Gamers Anonymous

[quzar]

Just read this interesting article by Alex Rose of if:book which deals with the stagnation in gaming from the point of view of the book. Here's a first chunk:

I am not a gamer.
I do not consider myself a gaming enthusiast, I do not belong to any kind of "gaming community" and I have not kept my finger on the proverbial pulse of interactive entertainment since my monthly NES newsletter subscription ran out circa 1988.
Save a few momentary aberrations--a brief fling with "Doom" ('93), a torrid encounter with "Half-Life" ('98), a secret tryst with "Grand Theft Auto III" ('01)--I've worked to keep my relationship to that world at arm's length.
Video games, I'd come to believe, had not significantly improved in twenty years. As kids, we'd expected them to evolve with us, to grow and adapt to culture, to become complex and sophisticated like the fine arts; rather, they seemed to remain in a perpetual state of adolescence, merely buffing-out and strutting their ever-flashier chops instead of taking on new challenges and exploring untapped possibilities. Maps grew larger, graphics sharpened to near-photorealistic quality, player options expanded, levels enumerated, and yet the pastime as a whole never advanced beyond a mere guilty pleasure.
Every time a friend would tug my sleeve and giddily drag me to view the latest system, the latest hyped-up game, I'd find myself consistently underwhelmed. Once the narcotic spell of a new virtual landscape wore off, all that was left was the same ossified product game producers had been peddling since 1986. Characters in battle-themed games still followed the tired James Cameron paradigm--tough guy, funny guy, butch girl, robot; stories in "sandbox" games were as aimless and hopelessly convoluted as ever.
This is to say nothing of the interminable interludes that kept appearing between levels, clearly designed by wannabe action movie directors. Fully scripted scenes populated by broad stereotypes would go on for five or even ten minutes at a time, with the "camera" incessantly roving about, punching in, racking focus, jump-cutting., as though an executive had instructed his team to "make it edgier, snappier, more Casino."
Where was the modern equivalent to the Infocom games, those richly imagined text-based worlds that put to shame any dime-a-dozen title from the Choose Your Own Adventure series? This isn't nostalgia talking. Infocom, like its predecessors in BASIC, put out games written by actual authors; not only did they know how to construct engaging stories and fleshed-out characters, they foresaw the opportunities presented by non-linear narratives and capitalized on their interactive potential.
Was it me, or had "refinement" in the subsequent years become a dwindling pipe-dream, like accountability in broadcast journalism?

Full article here

[Darksaviour69]

he clearly hasn't played Rez (or Braid).....

[quzar]

Despite how much I love Rez, it wasn't really revolutionary in any sort of gameplay sense it was just very well made. Also, if you look at the shelves of any store stocked with videogames, odds are you won't see something like Rez taking up much space. In fact, and I believe this is the biggest point he makes, you'll still see just about the same spread as you would have in '90 or '95 or '05, FPS RTS 4X RPG ... things so common that we can fit them into 3 letters a piece

[kojiro7]

Games now are far worse than the old days.
I play only emulators now,8-16bit era were the only real videogames

[Darksaviour69]

True, but its that not the same in all mediaums, look at the dung that are box official hits, No. singles, top selling books, they are just clones of hits of the past hits. True originality, quality and commercial success together, is very rare in any medium.


But i would say games like Braid, portal and bioshock are successful and are real improvement on their genes if not completely original/revolutionary

[staticshade]

dats deep but i have to agree

@darksaviour69 i don't really see the big deal in braid it simply did a good job of mechanics that where already available (time manipulation has been around for ages prince of persia, max payne e.t.c)

[quzar]

True, but its that not the same in all mediaums, look at the dung that are box official hits, No. singles, top selling books, they are just clones of hits of the past hits. True originality, quality and commercial success together, is very rare in any medium.

Ah yes, but that's part of the point. We buy new systems and what does it get us? We got CED and LD above VHS and Beta and it gave us multiple audio tracks, non-linear playback, and, when the Criteron Collection got to it, commentary. DVDs gave us more of the same but in a more managable size and for the first time in a format that can look identical on every machine that plays it. Now we've hit a snag like we're in with videogames, bluray and HD DVD give us just ... more of the same again, faster sharper clearer bigger, but the same.

At the very least, in my opinion, the Wii breaks out of this sort of cycle by giving us another method to interact with the games, however banal and pointless it may be in some.

[Darksaviour69]

dats deep but i have to agree

@darksaviour69 i don't really see the big deal in braid it simply did a good job of mechanics that where already available (time manipulation has been around for ages prince of persia, max payne e.t.c)

time manipulation has been about for a while, but never had it been used in this way, plus the last level in braid was mind blowing (i thought anyway)

Ah yes, but that's part of the point. We buy new systems and what does it get us? We got CED and LD above VHS and Beta and it gave us multiple audio tracks, non-linear playback, and, when the Criteron Collection got to it, commentary. DVDs gave us more of the same but in a more managable size and for the first time in a format that can look identical on every machine that plays it. Now we've hit a snag like we're in with videogames, bluray and HD DVD give us just ... more of the same again, faster sharper clearer bigger, but the same.

At the very least, in my opinion, the Wii breaks out of this sort of cycle by giving us another method to interact with the games, however banal and pointless it may be in some.

well if you look at a game like braid, and portal and bioshock, those games could not have been done in older consoles because of technical limits. You might think bioshock could have been done on an older console but you would have to cut a lot of the texture details and audio logs that creates the the incredible environments and atmosphere of the game.

Also the technical improvements you mention to media players while improve the the user friendless and quality etc of the media, does it really improves the "art" of the art of the media? (movies like sin city are only ones that come to mind that weren't really possible in the past.)

also if you consider XBLA, PSN, WiiWare and Steam now offers users a more convenient way to purchase and play games (no need to chance discs etc)


edit:

I will admit that generally games are more of the same, only bigger, shinier HD-er, and while compared to other media and it may seem that they are not evolving, but I would argue that there are games that are evolving, and the game industry is still very young compared to other media's and its unfair to expect it to evolve so quickly

[jp_zer0]

Shadow of the Colossus

but the article author is doing it wrong, you can't just grab the first casual game that comes your way to judge gaming as a whole. You're always gonna get what he describes as an adolescent and flashy game.

[mike_jmg]

maybe it's unfair to expect game industry to evolve quickly.

But I think it is going on the wrong direction, maybe even taking a step backwards. Cause IMO developers are focusing too much on the graphic aspect of this gen games.

I mean, yeah the games look awesome, but they are leaving behind the story and mostly the gameplay, while in the past it was the thing that mattered the most.

Two weeks ago I was playing a hacked version of pokemon gold, It was really refreshing and fun, I couldn't believe a game that old gave me a better time than some of this gen games.

Even a friend of mine was really engaged on a homebrew fighting game featuring an old TV series Characters, he was having more fun than with RE 5 on his PS3.

And also, this gen games are mostly sequels from last gen games, I mean, RE 5, Halo 3, DMC 4, Burnout Paradise, Tekken 6, DOA 4, DOA Xtreme 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Disgaea 3, Soul Calibur 4, God of War 3, GTA IV, Fallout 3, COD 4. What's up with that?, there are some exceptions, but nothing as original as what these games were on their first iterations.