What is killing games these days?

The "casual" crowd is killing games.

The "casual" crowd is killing games.

Chogyam

Money. Making video games has always been a balance between creativity and profitability, but at the moment the pendulum has swung all the way over to the profitability side. Everything's a sequel, let's concentrate on the online portion because it's so much cheaper to make and we can sell map packs forever, let's take all the good old action/adventure games and turn them into CoD clones, etc.

[QUOTE="Chogyam"]

The "casual" crowd is killing games.

ChunkyTurtles

I, for one, am fully for, the Total Enforcement of Ratings. Not allowing hordes of under age kids play games not rated for them. You think COD would be as underwhelming as it is, if they could not cater to that underage crowd?

Pretentious gamers that feel they are entitled is killing gaming....

That and games rated M that have Nudity, violence and language, that are CLEARLY marketed for young teens or children. GTA, Mortal Kombat, COD franchise, and Duke Nukem come to mind....It makes kids feel they are Hardcore when they are really just immature

Being too linear, too much focus on graphics.

Pretentious gamers that feel they are entitled is killing gaming....

Nuck81

Ya....devs should not listen to the group that brought them here in the first place:roll:

---i agree on your second part.

Someone started a semi related thread that I would like to broaden a bit. In your opinion, what can kill a game today? For instance, what can instantly kill a game for you? For me there are a few things. Like if I buy an RPG for example, and it turns out to have a puzzle component. If I wanted to play a puzzle, I would buy a damn puzzle. Quick time events piss me off as well. I dont feel the need to prove my reflexes again and again. Piss off. Lastly, cut scenes that you cant skip. I always watch a cut scene the first play through, but after that, I no longer care to see them unless they are amazing. I also think that over all lazyness is killing gaming. Gone are the days of playing for hours, only to make no progress in an oncoming swarm of enemies. Now all the kids want is check point after check point until the game is permenantly stuck on ass crack easy while on the hardest setting.ChunkyTurtles

I've got no problem with challenge, but many arcade style games were wildly cheap (relying on memorization and a bit of luck). Many were designed with arcades in mind (and arcades wanted the player to live long enough to get hooked, but die often enough that he had to put a steady stream of quarters into the machine). Almost, most sought to mask very short playthrough times (an hour or less).

Cheap tricks like limited continues and random deaths are frowned upon by modern gamers and that's the way it should be.

QTEs are fine by me provided they are done right. I thought it was insane that with a perfectly good combat system but on VF, Shenmue sometimes used QTEs for fights and I despised Cobra Command (which sacrificed gameplay for graphics), but GoW gets it right (using QTEs only for finishing moves).

one thing for me is price ($60 new), for the reason that most games are not worth a $60 purchase price. alot of games are buggy, glitchy, short, bad graphics, repetitve ect. thats why i usually wait til the game drops alot and get games for like $10-$20, which im sure alot of people do. i just got MOH for ps3 for $15 and if i paid $60 at launch i woulda been super PO'd cuase the game isnt good, its eh. the campaign is super short and the multi player is just a big headache

Being too linear, too much focus on graphics.

no_more_fayth

I think graphics are killing video games. Look at the old game Panzer Dragoon on the Sega Saturn. Now I am not saying that the game still looks nice or anything, but look at the colour in the game! Games now don't have that, we put too much time into the rendering in a brick wall that the brick wall looks nice, but it is still just a brick wall that you have on every single wall. A hated game and I know I will get bashed for this, but Look at Sonic the Hedgehog(2006). That game was colourful and vibrant, the graphics were bad, but the game still looked nice.

Thats my opinion anyway

I also just realised that it is also the Call of Duty mindset. Developers keep throwing the same thing at us and the kids eat their **** with a shovel because they think its the coolest thing since internet porn.ChunkyTurtles

Kids? Not a very large portion of CODs sales are from children, you know.

[QUOTE="ChunkyTurtles"][QUOTE="Chogyam"]

The "casual" crowd is killing games.

Chogyam

I've been gaming for 34 years and in that span of time gamers have never been a 'united community'. PC and console gaming have always been distinct entities (which is not to say there is no overlap) and different console companies and game developers and gamers have always had different visions of the industry.

For example, in the 90's Nintendo instigated a Congressional hearing on adult content in videogames because they disliked Sega's decision to allow mature content in games (a move which made sense, since more and more game loving kids were growing into game loving adults) and they wanted Congress to pass a law which would babysafe gaming. Instead ratings were instituted and companies were free to make the games they wanted to make.

And gamers often disagree about the merits of an individual game series (I don't think there is a non-pack in that has sold to a majority of a console's userbase).

[QUOTE="no_more_fayth"]

Being too linear, too much focus on graphics.

speedfreak48t5p

There is nothing wrong with a Linear game, Solitare is the most played game in the world and it is linear.

Heavily scripted games. I didn't buy a game just to watch a movie and click buttons now and then.

The game makers learn that they make simple games and get a larger sells. Worse is that it can increase the sells.

Being too linear, too much focus on graphics.

no_more_fayth

This. Games are using tech for bringing cinematic experiences to gamers instead of improving gameplay. In most cases, these cinematic experiences rob gamers of control which is THE aspect of video games that seperates it from other mediums.

Now sequels are released with more cinematic flare and less gameplay complexity and freedom of movement. Exploration is thrown out the window so that a story can be told as flashily as possible and with minimal imput from the player.

Another thing I hate is how imagination seems to be harder to find than ever. It's a darn shame really

Heavily scripted games. I didn't buy a game just to watch a movie and click buttons now and then.

martinX3X

Well there is a difference, good games can tell the story through the gameplay and not rely full on cutsceanes, Look at Ninja Gaiden, that game is hard as crap to show what Ryu actually goes through to try and save the world and Sonia (the women from NGII).

[QUOTE="ChunkyTurtles"]I also just realised that it is also the Call of Duty mindset. Developers keep throwing the same thing at us and the kids eat their **** with a shovel because they think its the coolest thing since internet porn.MadVybz

Kids? Not a very large portion of CODs sales are from children, you know.

Sequels. That's what's killing games these days.

3D, motion control and the online multiplayer obsession.

3D is a pointless gimmick, it adds nothing to the overall experience of playing a game.

Motion control doesn't work like it should. It doesn't feel like your weilding a legendary sword or throwing a fastball, you're just flicking your wrist. It's a pointless addition.

I don't understand why so many people are obsessed with online multiplayer, they can't live without knowing their spot on the leaderboard. How can anyone have fun playing team deathmatch over and over again? I get bored of that nonsense after 3-5 rounds.

Sequels. That's what's killing games these days.

Ricardo41

YES! That too. I used to fall for it in the past, but not anymore. Shortly after I beat Uncharted 1, they announced Uncharted 2. Shortly after I beat Uncharted 2, they announced Uncharted 3. I was all: "FFFFFF-!"* It's not just Uncharted, it's also Gears of War, Call of Duty, Halo, Madden, MLB the Show, LittleBigPlanet, and so much more. They keep adding tiny little features in each sequel and act like it's a huge addition, they use those as major selling points. Like the addition of online multiplayer, nazi zombies or living rosters.

It's why I didn't buy Red Dead Redemption or L.A. Noire after GTA IV. I know Rockstar will soon announce their next big title which will be better than the last. For certain franchises, developers purposely don't put everything they want in to every game they make just so they can have major selling points for the sequels.

What I do with sports games like NBA 2k or MLB the Show is I wait about 3 to 5 years before buying the next one. It hurt my wallet to buy the lastest version every damn year for 60 bucks. And when I go from MLB 10 the Show to MLB 14 the Show, I'll be impressed by seeing how much the game has changed over the years I haven't played it.

*Mod edit: Censor bypass removed.

I think motion control needs to go away. I've only played one or two games where I actually enjoyed it and preferred it over a standard controller.

How about this.......

Look at this thread. Obviously there is no one thing that's killing gaming these days. I should clarify I love all games, I've had most systems and a PC since I was gaming in 1988, but I'll usually go PC with multi-platform games. While I do agree PC and console gamers have always been divided, they are generally united in their love for PC/console games in general....not saying they always get along dandy IN those games, but they have a shared passion for it. So that's not really any different since the start, thus it's very unlikely it's "killing" games.

On that note, that's how it should be. Any PC gamer will be familiar with the term "consolefied" and the devestating impact it has (RIP Crysis 2). It's real, folks. Play Dragon Age on both platforms. I played it on 360 first when it came out and thought it was the most overrated game in many years. Waited a few years and was overwhelmed by the good reviews and gave it another shot on PC. Now one of my favorite games, over 150+ hours logged. Point is, they are encouraging the separation of PC and console. We need a MLK JRhax0r to fix this.

Lastly, I don't think anything will "kill" gaming. Things are always changing it absolutely, often times for the worse, but it will never die. Not until technology itself is gone will gaming die. Gamer's will always be segregated, now more than ever, because it's physically impossible to make every person agree on the same thing. This won't kill gaming, but there's also no telling how it will work out.

bad (annoying) voice acting.. poor camera.. lengthy tutorials.. high difficulty..

