Games That Threaten The Industry

[Thyunda]

Since its creation, the videogaming industry has spawned a few games that seemed to cripple their brethren.
It's easiest to explain through an example. Since the release of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, my thirteen year old brother has played nothing else.
Despite personal preferences, I'm sure we can all agree that Rome: Total War is an absolute classic. He looked at the Desktop icon, and said 'it's not my thing.'
I asked what his thing was. He launched into a lengthy anecdote about the aforementioned first person shooter. I tried to convince him to play Borderlands, with much the same result.
So the point I give to you, dear Escapists, is a question. Do you share my experiences? And with which games?

 

[Radeonx]

All of my friends like the same videogames, so I never really have a problem with things like that. And even, so, I don't care what they play, because we pretty much always play the same game when we want to play together.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

 

[Discord]

Not really a game but a addition of game worry me. Maybe it's just me but the whole 3D gameing (and maybe 3D movie) trend seems like it will either fail and take gameing down a peg. Because the only 3D I've seen and like alittle is waht nintendo is doing with the 3DS or 3DDS or whatever it's called.

But I'm not going to buy a 4th DS because of it.

 

[Uber Waddles]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? Because its popular, and does MMOs right? If MMO's want to compete; they should come up with original ideas, and get them to work. WoWs idea was accessability, and it worked pretty damn good.

Now that Im done with THAT; the CoD series spawns a wide host of teenagers who grow up, only buying "Gritty, realistic, War Shooters". All of which suck. People like your brother are the reason we see so few new ideas in the FPS department; any company can squeeze out a mediocre, gritty shooter in 6 months, and profit from it. Why put thought into something, when you can get more money for less effort?

Despite being a fan of Halo's multiplayer (which, I think gets ragged on entirely too much, but everyones allowed their opinions), Halo and CoD are single handedly killing the gaming franchise. They bring teenagers into the Mature gaming audience, and developers target them because these teens are more numerous then people Mature games are intended for. Games arent being developed for content, there being developed for flair. And, if your into the arguement "Games are Art", these games would rank with Finger Paintings; compared to a Mona Lisa like Golden Sun.

 

[Thyunda]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

All I've seen WoW do to me is make me feel like playing more games.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? .

Come on, you know why.

WOW is the most addictive game out there and is an easy scapegoat for people who want to blame all the world's ills on gaming. I even saw a Dr Phil episode about couple whose lives were 'ruined' by WOW.

 

[Souplex]

Half Life 2 is a threat to other games, not in that it takes their sales; but in that it corrupts them, twisting them in it's own average image. Before Half Life 2 we had few games aboot power-armored non-characters fighting generically evil aliens, using generic weapons, while assisted by an annoying shoe-horned in minority sidekick/love interest.
Also: Valve is a proponent of digital distribution which is also bad.

 

[Uber Waddles]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? .

Come on, you know why.

WOW is the most addictive game out there and is an easy scapegoat for people who want to blame all the world's ills on gaming. I even saw a Dr Phil episode about couple whose lives were 'ruined' by WOW.

Dr. Phil? You do know that like, half of those episodes are staged (much like Jerry Springer and such), right?

Not the point. Anyways, the same can be said with ANY Videogame, specially any MMO. WoWs the most popular right now, thats why it gets the attention.

Lets travel back in time a bit, to when EverQuest was king. People got absorbed in that game, WAY more then they should have.

Lets flash forward to last year, when a Korean died because he spent like, 46 straight playing StarCraft, no breaks.

You let a game immerse you, your attracted to it like a $2 hooker. Its something you'll more then likely regret in the morning, but it wont stop you from going back for another bang.

 

[xHipaboo420x]

The Call Of Duty series has become a bloated, annually-installed monstrosity that even its creators have now abandoned. It will implode, taking the industry with it.

[small]free indie games for all![/small]

 

[Edavies696]

halo, because its undying need for atention from its obessesive cult, makes it branch out into comics, anime and maybe even a movie. being such a sucess that halo has become i believe that it has inspired other games like "gears of war" and "prince of persia" to make more crappy movies and comic thus bring the reputation of that game way down

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? .

