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GDC '08: RIP FPS, RTS, and RPG?

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Feb 22, 2008 10:28 am PT

Storytelling panel including Denis Dyack and Tim Willits argues that, in the future, game-specific genres will simply disappear.

SAN FRANCISCO--A seven-person panel tasked to discuss "The Future of Story in Game Design" couldn't agree on much. But one thing they all seemed to think would happen would be the disappearance of current game-genre types.

Denis Dyack, president of Too Human developer Silicon Knights, said, "In the future, in five to 10 years from now, there aren't going to be game genres [like there are today]. Instead there is going to be drama, sci-fi, action...just like you have in books."

Tim Willits, co-owner of Rage-maker id Software, agreed. He added, "For me, I would like to see RPGs, FPSs, RTSs--I would like to see all these genres just go away."

However, that was about all that the panel, which was chaired by indie game developer Deborah Todd, agreed on.

Matthew Karch, co-owner of Saber 3D, believes that the importance of story to a game's success depended on the genre. For role-playing games, obviously a good story would be vital, but for strategy or shooter games, that was much less the case. "I don't think anyone gave a whatever about the story in Call of Duty 4," he said. "It was just great fun to play."

However, Dyack disagreed, and he believes that story will become more and more important across all genres in the future. "We're an entertainment industry," he stressed. "We're here to entertain people. The technology is becoming less important, and the entertainment value more and more important."

The panel also disagreed over whether the level of realism in games had almost reached the highest level possible or not. Michael Hall, a writer for Saber 3D, thinks that there's not much further it can evolve. He explained, "I think we're damn close to the ceiling. I mean, how good can we get? Photo-realistic? We're real close."

Karch emphatically disagreed. "We're cavemen in terms of what's possible technologically. It will not become possible to tell a good story until you can feel like you are actually talking to a real person in a game," he claimed.

232 Comments

  • bfme2_master

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 10:29 am PT

    what i hate is games that use the genre tag to lure customers into buying a crappy game. maybe its just me, but that irritates the hell out of me.

  • brokenpike

    Posted Aug 12, 2008 6:38 pm PT

    RPGs, FPS, and RTS and they think they will dissappear? Their not going to combine them thats been tried only a few times and none of which were worth it. As for realism they may have pushed graphics to the limit but in the way of AI, and accually putting a person into the world they have created they still have many things they can pull.

    is it just me or do we seem to be leaping ahead in gaming tech this past year?

  • krickarck

    Posted Aug 11, 2008 3:54 am PT

    Hmmm... I donb't understand why some people want that game genre desappear... watching a movie or read a book is very different then playing a game... when you watch a movie or read a book you just follow a linear story, you can only watch the story. When you play a game you follow a story with a certain gameplay. Even if a story is very good, if the gameplay is not your type, you'll not enjoy it that much. Game genre exist to classify gamplays, not stories and "drama", "sci-fi", etc... exist to classify stories. That's why there is sometimes games that has sci-fi \ RPG or whatever... I think comparing game genre and movie genre is really absurd, it's like comparing apples with oranges...

    I agree that games have to have good story, not just good gameplay but I still wanna know what gameplay I'll play before playing the game. If they say it's a sci-fi games, I wanna know if it's more an RPG or an action game or a FPS. If it's an RTS or the has too much RTS gameplay, I'll not play it for long cause I don't like RTS....

    Well I don't think game genres will vanish but maybe I'm wrong... who knows! Neither me or gamespot

  • Richard7666

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 11:36 pm PT

    Lol, anyone who's ever played any one of the 99% of RTS-RPG crossovers that totally suck will beg to differ with this statement, at least as far as RTS is concerned.

  • nintendoboy16

    Posted May 23, 2008 8:40 pm PT

    "In the future, in five to 10 years from now, there aren't going to be game genres [like there are today]. Instead there is going to be drama, sci-fi, action...just like you have in books." - Denis Dyack

    He dosen't know that, nor do these guys know that RPG, RTS, and FPS are going to die. No one knows that, not even me.

  • fleshsniper1

    Posted May 22, 2008 6:40 pm PT

    offcourse you need the programmer though, but that has nothing to do with technology, its all in the creativity and resourcefulness

  • fleshsniper1

    Posted May 22, 2008 6:39 pm PT

    ....photo realistic clich can be achieve already in ps2. its just up to the artist how good they are and what tricks they have to imitate it. really if you want realism it doesnt rely on technology it relys on the creator, the sculptor

  • SaintJotun

    Posted May 14, 2008 2:33 pm PT

    I wish game type classification wouldn't die. I like clicking the "rpg" tag and actually getting rpg's.

  • LordLonewolf777

    Posted Apr 7, 2008 5:59 am PT

    Its April.... Well whats new, Too Human missed its "early Q1 2008" release.... WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING?!?! 8 YEAR!?!?!? Are they serious?!?! WTF?!?

