Genre Wars — the Downside of the RPG Takeover

From Bioshock and Modern Warfare 2 to even Team Fortress 2, RPG elements are creeping into game genres that we never imagined they would. This change for the most part has managed to subtly improve upon genres that needed new life, but there's a cost that hasn't been tallied by the majority of game developers. 'The simple act of removing mod tools, along with the much discussed dedicated server issue, has made [MW2] a bit of a joke among competitive players. Gone are the days of "promod," and the only option you have is to play it their way. If Infinity Ward are so insistent on improving the variety of our experiences, they don’t have to do it at the expense of the experience that many of us already love. It really is that simple. If they don’t want to provide a good "back to basics experience," they could at least continue to provide the tools that allow us to do that for ourselves

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...e-RPG-Takeover

Of course, the Mod discussion is a PC discussion as it is irrelevant in consoles.

But this has nothing to do with how RPG elements brought into games can have a downside to a genre. The only downside is that it can make the game too linear.

There's nothing wrong with game elements crossing over because that's just how games evolve into new genre's, hardcore fans of one genre might not like it and you might end up with a pile of crappy clones but the game industry does need a regular shakeup to find out what can be good.