Come on, you know why.

WOW is the most addictive game out there and is an easy scapegoat for people who want to blame all the world's ills on gaming. I even saw a Dr Phil episode about couple whose lives were 'ruined' by WOW.

Dr. Phil? You do know that like, half of those episodes are staged (much like Jerry Springer and such), right?

.

Of course I know that, you're missing my point.

The bored, angry housewives of America do not know what we gamers know, so when they see their kids spend 40 hours a week playing WOW they think that it is the game (and not their shitty parenting or dull lives or bullies at school) that is ruining their kids.

 

[Serioli]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? Because its popular, and does MMOs right? If MMO's want to compete; they should come up with original ideas, and get them to work. WoWs idea was accessability, and it worked pretty damn good.

I think that's kind of the OP's point. If I were massively into WoW* (or MW2 in OP) at the expense of spending time on other games how would it help the gaming industry? Blizzard would get their money of course but what about other companies, games and genres, the 'industry' itself?

*I've wished I was WoW addicted on another post about how much you spend on games

 

[snow]

It reminds me of baldur's gate/icewind dale vs Diablo. I looked up baldur's gate 2 in the escapist search a while ago to see if anyone had posted about wanting to play online since... Well... I don't think people play that game online anymore, but instead found a long rant posted by some one who disliked BG2 because it wasn't mindless cutting and slashing and preferred Diablo 2.

Both games are fun in my book, one makes you think, one you can kind of turn your brain off for, but to dislike a game for making you think kind of makes me cross eyed. o.0;

 

[snow]

Accidental double post... Sorry!

 

[Feriluce]

Well, World of Warcraft obviousy (yes, it's, I know it's an MMORPG, stop throwing your Captain Picard figurines at me)

How is a flexible, balanced MMO, in which the company LISTENS to its fanbase, a danger to gaming? Because its popular, and does MMOs right? If MMO's want to compete; they should come up with original ideas, and get them to work. WoWs idea was accessability, and it worked pretty damn good.

I agree with you. The wow devs listen to its fanbase. The catch here is that most of the WoW fanbase is a whiny mess of entitled casuals. Just look at how horrible Wrath turned out.
I agree with you again on your second point. MMO's should indeed come up with original ideas. Problem is that they dont anymore. Why? Because they look at WoW, see its 10 mill subs and decide that if they does the same things as WoW they'll be just as successful. WoW has singlehandedly stagnated the whole MMO genre and that is why its bad for gaming in general.

Theres a nice post about it here as well:
http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/?p=4221#91a20

 

[yamitami]

I don't think that any game would be a 'threat' to the gaming industry. If it's good and people play it to the exclusion of all others in the genre then it just means it's really good. If other games want to compete then they'll have to be really good too. Competition forces people to do their job better if they want to survive in their field.

As for people who yell "CLONE" at everything, they're dumb. There are NO original ideas. That's like yelling at every movie with star crossed lovers because they're just copying Romeo and Juliet (which was in fact based off a Greek myth). The basic thread of any game or story is going to be shared amongst hundreds of others. If someone's going to yell at a game for being a clone because both are first person shooters, MMOs, etc, then it's best to ignore them.

'Girl' games do really annoy me though. I could ignore the pink but could you please make them with a LITTLE bit of challenge? And stop looking at me funny when I buy Jak X instead of pretty prom perfect easytown.

 

[Caiti Voltaire]

Of course I know that, you're missing my point.

The bored, angry housewives of America do not know what we gamers know, so when they see their kids spend 40 hours a week playing WOW they think that it is the game (and not their shitty parenting or dull lives or bullies at school) that is ruining their kids.

Sure they do, for the most part, it's just that it's much easier to blame a game than it is to take any sort of personal responsibility. We live in an age where it is the posh thing to do to blame everything but ourselves.