• 23Jun 07

  Are we getting away from what gaming should be?

  I have been a gamer ever since I could grip a controller, Atari 2600 followed by the Commodore 64, all the way to the current systems, and I have had some great games come around and some that were complete and utter trash. The constant has been ever improving gaming for many years, however, in recent years, (actually for about the past 10 years), video games have been getting more and more cinematic. I love a game with a good story, I love a game with great visuals, and I love a game with an extremely well-done soundtrack, however, all of these combined will still not save a game whose core gameplay is horrendous. Today we are getting a plethera of video games with amazing graphics, but if you want to get a gamer to love the game for many years, gameplay is the most essential part of designing a video game. Why does it seem like video game developers are taking a large step away from this logic?

  I know that the above does not apply to all games that have come out in recent years, however, the bulk of them fit snuggly (and disgustingly) into this scenario. I will not say that Pong is a great game, (go and play it and you will realize just how much it sucks now), as that argument is rather ridiculous and it drives me nuts when a lot of old school gamers try to make comparisons to current video games with the one that started it all, but I will say that truly great games feel like fresh experiences whenever you go back and play them despite dated technology and graphics. (Play Chrono Trigger and Super Mario Bros. 3 and tell me you don't still have fun with them and I will call you a liar without a moments hesitation.)

  I guess my biggest part of this rant boils down to the following paragraph:

  Why, in this day and age of gaming, when more and more games are being made and more people are working in the field of video games, are we not getting more truly great games than we are? It would seem like gaming franchises are trying to make games at fast rates to make profits off movie tie-ins and current trends. I guess it reminds me a lot of the E.T. incident. I am not foolish enough to say that franchises need to stop worrying about the profits and focus on making good games, as the reason a franchises exist are to generate profits from selling a wanted item. Since the best selling games that generate the most profits are ones with great replay value and fun gameplay, wouldn't it make sense to really focus on generating three or four truly great games a year that sell multi-million copies instead of twenty titles that don't break a hundred thousand mark?

  • Posted Jun 23, 2007 10:06 pm PT
  • Category: General
  • 1 Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts