Video games are dying.

[Czech Yes or No]

Hardcore video games are dying. It has been observed by myself among many others that this trend is on quite a roll. The tendency for producers to create titles that are no longer for fun (they were at their start, but they have gone downhill ever since) and are created to reel in the profits. Case in point: the day 1 "From Ashes" DLC for Mass Effect 3.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/322670/20120402/bioware-mass-effect-3-dlc-controversy-news.html

Another example of the mass marketing of this industry comes from CoD Elite, a service that users pay 49 dollars a year to access fully, all with the purpose of receiving what another company, Bungie, offered years earlier and for free.

Finally, the largest growing segment of video games is the casual genre. Ranging from Angry Birds to Wii games, each of these releases leads down the path of destruction for real, hardcore and competitive gamers.

http://www.economist.com/node/21541164

Unless significant changes are made to the gaming industry (they won't be made), video games will lose touch with their original audience, all in the names of profits.

Although this was inevitable, as capitalism is bound to rear its head in every possible money-making endeavor, it certainly would be fortunate if gaming returned to its roots.

 

[Shadowtree]

I totally agree with your main point. The gaming industry has lost touch with what the consumer wants.

However, I believe that there's nothing wrong with capitalism in itself. Just stupid capitalism. Sure I get the idea is make as much money as possible and therefore spending a lesser amount seems better suited to achieve such a goal, but no one is going to buy a crappy product. If people do buy it, then they complain. I mean, look at all the bad rep EA is getting for laziness. Sure they'll hold in there for awhile, but the beauty of ideal capitalism is that it is self maintaining. If you don't make a quality product, you don't make any money. If you don't make any money, you (eventually) cannot afford to continue making that product because you foolishly squandered your resources.
Then the company fails... Game over. Pun intended. Yes I know its a terrible joke.
(Note: this is most effective when there isn't some government 'charity'/ hand outs- because that prolongs the process of "company death". It just gives them more money in the hopes that they'll wake up and start making a good product... which rarely... if ever.. happens. )

 

[snafupants]

I totally agree with your main point. The gaming industry has lost touch with what the consumer wants.

However, I believe that there's nothing wrong with capitalism in itself. Just stupid capitalism. Sure I get the idea is make as much money as possible and therefore spending a lesser amount seems better suited to achieve such a goal, but no one is going to buy a crappy product. If people do buy it, then they complain. I mean, look at all the bad rep EA is getting for laziness. Sure they'll hold in there for awhile, but the beauty of ideal capitalism is that it is self maintaining. If you don't make a quality product, you don't make any money. If you don't make any money, you (eventually) cannot afford to continue making that product because you foolishly squandered your resources.
Then the company fails... Game over. Pun intended. Yes I know its a terrible joke.
(Note: this is most effective when there isn't some government 'charity'/ hand outs- because that prolongs the process of "company death". It just gives them more money in the hopes that they'll wake up and start making a good product... which rarely... if ever.. happens. )

Government handouts preclude a veritable free market but so does, as Adam Smith would have it, gross amounts of money in the hands of a limited slice of the consumer population. The basic notion of sustained capitalism is wonky because of the foibles inherent in human nature and the lack of oversight which capitalism, by definition, demands. There was this early contention, extolled by Smith among others, that consumers would favor nationally produced products over international goods. That entire idea, at least with the advent of globalization, has been proven demonstrably false. Capitalism, and its international version globalization, today is practiced as to be dehumanizing and taxing on the wrong faculties of humans: Jefferson's worst nightmare. Today glitz and marketing appear to steer sales more than the merits of the product; unethical behavior, nowadays, isn't even an insurmountable deterrent to sales and stock prices because we all ironically assume that companies, and governments, behave in an unethical manner anyway.

 

[Mello]

There are more and more indie developers.

