The Direction of Gaming

[mister lamat]

agreed. it's nice to see another cornucopian viewpoint as opposed to the malthusian lament currently littering the thread.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Back on topic, I really don't think gaming in general is doing all that terribly, like the RPG genre is.

Shooters are doing quite fine. As mentioned, Gears of War is actually a pretty great game, and it had big hype behind it. And it was even on a console for cryin' out loud. Heck, even the Halo series isn't all that bad as far as shooters go, and it's on of the most hyped up games on the face of the earth. And even some shooters have branched out a bit. Mercenaries was a brilliant game, and a new sequel is on the way and looks pretty great as well. Hell, I'd almost go so far as to say out of the box shooters (read: no mods) are doing better on the consoles in some ways than the PC, which is filled with graphics driven games including a gimmick (read: Prey, FEAR, FarCry, Crysis, etc.). Although multiplayer is still much better on the PC.

Strategy games aren't doing half bad either. Company of Heroes was pretty nifty, Command and Conquer 3 wasn't all that bad, Heroes 5 was decent, Civilization got a decent entry as well, and Starcraft 2 looks pretty good....minus the rolling zergling bombs of course.

Heck, even fighting games are doing okay with some of the smaller releases and the Super Smash Bros series. Unfortunately this genre is plagued with button masher 3d games...but whatever.

Non-shooter action games aren't doing too bad either. Dead Rising was amazing, and Chromehounds was pretty nifty too. Devil May Cry 3 and Ninja Gaiden were also quite good as well. Only problems in this genre is that overhyped shit goes far. Case in point the original God of War. I haven't gotten a hold of the second one though.

Puzzle games are all over the internet, as are adventure games. Platformers got burnt out back in the day and really haven't made much of a recovery.

As for RPGs.....well.....it sucks. End of story. Maybe I should write about why the RPG genre is really dying someday.

All in all, the gaming market is doing well for the most part. It's not a bad time to be a gamer...unless of course you like CRPGs....

 

[DiverNB]

I may have been a bit too pessimistic in my original post. However, I still stand by my original opinion in that the gaming industry and the quality of the majority of games are on a decline. I attribute this mostly to the new thing "Buy some more content!" I liked expansion packs / new games more then those.

Lots of other genres are doing well as people have said, but for the RPG genre the growth seems somewhat stagnant. No big-hitters so to speak as of late that have pushed the industry into a new direction. Well, unless you count Oblivion and Gothic 3, but those are kind of pushing us into a shit direction. jRPG's are nice, but they don't really bring mature material to the table. They're usually so strict with their linearity you hardly have choices in your "hero's" actions.

 

[Raapys]

I don't know. Personally I really don't see which games of today that are even near becoming 'classics'.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Other genres are in decline aswell. Pretty much every big games nowadays turns out to be some overhyped shit.

People mention Company of Heroes as a good sign for RTS, yet fail to mention how incredibly lame, unchallenging, idiot proove and easy its singleplayer campaign was.
Im really missing hardocre strategy titles which require thinking.


Shooter? They propably have the best status, because shooters were never alltoo complex to begin with.

Adventures? Pretty much DEAD. R00fles

Military Flight Simulations? DEAD

Everything is shit.

I don't know. Personally I really don't see which games of today that are even near becoming 'classics'.

Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil come to my mind, but thats about it.

 

[mister lamat]

might as well pack up the moon and dismantle the sun...

 

[Krafter]

I may have been a bit too pessimistic in my original post.

You weren't. I really can't find the classics either.

A lot of this is subjective, obviously. I feel nearly the exact opposite to everything Edward Murrow said, except from "puzzle games..." onward.

 

[psycojester]

Beyond Good and Evil

For the life of me i've never managed to figure out why this game gets so much bloody love. The story is alright but the gameplay is pathetic, the games roughly 5 hours long and you could finish it in your sleep.

 

[Lingwe]

Real time strategy seems to be overrepresented in the market. Apart from the Civilization series there are not many turn based strategy games. RTS games rely upon who can click the fastest, rather than who has the best strategy.

 

[Elwro]

For the life of me i've never managed to figure out why this game gets so much bloody love. The story is alright but the gameplay is pathetic, the games roughly 5 hours long and you could finish it in your sleep.

My sentiments exactly.

 

[Ladonna]

There needs to be a http://www.matrixgames.com/ for RPG's. And it needs to have old school quality.

Slick UI's, with lesser graphics but plenty of game. Where is Mindcraft? Where is the SSI special projects team? Where is Troika? etc?

All these old wargaming companies are back and plugging out new Wargames, and they are doing ok. Without this kind of publisher, setup and quality of games, the RPG scene will continue to be morphed into the action gaming scene.

And no. Manifesto doesn't have the quality to compare. And its an indy game outlet, not a specialised RPG publisher that only cares about existing FOR a certain genre like Matrix does.

Some wealthier nutcases that love RPG's need to start something similar. Failing that, get on to Matrix and get them to host RPG's as well.

 

[Deacdo]

They'd wind up looking like Spiderweb titles, though...

 

[mister lamat]

... and predicated on the belief that the divide between player and player character is healthy for the genre.

 

[Helton]

I don't know. Personally I really don't see which games of today that are even near becoming 'classics'.

Real time strategy seems to be overrepresented in the market. Apart from the Civilization series there are not many turn based strategy games. RTS games rely upon who can click the fastest, rather than who has the best strategy.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/Dom3/1.htm
http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=36

I'm addicted.

 

[Raapys]

I know the game, and I really like it, although it has its problems( extremely repetitive single-player, no AI diplomacy, etc. ). It's really made for PBW multiplayer, I'd say. Anyway, the game is pretty much exactly the same game as Dominions 2, so I'm not sure how accurate it is to call the third incarnation a classic.