[QUOTE="no_more_fayth"]

Being too linear, too much focus on graphics.

speedfreak48t5p

Definitely not what I meant.

I don't see how me saying too linear makes you jump to open-world games. :?

Many things.

Look at the dead genres....

i.e. "bullet hell" games.:/ or space shooters.

Developers lack a little thing called: Dare.

That's right,they are afraid to do this or that,take risks,etc.

They need to be more original,and experiement more.

"If it gives us money,let's make this or that game"

>_> that's pretty much our fault.

I think it really try to make everything simple like: open world games are needed, all games need MP, and very simple systems are better.

High development costs scaring devs away from making new IPs and trying out new ideasMeteorStream

The growing complacency of gamers these days. They have to spoon fed what to do in video games now. Everything seems to be getting dumbed down: Nintendo games now have the super guides, in many games if something requires you to do something other than point and click they tell you how to do it, even they told you how to do so-and-so function in the tutorial. They're also becoming more and more linear. My favorite example of complacency in gaming is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. That game tells you how do everything every time you have to do it.

Call of Duty is killing the FPSs genre from the inside-out.

The casual crowd also contributes heavily to both these problems.

DLCs and add-ons are the biggest abominations to spawn in the gaming industry in years.

One problem with those that whine about game makers not be innovative and when they are being innovative they attack the game's innovations.

Low quality perhaps. Take racing game like UG2, Carbon etc. they had good level of customization in them but in Nfs shift 2 its not that good but it may be realistic since its meant to copy GT5, FM3 etc. But i dont think run will have customization even if there is a feature it will be very limited because of limited console power x360 was developed years ago and yet its still running because of the limited powers of games. They should upgrade consoles frequently to make them competent with pcs and then gaming will evolve.

When was the last time game developers came up with an interesting concept? Sometime in the stone age.

All we see now are sequels of sequels, pointless reboots, and other nonsense.

The lack of new ideas. You still see some great stuff, but the last truly revolutionary concept was a cover system and the revival of co-op back in 2006 with Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas. I can understand publishers not wanting to take risks, but the PS2 generation definitely had a great new idea or concept almost every year.

Money. Making video games has always been a balance between creativity and profitability, but at the moment the pendulum has swung all the way over to the profitability side. Everything's a sequel, let's concentrate on the online portion because it's so much cheaper to make and we can sell map packs forever, let's take all the good old action/adventure games and turn them into CoD clones, etc.

Jackc8

Sequels are not new there been countless sequels fore more than 20 years.

FPS. Before November 2007, FPS were very creative in their gameplay elements. Now, they´re just clones of each other.

Easier to ask what isn't killing gaming. Let's see 1) DRM 2) Online activation 3) Every great game in the universe apparently has to be remade into a first-person shooter 4) Catering to casuals has dumbed down games into mush 5) Motion gaming 6) 3D 7) Political correctness General greed. When we were younger, we had fewer games but they were EPIC. I'm talking Ultima IV, Deus Ex, Starcraft, Jagged Alliance We bought a game for $30-$50 and played the HELL out of them for YEARS. Now we have thousands of games and %99 of them are vapid one-trick ponies like CoD and Halo, zero depth, military worship, no redeeming features whatsoever beyond the first play and "online mode." The first game of this gen that I actually loved was GTA IV Along with Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Alpha Protocol, I have literally been playing these games for years.ZombieKiller7

If I recall correctly, hundreds of thousands of people have been logging on to games like Halo and CoD every day for years. It's not the players' fault that they enjoy the games like Halo and CoD so much that they have to buy the sequel to stay relevant. Blame it on the developers and institutions for wanting to make money. Why do some of you hate games like Halo and CoD, who put FPS back on the map, so much because other developers try to copy their forumla to steal some of their success? We get mad at developers for making good games now just because other developers try to copy them and fail? Back to the original point though, these gamers have been playing CoD and Halo probably as many years, as much, if not more, as you have been playing Oblivion, Fallout 3, GTA4 or Alpha Protocol, so I'm sure they could say the same thing you're saying, just flip it around. I mean Nintendo has been making basically sequels of their first party titles for DECADES milking money, and no one has really bad mouthed them for doing so for so long.

I wish people could be more objective about the discussion rather than bring their own personal bias into the discussion. I mean it's all opinion, but at least somewhat objectivity can go a long way in an opinion being respected and taken seriously.