Gaming dying etc etc

Fusionxl

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Dear Escapists,

As someone who has been watching good gaming series get mutilated over the past decade, I have for you a question: how can developers intentionally butcher their own work and, not only be entirely oblivious about it, but also genuinely think they are doing an excellent job?

Who could think Simcity would be vastly improved by only allowing down to 3 cities per region (all the size of the smallest/second smallest map in SC4), and removing customizable terrain and the 'urbanised bee hive' feel?

How is Max Payne a better game if Max spergs bitter self-destructive bile at everyone and -thing?

How is Hitman supposed to be more enjoyable if the colourful and varied locations and themes and sandbox nature are replaced by a linear path in a 'downtown Destroit' environment?

How can Crysis expect to be taken seriously if Psycho, a slightly off-his-rocker but respectable and morality-bound soldier, is given a "bloody 'ell, didya fockin' see tha'!" chav character? Not even including the immortal tube general, and a nanosuit that can splice alien DNA and record and overwrite memories and personality. Could it also make a toast with jam? Pretty please?

Who asked for Dead Space to be Gears of War with more fancy over-the-top action scenes than the later Die Hard films?

I have so many more examples, but you get the idea. This cannot be blamed entirely on publishers/investors/underpants gnomes, the dev group could and should not have let this shit pass so easily. Gaming is becoming dead to me, with only a few series remaining I can still respect and enjoy. I want to know why they are doing this.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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"Gaming is becoming dead..."

And yet I am playing better games and getting more enjoyment out of them than at any other period.

If this is what dying feels like, then I say bring it on.
 

SonicWaffle

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Zhukov said:
"Gaming is becoming dead..."

And yet I am playing better games and getting more enjoyment out of them than at any other period.

If this is what dying feels like, then I say bring it on.
Perhaps this is what dying feels like. You're slowly transcending into gamer heaven. Perhaps you're already dead, and you're Bruce Willis and I'm Haley Joel Osment and I'm the only one who can see your posts and oh holy shit I have scared myself a little please tell me I'm not talking to a ghost!

Fusionxl said:
I have so many more examples, but you get the idea. This cannot be blamed entirely on publishers/investors/underpants gnomes, the dev group could and should not have let this shit pass so easily. Gaming is becoming dead to me, with only a few series remaining I can still respect and enjoy. I want to know why they are doing this.
I dunno dude, just because you didn't enjoy something doesn't mean everyone else hated it. I'm still having fun with my games. The games themselves are still getting good reviews (though the problem with review scores is a different argument entirely) and people are still paying money for them. Why would the developers even suspect there was a problem? A few people are bitching on the internet? It ain't exactly fuckin' news, is it?

If I made video games, and I listened to what the internet had to say about my games, I'd probably spiral into depression and go become a monk or something. If I listened to what everyone else was saying, I think I'd probably feel fine about my life.
 

Fappy

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Not every IP is getting its tits milked, you know. Sure, the current state of the industry is quite terrible, but there are still good games coming out all the time. Don't let the vast amount of bad apples drown out the good, because honestly... it's always been like this.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Fusionxl said:
Who could think Simcity would be vastly improved by only allowing down to 3 cities per region (all the size of the smallest/second smallest map in SC4), and removing customizable terrain and the 'urbanised bee hive' feel?
2-16 per region.

Let it be said that the cities are indeed too small, and EA's bug-fuckery on this launch is the stuff of legends, but 16 cities in a region isn't terrible.

Zhukov said:
"Gaming is becoming dead..."

And yet I am playing better games and getting more enjoyment out of them than at any other period.

If this is what dying feels like, then I say bring it on.
And I agree with this 100%. Gaming is more expansive now than ever before, has more options per genre than ever before, is cheaper than ever before, and is more accessible than ever before.

Chicken Littles really need to settle down.

SonicWaffle said:
If I made video games, and I listened to what the internet had to say about my games, I'd probably spiral into depression and go become a monk or something. If I listened to what everyone else was saying, I think I'd probably feel fine about my life.
I do think there's something to this. Not that some criticism isn't warranted...god knows some criticism is warranted. But people tend to criticize far, far more often than they praise. Criticism is fun to write and fun to read...to quote Ratatouille...and often forums and twitter feeds and comment sites like Reddit are wall to wall with it. It becomes an echo chamber for angry idiots to bellow their discontent, and it becomes a feedback loop of misery that re-affirms everyone's worst suspicions. I know for my own part that spending an hour on an MMO forum can actually leave me feeling depressed and hopeless about a game I was previously enjoying. Little did I know it was actually stupid and hopeless and broken and horrible, and the developer had one hand in my wallet and the other one reaching up my anal cavity for some good old fashioned buggery. I thought I was having fun! How stupid of me!

