First post, by pingo.mister
Just trying to continue what seemed to me a very interesting topic. People got angry and the topic was closed, but, please, this is an important subject. Games nowadays truly suck and are nothing compared to the way things were done 20 years ago. What´s sad an unfair is that the work that was done in that time laid the foundations and the ideas which allow the gaming industry to profit nowadays. But, since they´ve completely forgotten what makes great games, they´re just selling the same wasted formulas all over again, and indeed making a lot less profit than they could make. But, back on the old topic:
What an apparently complex and passionate discussion this was. Well, some things said were true, others were not. It is a fact that today´s video games are much worse and unimaginative than 20 years ago. That´s what happens when an industry massifies itself. They start treating consumers like cattle, and sell them the same winning formula over and over again. But is the formula really intented to win? No, just sell.
"Hardcore gamers" just want to buy and beat every game and don´t complain about the story the graphics or the game itself? Well if that is the case I would say that "hardcore gamers" aren´t even gamers at all. A game, fundamentally, is not made to be beat, or measured in terms of graphics, sound, features. It is meant to be enjoyed, to be an experience, something that creates a world of its own.
20 years ago, software "authors" created games trying to craft, from limited resources, something that was original, compelling, enjoyable and worthwhile. Something that was interesting, you know? How far we´ve come, how far we are from considering those horrendous "first person shooter" clones or "real time strategy" as something original and interesting. It´s the same game all over again. It´s like 2d plataformers. Always the same game. How can anyone seriously consider this an exciting time for video games, when despite all the graphics the industry is regretfully stuck to a formula which isn´t even winning anymore.
That´s what happened when the companies started worrying only about sales, and not about the creative aspect which is fundamental to their business. They´re just digging their own grave.
I blame it parcially on the advent of 3d. Let me get this straight, when we had only 2d, we had lots of different perspectives on how to look at the character, we had quite an ammount of different games with different ideas, many of them truly unique. With the advent of 3d we could have much more diversity, but, instead, we´re limited to "first person shooters" and "real time strategy" games? Does this sound right? Or does this sound like ultimate stupidy and waste of resources and imagination?
The software gaming industry is nowadays a laughing stock. They sell games to 14 year old braindeads which would buy any crap they would put in front of them. That´s their market. They made up some other small niches where to sell games, like idiots who play the sims like to simulate some kind of urban idiotic shallow life, as if their life wasn´t boring enough they have to simulate with a computer character going to parties, dating, buying furniture etc. Same for online social games or whatever that crap is. Truly gay and the ultimate boredom. Games that are life that is a game.
At least jones in the fast lane was a quick play.
Then they´ve got guitar hero and crap like that, which, i mean, if i was 12 years old with a computer and i had to choose between pretending to be a rock star or pretending to manage an oil rig, well, chances are strong that i would choose the oil rig just because it really sounds more interesting, you know? Ah but you´ll say "ah that´s just you, people aren´t like that", well, actually they are, it´s just they try so hard to forget it and just do what they´re told. But i know that people, 12 year olds and everything, deep down inside they know that simulating to be a rock star is just boring, stupid, unimaginative and exhausting.
So they came up with: first person shooters (not even third person or some other perspective? it´s dreadful), wolfenstein all over again. Real time strategy games, command and conquer all over again, exactly same game. Then they´ve got the sims and guitar hero and this is the state of video games today? A laughing stock. A truckload of wasted opportunities. They righfully deserve that every game they make is pirated over and over. This kind of crap and lazy thinking and treating consumers like mindless cattle deserves to be punished and ignored.
The gaming industry is a laughing stock for any serious person that knows the history of video games. For any person that knows what the classics are and why they were classics.
Next week the gaming industry is going to sit down and think again on what´s missing in their games. Some will say they need more graphics, more sound imersion, no, more depth of characters, no, more open worlds, no, let the player do what he wants, no, just bore the player to death with endless role playing storylines, based on some sort of tolkien medieval quest realm crap, no just put more gore in, no, make it first person of course, well, they´ll think all of this and eventually reach some kind of unlogical, restrained and mindless conclusion, only aimed at making much less than half the money they could make.
Game publishers, mindless idiots focused on weak profits, bunch of cowards, how about this: just give the control of the project to a real game designer and let him do what he wants. See where he goes. Watch something original being created. You´ll make tons more money, believe it.
Who am i talking to. Of course you don´t believe it, you like it short, medium, low quality, low profit, low importance. You´re just a disgrace.
Why don´t you all just look for another job in butchering meat or counting sheets of a4 paper. You seem much more talented to do that.