  • edhc44

    Posted Mar 1, 2008 6:17 pm PT

    @ smashhero
    It's just you.

    For all of you saying that story isn't as important... Have you even gotten close to Bioshock? From what I see, not every game needs to have a complex plot cuz sometimes you just feel like shooting something in the head and don't wanna worry about much else, but sometimes we need games like that, with a tight, polished and intriging story... or as the press likes to refer to it, "thought-provoking" =p

  • smashhero

    Posted Mar 1, 2008 2:01 pm PT

    Is it just me,
    or does these guys seems like a bunch of idiots that never really played any games ?

  • hattorihanzo32

    Posted Feb 27, 2008 4:46 pm PT

    well said gooeykat you took the words right off of my keyboard. they need to remember that games are about interactivity (gameplay) story falls behind that.

  • Neosword

    Posted Feb 26, 2008 11:06 am PT

    While I disagree all genres will disappear, I definitely think there will be a merger between some of them. I'm also still waiting for the day when a shooter tells a deep story (Bioshock was close). It'll happen.

  • V-Nine

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 8:20 pm PT

    I'm sorry but I don't see playing R-Type where the pilot leaves the ship as its going from shooter to RTS isn't making me smile either. Ok so it works for Blaster Master. What does this guy want? Final Grand Theft Sim Contra Bros: Command Flight Idol Guitar Fit Touch First Fighter 2 All Calling Epic War Sport of the Swim? Well?

  • riverraid1

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 7:21 pm PT

    Hell, I remember playing games from say NES or Genesis that were cross type genres. Very few but, I specifically remember "Swords and Serpents" for the NES as a FPRPG as well as "Might and Magic" and a few other games. So this kind of merging of genres or types of games isn't new though. Plus, would most RPG games be considered also Adventure type games?

  • mr_gouda

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 6:00 pm PT

    Personally, I never gave a darn about the story in Tetris. But that didn't stop me from loving it!

  • CyberKnight500

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 2:15 pm PT

    I agree w/ Gooeykat. In an FPS, you look through the eyes of the character you're controling. That allows you to aim. With an Action/Adventure game, you have to see everything around you. True, they might combine an RPG with an FPS simply by making your character/gun customizable, or mix a Real-Time Strategy with an action/adventure by letting you switch between general and infantry, but genres disapearing altogether? Impossible.

  • Gooeykat

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 9:27 am PT

    This is the biggest bunch of horse manure I've read in a while. So we're going to get rid of game genres and replace it with "drama, sci-fi, action?" Games are not books and they are not movies, they require player interaction, the genres in place describe that type of player interaction. This is the key part of any game, the gameplay type. If you don't like the gameplay, you're not going to give a hoot about the story-line.

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Feb 25, 2008 6:29 am PT

    I guess Karch has never read a book... You don't need graphics to tell a good story unless you lack real story telling talent. The problem is rather than hiring someone with the ability to tell a story, the VG industry keeps trying to tell it with graphics only... over and over.

    As for the end of RPG, FPS and RTS... seeming those are classifications that we made up to help catagorize what types of games you might like if you liked 'this' game; I'm sure we can change it. The problem is with games, some people get sick with FPS. Others don't like the quick feel of RTS... so by removing those 'constraints' or basic gameplay premises, you are really creating a new genre that probably won't appeal to anyone that can't play 'every type' of game. And limiting your audience seems like a stupid idea in this day and age.

    EDIT: To make myself clear, the genres will continue blend, but probably only across genres that make sense if they are to be successful. As for an FPS RPG... give Oblivion a gun and you have it. Oh, and I guess it is RTS because it is real time and not turn based... Sure you can remove the label of RPG or RTS in an attempt to confuse the user if you want, but it is still a RPG with a FPS perspective in RT. You catagorize to appeal to a user base. Refusing to catagorize doesn't provide any value to the customer. And the consumer is the point right?

  • Sammojo

    Posted Feb 24, 2008 9:56 pm PT

    Yeah I really don't think we are close to realistic games. It's funny when you look back at old games like "Banjo and Kazooey", you realise how utterly horrible the graphics were (compared to now that is) . We have come such a far way, but games still do not look cinematic quality. People used to say TF2 was "Pixar" quality, but when you compare them side by side you can see huge differences, we are so far from photorealism its not funny. Some examples would be having full anti-aliasing on everything, and vector textures instead of bitmaps. Also, vector edges for poly shapes - cylinders in games are still just hexagonal shapes, vectors are the future, and we are definitely not there yet...

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rts   gdc   gdc 08   rpg   fps   gdc 2008   2008   denis dyack   gdc 08: rip fps   rip
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