If you remember that piece in which I vented against Andreessen Horowitz, you will probably be aware that large gaming publishers and investors think games as a service is the future of gaming. No doubt it will be for some. Yet, acting as if this attitude is a fundamental truth is bound to leave many (potential) gamers cold. If you are one of them, SchiZotypy is here for you. (Yes, you too Act Man)

Individual game devs generally aren’t good businesspeople. Investors generally aren’t up to date in gaming. This has created the perfect storm we are in today. The standard marketing strategy used by game publishers is “pander to boys who are barely adults and you’re golden”. I get that; as well as (cis)male, I was also aged 18 to 25. When I was of that age, I was interested in gaming as well.

The problem is that 18 year olds today are different than than the 18 year olds of twenty years ago. The large publishers however assume older groups are too old to game, or are married with children. Maybe the current selection of games simply doesn’t appeal to them? Of course, that doesn’t mean such titles are obsolete. On the contrary, it feels as if an essential element is missing from the bigger picture.

Just one reason why treating games as somehow being akin to social media is a bad idea. In fact, the mere comparison is ridiculous. However, given even Valve fell for it, we shouldn’t be too shocked it happened.