Minecraft, for example. haha

 

[PhillyFanWA]

Well the gaming industry in general is actually not dying, but booming. What is dying is the old model of catering exclusively to the hardcore gamers since they are actually the least profitable and most demanding customers. The old customer loyalty myth says appease your most hardcore and royal customers leads to most profits has just been recently dispelled. So, now a days the gaming industry is focused much more on making money and less about hardcore gaming.
If you haven't noticed the gaming companies are already segmenting the hardcore gamers (MMO subscription model and DLCs) to make more money off them. This is actually a sign of a mature industry that's becoming risk averse. So, don't think of it as a bad thing, because the old days are not coming back.

 

[DetachedRetina]

I think as philly fan said there is a lot of money to be made off of hardcore gamers in DLC. This is why Bioware should be thankful their fans are so vocal about what they dislike in ME3. Companies often spend a great deal on market research and gamers are talking directly to Bioware for free! The New Yorker and other pseudo-intellectual sources complain that gamers threaten Bioware's "artistic vision."

Bah!

Look at Halo or CoD or Mass Effect itself for that matter. If Mass Effect 1 or the original Halo had sucked, or even if ME2 or Halo 2 had sucked, the series wouldn't have been so profitable. There is plenty of opportunity for the hardcore gamer market to be tapped. This is why most all the Mass Effect fans actually bought "From Ashes."

If a customer is invested in the product you can always milk a little bit more out of them. If Angry Birds came out with a sequel that sucked, everybody would immediately drop it and find some other crap to do while sitting in the waiting room or riding the bus.

You keep your loyal customers happy, it is true. They are where your money comes from in most industries at least. Especially in the entertainment industry.

 

[DetachedRetina]

Yeah not to mention MMO subscriptions.

Video games simply aren't catering exclusively to hardcore gamers anymore.

 

[DetachedRetina]

Government handouts preclude a veritable free market but so does, as Adam Smith would have it, gross amounts of money in the hands of a limited slice of the consumer population. The basic notion of sustained capitalism is wonky because of the foibles inherent in human nature and the lack of oversight which capitalism, by definition, demands. There was this early contention, extolled by Smith among others, that consumers would favor nationally produced products over international goods. That entire idea, at least with the advent of globalization, has been proven demonstrably false. Capitalism, and its international version globalization, today is practiced as to be dehumanizing and taxing on the wrong faculties of humans: Jefferson's worst nightmare. Today glitz and marketing appear to steer sales more than the merits of the product; unethical behavior, nowadays, isn't even an insurmountable deterrent to sales and stock prices because we all ironically assume that companies, and governments, behave in an unethical manner anyway.

I would also argue that convenience begets sales, perhaps equally as much as glitz. Not to disagree, just to add to, your point.

Also, the market has an increased ability to listen to the demands of consumers, and subsequently cater to them, since the advent of sites like yelp.com and the internet in general. There are gads of data available about keystrokes and search engine queries available to an interested company. And why shouldn't a company be interested in knowing what it's customers want?

 

[DetachedRetina]

Human behavior is as unpredictable as ever, but is now more measurable than ever!

I think this bodes well for capitalism as a means to distribute resources most effectively. You?

 

[snafupants]

I would also argue that convenience begets sales, perhaps equally as much as glitz. Not to disagree, just to add to, your point.

Also, the market has an increased ability to listen to the demands of consumers, and subsequently cater to them, since the advent of sites like yelp.com and the internet in general. There are gads of data available about keystrokes and search engine queries available to an interested company. And why shouldn't a company be interested in knowing what it's customers want?

I still believe that respectability and the semblance of cool steers the preponderance of products more than the actual merits of said product. I also feel uncomfortable endorsing your comment about the market's ability to listen to consumer demand because the market also creates that demand. The crux of demand for particular items is partly fueled by convenience, yes, but predominately propelled by social factors which marketing departments notice and enhance and basically manipulate. Imagine how most people approach buying a car. Sure fuel economy and long-term reliability are factors but folks seem to be especially attuned to how the car will make them look when they pull into their company parking space. I mean, fuel economy, as evidenced by scads of huge trucks and jeeps, could hardly be deemed the driver of sales whereas the car's color and general appearance could definitely be awarded deal breaker status.

