Are FPS's dumbing down gamers?

[ultimasupersaiyan]

Yes! Yes! Oh god YES! FPS games are dumbing down gamers because of things like lack of story or any intellectual stimulation. Don't get me wrong I like playing games like Halo 3, Bioshock and Fallout 3 but let's face it, the games are not meant for higher brain functions... just reactions and instincts. Also the only reason FPS are dumbing down gamers is because that's all there is on the current generation of consoles. FPS seem to be the easiest games to make for developers so that's why they are pretty much all there is.

 

[zimtheawesome]

This may be from my own personal experiences... but do you think that modern first person shooters are dumbing down gamers?
I have 3 examples of this.

The first example is my brother (aged 14) playing mass effect. i had told him to play it as he didnt know what game to play and i loved the game. i leave him to play it for 1 hour and come back to see him playing call of duty world at war. i ask him 'why did you stop?' he replied 'i got to the part where your on the spaceship and you have to tell the pilot to bring us into dock or something.. and i got lost on the ship so i gave up' this suprised me as the normandy isnt exactly the most complicated place to navigate through. He is an avid call of duty player and is usually used to being carried along on a leash through a level me thinks... and i was his age when i played mass effect, so it cant be the fact that its just a confusing game can it?

The second example is my friend who just started playing the orange box and i told him to start the half life games. (yes i know its an fps, but i like to think its the thinking mans fps)The next day I ask him how far he got.. and he said 'i dunno.. i got out of the train station place and was outside.. then i got lost.. so i gave up and went to play call of duty'. im not blaming call of duty at all.. its just a coincedence that thats what they went to play.

Third example (and my personal favourite) is when another of my friends was playing fallout 3... some time after he bought it and started it, he called me and asked 'ok.. ive been outside rivet city for 20 minutes and i havent a clue how to get onto the bleedin' thing!' This amused/disapointed to no end, so i hung up on him. Also a Call of Duty player.
Now im not sure if this is an actual problem, or my friends are just complete morons... but i couldnt help pin it on the obvious connection between them all.. first person shooters..
Discuss
PS: this is also my first ever thread post.. so.. eh.. be nice =P

Ever think that for the first two examples that they dont want to play the games. Just because you enjoy them doesnt mean that they will. And if you arent in the mood for a "clever" game then when you play it you are just going to get annoyed with it and are not going to get far in it before you want to quit.

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

I argue that most people play games to get away from strenuous thinking.

Exactly. Isn't that why they made Doom?

Yes, but I doubt that anyone raised on a staple diet of COD (not salmon, salmon is awesome) would manage to navigate some levels of Doom. I mean, if someone can't find the bridge of the Normandy in Mass Effect then they certainly aren't going to have the patience to find hidden doors and keycards. Not to mention how labyrinthine some of the levels in Doom 2 were.

 

[Twad]

No.

I think your pals are just idiots (No offense)

FPS don't dumb down gamers. Sure, if you play enough FPS games with the same cliché's you might be confused when they aren't present in another game, but that is more of developing a habit to an easy-to-follow setting rather than actually becoming dumber.

What he said. (no offense)
YOur friends dont seem to have a long attention span, they went to insta-gratification games instead.

 

[Asehujiko]

any game which has the 'hide in a corner and suck your thumb' as a healing method is basically dumbing down the gaming community as it throws out any and all tactical and stratigic thinking. in all honosty, the removal of the health bar has really lowered the average attention span of players in those games.

Men of War has soldiers that start fumbling around with a health kit when they are behind cover and nobody is throwing grenades at them and that's an exceptionally complex(irritatingly so) game.

 

[Bihac]

Games have gotten incredibly, simple is the word I think? In Batman Arkham Asylum, the counter button flashed all the time in combat, like I'm some kind of amnesiac and wouldn'd remember it the first time :S And I was playing on hard ffs! Oblivion had the same thing, when you highlighted a quest it showed, immediatly, on the map where you had to go. In Morrowind you had to figure it out all by yourself, and god damn, finding the bloody place was all that sweeter because you'd made an effort.

Pretty much this, games on the whole are getting easier and holding hands more. Fable 2 RPG... We don't want you getting lost in our (already small) world, so follow the golden shining trail.

I don't want markers telling me where to go all the time, that said of course I do want things sign posted in games... because scouring the Oblivion landscape without those markers or signs would have been a nightmare (same for F3).

Jeez I also got lost on that mother fucking ship on Mass Effect, I literaly sat therre for 2 hours searching every fucking door and (and this is a complete coinicidece i swear) I somehow kept on making my way back to the Strip Club. I couldnt find where to go, seriosly how the fuck did i miss it.

If you made it to the strip club you made it off of the Normandy, which is further than the poster's brother made it.

 

[Thaius]

It could be argued, but I personally don't think it's a valid point. The fact is, gaming has evolved as an art form.

Consider film. Anyone can enjoy a film like The Matrix, but it takes someone with patience and appreciation for movies to enjoy a more dramatic or artistic movie like Pan's Labyrinth or Casablanca. But that doesn't mean The Matrix is somehow dumbed down, or simple: it's a rather complicated movie with heavy philosophical and ethical questions posed within a complex narrative and impressive action scenes. But these people don't understand that: they are not the movie buffs, they are not the film students, they are simply people who watch movies for entertainment's sake. They watch The Matrix for simple reasons, but that does not make the movie simple: rather, the person has a simplistic appreciation for movies.

