The creator of the original Fallout game, Tim Cain, has uploaded a video on YouTube talking about violence within RPG games. This video is actually a response to a commenter who asked about this topic. He immediately stated that companies made games that people would buy. Unfortunately, many people seem to favor games featuring violence as their main mechanic and thus studios are incentivized to make that sort of game. “This is why I tell people to vote with your dollars,” Tim Cain said.
Cain claimed that action RPGs tend to outsell classic RPGs. He said that action RPGs weren’t just more popular but also easier to market. It’s easier to be drawn to action scenes where many cool things are happening on the screen. Cain said that he and his team struggled quite a bit to market the story aspect of The Outer Worlds. “How do we show that this game has a really good story? How do we show that it has fantastic dialogues? How do you do that in a trailer that may only be 15 or 30 seconds long?” Cain said.
While there are many games that feature no violence, Cain said action games still outsold those other genres. He pointed out that although there were exceptions, such as farming simulator games selling very well, those titles were also proof. The Steam Chart also supports Cain’s argument. Most games on the list contain at least some form of combat or violence. “The companies don’t make them because they feel like it,” Cain said. “They make them because they sell.”
Cain said that, unlike indie who could take risks, AAA studios didn’t have that luxury. Unlike smaller studios, these big companies use other people’s money to fund their projects. Thus, they will default to making things that sell well, which are usually action RPGs with a lot of violence.
Cain said that many people didn’t vote with their wallets because they believed that their decision didn’t matter. However, the man doubled down, saying that even if one person was only a drop in the bucket, if enough people did the same thing, then they would make an impact. “It’s one of those things where you have to draw a line somewhere,” Cain said, “and everybody draws it at a different spot.”
