The state of the games industry
polycounter lvl 17
I am doing an article on the stagnant state of the games industry these days and thought this may just be the best place to get comments and ideas.
By the look of things comercial games are becomming nothing more than tools for modders. I havn't bothered playing a game thru more than once since Jedi Knights 2
Feel free to go wild
By the look of things comercial games are becomming nothing more than tools for modders. I havn't bothered playing a game thru more than once since Jedi Knights 2
Feel free to go wild
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By the look of things commercial games are becoming nothing more than tools for modders.
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I'm pretty sure it's the other way round actually. It's harder to mod a lot of games these days. Bundling editors with games (mainly PC games) is becoming fairly standard for a lot these days, but that doesn't mean they're "nothing more" than tools for modders.
I think you haven't really researched this at all yet.
Stagnant? Take a look at indie games coming out through Steam and XBox Live and other such platforms, there are more "risky" and original games being released as low-cost, quick thrill games, and also stuff like Team Fortress 2 is setting fun graphical styles in with traditional quality team FPS gameplay... I don't see that as stagnant at all.
Second, how is it so stagnant? I do not see this at all. Yes, there are a lot of FPS's and GTA wanna-bes comming out. But that does not make it stagnant, because there is a fuck load of other games comming out too, that are new and exciting. (On a side note here, I would like to point out as a reason that the big companies don't always go for these new exciting games is that they often don't sell. See psychonauts).
Also, something to look at is the new things that microsoft is doing with xbox. They are pushing indy developers to put out new games for cheap with all of their new live stuff. That means that any new unique idea has a valid chance in the market. Again, completely non-stagnant.
The last thing that I'd like to mention is that part of the reason it might seem so stagnant to many people is that it is an evolving industry. And as with almost anything that evolves, the process isn't a fast thing. It takes time, and because of this it is hard to notice the changes easily. It's like looking at your best friend 10 years after you met him. You don't notice straight out that he's aged because you see him every day. Well, thats the same reason so many people don't see that the industry IS evolving and changing.
(That and the ever annoying nostalgia.)
I agree with MoP.
Games are expanding in every direction. We've got the mainstream stuff getting more mainstream (madden, tekken, etc) and the "indy" games are growing as well (as MoP said, look at steam and live arcade, and the new XNA tools microsoft is releasing). Hobby modders and game designers are getting more tools and access to better engines, and we're seeing more new game ideas and designs every day. Sure, the big name stuff is somewhat "stagnant" (in terms of innovation, at least), but I think that's just a sign that gaming as a genre/medium is maturing. We now have a "mainstream" game genre, which seems to follow a similar pattern to the mainstream movies and tv shows.
Go do some research, and try to keep any of your current opinions out of mind if you want to get a truly accurate idea of where we are as an industry.
now the graphical increases are more subtle and gradual, especially in the PC area. we arent getting these massive jumps in graphical presentation that we used to.
another.. we're all getting older. we are growing pickier by the day about what we like and dont like. when we were young we would play any piece of trash and have fun. we liked games that were similar to the ones we liked already. now we see the 'reality' of marketing and business.
a majority of us have been gaming our entire lives, 20+ years(in the 80s and 90s no less). after that amount of time anything is bound to grow old.
so in closing:
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*tech is now strolling rather than sprinting along
*we're all old farts
*we're all cynical jaded bastards
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By the look of things comercial games are becomming nothing more than tools for modders. I havn't bothered playing a game thru more than once since Jedi Knights 2
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You sound like you have an opinion on the quality of PC games and you're projecting that onto the entire industry.
You need to quantify what you mean by 'stagnant'. Sales are a little down this quarter, but it's a bit of a stretch to define a 12 billion, 150,000 employee industry (US alone) as stagnant. I assume you mean creatively?
There's tonnes more, you just need to be paying a close eye on the games comming out.
One artical you might like to read on this though is Peter Molyneux's keynote from GCDC this year. He talks about how we are stuck by old standards for combat stuff.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6156154.html?q=this%20is%20not%20fable%202
If it's not growing it's stagnant. You know how easily shareholders get pissed off.
Multiplayer is where its at. Many PC games are built around multiplayer. Sports games are about having your buddies over and doing tournaments. Same for racing games. X-Box live is giving console gamers even greater multiplayer options.