People who don't see the artistic value in a given art form will enjoy it for rather shallow reasons. One could play Call of Duty with appreciation for the intense atmosphere and strategic freedom, or they could play it because they get to shoot things. One could play Halo: CE in appreciation of the story and the mysterious atmosphere, or they could just skip all the cutscenes and blow crap up.

It's not that first-person shooters are dumbing down gamers: they are not somehow an "inferior genre" or anything. Rather, they are gaming's "action" genre: anyone can enjoy them, but only the true appreciators of the art can really appreciate them. And those who play casually will not appreciate games like Mass Effect or Final Fantasy, because they are not enough to hold their attention.

We have to understand that not everyone appreciates games like we do. It's their loss, really, but it upsets me as well. Point is, it is not the fault of the genre, it's simply the lack of true appreciation for gaming on the part of the players.


P.S. I also understand the side of the competitive gamer, the one who appreciates games as a sport. Know that I am not referring to you, but rather to those who play only recreationally, with no true appreciation for sport or storytelling.

 

[targren]

I have to concur with the others. You have it backwards. Games are being dumbed down because gaming isn't just for gamers anymore, they wanted to expand the market to toddlers, grandmothers, and the terminally stupid.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Call of Duty doesn't make idiots, idiots play Call of Duty


(To justify that previous statement; that's not to say that everybody who plays CoD is an idiot. But let's face it, it's got like 15,000,000,000,000 players. A lot of 'em are gonna be idiots)

Also, Half Life isn't *that* much of a thinking man's fps. You can play through it pretty mindlessly if you're so inclined.

This.

I started on RPGs, and then added FPS games to the mix. Ahh...The first time I ever "leveled up", I was in heaven. I did get a bit lost in KOTOR and Oblivion at first, as those were my first western RPGs.

 

[ElTigreSantiago]

Also, Half Life isn't *that* much of a thinking man's fps. You can play through it pretty mindlessly if you're so inclined.

Half-Life is in no way a 'thinking man's fps', it's just really good and so people elevate it. The most difficult puzzles in it are fucking see-saws and the rest is just a question of following a more or less linear path made harder by moving targets. Don't get me wrong, I love half life, but it isn't really any cleverer than most other games.

Why does everyone on the Escapist react like this when people say that about Half Life? You can't honestly say to me that it's no smarter than games like Call of Duty and Halo where you just walk, point and shoot. Sure, the puzzles don't take a genius, but I have witnessed first-hand people who don't want to strain their brains and just go play Call of Duty.

 

[likalaruku]

Woldn't know, I'm apparently too slow & stupid as to not die in the first 3 seconds of trying to play one -_-

 

[iFail69]

/start rant

all games are being dumbed down as firms try to bring in more clients, those clients usually being kids or stupid or both. I remember when I was younger, we had UT99 and godlike bots that were horrific, and online players were even more horrific. I still can't defeat godlike bots in any way shape or form, but in UT3, godlike is not THAT hard. Also, games like starcraft, the AI was set at a difficulty and it was damn hard (still is) to defeat the Terran with the brood war expansion.

all in all, I think that games have gotten easier, but more idiots are playing nowadays (just try listening to the mic chat in CSS is like torture in itself)

/rant

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Why does everyone on the Escapist react like this when people say that about Half Life? You can't honestly say to me that it's no smarter than games like Call of Duty and Halo where you just walk, point and shoot. Sure, the puzzles don't take a genius, but I have witnessed first-hand people who don't want to strain their brains and just go play Call of Duty.

Half-Life is an intelligence test that not all gamers pass but only in the same way that a gate is an obstacle that farm animals have a hard time getting through.

 

[Beefjerky]

Well that could be argued.

I will say this however. They sure as hell aren't making people smarter.

 

[Pyro Paul]

any game which has the 'hide in a corner and suck your thumb' as a healing method is basically dumbing down the gaming community as it throws out any and all tactical and stratigic thinking. in all honosty, the removal of the health bar has really lowered the average attention span of players in those games.

Men of War has soldiers that start fumbling around with a health kit when they are behind cover and nobody is throwing grenades at them and that's an exceptionally complex(irritatingly so) game.

that is not the same thing. infact it is the complete opposit.

the 'Hide in a Corner and suck your thumb' healing method is a Regenative health system which will automatically heal you when ever you don't take damage over a certain period of time. by simply ducking out of combat for 2-6 seconds you'll be back at 100% health as if you where never shot in the first place. this removes the need to look for health kits, conserve your life, or think about other possible ways to a situation as so you can get through alive.

the 'hide n' heal' method supports nothing but blunt, full frontal assault methods and simply taking cover for a few seconds when stuff gets hairy. it removes all need to think and ultimatly forms a mear reactionary game much like whack a mole.

the 'Hide n' Heal' method is a common system seen through out the Halo Series, Call of Duty series, and Gears of War Series.

 

[Soulkiller3]

Games are being dumbed down so they sell to a wider market. And your brother/mates just are not used to having to think in a game.

 

[seizon]

I wrote out a good three paragraph reply to this, but you know what? It all boils
down too this. Sometimes you want an FPS to just kill random stuff for an hour.
Sometimes you want an in depth game to waste a whole day on. Neither is better
then the other, just depends on what you want to do.

 

[matt87_50]

dumb FPSs are...