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Author Topic: Games these days (Soapbox rant)  (Read 4773 times)

Nopkar

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Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« on: March 06, 2011, 01:53:49 am »

Am I the only one who see's the decline of this industry? I don't mean in sales...hell, it beats hollywood in the face and makes it do the dishes. I mean in material.

Dead Island...marketing has come over the game and tried to sally forth a product that isn't anything like the trailer. How many companies have done this? almost ALL of them.

and who let's these B-C and even D rated games through the gates?!?! The first of any series never meets the bar that the developers themselves set. why?! is it money? do you not KNOW how to do what you want in a game? are you limited by hardware? why are you telling the masses one thing, and delivering another?????

I love video games...I've been playing them tentatively since i was 3. I've logged +10000 hours of gaming, and here I stand on the verge of hating my most precious hobby because of corporate greed! this is WRONG!

Here we have a game (classified as an indie title) called Dwarf Fortress. developed by TWO PEOPLE (I may be wrong on this, If I am I apologize!) and it has more features than 10 of the big AAA titles being released over the next 6 months! and it's a back alley game WHY!?!?!? oh, that's right, because the whole of the gaming community is retarded, that's why.

I'm tired of these piss-poor examples of gaming technology. "OOOOO, it's pretty! it must be awesome!" yeah, 4 hours later I'm returning the damn thing because it makes no sense and has a gratuitous amount of shit that doesn't lend itself to the damn game! (That's right dragon age, I'm talking to YOU.)

Don't get me wrong, some game developers do it right! Red dead redemption for example...damn i love that game! played the living crap out of it. Bioshock, loved it! KOTOR, amazing! the Total War series, I can't get enough of it! but ANOTHER God of War? you're milking a dead cow! I saw my first animated boob and giggled, my 30th one I threw the game down in disgust!

What the hell is happening to this damn industy!?!? Am I the only one brimming with innovative Idea's? am I the only one to spot a potential game mechanic yet to be explored?

These "Top of the Line" industries need to be kicked in the balls so hard it makes them spit out their own filth. I hate it, I hate not being able to bring my idea's to life...I hate not being able to change the way this damn industry is going...I hate it and by damn it I won't let my passion for the gaming industry die like an animal caught in a cage...

(random incessant cackling and raging)

/soapbox
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fqllve

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2011, 02:06:54 am »

and who let's these B-C and even D rated games through the gates?!?! The first of any series never meets the bar that the developers themselves set. why?! is it money? do you not KNOW how to do what you want in a game? are you limited by hardware? why are you telling the masses one thing, and delivering another?????
Because ideas and realities are two different things and they rarely resemble one another? Have you ever tried doing a large project, starting with all these brilliant and innovative ideas that you realized that you couldn't possibly pull off when actually creating the thing? (edit: Also, the Politician's Golden Rule: Promise, promise, promise)

Quote
Here we have a game (classified as an indie title) called Dwarf Fortress. developed by TWO PEOPLE (I may be wrong on this, If I am I apologize!) and it has more features than 10 of the big AAA titles being released over the next 6 months! and it's a back alley game WHY!?!?!? oh, that's right, because the whole of the gaming community is retarded, that's why.
It's because Dwarf Fortress is a game with two developers, who are brothers, who work well together and know what they want. They have no deadlines, no restrictions, no marketing department or bosses, and no cinematic features such as a narrative, characters, graphics, or even sound effects. Which allows them to spend their time actually developing.

Quote
What the hell is happening to this damn industy!?!? Am I the only one brimming with innovative Idea's? am I the only one to spot a potential game mechanic yet to be explored?
You do realize there are games that are interesting and innovative. It's just that they're low profile, necessarily low profile. Are you gonna risk $60 million on something that might revolutionize some paradigms or on some watered down hero's journey special effects schlock that's guaranteed to at least break even.


All art fields are dominated by profiteers. And just because those profiteers are on top doesn't mean that the medium is dying, dead, or garbage. After all, movies weren't ruined forever when Die Hard 4 came out and neither will games be ruined forever by Dead Island. Just ignore the trash if it doesn't appeal to you
« Last Edit: March 06, 2011, 02:10:30 am by fqllve »
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MrWiggles

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2011, 02:13:47 am »

Do we really need another another "My Problem with Modern Games" thread?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=48311.0
This one is still relatively fresh, and and iterates what the OP has stated.
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Luke_Prowler

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2011, 02:36:15 am »

I think that most games that people call bad are just mediocre, and haven't actually played a really bad game.

What screws most games over, like every other media ever, is design by committee. The stockholders want their money's worth, and have no quandary stifling a developer's ideas to make it more "sellable"
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Heron TSG

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2011, 02:52:21 am »

These "Top of the Line" industries need to be kicked in the balls so hard it makes them spit out their own filth. I hate it, I hate not being able to bring my idea's to life...I hate not being able to change the way this damn industry is going...I hate it and by damn it I won't let my passion for the gaming industry die like an animal caught in a cage...
If you want to make a better game, go learn how to do it and start a company. Stop whining and fix your problem. The people who you're saying need to be hit in the genitalia with excess amounts of blunt force trauma did exactly that.

