I don’t usually spend a lot of time looking forward. It feels dangerously close to buying into the whole publisher-driven hype machine. Too many sites spend all their time looking at the horizon. Rumors. Teaser trailers. Screenshots. Exclusive first looks. Hands-on press demos. Then the game comes out, gets reviewed, and vanishes forever.
It’s common to discuss movies that are a couple of years old. And it’s routine to discuss books decades after they come out. But games are hurried off stage to make room for the next act and we rarely take time to look at old games with fresh eyes. That’s really unhealthy. Moreover, it sort of leaves the readers out of the conversation. During pre-release, there’s nothing to say except:
- I am looking forward to this game.
- I’m sick of hearing about this game.
But after a game comes out we can talk about what worked, what didn’t, and why. That’s the good stuff. That’s the reason I’m in this writing gig. The looking back stuff is often more fun than playing the games themselves. In my end-of-2014 wrap-up, it was really encouraging to see lots of people talking about how they were playing games from 2013, 2012, or even 2010.
Having said all that, I guess there is a time and place to cautiously look forward. Really, I’m just doing this now so I can look back at the end of 2015 and compare my expectations with reality. So I’m only looking forward now so that later I can do a compare & contrast when 2015 comes to and end.
With that in mind, here is what I’m looking forward to in 2015:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Looking Ahead: 2015”
Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.
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