The 6 Most Ominous Trends in Video Games

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Terzo

Platinum Member
Dec 13, 2005
2,589
27
91
I'm not too concerned. I already do my best to avoid online services (I have some Valve games on Steam). Sure, maybe I'll miss some great games but there are probably already enough games out there to last me a lifetime. Worst case scenario I just wont buy games anymore, but I doubt it'll come to that. If there truly is a market (as he says it all comes to the gamers) someone will try to tap that market.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
197
106
We're on the Verge of Creative Bankruptcy

This I agree with.

Game companies are creating very little original content. Look at the battle field / call of duty series. How many times can the same game be remade?

Besides borderlands, left 4 dead, left 4 dead 2, and Metro2033, I have not seen a new genre in gaming in years.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
1,594
126
What's worse than sequels? The gaming industry effectively blocking new ideas by refusing to fund anything but the tried and true.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
The article is well written and an enjoyable read. However I don't completely agree with it. For instance, take the section on Epic bitching about how Farmville steals their market share. Maybe we do need more segmented and better defined markets, but I honestly think there is a far simpler answer: Epic needs to stop being greedy fucks and make a game worth playing because I guarantee you that Farmville is lacking when compared to a real game. If people are playing it above your game, it is because your game is such shit, it misses it's market, it isn't enjoyable, you are losing people to WORSE games because they are bored with you. It isn't Farmville's fault, it is yours.

And frankly, I hope big companies lose business to the 1 guy making a 10 dollar app. I like that the small guys are effectively challenging the fat lazy big guys who aren't willing to take risks anymore, I'm glad these guys are both in the same space because I think the small guys normalize it.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
This I agree with.

Game companies are creating very little original content. Look at the battle field / call of duty series. How many times can the same game be remade?

Besides borderlands, left 4 dead, left 4 dead 2, and Metro2033, I have not seen a new genre in gaming in years.

Minecraft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DWARF FORTRESS
 

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
5,499
2
0
article is pretty goddamn correct except for the initial iron sights bit. that was a BIG deal back in the day, and afaik the first mod to do it was day of defeat. revolutionary no, logical yes. makes sense that modern 'tactical' shooters would use it- the problem is that ALL of them are 'tactical' now.
 

Terzo

Platinum Member
Dec 13, 2005
2,589
27
91
article is pretty goddamn correct except for the initial iron sights bit. that was a BIG deal back in the day, and afaik the first mod to do it was day of defeat. revolutionary no, logical yes. makes sense that modern 'tactical' shooters would use it- the problem is that ALL of them are 'tactical' now.

Man I had forgotten about Day of Defeat. That was (is?) such a great mod.
 

brblx

Diamond Member
Mar 23, 2009
5,499
2
0
i luffed it. first mod without 'action' in the title that allowed me to sprint and dive into the prone position. add in the simple but fairly balanced (though not perfect) classes and the awesome maps (for the time), the iron sights aiming plus realistic recoil and muzzle climb...that game did a lot right. i'm amazed when i think about how many hours i spent simply PLAYING various multiplayer mods for games like quake2, half-life, and tribes. the number is surely beyond the hundreds, and i recieved not one single 'achievement' or unlockable.
 

Karstein

Senior member
Mar 31, 2011
392
0
71
Should have a 'mainstream' somewhere in that title.

When I feel worried about these trends, I just go here and it puts the big PC-gaming grin back on my face.
 
Oct 30, 2004
11,442
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The good news is that you can still play the tried and true classics. Perhaps every couple years one really good game that you can play for years on end in online multiplayer will come out. You have to grab it and play it. Heck, people still play UT99 and UT 2004 to this day.
 

Bonesdad

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 2002
2,213
0
76
Cant say I disagree with this article. And one of the reasons why my interest in gaming has dropped like a rock in the past 2 years.

yup. me too. don't know why this is happening...too many tweens driving the industry?
 

