Damn, ate my post.
The problem isn't the lack of settings in the FPS environment it is the lack of innovation. As technology advances we are NOT seeing the equal advancement in gaming that should come with it. Sure everything gets more prettier but that is about it, there is no innovations since the addition of jumping from the ROTT or Doom era.
What we are not seeing is the computers being pushed to breaking point in other ways. There is nothing out there which equals WOW or EQ2 in shear networking requirements, from a server end. Today's computers could handle having to calculate the ballistics of a 15 KM artillery bombardment that has to be controlled by a good commander who understands it is a bad idea to not carry a 1. No game wants to incorporate realistic ballistics which will have snipers requiring more skill then being able to 'twitch game.' None have really large open maps without incorporating NPC elements required to stop making those maps seem like a desert where one squad of seven is running around aimlessly while hoping to find another squad of seven. No game has thought about adding realistic effects to getting shot, believing everyone wants the typical 'built like a fridge' action hero that can take a million bullets and just brush it off as if they where throwing snowballs at him. The biggest that pisses me off... That door is closed, no way in hell your ever going to be smart enough to turn the knob and open it! I hate limitation on the damn maps, as a sniper I need more then ONE open window to fire out of! Can't relocate when you got no where to damn well relocate too....
And so on and so on...
They are too scared to break away from the 'you are a one man army' set up that has become the normal for the genre! None want to explore the possibility of adding large scale warfare that requires cooperation and tactics to win, targeting instead those immature and insenstive people that need to feel they can slaughter a whole room of bad arse marrines before anyone even blinks.
I bet many FPS fans who already enjoy multilayer games over single player cause they have far more challenge would embrace being part of what feels like a real army fighting a real war. Not being forced to go down pre-designed little alley ways or defend a point that has two, maybe three at most, entry points. That gets boring so very damn quickly and has no challenge for someone who is looking at the battle from a tactical point.
So all we get is the point and click FPS games and nothing actually new in the genre but a few changes in textures and settings. Safe to produce such a game I guess, as the twitch gamers can always be expected to purchase a game that offers insane amounts of gore and the chance to see some digital boobies.
A large project by Valve based around a FPS-MMO would dominate this unexplored nitch with ease! There is a reason games comming out for MMO-RPGs are held up against WOW and EQ, and that is beacuse they where smart enough to see this genre existed and exploited it first. If valve was to do that for a MMO-FPS then even decades from now people will be compairing other MMO-FPS back to whatever Valve produced. You can not buy that sort of PR!
And hell, if they want some really good ideas I am sure people here would jump over the chance to get their name in the credits of a game that millions sabotage their own lives to play. I already have a whole damn game planned out, but lack coding skills, that would work well as a clan domination idea with some twists. In short you just make it so clans require to hold points on dozens of not-so-linked-but-existing-in-the-same-world maps in order to 'dominate the world.' Throw in RTS elements, such as player produced NPC units and buildings with researchable tech trees that reward clans that have it together enough to spread themselves over the virtual world via the unstoppable march of many jack boots while allowing a gurrelia war to brew by those clans who don't have the resorces and want to take them by force.
Then do something evil, such as putting 1% of all monthly fees into a pot that is won by holding every point in every map. After a few months the millions of dollars in potential booty will ensure that everyone and their dog gets into the action, making your game the most played in the world. Also ensuring no one can actually win it.... the game will be around longer then any actual world war has been fought!