 

[DetachedRetina]

Too true, perhaps this is why Steve Jobs was so successful?

He was pretty much the king of making products cool, even if at the expense of quality, and then selling them for more than the competition charged.

Sigh... Humans

I still think the potential status enhancing qualities of a product may be part of the equation, while the real value of said product is another. This, I think, is why people buy so many Japanese cars instead of American muscle.

In the video game world consumers are now telling producers exactly what it is they want. See "retake mass effect" http://retakemasseffect.tumblr.com/

If apple products didn't at least function at all, nobody would buy them. Government influence and human stupidity can blunt the fine tip of theoretical supply/demand capitalism and warp the definition of, and cost of producing, a successful product. But they can't completely nullify the effects of having a "free" or somewhat free market can they?

If there are a group of individuals who demand hardcore games I think hardcore games they shall have. And how can the ability to express to gaming companies that they demand hardcore games hurt their chances of receiving them?

 

[snafupants]

We can perhaps agree that quality is an essential but insufficient quality that bolsters sales when widespread attention is aroused. When you have a really poor product, marketing will eventually fall on its face and sales will plummet; this tendency is less exaggerated with an average product with great marketing but still present; basically popular currents are less discerning than they should be and both crappy products and stellar products typically take awhile to gain and lose steam in the absence of flashy marketing. That said, a great product, I agree, would survive and maybe thrive with a modicum of marketing and public appreciation.

 

[DetachedRetina]

But yeah, I too think the actual manipulation of demand is a depressing, if impressive, feat of current marketing gurus. In a perfect world consumers would not be manipulable.

 

[PhillyFanWA]

But yeah, I too think the actual manipulation of demand is a depressing, if impressive, feat of current marketing gurus. In a perfect world consumers would not be manipulable.

You can't manipulate demand! That's simply not possible without significant market power (like a monopoly).

What is possible is to extract the consumer surplus by segmenting the consumers. Different types of consumers usually have different price points for the same product, and when one has to pay less than what he's willing to pay the left over is called the consumer surplus.

Say a hardcore gamer that's willing to pay $90 for a new AAA title. A decade ago, this guy would happily pay $50 for a new game and retain his consumer surplus of $40 and that's that.
However now, he pays $60 for a brand new game. He finishes the game in a few weeks, then shells out $10 for a DLC. In another month he shells out another $10 for a DLC. Basically now he's consumer surplus is only $10 since he paid $80 for this AAA title.

 

[Czech Yes or No]

How did this become a discussion about capitalism?

 

[DetachedRetina]

manipulating demand is what advertising is all about. Right? You can increase the appeal of your product, thus increasing the demand for that product, without ever altering the product.

Sorry this turned into a debate on capitalism. You mentioned it yourself, capitalism rears its ugly head in every (discussion about a) possible money making endeavor.

Ha maybe this thread is a microcosm of the gaming world.
I think they are still viewed primarily as a consumer good that provides entertainment, as opposed to an "art."

I think that is because it is becoming exceedingly difficult to just create your own video game. A huge investment has to be made by a producer who wants to be sure s/he will get a return on his/her investment.
Fiction writing, for instance, can pretty much be done by anybody with a keyboard. Painting is really accessible too. Those who may wish to publish a novel can judge its worth upon completion and decide whether it will sell, the author's vision remains largely intact. I realize authors are under a great deal of pressure from publicists too, but in a video game the money-men have even more say.
The music industry is probably somewhere in between.

 

[Czech Yes or No]

manipulating demand is what advertising is all about. Right? You can increase the appeal of your product, thus increasing the demand for that product, without ever altering the product.

Sorry this turned into a debate on capitalism. You mentioned it yourself, capitalism rears its ugly head in every (discussion about a) possible money making endeavor.

