Peter Suciu

The Blame Game
May 6, 2008

While Halo 3 might have set the record for the biggest one-day sales, and Grand Theft Auto IV was a smash hit out of the gate, one of the most popular and enduring games in the electronic entertainment industry has long been “the Blame Game.” This has been something that has been played by the industry for decades, and likely won’t stop being played anytime soon.

The Blame Game has been played year round, by companies big and small. It has never had any set rules, but this hasn’t kept this one from getting a whole lot of playtime. 

Basically, the Blame Game has been played anytime a developer, producer or publisher has run into problems. If a game didn’t sell, the publisher played the Blame Game and noted that things as “intense competition” were to blame. Translated, this meant, “Our game was just like everything else but not as good.” If a game garnered unfavorable reviews, the developer played the Blame Game by saying, “Inadequate preparation went into the production of this title.” That meant: “We worked on this title for five years. It was ambitious then, and we were dreaming to think we’d ever finish it.”

Whenever a new generation of console hardware has arrived, it was certainly time to play the Blame Game. This has been when the game play borders on reaching massively multiplayer levels, and those aforementioned delays were often attributed to dealing with the new hardware.

This was notable last fall when Grand Theft Auto IV was delayed. When speaking to 1Up.com last week, Rockstar Games’ Sam Houser played the Blame Game and faulted the lack of a hard drive in the basic Xbox 360 system as making it harder for developers. Of course, Houser admitted that Rockstar had previously played the Blame Game in January, suggesting that the game had faced development woes with the PlayStation 3. Thus, Rockstar played the Blame Game very wisely. It managed to point fingers at both Microsoft and Sony, making sure to push the blame just a bit — while never accepting limitations of its developers, of course. For that, Rockstar should have scored major Blame Game points. Well done!

Even some of those not in the video game industry still somehow have seen problems with games in general and, of course, famously have taken the time to play the Blame Game. This game gets played whenever tragedy strikes, and typically we hear some loudmouth anti-game pundit type say, “This tragedy occurred because video games are violent.” If there is a shooting or other action committed by an anti-social, sociopath type, you’ll be sure someone will play the Blame Game and point to video games.

Ironically, the one group who never has gotten to play the Blame Game is the gamers. Gamers have had to wait patiently and watch while the Blame Game was played. Of course their action — or more likely inaction, such as the inaction of not buying a game — can start new motions that in turn make the publisher play the Blame Game. But it is still something to think about.

Of course the Blame Game hasn’t been limited to the world of video games. But because the game makers and publishers have become masters of spinning tales, creating stories and crafting compelling games, it is no surprise that these same companies have mastered the art of the Blame Game.

Posted by Peter Suciu on May 6, 2008 | Comments (0)