A Modern Videogame Rant

[mcniggleston]

Some of you noted that you already watched this, but for those who haven't....here it is:

[OskyCMK]

Agree. There doesn't seem to be any games out there these days that can elicit any emotion. Minecraft is the only one that comes to mind. That game is so wonderful. *rainbow drool*

[brutalknuckles]

I have to disagree with point #1. I find that rock/metal soundtracks tend to keep me from being immersed in the game, where as symphonic and electronic/ambient soundtracks make me feel like I am in the game.

[Dark Ermac]

It depends on the game, honestly. The point is that all games nowadays are going the "epic" route, so it's becoming stale. Rock soundtracks would stand out in this era.

[alexandre]

I agree with you that it would be nice if the music was made specifically for the game.

About your second and third points; I do believe there are still new and original video gaming concepts being produced in the modern era. The issue now is that they are in competition with the derivative moneymakers such as "Call of Duty ##" "Madden NFL ##" "FIFA 20##" "Final Fantasy ##" etc etc... These big budget moneymakers essentially remake the same game every year with dazzling graphics designed for mass appeal to make a lot of money. As a result they are supported by huge marketing campaigns that constantly distract gamers from the innovative new gaming ideas that haven't been proven to make money.

There is definitely something wrong with modern games. It's the exact same thing that plagues every popular form of media: mass appeal. Justin Bieber, Michael Bay, CSI, and now Call of Duty. There's still innovative modern music. There are still movies and television programs being made that elicit emotional captivation. The trouble is they are hidden in the shadow of the bland drivel that makes the most money by appealing to the largest audience.

The answer is, I agree, to only purchase enjoyable video games and ignore the advertisers. Unfortunately, there will be games like Call of Duty for as long as video games are hugely popular. What we need to do is form communities that search in the shadows for great video games. We need to seek out these new gems and bring them into the light so that other seekers can enjoy them too. There is no better example of this happening than Minecraft.

Creating an innovative video game involves risk. Video games that involve risk do not benefit from the multimillion dollar marketing campaigns that are used to promote sure things like Call of Duty. We must help each other find the video games made today that will be considered classics in the future.

[bear]

I agree with the multiplayer obsession. Everything is about online play now....EVERYTHING! I'm not a big RPG gamer but I loved Star Wars KOTOR 1 and 2. I beat em both multiple times. Was absolutely dying for a third one once the next gen consoles came out. "OMG think of the potential! Better powers, improved fighting, crazy visuals!!" I was fuckin giddy! And what did they do? They made a massive online multiplayer out of it. Like freaking World of fucking Warcraft! Yeah because that's just what I want to do. Go online and talk to a bunch of goobers about what the fuck we should do next in this game (thank you Leroy Jenkins). No! I want to get immersed in a solid, turn twisting, epic story where I can rule the freaking galaxy if I want! But no. That aint the fad now. It aint hip. So yeah, I agree.

[Deleted]

Little big planet and Minecraft are really the only two, truly unique games to come out as of late. Soon though theres going to be a bunch of copies with tweaks ad changes with different names. I see this from both sides of the fence though.

While as a gamer I'm sick of seeing the same cookie cutter bull crap. I'm tired of FPS's all being about fast pace shooting and who can tweak faster. The closest thing to unique to happen to the FPS as of late is bullet storm. which was a nice change up to the usual run and gun adding combo points and offering the option to be creative with your killing. Then you have thing like mirrors edge that do something totally different with the FPS option, giving you free run abilities and non-firearm focused combat.

From the developers point of view though, games like Mirrors Edge are a risk, and who says they are going to sell if at all? And a lot of stuff has been done already, so if I come up with an amazing idea how can I tweak it to still be unique and no matter what I do, people are going to compare it to CoD or what ever is popular at the time. Even if its unique people are still going to say it rips off call of duty or halo. Even if the gameplay is somewhat different. If I change it too much then it's a risk, and if I take this risk the publisher and Company might drop it because it's too much of a risk and they think it won't sell now.

Another issue is the higher ups going "CoD and halo are coming out, lets develoup something like that so we can get a chunk of those sells, we'll just advertise the hell out of it and pump it up."

Even if its the same cookie cutter bullshit. When you work for somebody that happens and you can't do shit about it.

With that being said thats why I wanna start a indie PC game development company. My company would own the rights ad me being the head I say what goes so I could take as big as a risk I want as long as the funds were there.

[MateusAuri]

So true... nowadays originality is gone. Gaming industry is just like TV and music, and that happened because it became more popular. Consequently, its popularity hit those dumb people who already fu**ed up music and TV before.
These scumbags like to be controled, and they give their money to whoever throws bullshit at their face and say "Hey, buy this shit. It's awesome, and no other shit is better." And then it goes like a friggin' wave, and every company starts doing the same, because doing shit equals money.
They just want more of the same, and to not confess that they are sick of the same shit everytime, companies produce two of the same shit per year (*cough*CoD*cough*), so they can continue buying "new" games, and keep on with the vicious cicle.