Ha maybe this thread is a microcosm of the gaming world.
I think they are still viewed primarily as a consumer good that provides entertainment, as opposed to an "art."

I think that is because it is becoming exceedingly difficult to just create your own video game. A huge investment has to be made by a producer who wants to be sure s/he will get a return on his/her investment.
Fiction writing, for instance, can pretty much be done by anybody with a keyboard. Painting is really accessible too. Those who may wish to publish a novel can judge its worth upon completion and decide whether it will sell, the author's vision remains largely intact. I realize authors are under a great deal of pressure from publicists too, but in a video game the money-men have even more say.
The music industry is probably somewhere in between.

I definitely agree with the statement of casualization and monetization of games.
They are a business.

 

[travelnjones]

People have been saying this for years. I recently watched "chasing ghosts" which talks about early coin op games. Those guys were all up in arms about game allowing you to continue by putting in another quarter. I myself hated fighter games coming and taking over the arcade as they were not really fun to me. Now when i go into dave and busters i think it sucks. Those games are a joke.

I can remember getting my xbox 360 and feeling the games were weak and easy compared to the games of the Xbox. The market went soft to include more people. Now indie games and xbox live market place games are sort of the rage.

The point is its always changing and it rarely seems to go back to what it used to be. The market is as strong as ever but you may not like what the new thing is. i have my 2600 and two coin op arcade games in my garage because of this.

 

[Czech Yes or No]

People have been saying this for years. I recently watched "chasing ghosts" which talks about early coin op games. Those guys were all up in arms about game allowing you to continue by putting in another quarter. I myself hated fighter games coming and taking over the arcade as they were not really fun to me. Now when i go into dave and busters i think it sucks. Those games are a joke.

I can remember getting my xbox 360 and feeling the games were weak and easy compared to the games of the Xbox. The market went soft to include more people. Now indie games and xbox live market place games are sort of the rage.

The point is its always changing and it rarely seems to go back to what it used to be. The market is as strong as ever but you may not like what the new thing is. i have my 2600 and two coin op arcade games in my garage because of this.

Interesting comments.

I do agree with you on the fact that few of us are accepting of change, especially in things that we hold dear.

 

[Puffy]

There are more and more indie developers.

Minecraft, for example. haha

+1 to indie developers

-1 to Minecraft.

I don't play nearly as much as I used to (if at all), but a friend of mine is really into the artistic capabilities of the medium and I have to say I've been really enjoying some of these games coming out from indie developers recently..

There will always be people catering for "hardcore gamers" or certain sensibilities you just have to dig around a lot. Hopefully the broader audience games have now will bring good things, more diversity, funding for more interesting projects. Don't know. I'm just bullshitting.

 

[Affinity]

Too true, perhaps this is why Steve Jobs was so successful?

He was pretty much the king of making products cool, even if at the expense of quality, and then selling them for more than the competition charged.

You've obviously never used an Apple product.

 

[Felan]

kickstarter.com has some cool projects.

"Shadow Returns" has about 66 hours left on its fund raising, which has reached 1.5 million now. The guy running the effort is the guy that created the Shadowrun pen and paper game and was involved in both the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games that were both very popular (I only played the Genesis game). He had recently (re-)acquired the intellectual property for Shadowrun. Originally they were asking for $400,000 but as they have been exceeding watermarks they've been adding to their promised deliverables.

Another kickstarter project that I liked and that has finished collecting funding was Wasteland 2. Wasteland was an old school post-apocolyptic rpg that I played and loved as a kid.

As far as games declining, honestly every gamer in every age has said that. My friends and I started our lamentations 20 or more years ago. The games of today seem shallow compared to games of old, when 4 colors ruled the day. New games were infrequent in my youth so we played the crap out of the games we had. Now a game is pretty good if I can get a week's worth of entertainment out of it.

In the end I think whatever someone is passionate about, they will end up lamenting how it changes over time, even if it doesn't really change. I think there is some brain chemistry at work there or something.

