The Ripple Effect
By:Kotsopoulos
 
 
    Something which is big, popular and a must buy will affect the entire video game neighborhood. Everyone will want to capitalize on it's growth factor and it's popularity, thus trouble ensues. Many companies put off games to go with the flow and make a tidy profit. Sometimes even rushing games to make it out before they can get stopped by other games of the same type. These games become sloppy and aren't as good as a game which took it's time and came out second of the pack. This is like throwing a stone into a lake or puddle, the waves start a the point where the stone hits and spreads out, becoming bigger and bigger, consuming the whole area till it hits the edge of where it can go. The Ripple Effect tells such a tale.
 
    Racing games for example are the most affected by the Ripple Effect. This genre has been beaten into the ground by almost every system ever made. This is the main drive for a system now a days. Make a great racing game and you have the consumer. F1, Nascar, Grand Prix etc. are all the racing games which have over four games that are nothing but racing! It's absolutely sickening to see a decent CD used on such a waste of time or a lovely cartridge which was used for such a mockery of a genre. The only reason for this being such a popular genre is that there is no number one game that makes everyone say, "wow we can't beat that".
 
    Fighting games are another genre weakened by the Ripple Effect. Game after game after game where the guy has to beat the other guy up. Some are really spectacular (Street Fighter Alpha 3, Super Smash Bros.. etc.) but the rest are way to repetitive. They try to jazz up the game with 3D abilities but in the end make it more confusing and complicated to play than ever. There would have to be a controller with 32 buttons to accommodate the amount of moves which are created to make the game "better". Guess you will just have to settle with the good old jamming the buttons till you get something out of it style of play.
 
    Wrestling games are another genre that is beginning to suffer from the effect. One week a game comes out for the Playstation, the week after another game comes out for the 64. Sometimes even two games for the same system appear on the markets to do battle with each other. Nintendo nor Sony have control over the wrestling games, the federations do. Each chooses a side for a month and say "make me a game!" and that's what happens. little do they know, the other federation goes to the company and says the same thing. Just amalgamate the games to create one that neither federation would like and they will then withdraw from their contracts. Oh yah, i forgot, there's money involved.
 
    No matter what system you play, it will be effected by the Ripple Effect because they all want the same thing: their system on top. Only genres where they have one company with complete control make the best games. RPGs for example have only one main company to take that job: Squaresoft. They have no competitors at all, so they take their time with the game, make it great and then market it. Try to escape, you can't, try to change, you can't. There will always be one lake an one stone making the ripple. But now and again, there is sometimes someone with another stone to change the ripple to what they want... Sometimes isn't enough.