I feel like Captain Obvious saying that the current world of FPS's has been saturated to the point were it's drowning in Captain Price clones crawling through muddy grey worlds of chest high walls whilst shooting cardboard cut out's of clichéd Russians and Arabs. The only thing that impressed me about the gameplay demo i was watching last night for Medal of Honor Warfighter was how well it copied all these tired tropes that had already been done to death by Call of Duty.
However, at about thirty seconds into this video an idea struck me. As the speaker said "Every single mission in this game has a direct line to a real event or real world hotspot" I thought 'Yes, why not make a game about real world hotspots, only how about we not do it through American eyes? You see, part of the problem with today's FPS's i feel is that they are that they are overly concerned with a white/western (predominately American) male view to the world. And the simple fact is that the wars America is involved in make up only a very small slice of all the other conflicts out there.
For instance, what's the worlds most deadliest conflict since World War 2? The answer is the Second Congo War, which killed over 5 million people. How many readers can honestly claim to even heard of that war let alone played a video game about it? The simple reason you may not have heard about it is because it's a war that doesn't concern Westerners, and therefore it isn't reported as news. To make a modern FPS that is going to be original, you need go beyond making up conflicts that are reminiscent of the Cold War, Iraq and Afghanistan and actually make a game about human conflicts- not just American/Western conflicts. That means playing as and fighting alongside unfamiliar soldiers. Now, obviously we all like to play video games relevant to us- but my point is that if we also just as much like FPS's then if we are to break out of the usual monotony of shooters we're bogged down in we need to go into unexplored territory. How might this be done?
The game concept i came up with is one were you have a game with separate campaigns of about 2 hours in length. In each campaign you would play as a soldier concerned with a different real world conflict. For instance, in one story you could play as a Pakistani army soldier who's sister has her hands cut off by the Taliban for setting up a school near the Af/Pak border region. Hence the story that drives that campaign forward could be how that characters desire for revenge clashes with his obligations of being a soldier in the Pakistani army. Another campaign could involve, for instance a female German army officer in Afghanistan who attempts to cover up a friendly fire incident- and another campaign could involve playing as a Tamil Tiger just as they are defeated by the Sri Lankan army, or as a Russian soldier fighting in Chechnya.
Personally, i think it would be a really good game (given AAA funding) not only because of it's originality but also because you can do things not usually possible when you are playing as Americans. M4 and M16 variants being no longer be the default weapon is one small example, but a big one would be that you would be able to bring in a characters personal family life and directly relate it to the war- which would help character building massively- as opposed to having an NPC letting you know he won't be in the next sequel by mentioning how he misses his wife/daughter/young son back home. Gameplay-wise i would make it broadly similar to any other FPS's, only add 3rd person cut-scenes to help develop story and character more.
Obviously i also foresee problems with such an idea, but i really only want to talk about one of those problems and this is were you come in. My questions are thus:
If such a game was made (to a AAA quality)were you played predominately as non-Westerners in a non-Western conflicts- do you think it would be successful? Will the general gaming audience accept it? If so, why don't developers make such a game? And if not, then why wouldn't ordinary gamers buy it?
PS: As a final thought, we all know how the rest of the world is catching up with the West, and at the way things are going the Chinese and Indian markets are going to be more prosperous than the American market. As the number of educated, talented and wealthy people in these countries increases- they are going to want to play video games relevant to them, and if Western games publishers arn't careful- it's the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians etc who are going to be making their own big-budget video games. I think it's only prudent that Western publishers should start finding ways of getting into these growing markets. Otherwise it won't just be your children's toys that are made in China.
However, at about thirty seconds into this video an idea struck me. As the speaker said "Every single mission in this game has a direct line to a real event or real world hotspot" I thought 'Yes, why not make a game about real world hotspots, only how about we not do it through American eyes? You see, part of the problem with today's FPS's i feel is that they are that they are overly concerned with a white/western (predominately American) male view to the world. And the simple fact is that the wars America is involved in make up only a very small slice of all the other conflicts out there.
For instance, what's the worlds most deadliest conflict since World War 2? The answer is the Second Congo War, which killed over 5 million people. How many readers can honestly claim to even heard of that war let alone played a video game about it? The simple reason you may not have heard about it is because it's a war that doesn't concern Westerners, and therefore it isn't reported as news. To make a modern FPS that is going to be original, you need go beyond making up conflicts that are reminiscent of the Cold War, Iraq and Afghanistan and actually make a game about human conflicts- not just American/Western conflicts. That means playing as and fighting alongside unfamiliar soldiers. Now, obviously we all like to play video games relevant to us- but my point is that if we also just as much like FPS's then if we are to break out of the usual monotony of shooters we're bogged down in we need to go into unexplored territory. How might this be done?
The game concept i came up with is one were you have a game with separate campaigns of about 2 hours in length. In each campaign you would play as a soldier concerned with a different real world conflict. For instance, in one story you could play as a Pakistani army soldier who's sister has her hands cut off by the Taliban for setting up a school near the Af/Pak border region. Hence the story that drives that campaign forward could be how that characters desire for revenge clashes with his obligations of being a soldier in the Pakistani army. Another campaign could involve, for instance a female German army officer in Afghanistan who attempts to cover up a friendly fire incident- and another campaign could involve playing as a Tamil Tiger just as they are defeated by the Sri Lankan army, or as a Russian soldier fighting in Chechnya.
Personally, i think it would be a really good game (given AAA funding) not only because of it's originality but also because you can do things not usually possible when you are playing as Americans. M4 and M16 variants being no longer be the default weapon is one small example, but a big one would be that you would be able to bring in a characters personal family life and directly relate it to the war- which would help character building massively- as opposed to having an NPC letting you know he won't be in the next sequel by mentioning how he misses his wife/daughter/young son back home. Gameplay-wise i would make it broadly similar to any other FPS's, only add 3rd person cut-scenes to help develop story and character more.
Obviously i also foresee problems with such an idea, but i really only want to talk about one of those problems and this is were you come in. My questions are thus:
If such a game was made (to a AAA quality)were you played predominately as non-Westerners in a non-Western conflicts- do you think it would be successful? Will the general gaming audience accept it? If so, why don't developers make such a game? And if not, then why wouldn't ordinary gamers buy it?
PS: As a final thought, we all know how the rest of the world is catching up with the West, and at the way things are going the Chinese and Indian markets are going to be more prosperous than the American market. As the number of educated, talented and wealthy people in these countries increases- they are going to want to play video games relevant to them, and if Western games publishers arn't careful- it's the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians etc who are going to be making their own big-budget video games. I think it's only prudent that Western publishers should start finding ways of getting into these growing markets. Otherwise it won't just be your children's toys that are made in China.