 

[Czech Yes or No]

In the end I think whatever someone is passionate about, they will end up lamenting how it changes over time, even if it doesn't really change. I think there is some brain chemistry at work there or something.

This.

 

[Meer]

Too many games these days, especially RTS games, are 3D when they don't need to be.

FPS games can't really change much anymore...

 

[Akuma]

Lots of "Back in my day..." in here.

Considering the increasing expenses for making games, piracy, used-game sales and still wanting to get profit off of it, it's not surprising publishers want to keep it safe and appeal to a wider audience.

Extra Credits actually makes me somewhat positive about the future of games.

As long as customers speak up about bad business decisions like Mass Effect 3 DLC, publishers can't get away with it.

Indie games also get a bigger spotlight and traditionally "hard" games still get attention eg. Legend of Grimrock, Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls, etc

Too many games these days, especially RTS games, are 3D when they don't need to be.

FPS games can't really change much anymore...

Games don't need good graphics either, but that's part of the demand.

FPS... What about Bioshock? Or Xotic? Reset by Theory Interactive is pretty interesting looking too. Big franchises like COD are going to be forced to change whether they like it or not.

I'm having trouble getting my sentences together so for anyone curious, Extra Credits on "Easy Games" http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/easy-games

 

[Pizzabeak]

Blame pirates, companies aren't getting all the monies they should so they resort to "DLC".. Which started out reasonable but is getting out of hand now.

 

[DetachedRetina]

You've obviously never used an Apple product.

I retract my statements about the quality of apple products. They are overpriced though, because of their coolness.

 

[Affinity]

I retract my statements about the quality of apple products. They are overpriced though, because of their coolness.

You sure it has nothing to do with the demand and the niche each of their products fill? iMac? Where else are you going to find a tidy all-in-one system? Macbook Air? Sure, companies are now catching on the ultra-portable/powerful laptops but how do they even compare? iPad? Somebody had to make one that people would actually use and incorporate in their lives. Not to mention the resolution for a tablet is unmatched at this point. iPhone? Highest resolution phone? Highest build quality?

Not to mention high resale of the products so if you're a tech geek that has gotta have the latest and greatest, it makes sense to go Apple because you take a lesser hit trading up. So no, I for one do not think Apple products are overpriced. IMO.

 

[InvisibleJim]

 

[EyeSeeCold]

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/9411/dlcr.jpg

Too true.

Companies are making a killing in the DLC market, and all the while it's little emphasized that, if used properly, DLC could keep a game relevant and entertaining for years yet producers of big names like Call of Duty have you buy a whole other game which is not so different from the previous.

 

[The Black Raven]

There's a lot that needs to be said about that subject, and it has been said piecemeal all over the web about different aspects of the video game industry. I'm going to summarize it in maybe two sentences.

When the gaming industry stops being the playground for wall street types, realizing this line of business isn't going to turn as much of a profit as they imagine; and the ceo's of companies that produce games realize they are making entertainment and not house loans (money for games, not making games for money), maybe it can start to get out of its mediocre rut.

As an aside--i am struck almost in awe how similar the response is to the "Retake Mass Effect 3" as large banks and stockholders were to the "Occupy Wall street".

 

[ObliviousGenius]

Blame pirates, companies aren't getting all the monies they should so they resort to "DLC".. Which started out reasonable but is getting out of hand now.

Right now piracy is the biggest concern for these companies. I've heard rumors that the PS4 would prevent the use of used games on a different console. This will destroy the video game industry completely I think. Most of the games I buy are used and if I can't by used games I am not going to play them anymore. I seriously hope these are just rumors.

 

[EnigmaticMan]

Right now piracy is the biggest concern for these companies. I've heard rumors that the PS4 would prevent the use of used games on a different console. This will destroy the video game industry completely I think. Most of the games I buy are used and if I can't by used games I am not going to play them anymore. I seriously hope these are just rumors.

