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Game industry substituting good gameplay for graphics...

A

Arsinek

Senior member
This is the conclusion Ive come to for why most games bore me. Games continue to look prettier and prettier but yet actual gameplay either stays the same or actually regresses.

The COD and BF franchises are perfect examples. They contiue to release basically the same game over and over but with updated graphics. I personally might die if I ever have to play another round of team death match. BF3 had Rush which was fun for a little while but its still a rather small and simple game mode with no meaning. COD and BF have no depth. There is no war in these games, just little instanced battles. I want a big war where battles contribute to something larger.

MMORPGs are the same way. From what Ive heard SWG and Ultima Online had more depth than WoW and WoW has more depth than most new MMOs coming out. The graphics get better but the gameplay gets worse.
 
I find it tough to get an original story from a game. Too many save the princess/world/land/town/city/country with token bad guy A and token joke of a sidekick B. lol
 
Thank you. I got worried when I didn't see our usual weekly elitist circle-jerk thread about how "new video games suck, old games were better, etc etc" pop up.

Seriously, I'm tired of these threads. Always the same nonsense arguments that make sweeping generalizations about the modern games industry, how it has become "dumbed-down", slimy, and uninnovative; always mentioning CoD and Battlefield in the same sentence along with nothing else (because those are the only big-budget titles that ever come out, right?) while completely failing to mention the hundreds of high-quality indie games that release every year and break these trends.

Solution: Stop buying Battlefield and CoD if they bother you so much. Instead, buy one of the dozens of more niche, thoughtful, in-depth games available, because they still exist and they're still being made. You just have to seek them out.

Like, I'm really, -really- sick of these threads. They are so tired and predictable. If I had a dollar for every new one I saw, I would be rich. Do people even look at the new games that are released on Steam every single week? There's so many unique, different, well-designed, deep PC games coming out, it's overwhelming.
 
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Well yeah. Artists can work relatively fast and cheap. Writers and story designers have to work hand-in-hand with producers and developers more often than not since story means content, content means game mechanics and artwork, and all that means $$$. Couple that with requiring more testing, that's even more money being spent before anything even hits the door.

More money spent means a bigger bottom line. A bigger bottom line means less profit right from the get-go. With publishers demanding ship dates, all of this compounds itself so that producers what a pretty product with just enough content to meet the "bare minimum" to justify the price so that everyone gets paid, they get their bonus checks, and if things go well it just happens to be a smash hit and they make a bigger bonus check than usual.

That and the average attention span of a typical kid these days is shorter than the time it takes to say A.D.D.
 
LessThanDan said:
Thank you. I was worried when I didn't see our usual weekly elitist circle-jerk thread about how "new video games suck, old games were better, etc etc" pop up.

Seriously, I'm tired of these threads. Always the same nonsense arguments that make sweeping generalizations about the modern games industry, how it has become "dumbed-down", slimy, and uninnovative; always mentioning CoD and Battlefield in the same sentence along with nothing else (because those are the only big-budget titles that ever come out, right?) while completely failing to mention the hundreds of high-quality indie games that release every year and break these trends.

Solution: Stop buying Battlefield and CoD if they bother you so much. Instead, buy one of the dozens of more niche, thoughtful, in-depth games available, because they still exist and they're still being made. You just have to seek them out.

Like, I'm really, -really- sick of these threads. They are so tired and predictable. If I had a dollar for every new one I saw, I would be rich. Do people even look at the new games that are released on Steam every single week? There's so many unique, different, well-designed, deep PC games coming out, it's overwhelming.
Click to expand...

If every indie game wasn't a platformer...
 
cmdrdredd said:
If every indie game wasn't a platformer...
Click to expand...

See? You're over-generalizing. Saying "every indie game is a platformer" is just as bad as saying "every AAA game is a first-person-shooter".

Looking at the New Releases tab on Steam, I see 7 different indie games. 0 of those are platformers.
 
I think the games industry is doing fine. You're just focusing on the wrong titles.

Some good ones from the last few years, in no particular order:

Borderlands 1 - 2 (though 2's single-player isn't as good)
Saint's Row 3
X-Com
Bioshock Infinite
The Witcher 1 -2
Torchlight 1 - 2
King's Bounty series

As someone always points out when this topic gets reposted, people focus on the few games in the past that were classics, and ignore the other 90%+ of games released at the same time that were not.

Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap

The music from your youth wasn't better either overall, you're fondly recalling the 10% and forgetting the other 90%.
 
LessThanDan said:
See? You're over-generalizing. Saying "every indie game is a platformer" is just as bad as saying "every AAA game is a first-person-shooter".

Looking at the New Releases tab on Steam, I see 7 different indie games. 0 of those are platformers.
Click to expand...

Tell me when an indie dev releases a full fledged RPG or a fighting game that rivals Skullgirls, Blazblue, and street fighter in depth, or a competitive FPS game that isn't zombies or aliens.

Meanwhile everyone gets giddy over Mark of the Ninja, Trine, and Guacamelee which are all platformers(one has stealth elements).
 
cmdrdredd said:
Tell me when an indie dev releases a full fledged RPG or a fighting game that rivals Skullgirls, Blazblue, and street fighter in depth,...
Click to expand...

"Bad example" - Jack O'Neill


http://www.giantbomb.com/reverge-labs-llc/3010-7447/

"Reverge Labs, LLC is a new independent developer committed to creating high-quality downloadable games. The studio's only current release is Skullgirls in early 2012."

