Why do some still resist or hate indie gaming?

Indie games at some point along the lines exploded. It went from that game project secretly hiding on the web, and stuffed mods like Garry's Mod to hundreds of cheaper weirder niche or retro games all over the place. This happened primarily for a couple reasons. The triple A market was getting carried away creating both more smaller developers and desires, and more potential distribution options opened up allowing those teams and consumers to meet in agreement. Thus indie games boomed and continue to exist and compete. As with anything, the media overreacted a bit and started acting like Indies were the best thing since sliced bread, and that games like Braid were a big knew high in gaming... when it was just a 2D puzzle platformer like many you can play on newgrounds. Oh and then it happened again with Limbo. Then a literal flash game got a premium version that went big like the other two. We've moved away from it a bit, but we still see lots of high praise aimed biasedly towards games that are pretty darn simple, and the same perception is upheld as if Indies all have low standards but still hold magical quality. It always is about how indies are small, low budget, and can't make big, exciting, or inviting games, and they always ride on some art style to hide the low budget. So they show off how amazing Limbo, Braid, Fez, and Journey are without ever stopping to think of the other more open experiences. The only major exception I can think of is Minecraft where its actually a huge 3D sandbox world with a thriving online community that got so popular it even has its own self-published retail copy out for platforms.... and that still has that low res "its so indie" style about it. The perception has gotten so strong that lately Ubisoft's ubiart division has been labeled as Pseudo-Indie because they match the perception... one that was never honestly true to begin with. So now that they've become so big that the new consoles have been built and marketed in their favor as much as triple A, we're now receiving a hate reaction to all this praise and indie optimism.

If you couldn't tell by now, I'm not a big fan of the way indies are portrayed as it is. Naturally when people talk about the act of hating indies, I am just a bit repulsed by the notion but I also kind of see a piece of their perspective. I highly doubt many sane people would really hate indies as an entire whole, its just they hate the retro cash-ins, linear puzzle games, pretentious looking artsy "experience" games, and the 100+ early access games cluttering steam. I see this more as a media and disturbing lack of research sort of problem than one tied so easily to between indies and haters. Indies aren't what most advertise them to be, and to some degree I would say they never were. Cortex Command, Soldat, and Minecraft for example are older than the indie blast wave, and had history as a small team or even one man made set up for a game that delivered very refreshing sandbox type experiences the user could create/mod/experiment upon. There have since been very similar games, clones, innovators with interesting themes, or just those more innocently working off the same basic ideas but then hitting a hard left turn and going some other way with them. Either way you look at it, there's a ton of these open games that invite player experimentation, creativity, and open ended gameplay. It may even support good online play. By contrast most big journalist sites save for maybe Destructoid only go as far as minecraft, and separate from that just want to keep telling you that Limbo and Journey are everything that an indie game stands for and should be held as the highest standard for them... even if that standard has been beaten time and time and time again by others that have done more with their game while remaining an independent studio. Of course in more modern times you can replace Limbo/journey more with Rogue legacy and Shovel Knight, because pandering to specific games still moves around a bit but its the same crime never the less. One or two games get repeated over and over and over again as the major indie game for 1 and a half year and then moves along to another. Now with that in mind, maybe those games set their standards for their own respective styles (I really do believe Journey deserves a lot of its praise, and Shovel Knight really does seem above your generic retro platformer), but as an indie game in a whole pile of options they fall flat on their face with competing with say the likeness of Awesomenauts, killing floor, or Mount and blade. I know I'm comparing apples and oranges in terms of genre and appeal, but ignoring them more so than Braid is like trying to hide Skyrim coverage because you want to talk about how great Mortal Kombat is. They're both good games, but imagine if skyrim only got reviewed and then never discussed again while Mortal Kombat got coverage every other day if not daily. That's exactly what's happening with indie games. Though I will admit it happens in the triple A industry to (COD/DarkSouls/titanfall get way more press than Persona/dead island/Ratchet & Clank) that I wish would end, but its worse in the indie community where that type of thing is more necessary to make up for the lack of advertising and the review of unrefined ideas.

What's this innovative complex online sword fighter? Who cares, lets talk name drop Limbo the 18th time!

