So what do I do when I’m not playing video games? Well… there is one other major activity in my life: watching others play games. Whether it’s watching my dad struggle with Mario Galaxy, watching my friend play Fl0wer (his first indie title), or getting a patsy to sit through the tedious grind of a JRPG, I’m right there on the couch popcorn in hand.

It’s interesting to sit and watch (and occasionally shout) from the sidelines. You get a sense of their skill when they succeed, a sense of their profanity when they fail, and a sense of their luck when they should totally die but then somehow succeed in spite of the odds.

You also get to see games you never would otherwise. My friend sold me on the virtues of Warcraft 2 many years ago simply by playing it for me. Soon after, I was trudging through the Dark Portal on my own. And isn’t it nice when you like the same game as your friend? It gives you both something to share, something to discuss, and maybe you’ll each learn something new from the other.

The desire to watch others is not mine alone. We all like to play the part of the spectator. The notion of game voyeurism has spawned a lot of different communities all around the same idea: getting together and sharing the single player experience.

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It may be hard to remember, but there was a time in video games before the conglomerate giants. It was a simpler time with smaller dev teams. It was a time of d-pads and a few buttons. In those days, we were still inventing genres and didn’t expect a ‘unique and interesting twist on a classic idea.’ It was an exciting and ever-changing time and the future was impossible to predict.

In the twilight of that era, we were scratching our heads. What could the public want next? We didn’t have a clue. Some of us gambled on interactive CDs, others toyed with virtual reality, and 3D seemed to be the next big step.

We were on top of the world! Investors were convinced: video games were not just toys anymore. Any idea could be a video game; all it took was a savvy designer and good PR. The possibilities were endless: video games in advertising, in schools, for job training, etc.

A lot of it failed. It turns out you certainly can make anything into a video game, but most ideas are swept under the rug by history. Our bright future crashed into the truth: mainstream has money and we need it. It didn’t take long for video games to devolve into a mess of safe-sells, sequels, and re-skins.

What did we expect? As games get harder to make, we need more people. If we need more people, we need a bigger budget. A bigger budget means a bigger audience is required. This is not a hard formula to follow.

So how does the future now look with indie and casual success stories? The Wii has shown us that the public cares more about interactive controls than shiny graphics. How will game interfaces change in the future? What’s on the horizon?

Yes, yes these are all good questions… for another day. Instead, we’re gonna reminisce about an old marketing technique; one that’s no longer used and may be gone for good.

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