True, I enjoy so many used games, I simply don't have the money to do with as I please. It is quite deplorable in my opinion, money, money, and more money they want. Not to say that I'm innocent. I have PS1 emulator on my computer with many classics. As I said before, I can barely afford the games I have now and video games as for most INTPs is a large part of my life.

 

[Proletar]

This is exactly what has been happening to music for the past 40 years. I'm a hardcore music lover, and every time I turn on the radio, there is music for casual listeners. Pop music, and it's everywhere. A medium that earlier appealed to some now is made to catch everyone, with gimmics, censorship and easy concepts, and it makes me sick.

In the future, the people that now call themselves Gamers will not be comfortable with that title anymore, as they have already fled into the title of "Hardcore Gamers", whatever that means. I.E:

1: Gamers and non gamers.
2: Hardcore gamers and casual gamers
3: Hardcore gamers and gamers.
4: Nerds and normal people.

With the main difference between 1 and 4 being that the games are now made for that second group, not the first.


- Oh, I like any kind of music. Hip-hop, rock, pop, dubstep... I can listen to anything! What? You don't listen to Lady Gaga? What about Beyonce? Pink? You are strange.

- No you bitch, I'm into music. You are not.

 

[Wolf]

I pirate everything, so I don't much care.

The only good video games left are Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

 

[psion]

I personally really like PvP games, so it's League of Legends and Starcraft for me. The only other games I pay for are various multiplayer zombie shooting games, usually on Steam. I torrent all single player games, because there will just be an expansion or DLC that I will also have to pay for in a couple months, so what's the point? Once they get you to start paying for a game, well hell, why not milk it?

I would agree that a lot of games that are focused toward single player or multiplayer gaming are becoming easier and easier (probably a combination of oversimplification on the producers end and that I am just getting better at video games), so I have gravitated towards games that are solely, or are focused on, PvP. It tends to provide more challenge, because even as you get better, you won't hit a point where you can just say, "alright I have thoroughly beaten this and there is no need to get any better".

 

[Fedayeen]

just because there are some examples of bad shit happening doesnt mean thats everything. unfortunately this year has been a crappy year for gaming mostly because there hasn't really been a lot of good games. but from what I can tell darksiders 2, borderlands 2, and dishonored are 3 games coming out in the next few months (darksiders is tuesday) that are gamers games. the 1st 2 are super polished games with ridiculous amounts of content. and dishonored provides a unique experience that is both empowering and challenging at the same time. all these games are being developed by developers who are hardcore gamers, and genuinely want to make awesome games

I pirate everything, so I don't much care.

The only good video games left are Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

that is a joke right? those are some of the buggiest games in existence. honestly I have no clue how bethesda gets so many game breaking bugs in past sony and MS' certification process.

 

[toastedtruth]

Indie games are bigger than ever. Look at Minecraft or Super Meat Boy. Watch Indie Game:The Movie to fully appeciate them. The crowd is turning away from the franchises that produce crap games where there is no longer fun. They were good at first, but then the novelty wore off - and monetization kicked in (Angry Birds).

 

[NinjaSurfer]

Zynga's rise and fall is a perfect example of the original post's materialization.

 

[DeadonDreaming]

kickstarter.com has some cool projects.

"Shadow Returns" has about 66 hours left on its fund raising, which has reached 1.5 million now. The guy running the effort is the guy that created the Shadowrun pen and paper game and was involved in both the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games that were both very popular (I only played the Genesis game). He had recently (re-)acquired the intellectual property for Shadowrun. Originally they were asking for $400,000 but as they have been exceeding watermarks they've been adding to their promised deliverables.

Another kickstarter project that I liked and that has finished collecting funding was Wasteland 2. Wasteland was an old school post-apocolyptic rpg that I played and loved as a kid.

As far as games declining, honestly every gamer in every age has said that. My friends and I started our lamentations 20 or more years ago. The games of today seem shallow compared to games of old, when 4 colors ruled the day. New games were infrequent in my youth so we played the crap out of the games we had. Now a game is pretty good if I can get a week's worth of entertainment out of it.

