Things have been kind of weird in gaming for the better part of a year now. The unpleasantness has been given many labels, and generated everything from death threats to convention expulsions, but Hydra Interchange thinks it has the tools to reunite the seemingly-fractured gaming community.
"We want to change the industry. Not for one side or the other...to unite gamers and developers as one singular community," said Hydra Interchange founder Daniel MacGibbon. "We're trying to develop some opportunities that are a lot tougher (or not available) in such a flooded market. Yeah, there are tons of great games out there. But there are also tons of great ideas and they should be getting a lot more support than they're getting."
MacGibbon is a games industry veteran who currently serves as the upstart company's CEO and Director of Content. Having launched last fall, Hydra's primary focus has been growing its existing community, primarily through its WASD Radio podcast and ongoing work with Warfighter Engaged, an "all-volunteer veteran support organization" that builds custom peripherals for wounded veterans.
Of course, millions of gamers are already familiar with MacGibbon's work, even if they don't realize it, which includes a stint on the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes animated series, art credits on numerous Everquest expansions and a handful of other SOE (now, Daybreak Game Company) projects. But, after more than two decades in the trenches of the video game industry, MacGibbon is hoping he can convince each side to put the talons away and come together again.
Part of the reason they're not getting support is the ongoing war of words that still continues to rage in certain corners of the games-focused internet. MacGibbon declined to name a specific cause for the tension between developers and consumers, recognizing that it likely has multiple root causes. But the veteran developer is confident he knows why the hurt feelings aren't going away.
The Hydra Interchange founder believes a reason the gaming community's frustrations are boiling over so frequently is because too many people feel like they're not being heard (or represented) by the video game industry. And the reason that's happening is because publishers are too focused on trying to make every project the next Call of Duty, League of Legends or Minecraft.
"Corporations don't lead the market in ideas. They lead the market in sales," the Hydra Interchange founder told iDigi. "They have the money to push these games out there. Indies don't. But...these guys are following market sales. They're not really following the pulse of the community."
Rather than focus on multiple projects, publishers put all of their eggs into three-four baskets each fiscal year, spreading those releases out so as to minimize competition with one another and the various other projects coming to market. Over time, they also begin to weed out any potential creations that don't seem to have franchise potential, leaving us with the relatively barren (and largely identical) release calendar that we're currently stuck with.
"Not everything needs to be a triple-A title," MacGibbon said.
It's that focus on making everything a new franchise that MacGibbon believes landed gamers in their current predicament, left to the whims of an industry in which everything needs to have zombies, or at least an undead-focused expansion.
Only a handful of genres seem to be represented with any frequency, typically in cyclical fashion, and it's increasingly common to see reviews describe a game by referencing other recently released projects with similar/identical mechanics. With few original ideas getting the sort of funding given to the latest first-person shooter or high fantasy RPG, fans are becoming increasingly invested in the handful of titles that manage to slip through the cracks each year.
MacGibbon acknowledged the fact that the presence of corporate investors, not to mention the fact that the industry's biggest companies bring in more than $1 billion in profits each year, means some things are unlikely to ever change. And the rise of platforms like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo is beginning to open doors that many developers might have assumed to be closed for good. But MacGibbon doesn't look at crowdfunding as long-term solution to the problem, either.
"I think [Kickstarter] is very supportive of the community, of consumers and what they want to see, what they want to play and what they want to buy. I think it's a great start. But I think we can do more," says MacGibbon. "What we want to do with Hydra Interchange is be a professional hub for developers and communities to come together and collaborate."
Once everything is up and running as intended, MacGibbon envisions Hydra filling a variety of roles that currently exist within the industry. Yes, the company would act as an intermediary between developers and the outside world, in much the same way PR companies currently represent dev studios. The big difference is that Hydra would also interface with fans, via a variety of mediums, doing its best to mesh the various compliments/complaints encountered online with critical feedback and market trends to help a developer understand why their game did/didn't stick.
The idea is that, while there are obviously some genres that appeal to wide swathes of the gaming community, there's still plenty of money to be made releasing smaller projects that appeal to niche audiences. And MacGibbon is confident that the companies that learn how to navigate these niches will be the big winners in the long run. In other words, Hydra wants publishers to stop making cash grabs and get back to making the video games that their biggest fans are demanding.
Hydra also hopes the approach will help identify individual discussions surrounding specific projects, rather than forcing the community to wade through arguments about the industry as a whole. The company's approach integrates everything MacGibbon learned during his 25 years in the industry, along with the knowledge he gained while assisting with a fan-run project called Lore4.
"This is how games really get support," MacGibbon said. "By opening lines of communication between long-separated groups, between developers and gamers, that relationship will yield lots of benefits. First and foremost being trust."
At present, most of Hydra Interchange's daily work goes towards bolstering the online profiles of WASD Radio and Warfighter Engaged. The former now has its own Kickstarter, which Hydra Interchange hopes will finance the creation of a 24/7, gamer-focused online radio station, while the latter continues to build custom controllers and adapters for wounded veterans.
Like any founder, MacGibbon wants to get the word out about his company, particularly to those who could benefit the most Hydra Interchange's services. MacGibbon said he'd like for the Hydra Interchange team to have a regular presence at industry events.
That said, the company's goal isn't to become a recognizable presence, from a consumer perspective, but rather to become an industry fixture via their work with organizations like Warfighter Engaged.
"We're obviously looking to elongate our runway. To build revenue and get our word out there," says MacGibbon. "But we're not trying to just take over stuff. We support anyone who supports community"
"We're not trying to rule the world. Just make it a better place."
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Anyone interested in keeping tabs on Hydra Interchange can do so by following the company's Twitter and/or Facebook pages. There's also a mailing list that can be joined via the Hydra Interchange website, for anyone who wants to keep tabs on the latest company news.
What do you think of Hydra Interchange's plan to reunite the gaming community? Not sure that the community is really so fractured as to warrant an entirely new approach to the business? Think Hydra's plan for building bridges, between gamers and developers, sounds promising?
Let us know in the comments section!
