I was walking down the hallway at lunch when I noticed two students huddled around a small screen fiddling with rows and columns of assorted candy. A finger swiped the screen, matching three lemon drops together. What I witnessed was Candy Crush Saga, the latest in the video game industry’s rip off of itself and the surest sign that developers are wasting the potential of video games.
First of all, Candy Crush Saga is a sad excuse for a game. Its gameplay, social connectivity and power-ups are very similar, if not the same as Bejeweled. Match three together and earn some points. Match four and you receive a special, exploding candy. The only difference is that it uses candy instead of jewels. Using that logic, I should be able to rewrite Harry Potter with a cast of marine wildlife. Harry Otter and Ron Whalesly, anybody?
In the bigger picture, games like Candy Crush Saga are the problem with the video game industry. Game developers keep making the same games, but with different appeal. They repackage a product and advertise it as being bigger, bolder and newer. Just look at Candy Crush. Its developers, King.com, did not invent the game’s mechanics, but their app now holds the shameless title of Apple App Store’s Top Grossing App, and they now hold the largest share of Facebook gaming users, surpassing fellow industry cheapskate Zynga.
The video game industry should be thinking of innovation and not recreation. Consumers want to play something revolutionary, like what Shakespeare did for literature and Macklemore did for thrift shops. I know it must be difficult to come up with your own, original game, but if thousands of college students every year can write their theses without plagiarism, surely a developer with professional tools and a paycheck should be able to make something authentic.
Here’s where you come in. Stop playing Candy Crush. Seriously, it’s not worth your time. You’re much better off doing basically anything else.