In the end I think whatever someone is passionate about, they will end up lamenting how it changes over time, even if it doesn't really change. I think there is some brain chemistry at work there or something.

OH MY GOD! The Shadowrun game on Sega Genesis was so awesome!!

And yes, gaming during the early 90s was a golden era, the age of Wolfenstein, DooM and Command and Conquer. I remember opening up gaming magazines every month and being greeted with dozens of new titles, with new types of games cropping up all the time.

Now, games take so long to produce, that you don't see the same onslaught of titles every month, and they can't really take risks on anything new.

 

[lord methous]

that is a joke right? those are some of the buggiest games in existence. honestly I have no clue how bethesda gets so many game breaking bugs in past sony and MS' certification process.

Sony and MS know it will sell really well so they do not really care.

 

[redbaron]

Some recent single player titles I found challenging and enjoyable:

Dark Souls
Ninja Gaiden 3 (1 and 2 were also good, but a little older now)
Darksiders 1 and 2
KOA: Reckoning (PC with hardcore mod) - special mention. The vanilla game unfortunately had a crappy enemy level scaling system, that made the game easier sort of by accident. With the hardcore mod, it was akin to if not even harder than Dark Souls in some areas (which is notoriously hard in itself).

I preferred Darksiders 1 to 2. I actually am not a huge fan of that many games that combine the RPG element with hack 'n' slash. Darksiders 2 was just a little too RPG-ey for my taste, but I still rate it was one of my favourite games of all time.

When it comes to games like WoW, CoD, Battlefield and DotA knock-offs like LoL and HoN don't even get me started. These games are trash. I mostly play DotA and Street Fighter these days, since the games have booming competitive scenes and developers whose objective is to ensure the competitive scene maintains its integrity, and that this is prioritized over any sort of cosmetic crap.

Not to say I agree with every single balance in each patch released, but the overall change from update to update generally steers the franchise in the right direction - both more variety AND tougher competition.

Skyrim was b-o-r-i-n-g.

Edit: I'd also like to add, that I'm really sad that platform games have become more 'kiddy' and the adult appeal has been almost removed. I loaded up Crash Bandicoot 1/2/3 the other day, and I have to say I'll probably be playing them in my spare time the next few months. It's so refreshing to play games that just have solid gameplay, with in-built challenges - time-trials, collectables in each level for completing certains tasks etc. Without having flashy animations and colours all over the screen and characters with stupid voices to entertain children.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

CoD, Battlefield

Which ones have you played?

 

[travelnjones]

Some recent single player titles I found challenging and enjoyable:

Dark Souls
Ninja Gaiden 3 (1 and 2 were also good, but a little older now)
Darksiders 1 and 2
.

Really Ninja Gaiden 3. I thought it was terrible a complete dumb down white wash of the other two games. game play had little depth and was very repetitive. It was super easy and only about 6 hours of game play

 

[redbaron]

Really Ninja Gaiden 3. I thought it was terrible a complete dumb down white wash of the other two games. game play had little depth and was very repetitive. It was super easy and only about 6 hours of game play

I think you might be right, I played it at my friends house for 2-3 hours and I enjoyed it, but for some reason never ended up buying it. I think nostalgia might have gotten the better of me when I made that post.

In any case Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 were outstanding.

Which ones have you played?

I've played all of them. My cousins love all of them, so I've played them a decent amount. They're so dumbed down compared to what some FPS games are, and the ridiculous clutter that is literally all over every section of the maps is just horrendous.

I get that the point is realism, but realism does not necessarily equate to competitive and interesting game-play.

The fact that 1.6 was fashioned after the original half-life engine, and the game is so responsive and smooth is the reason it remains the premier competitive team-based FPS game 12 years into its existence - just like Starcraft and RTS, 3rd Strike and fighting games. The old games remained 'the' games even when newer, flashier titles were released.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

The fact that 1.6 was fashioned after the original half-life engine, and the game is so responsive and smooth is the reason it remains the premier competitive team-based FPS game 12 years into its existence - just like Starcraft and RTS, 3rd Strike and fighting games. The old games remained 'the' games even when newer, flashier titles were released.

