Bioshock Infinite Cover or Enough is Enough

December 1st. Irrational games releases the cover art for Bioshock Infinite. It looks like this.

My thoughts are exactly like this: Shit, that's a really bad ass cover, bold move to have the burning flag in the background. The more I saw it, the more I loved it. I love how the man on the cover looks tormented, I love the colours. It's a great cover. Well, as usual, I don't think the same as every other gamer. An uproar of complains started to spread on the internet, It's too generic was the main complaint, and that they thought that the cover would show more of the political aspects of the game. I guess the subtleties in the cover didn't reach out to people as it did me. But okay fine, If you don't like it, it's your opinion, and everyone is entitled to one.

Later Ken Levine, who is one of the driving forces behind Bioshock Infinite, explained that the cover was not meant to appeal to the hardcore gamer, they are going to buy the game whether the cover looks bad or not, because we really only care for the game itself, as we should. The covers was for the gamers who knew little of the game, the gamer who only buys three games a year, the gamer who would feel compelled to buy a game where the cover features a bad ass holding a shotgun. And I bought that, I got that, because I realize that the industry is not only for us hardcore gamers, but for all kinds of gamers.

But then, I don't know what happened, but they buckled. They said okay, let us give you an alternate cover. It's sort of the same deal as with the Mass Effect ending. I mean come on, have some creative dignity! Don't change your work because others think you should, hold firm to your believes. I hated that Bioware decided to change the ending, even if it sucked, doesn't mean the game did, it was great actually.

Still, the cover thing is not even close to being the same thing, they will keep the old cover, but just have two covers so that you can change if you didn't like the other. It's a smart compromise, but I still feel like developers listen too much to the fans. To some degree it's good, but you can't start doubting yourself over it, and unfortunately I see it all the time. Because, and I mean no offence when I say this, but most fan critics doesn't know shit about what they're talking about. And when you listen too much to them, you get Resident Evil 6, you get Final Fantasy XIII-2, you get Halo 4 (I will get to all of these in time). Games that thinks they're improving on the things that are wrong with it, but are really just forgetting the real problems.

But I digress, in the end, we got six covers to vote on and the winning cover looks amazing, even better than the first one, so no harm done there. But I feel at time that we need developers that don't second-guesses themselves. Because when the professionals start to turn to only players for advice, the industry will begin to decline.