Poll: Are games reaching their pinnacle?

[CaitSeith]

Once again I ask to the members of the Escapist their opinions. I really have no insightful thoughts about this topic. No context other than what do gamers think? Are we seeing this year (or next one) the best that gaming will ever be able to offer? If not, what else is left to create or to improve?

 

[Barbas]

Yes, about as much as they were the last time somebody posed this question. They're always reaching their pinnacle. When that point is arrived at, we'll probably have things like holo-decks. Shit's going to be so zen.

 

[Recusant]

You're going to have to be more specific, Caitseith, since in any respect but graphically, I'd argue we're in the midst of a trough. I certainly can't claim to have played everything, but I'd argue that little of what we've seen last year qualifies as more than "good at best" in comparison to its predecessors.

 

[Zhukov]

Christ I hope not, not when the term "character development" has barely entered the vocabulary of the average developer.

 

[gorfias]

In terms of graphics, there is so far to go. Gameplay? Gen 6 was capable of about anything I'd want. It's just a matter of applying it.

 

[DementedSheep]

Baring a technological apocalypse no. There is plenty to improve on, even if you are only talking graphically and as time goes on new technology, techniques and ideas will be developed that will open a whole lot of other avenues to explore (there is also a ton of things they cold bring BACK). Games will continue to grow and adapt as everything around us grows and adapts.

Beside I refuse to believe we are at the pinnacle until we can download ourselves into games...and it feels so lifelike that there are ethical concerns about losing yourself to a digital idealised world because it better than the physical one and about what constitutes "reality" for a person. Where NPC's in the game are advanced AI sparking conflict on what constitutes life and humanity. Where you can rewrite yourself, everything has a price and the entire digital world is controlled by a few very rich corporations who remake the world to their whims and have complete control over everything and everyone.


You will never have to cry cause the future is sold
You can never die and you'll never grow old
Oooohohoh
But everything surrounding you is diiigitaaal!


...what was I talking about?

 

[Someone Depressing]

I think technology for games it where it needs to be.

Not reaching their pinnacle in quality, but on a technical level. Indie games will get better (if I'm being charitable) and AAA or higher-budgeted games will stay at the same general quality for a few years.

And then things will go downhill.

 

[stroopwafel]

I think production values of games are reaching their pinnacle. Not that technology won't continue to evolve and allow for more impressive things, but the cost/benefit ratio will become way out of sync. Already you have 5-year development cycles with 300 people working on 200 - 300 million dollar games. Minus a few developers backed by corporations like Sony and MS or major publishers like EA and Activision I don't see many other developers having the resources.

That is not to say games won't innovate in other areas obviously. Espescially game-design can still improve in a lot of ways.

 

[the_dramatica]

Other than tech it's gone downhill from 1999. Should be plenty to expand on.

The real restriction is that people don't want to pay for consoles with expensive gpu's, but they are getting cheaper.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Yes and no. Because there are N64 games which surpass modern games in terms of game design. Game design has overall become rather streamlined and formula-driven.

edit:
Stop to consider how many games don't allow you to turn the bleeding lights off.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Yes, all art has reached its peak long ago. In the same way all art has just reached its peak today. And all art will some day reach its peak in the distant future.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I don't think so, no. Graphically they've gotten a lot more impressive, but I don't think they've reached any sort of pinnacle mechanically or with writing and story telling. Hell, as far as actual gameplay is concerned, I'd almost suggest it has deteriorated.

 

[Haerthan]

Christ I hope not, not when the term "character development" has barely entered the vocabulary of the average developer.

Well character development has reached the pinnacle, exhibit A: BIOWARE : OH SNNNNAPPPPPP SOONNN. EXHIBIT B: CD Projekt Red's Witcher series.

Case closed. LET THE ANGER BEGIN. I feed of your tears.

 

[Nazulu]

Pffft. No. This year being the best for what? I still prefer the early 2000's gaming scene 10 times more than anything recently. They don't even make fucking games I'm interested in! It's absolute rubbish.