I'm not really debating that games aren't getting worse, it's just plain commercialism. Though I think it's becoming more difficult for developers to make the kind of games that have great replay value, and still hope to make a decent profit in the current market.

That's not to say all games in the past were great. There were a lot of shitty games in the 80s, 90s and 00s.

Spoiler

I've played all of them. My cousins love all of them, so I've played them a decent amount. They're so dumbed down compared to what some FPS games are, and the ridiculous clutter that is literally all over every section of the maps is just horrendous.

I get that the point is realism, but realism does not necessarily equate to competitive and interesting game-play.

Call of Duty up to and including 3 were some of the best campaign mode FPSs. Call of Duty 4 was great also, but mostly for multiplayer, and Infinity Ward deserves respect for stepping out of the over-saturated WWII market(along with Killzone). The CoDs after that began to drop in quality because they acquired a monopoly and wanted to milk it for what they could. Treyarch's zombie mode is largely the only redeeming or innovative quality post-Modern Warfare 1.

The Battlefield series were known for tactics but 3 was developed to compete with Modern Warfare 3(the story mode is a straight rip-off of Black Ops lol), which reduced the tactical gameplay style to run-n-gun / spray-and-pray. Taking bases in BF:BC2 was almost impossible if you didn't work as a team with mics. Besides that, being able to pilot aircraft, the graphics, and the humor(BC 1 & 2) are also what made it a great series.

And you can't beat Bad Company's ingame radio station.

 

[Duxwing]

Statistics should take the pain away. Let's ignore markets, social forces, all of it. Let's just use math (hidden in this spoiler)

Spoiler

Consider the fact that "classic" or "great" video games have a probability p of being produced on any given day. Therefore, for d days we should get p*d games, or, as a formula, where g is the number of games:

g = p*d

If we assume that "these days" constitutes the recent year, then it should come as no surprise that it contains fewer "great" games than we remember total. In fact, and by definition, it cannot be any greater (assuming that we are aware of all games).

In concrete terms, consider that the decimal probability of producing such a game is precisely .001 Starting from the arbitrarily-chosen year 1990, there have been twenty-one full years. Therefore:

g = (.001 games/day)*(21 years)

Converting years to days by the formula: 1 year = 365.25 days (the decimal being for leap-years):

g = (.001 games/day)*(7,670.25 days)

Cancel the units and round to the nearest day:

g = (.001*7,670) games

Simplify and round to the nearest game:

g = 77 games

But for just one year-- our year, 2012?

g = 77/21 games = 3.666 ~ 4 games.

But that's a meager one twenty-first the number of games! Well, considering that we only sampled a period of proportionally tiny length, it's inevitable that the result should be smaller.

Therefore, we can conclude that video games only appear to be dying, for we're comparing samples of differing sizes without controlling for them.

-Duxwing

 

[Dapper Dan]

Er, what? Gaming right now is amazing.

 

[Oblivious]

Dark Souls.
Borderlands 2.
World of Tanks.
Starcraft II.

Hardly dead I'll say.

 

[P.N. Guin]

I haven't read everything yet, but I wanted to jump in and say that this is quite interesting to me. I'm only a casual gamer, and up to now I've only heard "____ is dying" when referred to films and music. I suppose its a cyclical problem; a groundbreaking art-form or other mode of communication emerges, but becomes diluted after it is commercialised. I'm so used to 'rock is dead' rhetoric these days that I'm no longer saddened when this happens. So imho while the situation with video games is a shame, I don't think there's much one can do about this except support your indies. Cine- and audiophiles are also tarred with the 'snob' label quite often, so I expect the most passionate gamers will have to get used to similar treatment (if they aren't already) in the not too distant future. /thinking aloud...