Bonesdad

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 2002
2,213
0
76
The good news is that you can still play the tried and true classics. Perhaps every couple years one really good game that you can play for years on end in online multiplayer will come out. You have to grab it and play it. Heck, people still play UT99 and UT 2004 to this day.

even TFC
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,517
280
126
www.the-teh.com
The good news is that you can still play the tried and true classics. Perhaps every couple years one really good game that you can play for years on end in online multiplayer will come out. You have to grab it and play it. Heck, people still play UT99 and UT 2004 to this day.

That's great and all, but today I'm sitting on a computer with 10x the power that I had when I played UT99. Yet the games I'm playing are clones of UT99 with no appreciable difference. I paid $50 for UT99, today I have to pay $60 for the privileged, dish out $10 for each DLC and I can no longer enjoy any user created content such as maps, mods and skins. The gaming industry is regressing flying flags with dead presidents on them.

Completely blown out of proportion and not even written well. Sorry, he isn't funny and anyone in PC gaming knows the sky has been falling for years.

The real reason gaming is going down the drain is because of YOU. All of you consumers who boycott the bullshit MW2 was going to omit and still buy it on release day. Remember the Steam group picture? Yeah... Gamers of old remember the days a company pulled some b.s. like that and nobody purchased their games. Gamers are such morons today, just put a popular name on it and we have millions of sales.


Blown out of proportion? Ha kinda like the hype devs feed us about how the AI isn't scripted, how the new sequel will add 5 new features (but ships with 4 broken ones), how the SP will be so immerse you'll forget you're playing a video game (one that ends in 5 hours).
 
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KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
I've said it a few times on this forum before, but man, the game industry needs another crash. Shit really needs to change big time and there is no sign that it will on its own.

Sad thing is, we can't even fully blame it on the publishers anymore, its the newest/second newest gen of gamers that are probably more at fault for where we are now cause they continue to buy shit and have no concept for what a dollar is.
 

wuliheron

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2011
3,536
0
0
Its already crashed. People got sick of all the crappy games and now only half a dozen rake in the big bucks each year. Last year's big sleeper hit, Metro 2033, came from a low budget no-name Russian developer working out of a basement. The ax is falling left and right and just today Bethesda told the developers of Homefront to take a hike. Now every major developer is rushing to make a public statement about how they are rededicating themselves to producing quality products specifically for the PC.

They know they went too far and now they have to win back their fans.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,189
184
106
I liked the article but I don't agree with everything the author claims.

I believe that for some "changes" (some good, some bad, as always) to occur we just need a new generation of consoles. I'm not saying that it will "save" gaming (in general, I'm not only referring to PC gaming here), but that at least new hardware will alleviate possibilities for games on the PC at the same time, while revitalizing the consoles market. Instead Microsoft wants to squeeze more years of service with the 360, also more recently doing so with Kinect, while Sony aims the handheld market again with Vita. At least Nintendo took the risk at making a new console, the "problem" I have with Nintendo however is that they just keep spitting out their known franchises over and over again, I'd like to see a new Nintendo-made, preferably Miyamoto-made IP that would debut with the Wii U, to "justify" its entry to the market a bit more, although I still welcome a new console, after all those years.

And for the PC games more specifically, well... I'm not sure really, there's many possibilities. Are there too many console ports? Are console ports *the* problem? What about DRM? Also, piracy? Retail VS Digital? Pre-Owned Retail issues? Lack of "creativity" and/or lack of PC-exclusives à la Witcher 2 and Crysis 1? I'm not sure, there's many factors at play on the PC market. Not to mention the technology growth versus the games available to "properly" exploit that technology (PC exclusives only could do that, not console ports over and over again). If more than 80% of PC games released in the past five years happen to be console ports, then what's the goal? Buy a console and call it a night? Or stick with the ports on the PC in hope that you'll be able to play mods for them because it's the "PC version", only to realize that there's no tools or the important files have been hard-coded/locked away from tempering them?

Certainly, overall, video gaming is going through troubled times, I just can't put one finger on a single cause, because there's just a bunch of them working in tandem to screw things up. All the way "down" at the bottom of the pyramid coming from the gamers/consumers who seemingly have no brains and in mass buy sequels that don't make sense one after the other, to all the way up at the top of it coming from chairmen in their 40's and 50's, most of which have never touched a video game controller and only care about business. Even the consoles don't distinguish themselves from one another that much anymore, since most games are multi-platform. So basically you just buy the less expensive of the bunch and you'll still get to play Call of Duty anyway, only on a Nintendo console could we find Link, Mario, Samus, Fox or Donkey Kong... but those have been played and known to death (hence why I wish a new Nintendo IP, or two, could come out).

Meh, I usually just prefer not to think about any of that and let things happen as the days pass. In the meantime I still enjoy my older consoles and the games I occasionally play from them, along with buying stuff from Steam and GoG. I'm doing my "humble part", but it's occurring unnoticed. I mean I can restrain myself (and I did) from buying recent games, most of which are just sequels, to send a "message" to the developers, but of course I have no way to measure my decisions and actions when doing so, there seems to be no impact because gamers like me are part of a minority. What can we do "against" the mass of teenagers buying CoDs after CoDs, or Modern Warfares after Modern Warfares, or NHLs after NHLs, or Halos after Halos... there's nothing we can do, it's like trying to stop a horde of zombies offering their wallets without thinking, the developers and publishers can't exactly turn their back at that, of course they'll take the money and they'll go fishing where the fishes bite.
 
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Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
12,639
1,481
126
Completely blown out of proportion and not even written well. Sorry, he isn't funny and anyone in PC gaming knows the sky has been falling for years.

The real reason gaming is going down the drain is because of YOU. All of you consumers who boycott the bullshit MW2 was going to omit and still buy it on release day. Remember the Steam group picture? Yeah... Gamers of old remember the days a company pulled some b.s. like that and nobody purchased their games. Gamers are such morons today, just put a popular name on it and we have millions of sales.

Exhibit A: http://i.imgur.com/abXW9.png
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,095
513
126
yup. me too. don't know why this is happening...too many tweens driving the industry?

I think he nailed it on the head. Nobody wants to take a risk as the development costs of games is approaching movies. The same model the movie industry took 20 years ago is now in the video game industry. Replace 20th Century Fox, Time Warner, and Paramount with EA, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft.
 

smartpatrol

Senior member
Mar 8, 2006
870
0
0
I think he nailed it on the head. Nobody wants to take a risk as the development costs of games is approaching movies. The same model the movie industry took 20 years ago is now in the video game industry. Replace 20th Century Fox, Time Warner, and Paramount with EA, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft.

Exactly, except I think it's even worse with video games. New video games cost $50-$60 each, so consumers will be even less likely to take a chance on something unfamiliar.

Also, the cost to create movies and music has decreased with better technology. With video games, it's the opposite. The cost of creating a game with modern visuals keeps growing from generation to generation. A single flop can destroy a developer. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that the risk-aversion of game developers will only accelerate going forward.

Finally, I think gaming culture is dysfunctional and retarded. The only thing gamers get excited about now are sequels and remakes. Gamers explode into a big orgy every time a new Zelda, Mario, Halo, CoD, etc. are announced. . . whereas for a new, original IP, it's practically a miracle if it gets lots of positive buzz, does well critically, AND sells well.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Exactly, except I think it's even worse with video games. New video games cost $50-$60 each, so consumers will be even less likely to take a chance on something unfamiliar.

Also, the cost to create movies and music has decreased with better technology. With video games, it's the opposite. The cost of creating a game with modern visuals keeps growing from generation to generation. A single flop can destroy a developer. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that the risk-aversion of game developers will only accelerate going forward.

Finally, I think gaming culture is dysfunctional and retarded. The only thing gamers get excited about now are sequels and remakes. Gamers explode into a big orgy every time a new Zelda, Mario, Halo, CoD, etc. are announced. . . whereas for a new, original IP, it's practically a miracle if it gets lots of positive buzz, does well critically, AND sells well.

New IP isn't required. If someone creates a great universe, why can't they continue in that with different stories or continuations? Star Wars? D&D? And the Zelda games, while being similar are all different save for the few remakes (Link's Awakening and OoT). There are plenty of opportunities for developers to craft something good with the current it. However, they drop the ball the majority of the time.