There is a silver lining here, more and more of us realise this is going on and our voices are getting louder. The age range of people who agree that dumbing down is occurring is broadening. We had a shift from a more sandbox to a more themepark game five or six years ago. But if you were not playing before that how would you know it was going on?
Now even teenagers can see this going on from year to year, my hope is that the gaming community starts to boycott games which are too simple or become too simple. We already do that as individuals, time to put the word out to one and all.
You had me a streamlining. Sadly, this is the new gaming culture, make the games shallow and shiny, screw challenge, give them a couple of hours of distraction, and they will lap it up. It doesnt need to be good, just enough shinies to have them ooh and ahh. Look at gaming progression, the casual gamer is the new target demographic, anything challenging, difficult, or time consuming is out, in with the shallow, mediocre, and banal.
Its a sad indictment on the gaming industry that the new developers, the gamers of old, are making this garbage, and the "Journalists" give these substandard games 7-10 out of 10 because they dont want lost access to the upcoming titles. The industry is a joke, going mainstream and recycling old ideas, its just like Hollywood, recycle old/foreign ideas, repackage them in such a way as to add mroe explosions, skin, and pretty girls, and the moron masses will consume it and make you money.
It wouldnt surprise me if all creative design positions were filled with a market study touting suit.
Keep the faith, avoid MMO's if you have to, play older games if you have to ignore the newer collection of mediocre crap that is being pushed out not ready, not tested and made for console audience (absurdly short attention span and limited reading capability) though, you may experience some nostalgia, and be reminded how far game quality has fallen in storytelling, character development and immersive capability. Sucks to be an older gamer in the era of casual mainstream.
Thanks for the response. I definitely agree. I've been quite frustrated with various gaming review sites that continue to give these crappy gaves decent ratings as well.
I really think that Mythic is a prime example of a good developer with good ideas going to hell, ala Barton Fink. The EA Louse blog is hillarious to read, after he claims that Jeff Hickman was a customer service rep promoted to produce WAR.
I have noticed how many excellent ideas were in old games, and how little we have impproved since them. I started playing Diablo 2 with my ex after never experiencing it before. I can't believe how innovative it was. I also downloaded the first Final Fantasy, which was originally on NES, on my blackberry. I have now lost all respect for the FF series, as they have hardly come up with any new ideas.
I feel like a moron for buying a nice new shiny gaming computer. There are no modern games worth playing other than some FPS games that are fun for an hour. I feel like I should get into video editing or electronic music production just to be able to use it's hardware lol.
dont agrree with the mythic statement at all.
mythic made a crappy game, hence why they went down. it had nothing to do with not having these "tricks" to keep plaeyrs hooked.
the balancing issues, coupled with the crappy bugs is what did them in
(playing a melee class in the begining was...near impossible in PvP)
Comments
wow great post man.
def a nice read
There is a silver lining here, more and more of us realise this is going on and our voices are getting louder. The age range of people who agree that dumbing down is occurring is broadening. We had a shift from a more sandbox to a more themepark game five or six years ago. But if you were not playing before that how would you know it was going on?
Now even teenagers can see this going on from year to year, my hope is that the gaming community starts to boycott games which are too simple or become too simple. We already do that as individuals, time to put the word out to one and all.
dont agrree with the mythic statement at all.
mythic made a crappy game, hence why they went down. it had nothing to do with not having these "tricks" to keep plaeyrs hooked.
the balancing issues, coupled with the crappy bugs is what did them in
(playing a melee class in the begining was...near impossible in PvP)