genre bubbles

game genres, like economies, can form into bubbles with all the expanding and bursting qualities that come with them.  It seems that in order for a genre bubble to exist, there needs to be some kind of chain of event games.  I say "event" to illustrate that not just one game can sustain the formation, growth, continued expansion, and eventual burst of a bubble.  There is are games that instigate each chronological event of the bubble.  I will use the genre FPS to draw a picture for you.  A bubble was formed with the game Wolfenstein 3D.  This bubble then expanded greatly with the Doom franchise.  Then it was sustained at a gradual increase and then decrease state by a slew of successful games, to name one, serious sam.  And then it was burst by another slew of unsuccessful games, to name one, serious sam 2. (the success of serious sam and then demise of number 2 is perfect to illustrate my next paragraph)

There are characteristics that are organically involved with each stage so faithfully that by simply understanding what they are, you can predict the birth and death day of each bubble.  And successful game companies do just that.

The characteristic for birth is 'new'.  A game has to be new, unique, surprising, difficult and of course all that in a fun easy to access package.  But this won't guarantee a big boisterous bubble of mind-blowing proportions.  this is just the birth;  death is always near, ready to take down any game that falls into this category unless the next stage of the bubble is promptly met.  This next stage's characteristic is "seduction".  because the masses have a hard time embracing the novelty of something whole-heartedly, many amazing, potential bubbling games live and die under the radar.  sometimes they are labeled sleeper hits, hidden gems etc.  There needs to be subsequent games that  lure people into their web with mechanics similar to the bubble beginner but with just the right amount flavor to make the whole experience seem unique.  The psychological implications here are rocksteady.

If this is pulled off you have what I effectively call "bubble giantonamus".  A huge expansion, and an ushering in of the next stage whose characteristic is "caution".  In this stage all a game company needs to do to make money is cookie cutout a game from the mold set by the previous stage and the public will eat it up like a mass of zombies on an open carcass.

But the bubble can only take so much before its too much.  This is where the serious sam franchise comes in.   #1 was perfect because it was just what the hordes wanted, hordes of monsters to slaughter, but #2 was too much and it initiated the final stage of the bubble characteristically known as "the burst".  The burst is caused when the saturation of a certain element reaches a level the bubble isn't able to sustain.  In layman terms, it is when the public gets sick of the same shit. 

But what is the actual pin the pricks the paper thin film of the bubble?  Usually it is a characteristic of a cookie cut-out game that is trying to be too different or too much.  The near moon-like floating air time in Devil May Cry 2 is a perfect example.  They knew that the cool air-born tactics in 1 were so fun that they decided to blow that up into a game itself.

the interesting things about these bubbles is once they get past the first stage, they are generally engineered by hand at that point, all the way to the burst.  Companies shovel out the newest, the best thing.  Kinda like the lottery, sometimes it isn't known what will stick in the public's teeth.  But once something does, it is in the hands of that lucky developer to make sure those teeth stay dirty.  They usually make another title similar to original and send the bubble into outer space.  If they succeed that game becomes a franchise which usually ends up being the pin that breaks the bubble's back.

But even more interestingly is how some game companies are privy of this trend and actually wait patiently outside the bubble's blast radius with a new product ready to greet the disillusioned gamers as they emerge from the wreckage.  Call of Duty is a great example of this.  The golden eye's brilliance was perfectly dark, and they wanted to be enlightened. 

As a gamer, I think of myself as Indiana Jones.  Scavenging the ancient ruins of bubbles long since popped, looking for the undiscovered gems of games that got buried under  the rubble.  Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil which I found in the catacombs of Tomb Raider's tomb is one of those gems.

I wonder what else is out there waiting for me to remove it from the debris.