Why Aren't There More Westerns?

StewShearerOld

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Why Aren't There More Westerns?

There's nothing like a great, classic western. So why does gaming have so few of them?

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Grumpy Ginger

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Probably one of the other reasons is simply the fact that westerns in other media have not been popular during much of video game history. We have the cliched idea of a stereotypical western in all our heads but when was the last time a western was major hit besides Django unchained which had Tarantino stamped all over it. While world war two games took from movies like Saving Private Ryan and Sci Fi games liberally took from franchises such as Alien and Star Wars. If we had one or two westerns being major hits I can imagine down the line westerns in video games would start to proliferate. Also trying to depict the classic part of a western, the stand off and quick draw in game mechanics seems to be very hard to pull of.
 

ColaWarVeteran

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Grumpy Ginger said:
Also trying to depict the classic part of a western, the stand off and quick draw in game mechanics seems to be very hard to pull of.
I felt that Red Dead Redemption and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger both pulled this off pretty well. Gunslinger actually devoted an entire game mode to it.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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ColaWarVeteran said:
Grumpy Ginger said:
Also trying to depict the classic part of a western, the stand off and quick draw in game mechanics seems to be very hard to pull of.
I felt that Red Dead Redemption and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger both pulled this off pretty well. Gunslinger actually devoted an entire game mode to it.
There's also Red Dead Revolver (first game in the Red Dead series) and GUN, both on the PS2, both with very good quick-draw mechanics.

There's also Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, a real-time tactics game in the style of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. A very good game on its own, and a great example of a (spaghetti) western done right.
 

Trucken

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StewShearer said:
To be sure, it had some problems and a few uncomfortable moments that RockStar, in retrospect, maybe should have left on the cutting room floor.
I'm trying to remember what moments you're talking about, but I'm drawing a blank. Could you tell me the moments you're thinking off? It's been a few years since I played Red Dead Redemption, but I just can't remember any moments that I thought should've been left out.
 

thoughtwrangler

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In addition to "regular" Westerns, I'd like to see games with a Weird West vibe as well.

For example, the Kung Fu/Sci Fi trappings of the music video for Muse's "Knights of Cydonia". There are lots of other examples, of course, but that probably won't take off until there's more exposure of the Western genre in general.
 

maninahat

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It's interesting because pirates had a similar problem 10 years back. The last big pirate movie was Cutthroat Island. No one had made a successful pirate money in ages, and Cutthroat Island was meant to change that. After release, it went down as one of the biggest box office bombs in the history of box office bombs. And then a few years later, someone decided to sink a bunch of money into some stupid project called "Pirates of the Caribbean" - who would have thought that would work?

Disney has tried to do a Pirates of the Caribbean number on pi[The Lone Ranger[/i], and that ironically became its own Cutthroat Island. Give it ten years, someone will try to re-launch the cowboy genre in a big way, and might actually pull it off. I've actually really enjoyed some of the more recent westerns; Cowboys and Aliens, Django Unchained, Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, The Good the Bad, The Weird, but none of these have been block busters. Until we see one of those, we won't really get our myriad of derivative game titles, as was the case with Saving Private Ryan.
 

deathmothon

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Gun gets forgotten alot, but I still remember it. Much better than the other launch titles. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood had the best gunfight mechanic I've ever played. Didn't play Gunslinger, but I'd imagine it was similar.
 

Tono Makt

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Article said:
That in mind, Western-themed games might be less prominent simply because they haven't had a huge enough hit for the gaming industry to bother cloning.
Boom.

Westerns weren't in vogue in the 80's with the video game demographic when Video Games came to the forefront. They weren't in vogue in the 90's when those folks started making their own games. They weren't in vogue in the 2000's, and really are only in vogue with HBO-type fans these days who love shows like Deadwood and Justified. And the few western games just didn't catch on well enough. Taken together and you get a lack of Westerns in video games.

Not to mention that for all the sexism, racism and homophobia that gets tossed onto Gamers, there are very few gamers who actually feel enthused about the idea that you might find yourself in a game where there's a sidequest called "Genocide: Kill All The Injuns of the (God I Hope This Isn't Actually The Name Of A Real Native Tribe) Tribe!" because that tribe has been killing people (ie: Whites) on the Frontier.

On a similar note... how many games are there that take place during the US Civil War? Where you're actually playing on one side or the other? I honestly can't think of a single one.
 

Anomynous 167

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I don't think Red Dead Redemption can be called a western, I say it's more of a WW1 Game due to the time it was set. Of coarse, by that logic The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe is a World War 2 film.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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You missed a few, with a couple being absolute gems:
Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist (a must play for any gamer)
Alone in the Dark 3 (ditto)
Dust: A Tale of the Wired West
Gold Rush
Al Emmo
The Westerner
 

Freakazoid

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Gun is actually one of my favorite games. The combat especially was pretty great. It was a much cheesier take on the Western with the ridiculous weapons.
Speaking of under-visited periods of history, I want more gladiator games. The only one I can remember is Shadow of Rome which was stupid fun and I don't understand why since that's a great setting.
 

