Issues with games set in the future

[Brawndo]

These things are particularly egregious in futuristic FPS games like Killzone, Halo, Red Faction, and Gears of War:

- Soldiers use slang and terminology from present day (Marcus and his squad = bros, as are the ISA guys in Killzone)
- Most weapons are just reskinned guns from present day (Will standard equipment for soldiers in the 23rd century really still be 30-round assault rifles? Compare the advancement in firearms from 1800 to 2011)
- Fashion and hairstyles influenced by present day (although video games are hardly the only offenders; if you watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, there is a heavy dose of 1960s style in everything)

Is this just lazy writing by developers who don't want to sit down and brainstorm what the future might be like, or is this just an attempt to better connect with the gaming audience?

It kind of reminds me of this trope:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlekt6mtovm4vne?from=Main.RecycledInSpace

 

[Tomo Stryker]

Well it is difficult to literally recreate life and culture in the future if you don't want to step on a minorities or a ethnic group toes. On top of that I'm pretty sure that game developers to want to spend that much time and money on a recreation of life in the future unless that is your companies forte, such as Obsidian or Bioware.

 

[Innegativeion]

-Any game that uses made up terminology is going to sound extremely douche-baggy. Painfully so.

-A lot of good games have creative, outlandishly impossible weaponry. gravity gun, portal gun, everything from ratchet and clank, needler, laser cannons (which EVERY futuristic game has btw) to name a few.

-Do you have any idea how incredibly stupid looking people from the 1800s would think we look? It is not "lazy writing" to make people look recognizable as people. As far as I know, most people can't see the future, so I find it quite understandable to see people with "non-futuristic" haircuts. Besides, doesn't fashion run in a cycle?

 

[FalloutJack]

-Nom nom nom-

Allow me.

Alot of the problems I've found with anything that DID, say, use future slang was that it was completely meaningless for a person of this era. And most writers? Yeah, good people I'm sure, but they're not here to make The Futurological Congress. To be enjoyed in this era, it would be best to use the words WE use because people may not WANT to follow. I can imagine alot of people worked like hell to translate Al Bhed speech, but not everyone.

Next, the guns. Guns that fire bullets have been around for a long time, taking on different and possibly more streamlined forms. That trend could easily continue for a while. And maybe it'll work just fine for the plasma assault rifle. I don't know. Half of sci-fi is a guess as it is. As much as you can say it shouldn't be, I can say that human beings hate to ruin an effecient killing design.

Style? I can't help you with that. It's even more unpredictable than words and gun design.