Some of you may be too old to remember the great video game crash from the early to middle 80's. Some of you may be a little too young to know about it, but at the time it was really a major blow to the video game industry. Some even wondered if it would survive at all.
The video game industry was at an all time high for revenue in 1983 but by 1985 it had dropped by almost 97 percent. During this time many big name companies went bankrupt and out of business. Many in the industry went from making money hand over fist to closing up shop and hitting the unemployment line. The main cause of the great video game crash was saturation of market, in laymen terms, the market was flooded with video games and related items.
Many of the games and consoles that flooded the market were very sub par. In other words the games being produced were utter garbage. Take for example, the Atari game
E.T. The Extraterrestrial, which was based on the
hit movie. It was massively over produced and is often called the worst video game ever made. The movie was very popular the world over, the video game version came out strong as a Christmas item but quickly became a returned to store gift. Some of these games were so bad it caused reputation damage to the industry as a whole. After all, the ET game was nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the movie. The ET game was so over produced and terrible, that the remaining copies were buried in a Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. Recently, within the last few years, some of the buried ET games were dug up.
So, at this point, I'm guessing some of you are thinking, "what does this have to do with Bigfoot?". Well, let me give you my take on what is going on. In my opinion,we are already seeing a decline within the Bigfoot community. There appears to be less interest and less support than in days gone by. But this is probably only the start of the Bigfoot crash. I can remember when
Ghost Hunters first came on TV, I almost never missed an episode the first few seasons. As I was getting kind of bored with Ghost Hunters, I discovered
Ghost Adventures. Now I rarely watch either but think they are the better paranormal shows still on. Now you can watch these shows and ones like them at about any time of the day, 7 days a week.
Over the last few years there has been an explosion of Bigfoot and paranormal related TV shows. Many of which fall into the same fate as the ET video game, sub par. The popularity of Bigfoot and Ghost hunting has been at all time highs over the last few years. This has caused a lot of very bad shows to be put on the air in attempts to grab some cash. It has in effect caused damage to the cryptozoological field in general. For people who do serious research of subjects such as Bigfoot, it has caused an increase in fake reports and plain old hoaxing. Many may see these TV shows and get the idea of faking reports, photos and videos, in attempts to get on TV.
But over the last year or so, there seems to be a declining interest in the subject of Bigfoot. I think this is directly related to overcrowding of "not so good" television shows and other factors. The market has been flooded with misleading and often sub par shows. Some are docudrama type shows, that attempt to pass themselves off as being real. These sometimes brings confusion to the cryptozoology community, when some people believe it to be real. Producers of these shows should be upfront about the programs contents, to help avoid this confusion.
Now, I'm not against good quality, honest TV shows. In fact, I think if done correctly, it could help advance study of many unknown and unconfirmed creatures. I know of one instant, where a local man had/has a TV show. The producers wanted him to "pretend" he and a rival were about to fight. The producers wanted to build up the fake tension between the two, wanted them to pack guns and act mad. The main person told the producers, he wouldn't be doing any of that fake stuff.
So, has there been a flood of bad Bigfoot and Paranormal shows? I think the answer is yes. Has it caused a decline in interest? I think it has. Will there be a Bigfoot crash? I think there could be at some point.
What will happen after a Bigfoot crash? Well, if we take what we know about the video game crash and apply it to the Bigfoot and Paranormal fields, I think they will survive. The crash, like the video game crash, will shake out many of the "undesirables". This type of thing happens often when something becomes very popular and it floods the market. Many knockoffs get created and floods the market even more. Then one day it reaches a tipping point and the bottom falls out. Which is not always a bad thing, even though we do end up losing some of the good ones in the process. I think we are moving towards that tipping point in the Bigfoot community.
But, there is some good news. The Bigfoot community and Cryptozoology community in general, has a good core of solid and honest researchers and supporters. This will insure that it will survive and grow in the future. The gaming community was able to save and build the video game industry back up again. And in many ways it became better than it ever was because it pushed the gaming industry into new areas and technologies. This can also happen for the Cryptozoology community. This is achieved by having a good solid base of researchers, artist, fans, supporters and yes, even TV shows.
While the crash may come, some of us will still be here after the smoke clears. We will put back on our backpacks, load up our cameras,strap on our boots and hit the woods. Guaranteed!
Thanks
~Tom~
This
post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the
cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto
Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of
unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild
land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet
This post sponsored in part by
(Interested in sponsoring a story? then send us an Email!)
Posts