JCAll

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I think the problem with Western games is they only really come in one flavor. If you want to be Clint Eastwood that's great, but if you want to be Roy Rogers you're shafted.
 

WolfThomas

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I think a Red Dead and GTA crossover game would be great. Something set in the 1920s, with old fashioned cars for on road and horses for open country sides. You could have John Marston's son as a protagionist. Maybe have the GTA 5 mechanic and have some ancestor of Tommy Vercetti or Chris Johnson as the other.
 

ki11joyace

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I remember when I first started up Fallout: New Vegas and found myself in a very western town. I thought the game would have a complete western vibe to it with cowboys and goldrush themes for the relatively untouched Vegas area. I was sad the rest of the game went into more a of a gambling and U.S. vs Romans theme.

Anything western, including weird west or sci-fi with heavy west flavor could have a lot of potential.
 

Khymerion

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Westerns are sadly kind of a harsh genre to do. Many people already have touched upon some of the key reasons you are not going to see a lot of good western games.

It is a bit of a sour spot for some people. WWII, WWI, modern warfare games... there may be a lot of mud to sling around against any of the participants but it is easier to create a narrative. Medieval games, that was over a thousand years ago and except for a few extremists or ardent history fans, we do not really do not see people still broiling over the formation of the Holy Roman Empire or the break up of it during the 30 years war.

There are still people who are still angry over what happened during the American western expansion though. The US did some pretty disgusting things in the eyes of some people.

Should they still be angry after a century? Maybe, maybe not. Not my place to say.

But it would be like playing a game where you are playing as British Colonial soldiers during the Anglo-Zulu and Boer Wars of the late 1800's. Doable, would allow for the body counts that players expect in video games but MIGHT cause a bit of a stir with some people when the read it.

So if you are doing a western game these days in our overly sensitive, do not offend anyone anywhere ever atmosphere... you are left with, lets see, can't offend the native americans or portray them in any stereotypical way, which will be difficult since most games are developed overseas and farmed out to lowest bidder writers, artists, and programmers, we can't offend the mexicans... they were a substantial presence in this modern time and they make up a significant and potential loud group of protesters these days.

So that leaves, a game where your lone hero shoots only bandits, corrupt business men (might be a sour spot there), and corrupt military officers. Yeah, you can do that but after awhile, it is hard to differentiate one dry dusty boom town from the next one in such a rather stark and boring landscape or yet another dusty cave at the end of a box canyon that the villains have been chased into.

The west lacks certain things that really are visually interesting. WWI, you have the dark and inhuman terror that is the trenches of the western front. WWII, you have anything from the iconic Normandy beaches to fighter duels in the skies, fleets of warships, vast plains, verdant forests, mountains, and any vista in between to tell pretty much any story you want in any climate you want... including castles. Fantasy or medieval historical, well... see WWII without the tanks and planes.

The west just does not have those. Take away anything potentially offensive and you are left with not too much to really work with unless you want to focus on a survival aspect. Sure, we could go and try to give a heavy drama or story based game about revenge or what ever character motivation but lets be honest here...

Most game writers are terrible. They tend not to be able to write a compelling story if you held a gun to their family's head or for a million dollars. So a heavy drama based western (or most games in general) will probably end up poorly written, cliche as hell, and ultimately dull.

This is all assuming that we are going to see yet another John Wayne/Clint Eastwood/spaghetti western style setting but the era could be interesting if it would just be moved out of the stereotypical dust filled western boom town...

but then we would be leaving the whole 'six shooter/lawless land where only the lone hero with a tin star brings justice to a broken area' aspect behind. Which is sadly kind of the focus of a typical 'western' setting.

It is bad mythology and honestly should be ignored for it's own good.
 

gorfias

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Yikes: I recall Hollywood trying to make the Western cool again in 1985. Silverado. Huge cast. It did meh box office: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=silverado.htm

For comparison, Back to the Future 1985: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=backtothefuture.htm
 

Grumpy Ginger

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Johnny Novgorod said:
ColaWarVeteran said:
Grumpy Ginger said:
Also trying to depict the classic part of a western, the stand off and quick draw in game mechanics seems to be very hard to pull of.
I felt that Red Dead Redemption and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger both pulled this off pretty well. Gunslinger actually devoted an entire game mode to it.
There's also Red Dead Revolver (first game in the Red Dead series) and GUN, both on the PS2, both with very good quick-draw mechanics.

There's also Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, a real-time tactics game in the style of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. A very good game on its own, and a great example of a (spaghetti) western done right.
Maybe I'm just a butter fingers but I never liked red deads quick draw mechanic. Though that may be more due to the way tutorial worked in the game with a quick pop up in corner, fine when hiding behind a rock in a shootout not so much when there was no room for error.