Not that modern games are bad, but they lack distinction between themselves. If you play Call of Duty X, and then play Battlefield Y, you won't notice any differences at all.
Really good games that don't seek this way of selling end up dead, forgotten or unfairly ashamed.
Half-Life? Fucking people play Counter-Strike and don't know HL.
Okami? It sold bad.
Legacy of Kain? Now it only lives in Tomb Raider easter eggs.
Jet Moto? It died too, just when this entire money-making shit was beggining, and sony saw that most people wouldn't want more Jet Moto after the third one.
Snatcher and Policenauts? No, that wouldn't sell well outside Japan.
Elder Scrolls? Unfortunately is being corrupted by society.
GuitarFreaks? "Herp. It is a Guitar Hero rip-off. Derp."

Sadly, dumb people are controling everything. We, the smart ones, should do something about it.

[Ninetails2000]

I disagree partially with your point about soundtracks. I agree that just slapping some cut-and-paste orchestra music or being a lazy fuck with licensing is incredibly un-immersive and boring, doing such things it doesn't mean it's BAD. It depends entirely on the attention and care put into it.

One thing that irks me is this
DLC V.S. GAIDEN GAMES!

Nowadays the magic of being able to connect to the internet through consoles has allowed for game designers to publish content and patches fairly easily. But it's also made them LAZY and CHEAP.

Back in the day when there wasn't DLC, there were Expansion Packs and Gaiden Games. Expansion packs added tons of new content to your games like the Pets expansion for The Sims and gaiden games were entirely different games that used resources from the base game, like the various DOOM expansions and the Tomb Raider gaiden series. (Unfinished Business, Tomb Raider Gold, ETC.)

Nowadays stuff like that is still around, for a lot cheaper in fact. Sonic Unleashed(And 2K6, for that matter) Included DLC level packs that not only gave you brand new(Incredibly hard) level setups and challenges, but entirely new acts to play. Tomb Raider Legend allowed for you to get Tomb Raider Anniversary via-DLC packs that used Legend's resources. But not is all good in DLC land.

Some games(Like Gears Of War) will charge you money for COLORS! The arcade version of Street Fighter III charged you for PALATE SWAP PACKS. Not a singular pack, but TWO different packs of what amounts to twenty, thirty seconds of Photoshop magic. And a lot of these mods aren't even able to be SEEN by other people online unless they were dumb enough to buy the same packs. Stuff like this is understandable for games like Tomb Raider where you can download costumes made by actual fashion designers for Lara or when said differences actually MAKE A DIFFERENCE, that is RARELY the case.

And that doesn't even get into Launch DLC. For those who don't know, Launch DLC is basically downloadable content that is made available at launch. Initially this was just extra pictures and background or ways to bribe yourself to early victory, but nowadays it has gotten entirely unfair and bastardly!

One big controversy was with Street Fighter X Tekken. When the game was released, most of the DLC products were ON THE GAME DISC and you had to BUY IT. You literally had to shell out REAL MONEY to enable these characters that are ALREADY THERE. As time goes on, there are more and more examples of this kind of fuckery showing up in games. Having to buy extra stories or game modes or, tying into my previous point, COLORS, that are already on the disc.

While all this DLC does, individually, cost much less then gaiden games and expansion packs, the price of games has gone up dramatically over the years. Now, with DLC included your bill for a single game can be bloated up from sixty dollars to somewhere in the hundreds.

...I never know how to end these things...so yeah...

BLAH!

[spooferjahk]

I haven't watched the video yet (YouTube is being stupid with me at the time of typing this message), but I feel like throwing my two cents about modern gaming. I am really disliking the whole multiplayer angle that games are starting to go towards, especially with FPS games. I grew up playing quite a bit of FPS related games, stuff like Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake II, Half-Life, you get the picture. These games had incredible single player modes that were fun to play through and had a multiplayer mode that was just as fun as the single player but it was not at all forced to get the maximum enjoyment out of the game. These days almost every single FPS game along with many others are forcing the multiplayer component over the single player making that mode be more like an elaborate tutorial for multiplayer which I feel should just not happen. The other thing is that modern games don't feel like they have much soul or feel into them like the older games did, which of course is a result of game companies being large corporations as opposed to a group of 5, 10, or 20 people working on a game in an office building or a garage of some sort. I will say though that modern gaming isn't completely bad, but a large portion of it is dull and lifeless, which is precisely what drove me into being a retro gamer, playing older titles I have played before or ones I missed when they were released initially.

[claudio999]

yeh ppl only see normally ppl with money
look that fail singers lmfao they don't sing an asss!
1 more thing mcniggleston is that you on the video?
ofc I don't saw the intire video because is only him talk and is borring
But what what i wanna know is how in the hhell your hair don't goes up :\
You need to tell me how because my hair always in circles :\