Land of Cycles

My current, ever-changing, opinion of life is getting weirder - however, I'd like to focus today on cycles and dependencies.

The thing that brought this to my attention was game reviews - they're nice, simple, and an easy way to figure out what's potentially interesting.  This works well with my mode of obtaining games, go to the store, browse the shelves, read reviews, watch game-play videos, and ultimately (after quite a bit of research) purchase a new game.  Normally, this system works great - but it's inherently flawed.

The store will pack up on what they believe to be popular.  Not a problem, a wise business decision - I'd do the same in their shoes.  The review sites will focus on reviewing what they believe to be popular games, not a problem - a wise decision - that's what people want.  Game-play videos will focus on popular games, and the more popular a game becomes (before launch or after), the more content it gets...

Let's complicate things - the store must determine what's popular.  An easy way to do this is by looking at trends, and review sites - see how hyped a game is.  The review site will use various arcane factors (I'm guessing popularity, brand-recognition, known people, etc.), and the videos will be either from publishers, users, or critics - the user-videos will only cover the popular...  (would you go out and buy an expensive toy without any assurances that it's good - just looking at a box?  Some would - and I would for certain brands)

With that disclaimer out of the way, I'm free to reveal that I'm preventing innovation.  Simply stated - if it doesn't gain recognition - then it won't be bought.

Now, let's assume some sort of game comes out: it should get reviewed.  If someone wants to verify that review, they just need to rent it - but the rental store will only stock up on what's known to be popular (or the ones near at least).

It's like an infinite circle - if no-one within that circle picks up the product and puts it in the spotlight - it's as though it never existed - I won't know about.

If it appears on shelves - I'll read up about it.  If it appears on a game site - I'll read up about it.  Then I'll do research as normal.  But notice how this limits what I'm willing to try as a game?

Enough of this simple game cycle, let's tackle something for relevant - the economy and recession.  At it's core, the concept is quite simple: people stop buying putting others out of a job.  These people stop buying, and the entire machine comes crashing (why throwing money at the problem - in an intelligent way - is a good idea in my opinion - as more people spend, more people stay with jobs, and the more things float).

This cycle is interesting in that we are stuck based upon what we know.  The only difference being that games are bought based upon what others know for sure, stimulus is given to who is guessed will be useful in the future.

Like the pro gamblers working the stock-market to make money.  Hopefully their magic eight-ball is truthful.  You can say they use logic to determine what to do - however life always throws random events and oddities to spice things up.

Last note: I trust they know what they're doing