Hi

it's been a while since i made a blog, but now might be a good time to do it.

well, I am finally out of school for the winter break which means i will be a little more active here in GameSpot, and i'll be playing more games and all. These last days were really difficult for me to get online because of my final exams and some other things, i was not really active the last week but now that i can forget about school i hope to be here more

In other news, i got xbox live =) and been playing in it for some time. i have a few games but if you want to add me, my gamertag is in my profile.

I also made a new theme for my GameSpot profile, even though it's not really "new" because i had a theme about it since i joined GS, and if you don't know what it it, it's my favorite mexican futbol team, América I have the banner and avatar up now, and will put the sig later this weekend. It is kinda simple, but you know i suck at designing

And well, it's almost Christmas hope it is a good one this year, i also want to get a few last games this year and really looking forward to some of 2010, especially...

and

As for my next blogs, i am thinking about stopping the top 20 lists again :/ it's just too hard thinking about them now and i felt i was just showing the same games over and over and it wasn't a very good idea after all Though i still want to make one last list, and want to make it a big one, probably with all the games i've ever played or something like that

I think thats all hope that blog wasn't too long. Oh and i still won't be too active in the forums until Monday.

Thanks for reading, comment if you want

A lot of what I have seen from the gaming industry as a whole lately is helping me to understand what is going on, in a bad way to the storylines in video games. Just like the movie industry, I see a trend starting to take shape in the game industry. If a game makes money, it automatically spawns a sequel or a trilogy. Sometimes(and it's happening more and more lately) it spawns an entire franchise. My problem with these franchises in most cases, is that the stories aren't very well crafted. The stories are set up with cliffhanger endings that in most cases don't give the player the grandiose sense of accomplishment thatthey used to give. For example, any game in The Legend of Zelda series is brilliant at telling a new story in the same universe as its predecessors, yet the game still feels like a complete game from start to finish.

Games these days that I take issue with seem to take the less creative, or cookie cutter route of applying the overused cliffhanger ending in a game. While the cliff hanger can work well in a movie, it doesn't work well in a game for the simple reason that you play a game as opposed to only viewing a movie.

When you play a game, you are the protagonist. The story becomes yours as you interact and invest multiple hours in a storyline. It doesn't have the same voyeuristic quality that a film does.

We play games in the 1st person. We watch films in the 3rd person despite whatever camera technique is being employed in gameplay. So when game makers give us a game with a cliffhanger ending, they are robbing us of the satisfaction that should come with the gaming experience.

How many times have you played a game to completion only to have the ending undo all of the fun you had while playing the game? Assassin's Creed anyone? Is there any reason they couldn't have had a better ending to that game? Another example: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Not only did KOTOR 2 not follow the story of its predecessor in any major way, it just...ended. An ending like this in a game spawned from a universe so steeped in great story is absolutely unforgiveable.

In short, the game industry is, and is becoming more and more about the business of making money for making money's sake. Like all things that become wildly popular; The filthy rich start to dig their claws into things that they otherwise wouldn't touch until they see that they can become even more wealthy by becoming involved. Because of this, when game makers seek funding, the people that are funding their games end up having a say in how they want these games to be made. The game maker has to concede some things to those vultures who foot the bill. The vultures with claws only care about making money, and some gamemakers are falling prey to the same rationale themselves.

Just yesterday I saw this from Cliffy B about making a 3rd Gears of War game. He said in an interview with Game Spot, "If Gears 2 comes out and sells like hotcakes and has great reviews, then we'll consider doing another one."

That's it. He didn't say something like, "This team on Gears of War is really commited to making another game, regardless of how it sells because we believe in this franchise and money isn't an issue, because, well, I'm effing Cliffy B and I can make whatever I want to dammit!!!"

It was all about making more money for him. What happened to risk taking? The gaming industry has become the fat cat. It is the entertainment industy's benchmark now. The movie industry which used to be number 1 is just riding the coat tails of the game industry, and it seems, even admittedly crappy games are getting made into movies. I don't know where this leaves us as gamers, but I really don't like the direction I see my favorite entertainment medium heading in.

I have been an avid gamer since the mid 80's, and this is the first time since the early 90's that I am becoming disinterested in most of what I am seeing these days in gaming.