The holy grail of hyper-realism is coming close to reality. Once it has been reached, I think that style will become more important than realism. Take a look at Team Fortress 2. More people are buzzing about the look of that game than any of the other shooters that all seem to be going for hyper-realism. You want to make your games look convincing graphically, but not necessarily real.
With advances in physics, processor speeds, graphics cards, etc., new types of gameplay are beginning to evolve. Things like portals, gravity, interactive objects, etc., will open up all kinds of creative options for gameplayers. Puzzles are becoming much more interesting. Problems can be much more creatively solved.
It's only getting better in my opinion.
I totally disagree with this idea thats being thrown around that games are about mechanics and movies are about stories. thats total BS.
Nothing is that black and white and neither are games. The core of games are the immersion that comes with interaction, but then what is the point of immersion if there is nothing to emerse yourself in? Even if youre playing counterstrike...youre still "sneaking around corners" and "infiltrating the enemy base" and though it may be pretty stripped down, there is still a theme present there.
If you boiled WoW down, for example, and stripped away all the graphics, noone would play it. The immersive aspect plays a major role in the gameplay, since you have a player with a psychology behind the keyboard. how you relate to and identify with your character can make or break a game.
Its easy to overlook the importance of setting/story just because you cant quantify it in the same way as the game mechanics.
The problem comes in how people are trying to implement it, since the idea of plot comes from a linear medium. Interactive media needs a different approach to story telling, but to just dismiss it alltogether would be a big mistake, imho
...it seems that storylines and plots have not evolved to fully capitalise on the new tech and engines. Visual reality is getting old for a lot of us now, I would like to see more realistic storys being applied to games.
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How does technology have anything to do with the quality of a game's backstory?
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...it seems that storylines and plots have not evolved to fully capitalise on the new tech and engines. Visual reality is getting old for a lot of us now, I would like to see more realistic storys being applied to games.
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How does technology have anything to do with the quality of a game's backstory?
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Yes.
And does the game buying public really want "realistic storys". Zuma on the XBox Live Arcade is currently one of my favorite games. It needs no story to be entertaining and challenging. The stories in the Final Fantasy series appeal to some folks and are a part of what drives the series sales, but I wouldn't call them realistic. For games like shooters, complex stories can get in the way, slowing down the action for no real reason.
Are stories really even fun to play. A game that depends on heavily on story to entertain me essentially gets one play through ... if I even complete it. After that, I've 'been there, done that' with it.
I've got a pretty long perspective on the industry ... having worked on 8 bit console gamess in the early 80s ... and I'm still excited about the possibilities and opportunities for new entertainment that are yet to come.
And does the game buying public really want "realistic storys".
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Which market? The established 18-34 year old male demographic, or god forbid expanding into new ones?
Im in this guys corner..
http://gamasutra.com/features/20060807/adams_01.shtml
By the look of things comercial games are becomming nothing more than tools for modders. I havn't bothered playing a game thru more than once since Jedi Knights 2
Feel free to go wild
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Wow, I would say that your article is about 2-3 years too late
I honestly do not recall playing through any game more than once. There almost has always been too many games out there to play to bother with playing "through" the same game more than one time.
That said obviously games don't need any story, but I don't think it's fair to games to say they can't tell a story at all. Obviously they can.
On topic: Yes and no. The games out right now are stale, but that is always the case when a console launches. People go with what they know. Game are being developed that are going to break the mold and be totally awesome. A lot of games are on the horizon, and that then all the ones in the growing indie game scene.
That leaves the write up you want to do as a generalization, with many examples against it. So hopefully it's just an informative essay, rather than a persuasive essay as it seems to be...
SOMEONE PLEASE FUND METRONOME!
Due to carpal tunnel, repetitive strain injury, tendonitis and arthritis the condition of my hands was such, that for about 4 or 5 years I could not really play games.
I was given a good anti inflammatory medicine at the start of the year that helps my arthritis heal more quickly and since then I've been playing games again, a lot.
I'm the happiest I've been in years, there are so many rich and varied games out there to choose from that it is simply impossible for me to find the time required to do more than a handful justice.
Each time somone bangs on the stagnation of the industry drum, I dismiss those people as masquerading under the weight of the image of the hardcore player, constrained and limited to one genre for so long that they are unable to see the wood for the trees.
Give yourself a shake, try some more varied games and genres, there are some brilliant examples in every genre.
r.
