state+of+media+industry

=Purpose= After hearing a lot about the shortcomings of the comic industry in class and reading about them in book, I realized that I see a perfect parallel in the video game industry, which I am personally facinated with. Although I'm not too knowledgeable about other industries, I'm fairly sure there are similar problems that exhibit a similar if not exact parallel.

In this section we'll be exploring the real root of the problem that plagues these industries. I doubt we can DO anything about the situation, but knowing is half the battle right?

=Overview of the Creative Industry= The creative industry is a publisher's world, there's no doubt about that. The publisher rules over the developer and the developer rules over the artist. When it comes to video games, distributors actually have publishers by the balls too. These days, the only places people go to buy games are Wal-Mart, EB Games, and //maybe// Gamestop. So when these guys refuse to carry a particular title, the project gets the axe. A distributor's standards on creativity are spltit between what is politicaly acceptable and what is desirable. And it makes perfect sense if you think about it. If you were running a wal-mart store with mommies and grannies being your most valuable customers, would you want to carry "Viper Vixens from Venus" regardless of its artistic integrety? Be honest.

Next down from the distributor are the publishers. If you've ever dealt with these guys, you'll know that for the most part, they're a pretty mean bunch (read: assholes). They'll leave you hanging on followups, kick your pride around like a half inflated football, and spit on you for good measure; they buy low sell high (they try to) and attempt to acquire all the rights to your intellectual property for pennies (this, in some cases is no exaggeration). So all things said then, publishers are pretty much your average businessman -_-. So why do we even have to put up with these jerks? 1) Publishers are the shortest path to the manufacturers, packagers, shippers, and distributors 2) Sometimes we need publishers to give us money so that we can finish or attempt a project in the first place. Why does 1) and 2) even matter? Because even artists need to eat.

Believe it or not thou, in many cases publishers make very little. After paying for the cost of manufacturing, shipping, shelf space, and royalties to the developer, they're sometimes left with very little or even negative returns on investment. For this reason, publishers like to invest in non-innovative and cliche projects. The reasoning behind this is quite simple, innovation carries risk: it may sell great but it may bomb like the atomic variety, it's like stacking all your chips on 8 at the roulette table. On the other hand following suit or in the shadow of others is rather safe: if it worked for them, it should work for us since we have something similar.

On the bottom of the totem pole are the developers and the artists that work with/for the developers. Most of these guys really care about the state of creativity and expression in their industries but are powerless to do anything. That is not to say however that they don't try. You have independent film, music, comic, and game festivles which award innovation, recognize aspiring developers, and celebrate freedom from the publisher. But in order to really making a living off your work, you need to be able to sell it and thats when these independent artists approach a publisher and are thrown into the melting pot. They become homogenonized just like everyone else and soon they'll be chruning out whatever puts food on the table.

That is the state of the creative industry.

=WTF?= Yes indeed. The distributor will only buy what is politically correct, the publisher will only buy what they know will sell, what they know will sell is based on emperical evidence from previous projects, developers must then make what is politically correct and will sell which is based on previous projects... Now that it's laid out in front of you, it may seem like there's a piece missing from the puzzle. Something very important... so close and yet so far. Give up? It's the consumer!

Products of the creative industry are highly elastic and as a result, customers have an unbelievable amount of power in deciding what products are successful, what products arn't, how much they cost, and how much should be produced. "So wait a minute... your saying that I am the reason there's no creativity? Thats bullshit!" Or is it?

I'll leave it open to discussion for now. I'll make updates when I feel like it.

Zi-Xiao