And if we aren't talking about just quality, then I still believe there is plenty of room for improvement. As others have already said; mechanically, level design, story writing, character building, etc.

 

[JagermanXcell]

HA. No.
Maybe on the "er realism griphics" scale. But gameplay has been kept on such a tight leash from experimentation so often that i'm just cutting my goddamn fingers off craving some new ideas in THAT department. Luckily studios like Platinum Games, Atlus, and FromSoft actually care about experimenting, so there's that. Just need that to catch on to...
other devs *stares daggers at the Western industry*

Also the writing still ranges from Ok to just plain trite. For some odd reason RPGs have that in the bag, yet no other genre can barely hold a candle to making a decent character, let alone plot.
The stuff they write in games makes me wonder if their staff even knows what classic literature is, that or they complain the letters on page don't look 3D enough.

EDIT:
Or let's just play the blame game for funsies... subject number 1 on the downgrade of video games:

Spoiler: EMOTIONS=POLYGONS=/=GAMEPLAY

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

No. You're thinking Gaming has a shark it can jump, but there isn't. It'll waver up and down from now until the end of time.

Or until it reaches Accel World/Log Horizon levels of societal destruction. If you want a pinnacle, wait for that

 

[Casual Shinji]

The pinnacle of what exactly?

I'm sure we're seeing the limit of what a triple-A developement studio can give without collapsing, but with something as subjective as videogames you can't really reach any sort of pinnacle. Some might say that point is reached with virtual reality, but for me that's likely the point where I stop playing games entirely.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I think we're getting close to what can be accomplished with the conventional model of gaming... It'll be some time yet before it's EASY to do what the AAA games are doing, but we are well into 'diminishing returns' territory, at least on a technical level. Games may improve in other ways, but graphics are getting to the point where the effort needed to improve them further is way out of proportion to what benefit you get from doing so.

But... There's still a long way to go in other areas...

I think the concept of games with a screen and conventional controller (or keyboard & mouse for PC games) are starting to hit the limits of what's plausible for that arrangement. Any improvements from here are going to be quite minimal, unless someone comes up with a radically new game style...
About the only area that could still seriously improve for games using the traditional hardware and input devices we've had for about 35 years is AI... That is still quite pathetic. But aside from that, it's hard to see how you could improve much on any other aspect of AAA games...
Sure, if the tech improves enough, even low-budget indie games could eventually reach the kind of levels current AAA games are at, but this won't fundamentally change the fact that we are very close to a peak with many areas of conventional game design...

To expand much beyond that, we have to look to changing both how we perceive virtual worlds, and how we interact with them...

We desperately need massive improvements in how input devices work... And wether we go with VR (whether a headset or even matrix style) or something more along the lines of the holodeck, it would still require a radical shift away from just having a rectangular flat screen...

And that doesn't even begin to cover the fact that games so far only deal with basically 2 senses. Vision, and sound. (And some tiny minimal efforts towards touch, such as rumble features)

Those areas could improve a huge amount, but it does require getting over the idea that a game played on a screen with a controller is all we ever need, and that anything beyond that is a 'gimmick' and shouldn't be bothered with...

 

[KazeAizen]

In terms of graphics, there is so far to go. Gameplay? Gen 6 was capable of about anything I'd want. It's just a matter of applying it.

Being frank. I really don't want to see that. The bleeding edge doesn't make games look good. Quality art direction does and the people that don't understand that are stupid.

 

[Keoul]

Virtual reality duh.
Until we got fancy holodecks that can simulate reality so perfectly that people often forget they're in a game then we got plenty of places to improve.

More realistically graphics is at a fantastic point at the moment. Gameplay and Storylines still need work though, another major issue that needs solving is DRM. When something so bad that it makes the game literally unplayable (see diablo 3 and sim city) then clearly there is a problem.