Why is it rare to come across a mediocre indie game? It’s not that they don’t exist, but few people talk about them. And thank god. There are enough games out there to play something new — and good — every day till the day I die, and I’d rather not waste my time on something that’s just OK.

So I’m not complaining about not having to read about games that aren’t bad, but aren’t as good as what’s already out there. But I am curious enough to think about it.

Because mediocrity is a problem in the rest of the game industry. This doesn’t surprise me like it used to. One of the many reasons to dislike EA is that they spend “two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game.” And it shows. Just look at Dante’s Inferno. The game was hard to miss, and I’ll admit that its marketing campaign was delightful. But every time I read about the game, in the back of my mind I was thinking “that’s money that isn’t being spent on making a good game.” So I wasn’t surprised when reviews labeled the game average.

The game industry churns out dull, uninspired games by the boatload. At least Dante’s Inferno was new (well, old but distorted beyond recognition) territory for a game. The industry shovels out dozens of movie and TV tie-ins like the god-awful Avatar and clones of whatever game is popular at the moment. They’re designed by committee, pieced together from other whatever the current trend in gaming is with no clear voice or vision. How many first person shooters came out last year that used the cover mechanic, and how many God of War clones do we really need?

That’s not to say that major developers can’t make great games. I happily split my time between the small- and the big-time developers. But it’s far harder to judge a game from a major studio before it comes out. Whether the game is good or bad, the marketing team is going to be able to spin the early press however they want. Mainstream games have a way of letting me down in a way that’s rare for indie games. That’s why I wait for a demo, or a consensus of greatness or a personal recommendation from a friend before sacrifice $60 to a game. But I have no problem pre-ordering indie games. Well, indie games and Valve games.

I can pre-order from an indie developer because what I know about the game means something. They’re usually by one person or a small team that doesn’t change. I could order VVVVVV because I loved Terry Cavanagh’s earlier work, Judith and Don’t Look Back. All I knew about Blueberry Garden at the time of purchase was that it had won the Seamus McNally Grand Prize.

Think about Braid, Darwinia, World of Goo, Trine and Torchlight. They’re great games, obviously, but what I love about these games — what I love about indie games in general — is that they succeeded on their own merits. Braid and World of Goo won IGF awards. Trine and Torchlight spread through player recommendations. And Introversion, Darwinia‘s developer, had Kieron Gillen.

There’s nothing like IGF for mainstream games. The closest thing to a deliberative body for mainstream games is, what, Spike’s VGAs? That ceremony is a joke, even by game industry standards. On the other hand, most indie games that win competitions are a surprise, at least aside from the IGF where even the nominees get a fair amount of scrutiny. But at the dozens of other competitions, the winners are selected from relative unknowns. Who had heard of James Silva or Ska Studios before The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai won the first Dream-Build-Play competition?

The same goes for indie games that do well commercially. Torchlight, Trine and Castle Crashers did well without much of a marketing push. And the best-selling indie games on steam are pretty damn good.

Even when indie games market themselves successfully, that’s an indication the the game is worth buying. Unlike AAA developers, who have separate design and marketing departments, most indie developers are also the marketers. If you look at AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, the team responsible for the awesome press release is the same team responsible for the game. Dejobaan’s passion for the game shines through in the press release, and it shines through in the game. Silva’s second success came from a game with a similar marketing strategy: I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1. All Silva needed was that title and a song. 2D Boy put their faith in their fans when held a pay-what-you-want sale for World of Goo, and their faith was rewarded.

The games that don’t win awards? The ones that don’t seem worth talking about? The games that nobody pays for? Why would anybody talk about them. I don’t. I don’t talk about games on DIYGamer that I don’t want to play. That’s why you’ll never see me talking about a puzzle game or racing simulator. That’s also why you’ll never see me talking about platformers with middling controls or an adventure game with childish challenges. If I get bored of a game within the first half-hour of play, I’m not going to inflict that boredom on a reader.

And I think other games journalists feel the same way. So that’s why mediocre indie games don’t appear on many game blogs. And they don’t win awards because they’re not that good. And they don’t get bought because nobody’s going out of their way to tell their friends.

In the end, it’s better for the indie scene if its mediocre games live in obscurity.