It's not like the industry used to be any better. Think of it as a similar situation to 80's music. 95% of the music in the 80's was absolutely terrible, just as it is now. The only ones people kept and remembered are the 5% of good songs. Therefore, in human memory the only important part was the good part. We remember Contra, but we don't remember Time Lord, King's Knight, Rad Racer, or Mickey's Mousecapade. In the future, you will look back on this era and see only the awesome games. Time heals all wounds.
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Gunner-Chan

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2011, 03:02:51 am »

We remember Contra, but we don't remember Time Lord, King's Knight, Rad Racer, or Mickey's Mousecapade.

You listed all games I remember.... >>
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Nopkar

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2011, 03:08:47 am »

Do we really need another another "My Problem with Modern Games" thread?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=48311.0
This one is still relatively fresh, and and iterates what the OP has stated.

sorry, this was more of a desperate rage session at how I can't find any games that I want to play due to my computer limitations (MAC)

If you want to make a better game, go learn how to do it and start a company. Stop whining and fix your problem. The people who you're saying need to be hit in the genitalia with excess amounts of blunt force trauma did exactly that.

If you've got the money, I'd love to do this for the rest of my life...hell, it's what i'm working for now!!! If I had the abilities, do you think i'd be whining about it?!?!

and I like I said, a rage session that likely won't subside for some time. meh, let this thread disappear into the depths of the forum, if I had laid out my problems in a very concise manner I wouldn't have posted them like this without flushing out the details as to WHY I'm raging.
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breadbocks

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2011, 03:44:23 am »

sorry, this was more of a desperate rage session at how I can't find any games that I want to play due to my computer limitations (MAC)
Well there's your problem. =V

But in all seriousness. You should have known going into it that finding games for THE propitiatory company's products would be tough.
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MrWiggles

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2011, 04:26:41 am »

Do we really need another another "My Problem with Modern Games" thread?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=48311.0
This one is still relatively fresh, and and iterates what the OP has stated.

sorry, this was more of a desperate rage session at how I can't find any games that I want to play due to my computer limitations (MAC)
I have a Mac. I don't feel this.

If you want to make a better game, go learn how to do it and start a company. Stop whining and fix your problem. The people who you're saying need to be hit in the genitalia with excess amounts of blunt force trauma did exactly that.

If you've got the money, I'd love to do this for the rest of my life...hell, it's what i'm working for now!!! If I had the abilities, do you think i'd be whining about it?!?!

and I like I said, a rage session that likely won't subside for some time. meh, let this thread disappear into the depths of the forum, if I had laid out my problems in a very concise manner I wouldn't have posted them like this without flushing out the details as to WHY I'm raging.
You really don't need money, just drive.

Bungie started out of an apartment, and Introversion has gone back to an apartment several times. Blizzard had a similar set up. Activision, oh sure, its popular to lol rage on them now, but they started at as disgruntled employees of the original Atari, and they had to go to court in order to get the right established to make third party games.

If you want a more contemporary example, the person who made Geometry Wars currently still works out of his apartment. Limbo has been getting major press and probably sales too.

Heck, you don't even need any business skills to make games. I mean, Introvision was a revolving door of 'in operation' and 'out of operation'. Their tag line of 'Made by gamers, for gamers.' seemed certainly true, but apparently that came with a teen age skill for wealth building strategies.

sorry, this was more of a desperate rage session at how I can't find any games that I want to play due to my computer limitations (MAC)
Well there's your problem. =V

But in all seriousness. You should have known going into it that finding games for THE propitiatory company's products would be tough.
I don't get what this means.

Yes, traditionally a mac wasn't/isn't a mainline gaming platform. And the old none-intel mac, with their limited market share did make it unattractive to port it over, but this isn't really true anymore.

There are a plethora of games being made for Apple hardware. True that most of these can be found on their iphone, ipod touch and now ipad product lines. Though this is changing. Steam recently ported over their most of their main games recently, and to my understanding that will be a growing trend with them.

If anything the propitiatory nature of the mac line, would make would make some aspect of game design easier. Off the top of the my head, it should be easier to estimate system specs.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2011, 04:35:40 am by MrWiggles »
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Max White

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2011, 04:42:39 am »

Nopkar, I feel your pain. Ok, maybe not to the same scale, but I too feel that games are not what they once were. This is, of corse, personal opinion, and I have little doubt there is always a title that can show me to be wrong, however, it is getting harder and harder to deny that every FPS has been painted with the same brush recently.

My solution has been to dig deeper and deeper into the indie scene. Games like 'Herocore' and 'Kyntt' are beautiful and awesome, and will sustain me until I feel that mainstream games have cleaned there shit up. Really, a short 30 second game like 'Today I die' had more emotional impact then the entire FPS genera has had on me, so as far as I can see indie is a ray of creative light in the commercial shit hole that gaming has become.

