MilesBeyond
Cipher
- Joined
- May 15, 2015
- Messages
- 716
Anyone else get a kind of sinking feeling when they see those two words?
Before I go further, I just want to clarify something: I'm talking spiritual successor as a design choice. From a marketing perspective I have no problem with it. You make a game and you advertise it by saying "If you liked this old game, then you'll like my new game too!" That's fine. No, I'm talking about it as a design concept. I'm talking about going into the game design room saying "Man, I feel like that old game was awesome, and nothing really since then has been like it. We should make something like it!"
What's wrong with that? That seems pretty awesome, right? At least for me, I know that sort of thinking used to get me really excited.
And yet I feel as though it just doesn't work. Games that are specifically made to be like other games almost always just end up feeling... joyless and inorganic, like it's all been stitched together like some sort of virtual Frankenstein's monster. All the pieces come together but it ends up as just a soulless zombie.
Beyond that, to me I feel like if I want to play a game, I play that game. RPG in particular is not a genre where people tend to say "I used to love that game but I just can't go back to it now," and if they do say that then it's usually a remake that they're clamoring for. In other words, if I want to play Arcanum then I go play Arcanum, I'm not going to look for a new game that's Arcanum-ish but isn't Arcanum. Now I know that only goes so far, because there are some games that are massively enjoyable but you just get burnt out on them because there's only so many times you can play the same content over and over again.
But, I dunno. I feel like trying to take something that's already been done and re-doing it just isn't going to end well. I'd rather see people trying to go their own way and break new ground rather than making worse versions of games I already have.
Before I go further, I just want to clarify something: I'm talking spiritual successor as a design choice. From a marketing perspective I have no problem with it. You make a game and you advertise it by saying "If you liked this old game, then you'll like my new game too!" That's fine. No, I'm talking about it as a design concept. I'm talking about going into the game design room saying "Man, I feel like that old game was awesome, and nothing really since then has been like it. We should make something like it!"
What's wrong with that? That seems pretty awesome, right? At least for me, I know that sort of thinking used to get me really excited.
And yet I feel as though it just doesn't work. Games that are specifically made to be like other games almost always just end up feeling... joyless and inorganic, like it's all been stitched together like some sort of virtual Frankenstein's monster. All the pieces come together but it ends up as just a soulless zombie.
Beyond that, to me I feel like if I want to play a game, I play that game. RPG in particular is not a genre where people tend to say "I used to love that game but I just can't go back to it now," and if they do say that then it's usually a remake that they're clamoring for. In other words, if I want to play Arcanum then I go play Arcanum, I'm not going to look for a new game that's Arcanum-ish but isn't Arcanum. Now I know that only goes so far, because there are some games that are massively enjoyable but you just get burnt out on them because there's only so many times you can play the same content over and over again.
But, I dunno. I feel like trying to take something that's already been done and re-doing it just isn't going to end well. I'd rather see people trying to go their own way and break new ground rather than making worse versions of games I already have.