And alas, the only distaff to this incoherent gamer rage is the "games criticism" industry, who are firmly in bed with the people they are meant to be critiquing, so no one takes them seriously. 10 years ago a good review was cause for celebration and discussion. Now, a good review is met with the rolling of eyes and presumptions of madcap bribery. Doesn't even matter if it's true. The perception is that it COULD be true, because things have become so incestuous, and once that taint is there you never wash the stink off.
 

General Twinkletoes

Suppository of Wisdom
Jan 24, 2011
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Then stop playing franchises. It's not too difficult, just try new games and don't stick with rehashed series if don't like them. This just sounds like whining for the sake of it. Gaming's not dead, you're just playing games you don't like. There are more varied games than ever before, play the ones you like.

Also, complaining about a nano power suit being powerful is a little odd. Isn't that the point?
 

Clowndoe

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Gaming won't die as long as enough people buy the good games. As long as that happens, little saplings will always crop up and grow between the rotting timbers of the dead redwoods.
 

Fusionxl

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Clowndoe said:
Gaming won't die as long as enough people buy the good games. As long as that happens, little saplings will always crop up and grow between the rotting timbers of the dead redwoods.
What worries me is that the non-'good games' are selling better and better. I saw the first half an hour of the new Lara Croft and... what the fuck even is that thing? A movie with a controller? Smash X and LT+RT to victory? Bah.

I may be getting too old for this noise, but I remember days when you had to think and strategise. When games were about conquering new and harder challenges. When games handed you tools and it was up to you to get through the level in a way that worked for you, often though trial and error.

If I want to watch someone go through prolonged sections of carefully crafted and prescripted action scenes with barely to any interactivity required then I might as well go to a cinema and not pay 60?. Give me my sodding games back.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Fusionxl said:
Clowndoe said:
Gaming won't die as long as enough people buy the good games. As long as that happens, little saplings will always crop up and grow between the rotting timbers of the dead redwoods.
What worries me is that the non-'good games' are selling better and better. I saw the first half an hour of the new Lara Croft and... what the fuck even is that thing? A movie with a controller? Smash X and LT+RT to victory? Bah.
Your problem there is that you only watched the first half hour.

About an hour or so in it improves drastically. The level design opens up, the scripting takes a step back and the QTEs become a lot rarer.
 

SonicWaffle

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Fusionxl said:
If I want to watch someone go through prolonged sections of carefully crafted and prescripted action scenes with barely to any interactivity required then I might as well go to a cinema and not pay 60?. Give me my sodding games back.
So stop playing games which are like that and play one of the hundreds of other modern games which place more emphasis on being a game than on a long and slightly interactive cutscene?

To be honest, it seems like you're deliberately putting yourself in a position where you can complain about stuff via the games you're choosing to play.
 

ohnoitsabear

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Feb 15, 2011
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Is the quality of huge, AAA games declining? Maybe. The amount of sequels, microtransactions, and just plain uninspired games coming out of the AAA space seems to be much higher than it should be. I won't try to argue that there isn't a bunch of that a lot of major publishers are doing that probably isn't good for the long term health of the gaming industry.

But on the other hand, there is just so much stuff going on in gaming right now that isn't declining. There's the explosion of the indie scene that has lead to more fantastic, unique games than ever before. There's the huge potential of the Kickstarter phenomenon to bring back long dead genres and franchises, in addition to providing plenty of new experiences. Really, you can't proclaim the death of gaming without at least looking at some of this stuff.

And it seems to me, although I could be mistaken, that the past couple of years have actually seen more creative risks from major publishers (that aren't EA or Activision). Look at Dishonored, XCom: Enemy Unknown, or Spec Ops: The Line. So, while there may be way too much shit going on with gaming right now, there's still plenty of good stuff happening. In fact, I might dare say that this could be one of gaming's best periods.
 

Full

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Don't pretend there weren't Double Dragon and Doom clones all over the place back when those were the in-thing. The only difference now is they use existing IP's to copy what's popular.
 

shrekfan246

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May 26, 2011
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Fusionxl said:
I may be getting too old for this noise, but I remember days when you had to think and strategise. When games were about conquering new and harder challenges. When games handed you tools and it was up to you to get through the level in a way that worked for you, often though trial and error.
Pfffffffthahahahaha!