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...it seems that storylines and plots have not evolved to fully capitalise on the new tech and engines. Visual reality is getting old for a lot of us now, I would like to see more realistic storys being applied to games.
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How does technology have anything to do with the quality of a game's backstory?
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Games have evolved with available tech but the storys, although somewhat evolved, have been left behind to an extent.
Guys, please lay off the insults and insinuations that I have not played many games and don't know what I am talking about. As I said, my comments were engineered to create debate and in no way mirror my own personal feelings, I personally couldn't give a rats ass about FPS games but the readers of my essay (informative btw
buy a DS and see how stagnent that market is, both creativly, and moolah wise. the maket shifts from time to time, sometimes consoles lead the way sometimes PCs and sometimes handhelds, if you looks at a certain sector of the market and make a judgemnet from that.... it aint good.
and we have Wii around the corner.... thats coming from born again fanboy =D
as for story some have it some don't. i prefer a good story in a game. but some games need a story more than others. or you could pull an iD and claim to hire a novelist to work on your game (Doom3) and end up with very little to show for it.
I don't think it's a lack of story, I think it's the complete lack of any emotion in the games. Every PC game is set in a boring realistic world, with boring realistic lowest common denominator models and representations of classical monsters and heros. The emotion and character are completely missing. The settings are non-fantastical, and dull. Multiplayer is only fun with close friends, as it's a baby-sitting job on any public server.
So I think people are afraid to express themselves, since this like any business is based on financial gain. So, target the common area and forget to wow us with uniqueness. Also we are limiting ourselves with input methods, but it's improving.
My major gripe is the total lack of reward. Take Quake 4's ending for example. 4 seconds of horrible non closing crap. And you get nothing but an extra difficulty level. Why not reward with player models, behind the scenes video, a link to submit your score/shots fired/time taken etc online. Most PC game endings... utter shite, that is if they even have endings,or ones that make sense, such as Oblivion. Don't get me started on that game...
im certainly trying to bring about games that i want to see.
No one does this anymore and when they do its half arsed. The stagnation of the games industry has been a topic of disscussion for the better part of ten years, we are never happy with it and the few good games that come out are few and far between. Still to be fair, no movie is intended to be bad but how many are? Its the same with games and the consumer base plays a large part in a games success or failure. Often it can be as simple as people were in the wrong mood and did not apreciate a great game or were in the right mood and loved a bad one. At the end of the day even the best made games have faults if you look. Its not hard to say "this game is bugged to hell, I hate [game studio X] and hope they go under." even though it may even be less problematic than your favorite game.
It has helped me see what sets apart titles that stick with you for ages vs. the throw away garbage.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592730078/104-6899160-0059151?v=glance&n=283155
Geared towards the designer or writer.
Has anyone followed Command and Conquer 3? The story is an exact copy-paste of its predecessor, Tiberian Sun, and the units too are largely taken from C&C/TS. Cheap.
edit: fallout, max payne(story was cliche but it was great fun to be involved in a film noire tale)
besides all of this, games are not about stories they are about experiences.. your experience and actions are the story. That time you pulled the trigger and at the exact same time the last baddie fell- all you hear clicks, and that was your last round in his skull.. hell yeah!
...it seems that storylines and plots have not evolved to fully capitalise on the new tech and engines.
...
Games have evolved with available tech but the storys, although somewhat evolved, have been left behind to an extent.
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you clearly indicated game stories as something that is wrong with games today did you not?
secondly, what are you talking about? can you cite specific examples that back up your claims, because I don't understand your conclusions..
third, "my comments were engineered to create debate and in no way mirror my own personal feelings"
lame
edit: maybe I'm being a bit harsh but you can't get the internet to write your essay, you need research and proof to back up your points otherwise its nothing more than a vague opinion- and not even yours!
third, "my comments were engineered to create debate and in no way mirror my own personal feelings"
lame
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quoted for truth
I'm looking forward to many pc and console titles, stagnation might just be in the eye of the beholder
Man, being a stubborn dick always gets people talking
Thanks again for your views guys. I will post a link to the article when I am done.
Now to go do all this again on a few other forums....
Second clue - Poorly written post after poorly written post presented with the tact of a 13 year old,LOL!
Third clue - You think Quake 4 is a great game.
I don't appreciate people being total asses, whatever the reason.