MrWiggles

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2011, 05:44:17 am »

Nopkar, I feel your pain. Ok, maybe not to the same scale, but I too feel that games are not what they once were. This is, of corse, personal opinion, and I have little doubt there is always a title that can show me to be wrong, however, it is getting harder and harder to deny that every FPS has been painted with the same brush recently.

My solution has been to dig deeper and deeper into the indie scene. Games like 'Herocore' and 'Kyntt' are beautiful and awesome, and will sustain me until I feel that mainstream games have cleaned there shit up. Really, a short 30 second game like 'Today I die' had more emotional impact then the entire FPS genera has had on me, so as far as I can see indie is a ray of creative light in the commercial shit hole that gaming has become.

Meh, I think that the industry is pretty stable as far as quality is concern. 

I think the main proponent to this, as Barbosa touch on, is nostalgia.

How many games can do you remember enjoying for, the N64? For me thats thats Majora Mask, and Ocorana of Time, Conker Bad Fur Day, Golden Eye, Mario 64, Perfect Dark  and Super Smash Bros. There is of course Superman 64, standing out as being so horrible that it sticks out. Heck, a lot of the games I can list off the top of my head, are from the same company.

Out of the more then 300 games released for the n64? How many are really rememberable ?

And I'm using N64, as a random example.

PSX, how many of their 1000+ games are rememberable?

How many of the 700+ games for the SNES are rememberable?

How many of the 2000+ games released for the PS2 are rememberable?

My point being, that your average game, is average, and won't be remember, and this goes doubly for the actual bad games. The good games, the games that will be remember are a minority.
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Jackrabbit

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2011, 07:14:35 am »

I am so excited for this medium, where it's going and how we're going to get there. I can't wait to see what's to come and I'm reveling in the now, playing games and exploring what they have to offer. I love looking at the mechanics of a game, what makes an experience truly memorable and I love how so many companies can offer so many memorable experiences to so many people and I love the fact that the market is expanding. It makes me want to work in this industry, to contribute to something that is truly spectacular and who knows? I might. Man, I love video games.
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alway

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2011, 12:17:23 pm »

Yeah, as bad as gripes about the mediocrity of today's games are (which believe me, I certainly understand and can see myself), at least we no longer have games so bad the developing company takes the unsold copies and encases them in cement at a landfill in a debacle so bad it came close to killing video games as a genre of entertainment.

As for the future of the industry, I wouldn't be too surprised it if moved heavily in favor of procedurally generated content within the next decade or so due to the increased detail and scope demanded by customers and the continual increase in processing power available. Although a big thing to watch will be the future of the so-called Console Wars. If there isn't another generation released within about 2 years, consoles will likely more or less die out and PC gaming will be the overwhelming platform of choice; a fact which on its own is capable of shaping the future of gaming. At the moment, consoles are already lagging far behind high and even mid range PCs to the point where it is impeding the game graphics a bit. Although some of that is merely the economic depression, since as you may have noticed, new high end graphics cards are no longer quite as sought after as they were half a decade ago, when games like Crysis stressed even the most high end cards on the market (the NVidia 8800's).
« Last Edit: March 06, 2011, 12:40:10 pm by alway »
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optimumtact

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2011, 04:04:25 pm »

Although a big thing to watch will be the future of the so-called Console Wars. If there isn't another generation released within about 2 years, consoles will likely more or less die out and PC gaming will be the overwhelming platform of choice; a fact which on its own is capable of shaping the future of gaming.
Interesting viewpoint here but I can't see this happening, both Sony and Microsoft have committed large amounts of money getting their platforms off the ground and there would have to be extremely compelling reasons for them to back down. However I think it's undeniable that high piracy rates for the PC platform are certainly making the consoles look more attractive to developers in terms of profit returns and how many people they can get a sale from.

At the moment, consoles are already lagging far behind high and even mid range PCs to the point where it is impeding the game graphics a bit. Although some of that is merely the economic depression, since as you may have noticed, new high end graphics cards are no longer quite as sought after as they were half a decade ago, when games like Crysis stressed even the most high end cards on the market (the NVidia 8800's).
There are reasons why this is actually a good thing, the fast paced nature of the graphics cards markets makes it hard to develop software, most game companies are forced to point their software at some target platform and by the time they reach it the target has moved. A slower hardware cycle has many benefits (developers can get used to the hardware and learn how to make good use of it's features, the engine doesn't increase in so much complexity with each iteration of the game. e.t.c.) The consoles provide a stable base target for companies to point their software at with good guarantees that it won't be changed by too much at the end of the development cycle. This is actually better for the game market, sure we have to wait a little longer for the ability to do more complex things (with hardware and processing power) but we can leverage what we have now without incurring excessive development costs.

It also has flow on benefits for the consumer, they too can purchase a PC with hardware above that of the current consoles and be certain that any games playable on the consoles can be played on their machine without too much trouble. A slower hardware release cycle would see them much more likely to upgrade when they need too because the time between upgrades is reasonable.
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sonerohi

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Re: Games these days (Soapbox rant)
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2011, 04:19:11 pm »

I wonder when there will be a new console from one of the big three. It seems like the classics come in right before a new system, and on the new system right after it comes out. In between is where the drudgery is.
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