Sorry, it's just that I've been playing L.A. Noire recently and it's pretty much exactly that.

Also, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid, Crysis 3 (oh, I know, you're so edgy that you brought it up in your OP but I bet you haven't actually played it - And I'm pretty sure it's not expecting to be "taken seriously" at least not any more so than the likes of Halo), Metal Gear Rising, Dark Souls, Dead Space (oh, another one you brought up, but even 3 is actually nothing like Gears of War apart from involving guns and shooting aliens, despite what people on the internet ***** about), Prototype, The Witcher 2, Mass Effect, Sins of a Solar Empire, Persona 4, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, LittleBigPlanet, Sonic Generations, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Disgaea, I really hope I don't have to actually keep going.

You seem to forget the absolute metric tons of clones of Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Street Fighter, Double Dragon, and Doom there were 'back in the good old days'.
 

Fusionxl

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Oct 25, 2009
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Full said:
Don't pretend there weren't Double Dragon and Doom clones all over the place back when those were the in-thing. The only difference now is they use existing IP's to copy what's popular.
Precisely. Even when more DOOM and Quake clones popped up than mushrooms after rain, X-COM was still X-COM, Simcity was still Simcity and no one tried to turn existing sidescrolling platformers into FPSes. The same cannot be said today. I'm making a big fuss over it because I'm losing once unique and special franchises into the AAA monster. I cannot look forward to another title from series close to my heart because they are either getting oversimplified (see X-COM), abandoned because investors demand they get a slice of that third person action pie, or turned into some horror/action abomination (see DS3).
 

Pink Gregory

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For every person that hates a new development in a classic series, there are likely two that like it.

Not saying that the minority are irrelevant, it's just the whole inability for gamers to get along with each other and what they enjoy. It nearly always comes down with rather unpleasant allusions to 'other people are ruining it for me'. That's how it seems to me anyway.
 

Doom972

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Just because a game has the same developer logo on it, doesn't mean that it's made by the same people. Studios replace people, change locations, and sometimes people change.

Older IPs get weaker new installments because there's so much you can do with an IP. You can't expect a series to be good for that long. It seems that developers/publishers want to make new games, but also want to get more money due to brand-recognition, so they're basically making new games with old familiar names to get us to buy them.

I think that creating new IPs instead and letting the old ones rest in peace would be better, but try to tell that to a publisher when every game bearing the Call of Duty logo breaks a new sales record.
 

Woodsey

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Fusionxl said:
How is Max Payne a better game if Max spergs bitter self-destructive bile at everyone and -thing?
But that's always been Max's schtick, bless his cotton socks.
 

Mikeyfell

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Aug 24, 2010
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I think it's because games don't have directors.
And yes I do think it's that simple.

Design by committee ensures there's no vision or foresight that goes into the development process and corporate executive whateverness is responsible for the homogenization of everything into the phrase "like the last thing that sold but" without the "but" part because nobody cares enough to do anything about it.

So if you want anything good you have to look to the indy market but since everybody knows this the indy market is flooded with "The last thing that sold, but"s

So you need to look for the good indy stuff, but their so hard to find because there's no system in place to reward games for being unique and good at the same time!!!


/rant over.
 

noreshadow

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First off Mikeyfell is 110% correct. how can you treat something as art if nobody knows who the artist is?
Gamers know that anything made by Tim Shaffer is going to be brilliant,or at least worthy of being called art, but nobody else does. and that's a shame.


Good games still come out, its just in spite of the system, not because of it.

But that's probably going to change here soon.
It's not the end of gaming, just the end of gaming as when know it.
And that's a good thing.
 

Maximum Bert

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Nah I dont buy it I remember people saying that gaming was dying during the SNES era and using Mario All Stars as an example saying something like well it says something when one of the best games to come out is actually just a collection of old games innovation and gaming is dead etc etc.

I game less now but thats because I have less time but on the whole I enjoy gaming more, 2 of my 3 favourite games of all time are from this gen I usually game for fun and for the experience rather than the challenge (vast generalisation here) and games offer a better experience on the whole now with better artistry and graphics and smoother controls yeah a lot are easier as well but harder does not necessarily mean better many old games were just frikkin brutal and unfair.

If you like the older games only well just play them gaming will continue to evolve its up to you if you want to carry on with it but its certainly not dying.