Bingo and Business

It seems to me that the games industry is in danger of becoming like the old bingo industry.  That may seem like an outrageous claim, so I’ll explain my thinking…

Some years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I worked for Mecca Bingo for two years.  I started out as a trainee manager and moved up to assistant in due course.  I worked in a number of clubs in the south west (Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Swindon, Bridgwater) and it wasn’t particularly well paid for the hours I put in.  I had a lot of fun along the way and met lots of people from all walks of life, which is always a benefit to a writer.  But I became increasingly unhappy in the job.

In the end I quit the job because I didn’t like the way that the business method was based on taking advantage of their customers’ weakness for gambling. 

Now I wasn’t moralising or saying that bingo halls should be banned.  Lots of people got a great deal of pleasure from a night at the bingo and many of them managed their spending to specific limits.  But there were lots of bingo players who would be easily convinced to buy extra books or to spend more than they could afford on prize bingo or the slot machines.  I wasn’t comfortable with my role in this aspect of the business.

Now I see similar business practices emerging in the video games industry and I worry that, as an industry, we’re turning into exploiters of our players instead of treating them as the valued customers they are.

Earlier this year I attended the State of Independence conference in York.  Although it was well put together and many of the speakers were very good, all the emphasis was on the business side of things.  There was nothing relating to content or trends in gamplay.  It was like the business model was far more important than the games themselves or the gameplay.

Now it may be that this was the intention of the conference and they didn’t put this over properly, but I’ve been looking at other games conferences in recent months and for the next few months.  The vast majority are either completely dedicated to the business side of things or it takes up the majority of the schedule with only a nod to content related subjects.

Of course, it’s not all bad.  Yet.  There are the various GDCs and Develop that always appear to have a good balance and earlier this year I was over at the Games Forum Germany which had a great spread of talks covering all aspects of the industry.  However, it does feel that the concentration on business is increasing at the expense of content overall.

There is, of course, a beacon of hope for all of us. Valve have just “slammed stock market sell-outs”.  Long may they stay true to their principles and make their number one priority the player and not the share holder. 

Do we make games because we’re driven to do so or do we make them so that we can sell the company a few years down the line?  I like to think in my case it’s the former.  It’s probably why I’ll never be rich, but as long as I can pay the bills I’ll be more than happy.