Editorial: When the "fanbase" of a video game causes more harm than good

Innovation. It's what drives this industry forward. New gameplay experiences coupled with groundbreaking technology work in tangent with player interaction. Innovation is what keeps the mind "on it toes" in a way. It's what keeps people engaged and interested in this medium in the long run. Without innovation, everything would grow stale and slowly deteriorate, eventually causing that exciting player experience to become, for the lack of a better word, boring.

However, lately I've noticed that when it comes to a developer's decision to take a risk or play it safe with an upcoming title, the players themselves may heavily lean towards the latter over the former. The most recent example of this that comes to mind is Halo 4. When new information came out of the latest Gameinformer issue detailing the multiplayer modes, the backlash 343 Industries faced from the Halo community was astounding. None of these fans had seen these new gameplay features described in the article in action, nor did they even have an exact idea as to what some of these new additions to the game actually were. But the mere thought of altering the game that they love in just the slightest of ways was enough to upset these people.

When some multiplayer details on Halo 4 were revealed, a great deal
of fans cried foul.

Call of Duty is another example. While Modern Warfare 3 was a fantastic success financially, you can argue that this entry in the series was the most predicable to date for a Call of Duty game as far as gameplay and content is concerned. Nothing about Modern Warfare 3 was especially surprising or innovating. Everything in the package was what fans of the series was expecting; nothing more, nothing less. But at the same time, why should Infinity Ward, or Treyarch for that matter, take a big risk with a franchise that sells as well as it currently does? Not that they aren't quality products, but when your player base keeps giving you cash for essentially the same core experience over and over again, innovation is expected to take a back seat. Instead, developers further build upon the same old solid foundation that got them success in the first place until there is nothing left to significantly improve or polish.

Now, I'm not saying that all of the fans of a specific series are to blame for a lack of innovation, nor am I saying that it's entirely their fault that developers feel pressured to deliver the same experience over and over again. I know that there are countless other factors to consider when dealing with the development of a video game, from publishers to critics and so on. All I'm saying is that in the end, the people who actually buy the games are the ones that determine their eventual success, or their inevitable failure.