Gaming and the direction it's going..

Hey guys, this is my first blog post, so don't be mad if I make a few mistakes =D

I've noticed that gaming appears to be going in the direction a lot of things have been going in lately, the way of Copying..

In the beginning gaming was about ideas and innovation, well.. Not anymore, gaming is becoming more about quantity and less about quality, Money is all that appeals to people these days (Sure, we need money to do everything, but where has the creativity gone!?), game after game after game of the same thing, over and over again, especially in the FPS Genre.

Gaming is a lot of fun, but it tends to get sour when everyone is making something exactly the same to others, sure there are some games that have massive amounts of innovation, but a lot of those games tend to go unnoticed due to the people that just enjoy the same thing, cause they don't want to try something new.

But in the end, some games do prevail such as LittleBigPlanet or Battlefield, but eventually they get forgotten unless they are extremely well made and enjoyable.

All I'm saying is, gaming needs to be more about entertainment, innovation and ideas, otherwise, the games we are going to get from now on, are going to be one's we've already played but slightly re-made with new maps, engine upgrades and new items/weapons.

[-X-]

As time goes on it takes a lot more money to make games. Since we just got out of a recession (I guess) devs, and publishers are playing it safe with sequels. This generation is nice has a few good games, but my PS2 days were the best.

[zeksta]

Ah, the best day's for me we're the old Super Nintendo day's, those were actual games made from intellect.

[GWAVE]

I've always loved gaming since the NES days, but I've always had complaints. I guess these days we simply have different complaints.

It's normal to lament the "good ol' days", but the good ol' days had their own problems. Take Half-Life, for instance: a great game, but the physics were simplistic, there were about 4 NPC models in the entire game (and half as many NPC voice actors), but it was still a great game. Nowadays we have far more realistic physics, huge voice casts and games where no two NPCs look alike.

Whenever I feel jaded about gaming, I sit down, pull up my broswer, and play some free, indie games online. It always rejuvenates my love for gaming.

[Matthew94]

"games where no two NPCs look alike. "

name me that game, i garuntee it doesnt exist

[Ducky]

^ Portal.

... or do the sentries count as characters?

If not, then the Sam&Max games... or... even Tales of Monkey island... maybe.

Yea, I know. It's a cheap move to name small games.

[Dac2u]

He was exaggerating to make a point; way to pick out one small part of a post to disagree with.

GWAVE makes some good points, I remember a lot of things I hated about the ATARI days through the Current gen. But, there are always a few select developers that lead by example and make quality titles. Square Soft was one, now we have Team ICO, Double Fine and others.

[Christopher]

I'll address your whole article with this one question:

***Sure, we need money to do everything, but where has the creativity gone!?***

- LittleBigPlanet 1 & 2
- N+
- Scribblenauts
- PuzzleQuest
- Mirror's Edge
- Borderlands
- Demon's Souls
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- inFamous
- Heavy Rain
- Red Dead Redemption
- L.A. Noire
- Assassin's Creed

- Nintendo DS
- Touch screen gaming
- Motion gaming

Honestly, these just scratch the surface of the creativity that we've seen this generation. Creativity hasn't gone anywhere, it's just easily overlooked because people see a first-person perspective and a gun and just call it a generic FPS.

[zeksta]

Exactly, that's the point I'm trying to make, everyone just overlook's any small game cause it's just that.. A small game, some games have so much to them, yet people just play Call of Duty cause it's what most people play online, with their friends.

[Mista T]

It'll take a lot more devs to make a single game then ever before as gaming progresses. the level of detail in games will be insane in 5 years or so

[mastiffchild]

This is true and a side erffect of it is that it's harder fort odd, personal ideas to carry through as one person's vison in the biggest games these dasys.

Also, and it's just because of how big gaming has become, for the first time the games are being controlled by money men like kotick rather than the creatives who started making games because they wanted to play them. It's been going on for a few years now but we reached as point where the industry is so big that the money hats are controlling the creatives and until the levels settle down and the industry matures a little we're bound to get short sighted guys who don't game using slash and burn tactics, milking franchises and stifling creation in favour of "£safe" bets on the money front.

There's still a ton of talent willing and able to make incredible new experiences and the tech gets better all the time to help them get us closer than ever to the pictures in their heads. Sadly, we'll never get back to the majority of dev houses being run by the most creative people in the industry since it grew so big and for now most of the great, NEW ideas are probably going to be found in smaller games and in the indie scene. The big companies WILL get more confident with new IP/ideas as time passes and they start seeing the need to expand into fresh areas but it's a question of the industry maturing to the same degree as music or TV where we get the big mainstream stuff AND innovation with money behind it. That's the usual pattern with new media/artforms from where I'm sat.

[WoshJills]

It's the economy.

During a recession $60 is a lot of money, and people who are on a tight budget are reluctant to take risks when buying brands they do not recognize.

Brutal Legend or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2?

Which is a known hit? Call of Duty.

Because of this fear of uncertainty, they demand sequels and the industry supplies them....over and over again.

We will begin to see fresh, innovative games when gamers as a whole begin to make more money and start taking risks with original franchises.

[zeksta]

Indeed, I agree with that, but the fact is, money is money, and people just want a lot of it no matter how generic a game is.

[WoshJills]

That's exactly right, but don't forget the booming casual market and digital download space amidst all the AAA generic blockbusters.

The gaming industry is in a renaissance right now.

Yeah, the tech-heavy games have huge budgets so publishers take less risks, but the independent developers who have smaller budgets (iPhone, Facebook, WiiWare, Wii, PlayStation Network, Xbox Arcade) are probably making games that can satisfy your itch.

I know you're not the only one feeling this way. I was too, but decided to switch to casual games and am loving it.

iPhone or Android: Angry Birds
Xbox 360: Limbo
PlayStation 3: 3D Dot Game Heroes
Wii: Epic Mickey
Facebook: NanoStar Siege

PlayStation Home has 236 free games that are all fun to play - you should check them out if you have a PS3.

Sorry I took so long to reply, I haven't logged into N4G in a while.

[aaronobst]

online multiplayer sucks... especially for those of us in Australia, whatever happened to having your friends over on the same tv?