel visioned on beating our rivals, when really, there shouldn't be any. 2011 see's the arrival of The Last Guardian from Team Ico. I know it will be incredible and a must play experience, but I fear that it will be simply shunted by others and abused by PS3 fanboys. Its sad to see where we have got to.

I will keep repeating it. We need to remember that gaming is about the games, not about which console is better, Instead of creating an experience that would only benefit one pack of wolves, why not open it up and show the whole world what can be achieved, and give everyone the chance to play it? We need to stop the silly fighting and realise that gaming is a real art form, and until we do that, gaming will forever be seen as an immature place for squabbling. If we take ourselves seriously, others will too.

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