I don't want to ramble too long about the above, because that's not the center point that kicked off this topic, but its crucial to understand that frustration still. If indies are to lose this bottle necked image and thus the hatred that comes with it, people need to stop giving it that image. This is 2014, we've had indies long ago proving themselves to be very capable at competing with bigger games thanks to fun and innovative ideas that are intelligently handled. Heck Serious Sam was a college project from a couple of people that was up to par with modern shooters of its era, and in fact beating many of them in tech (removing the habits of limited draw distance and low or less animated enemies on screen. In other words one of the first shooters outside of both a corridor and a fog wall). That was 2001, we've come a long ways and seen far more examples of this situation repeating itself. Not to mention with new sources of crowd funding and more consumers for indie games, there's more income to take risks on more expensive projects. If Cortex Command was on kickstarter today before it became a material game, you can bet it could have probably talked about going 3D with its ideas if it wanted to. They're able to do things that go far beyond 2D or blocky lego graphics, so quite advertising them as weak little guys that give you bite sized and super tightly focused "experiences" you all pretend to gush over. Yeah it takes real skill worth mentioning to surprise people in concept alone using dated tech and focused design like Papers Please, but that isn't all indie can do, and it isn't a flagship indie thing. Indie can be anything from an 8-bit play it safe NES tribute platformer, or match 3 puzzles with a great twist, to a large 3D online accessible FPS game that handle servers better than EA's Battlefield ever will, or a content stuffed action RPG that people are more satisfied with than Diablo 3. The faster we lose that dumb artificial stigma that indies are weak cheap downloadable titles, the less labeled that half of the industry is and the harder it is to dismiss them all under an umbrella term.

Now haters are going to hate and that's not going to really change. As long as indie is seen as so cool that its even made it to ironic levels of marketing, then its going to have some people simply trying to off-set the love. Its also a little hard to blame them when someone like Sony comes along and tells you that $300 portable is going to mostly be reduced to indies only. Meanwhile some people want to just get home, sit down, and enjoy a tried and true content stuffed multiplayer or open world game that the triple A market is full of, so naturally yeah they dislike many indie games and what few might suit them are so obscure they may never find them. Does that justify hate? No, but maybe a couple are calling them out as overrated and there's not necessarily a wrong or right to doing so, its simply their style and views. However for the rest out there, I get the feeling they're closer to what I used to be like where they're sick of seeing and hearing these retro sounding backwards garage teams taking up so much of the fame. Even with a novel idea, or a nice twist thrown in, some people simply wont like the games restricted to two dimensions or emulating an ancient and passed era. In reality though they have yet to discover the real potential and the real larger pool of games innovating in all the right areas and using just enough tech to mock the pretty images you'd expect to see in an EA game commercial. That's something we can fix by promoting a more diverse pool of indie games rather than playing oddball favorites and pandering to specific and very similar looking types of indie gaming. I'm not saying try to give every single game ever a fair amount of coverage, but it'd sure be nice if you took the time to idolize more than just budget 2D puzzlers and give the spotlight and indie association to something bigger. Something that looks middle tier or even triple A but was still independent and from a small passionate team.

I think No Man's Sky just might be the 1st game in a long while to really pull this off in a big way. Oh, but surprise: Everyone thinks its too ambitious for them while people talk about valiant heart like its indie. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection? Never mind the fact that Minecraft basically did everything No man's sky already did, but because the indie association is low budget blocky or 2D games with a one way linear rail or puzzle style to them, its no wonder why No Man's sky looks so weird to be getting so much mainstream coverage as a loud and proud Indie project. Now maybe they're right to talk with some skepticisms for the project, because it may be tough to pull off, but it can and has happened before. The only thing new about it all is the fact that the media is actually following something unusual for themselves by covering it like a big deal. I hope that continues to and that No Man's Sky is a widely discussed success that gets new people excited for indie gaming. Otherwise.... well haters are going to hate, but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying the games ourselves before. Now I'm going back to playing some good 'ol Awesomenauts, because it has a great amount of depth and learning curve to it that keeps me enjoying it way beyond the content of most popular indie AND triple A games.