"The Skullgirls team has since left Reverge Labs and started their own studio, Lab Zero Games, where they have continued to work on Skullgirls."
 
That's why so many interesting games are being funded on Kickstarter:
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Project Eternity
Double Fine Adventure
Wasteland 2
Planetary Annihilation
Star Citizen
Shadowrun Returns
Elite: Dangerous
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey
 
Blah blah blah "I dont like Cod wahhhh" blah blah blah

Video games are better than theyve ever been. Suck it up, the only difference is now you are older.
 
I don't frankly care what the mass market buys. The smaller more innovative companies are growing healthily with good innovative game ideas and that is what matters. COD doesn't matter, its one game in thousands released every year and its just the poster child of a bad success story, but it no way reflects what is actually happening in the industry overall.
 
They aren't substituting "good gameplay" for graphics.

The gameplay would have changed whether the graphics were better or not.

It had everything to do with appealing to wider audiences and nothing to do with graphic quality.
 
LessThanDan said:
Thank you. I got worried when I didn't see our usual weekly elitist circle-jerk thread about how "new video games suck, old games were better, etc etc" pop up.

Seriously, I'm tired of these threads. Always the same nonsense arguments that make sweeping generalizations about the modern games industry, how it has become "dumbed-down", slimy, and uninnovative; always mentioning CoD and Battlefield in the same sentence along with nothing else (because those are the only big-budget titles that ever come out, right?) while completely failing to mention the hundreds of high-quality indie games that release every year and break these trends.

Solution: Stop buying Battlefield and CoD if they bother you so much. Instead, buy one of the dozens of more niche, thoughtful, in-depth games available, because they still exist and they're still being made. You just have to seek them out.

Like, I'm really, -really- sick of these threads. They are so tired and predictable. If I had a dollar for every new one I saw, I would be rich. Do people even look at the new games that are released on Steam every single week? There's so many unique, different, well-designed, deep PC games coming out, it's overwhelming.
Click to expand...

Solution: Stop reading "these threads" if they bother you so much.
 
I hear this alot. I used to make threads like this.

Look, graphics matter.

That's really all there is to it. Games are basically like sudoku + architecture + graphics.

Saying that graphics don't matter is like saying that...talent doesn't matter in painting, as long as it is about some complex abstract idea. EG: modern art.

Without interactive graphics, there's really no point to game at all. And no, I rarely find retro indies to be that satisfying.
 
The problem is not CoD or Battlefield itself, the problem is too many companies are taking established series and IPs with very different aims and genres from CoD, and trying to shoehorn in "streamlined" CoD elements, to appeal to this nebulous "broader fanbase."

That's not conjecture. Several publishers and developers have actually used Call of Duty as the benchmark and cited "appealing to CoD fans".

That's idiocy, as the game almost ALWAYS suffers, and NO ONE is happy; not the original fans, not CoD bros.

Sure, there are still great games being released, so I think the "the whole game industry now sucks!" is over board, but there's no denying there has been a massive attempt lately with studios of established IPs to "broaden" their appeal, to 'streamline", to pull in other gamers (i.e. the cheetos and Mountain Dew brigade).

And if you happen to be a fan of those IPs, then yes, it can get very disheartening.
 
I do agree with most of what everyone has stated. I hardly can stay in a Modern FPS game now-a-days for a week. So just washed out and dull...I can for some reason always come back to Counter Strike though...Classics just don't die IMO.

But honestly after doing CAL leagues during my 1.6 days and tournies....I'm just tired of FPS in general. Also, one you get into an MMO, it makes all games lose flavor =*(....
 
Since when has CoD improved graphics ? The game is an ancient pile of shit still using the same engine it did for CoD 4. I'll give you Battlefield upgrades graphics all the time, but that has always been a staple of what BF does. BF2 for its time was considered a graphics powerhouse.

Graphics add to immersion in the game world = improvements to the experience.
 
Sulaco said:
The problem is not CoD or Battlefield itself, the problem is too many companies are taking established series and IPs with very different aims and genres from CoD, and trying to shoehorn in "streamlined" CoD elements, to appeal to this nebulous "broader fanbase."

That's not conjecture. Several publishers and developers have actually used Call of Duty as the benchmark and cited "appealing to CoD fans".

That's idiocy, as the game almost ALWAYS suffers, and NO ONE is happy; not the original fans, not CoD bros.

Sure, there are still great games being released, so I think the "the whole game industry now sucks!" is over board, but there's no denying there has been a massive attempt lately with studios of established IPs to "broaden" their appeal, to 'streamline", to pull in other gamers (i.e. the cheetos and Mountain Dew brigade).

And if you happen to be a fan of those IPs, then yes, it can get very disheartening.
Click to expand...

Yes I tend to agree with this. God of war ascension was a good game but a terrible god of war game. It added multiplayer which took away from what the game really is. It seems like every game must have multiplayer now or at least the publisher/developer thinks so. It sometimes ruins or cheapens the single player side which could have been the main draw of the game series to begin with.
 
I think things are fine. Lots of people are playing call of duty or whatever just like lots of people watched Battleship. But there are a ton of cool smaller games that just don't sell a whole lot that do different things. You have to look for them though because they're poorly advertised in comparison.
 
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