I remember there was once an era when games had something to them; depth and complexity. Back before video games were being sold to the masses, they were innovative and creative, and gave the player an incredible amount of control.
Now that video games are popular and extremely lucrative they have to appeal to everyone. And since everyone (see: The Masses) is nearly retarded, games have to be played and understood by an everyday John Q. Assfuck.
In fact, I bet this is how most meetings go for video game developers.
Developers: “Well, we’ve got this new idea. It’s risky, but it’s innovative and multilayered. Once you learn how to play it’s nearly endless in how much you can do.”
Publishers: “Okay, well it looks like this game isn’t connecting with our target audience. Polls have found that 11-16 year old males make up a large portion of video game sales. They wont understand this leveling system, so instead we’ll just let them pick up new guns every couple of feet. Also, we need to add in some fast cars, and a soundtrack by J-Lo and Dr. Dre.”
Developers: “Um, this is a medieval fantasy role playing game…”
Publishers: “Ouch, our studies show that medieval fantasy alienates our 16-19 year old female gamers. Replace the king with some cute guy, maybe Justin Timberlake. Oh yeah, and before you go, make sure you apply a double dose of bloom lighting. We need to make sure everything looks like its coated in semen.”
That might be an exaggeration (it isn’t) but its true that game developers are becoming more of a sellout because they need to improve profits rather than make an interesting, new game.
Now, reader, you maybe be saying “NightConqueror, you sure are an arrogant assfag! You just HATE video games now because they’re popular!”
No, I hate new video games because they’re missing complexity. For example…
Look at that! Look at all the shit you can do to customize your character. I mean, come on, you can make him good at fucking girls, I’m not kidding. Fallout is one of the deepest RPG’s that you’ve probably never played. Most people are too busy beating off to bloom lighting and Halo 3 (Yes, I don’t like Halo. I’ll explain why later on).
The best example of a shitty, simple-minded game, is The Battle for Middle Earth (!omg elves legolas omg!). Holy cow, what a pile of shit. The game consists of you building about 4-5 buildings, and then mass producing piles of the same unit. After that you just smash them against other units until your enemy gives up\surrenders\commits suicide. There are no upgrades, there is one resource which is mined automatically, and there are about 3-4 different units per team. Fuck you EA. Fuck you and your shitty games.
There is a small bastion of hope in the future. Some games, like Supreme Commander, have successfully meshed good graphics and popularity with complexity and depth. Anyway, I’ve ranted for enough now.
Here’s a synopsis for you dickheads who can’t read a few paragraphs.
Games today suck because:
So to end, I don’t like the direction many game companies are going nowadays, but there are a few gems here and there. Maybe I’ll write about good upcoming games sometime. Loz.
-NightConqueror
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I agree with you completely Gio. Grand Theft Auto is a prime example. Awesome post.
You obviously haven’t paid any attention to Halo’s storyline you “arrogant assfag”.
Damn, I was going to write something on this, but you beat me to it. Perhaps I’ll expand on it later.
I’m talking about how they changed Halo 2 so much from the original, to appeal to the gay audience. Not the homosexual audience, I’m talking about “gay” as in the extreme assholes that just want uber-powerful guns.
^^ That’s the sort of point I was trying to make. I’m not saying Halo is a terrible game, its just turned into a cash cow that microsoft is more than happy to milk.