How did FPS's become so popular?

[MrhalfAwake]

really I think accessibility is the key term. Things like plat formers and FPS or even fighting games can be summed up easily and picked up with merely the passing knowledge of the genre.

things like RTS and RPGs for instance is a tad trickier. Especially RPGs witch are generally plot heavy(and can frankly stand to cut down on the anime bs)

Bu yeah games like Bio Shock for instance you can suggest to someone without even mentioning any of the narrative stuff,

 

[Merkavar]

i think its popularity comes down to two points.

1. you can jump in and out of a multiplayer game easy. if you have 20 mins to play or 5 hours. unlike mmorpg etc

2. competitive. people generally like to compete and a fps lets you compete againts 10-30 people unlike single player games

 

[Stryc9]

This isn't a debate about which came first, it's a debate about why FPS games are so popular.

The way I see it is that the FPS is the logical advancement of the side scrolling platform shooters such as the original Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, Captain Comic and other similar games from the time. They are similar in about as many ways as they are different, but they all still boil down to going from one place to another shooting shit until it dies.

 

[Snotnarok]

Because it's fun to shoot stuff what is there to miss?

 

[individual11]

Immersion.

Looking through the player character's eyes.

No other game style will allow the same level of immersion.

Case in point: System shock 2 was more involving and atmospheric than Dead Space, despite being made ten years earlier and having visuals that were dated back then.

In my humble opinion.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Every one here is Saying "Because of Halo" without actually trying to figure out why!
I'll take a stab at it: First Person (shooter) games put YOU in the boots. That is IT. they let you be in the middle of the story, without making you think "I'm duck taped to the right shoulder of 'so and so' as he does whatever!" Gordon Freeman; Master Chief; even Ramirez from Modern Warfare 2 are just a pair of boots for you to wear, but the one in the action IS you, and it's a tried and tested way of Immersing the players in the world.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Halo's mind-boggling success probably had something to do with it.

Spoiler: SNIP

SNIP

Spoiler

*Ahem*

Spoiler

Dang, ninja'd.

Welp, in that case it's because they're easy to pick up, learn and play.

 

[Sebenko]

Because it's a MANLY genre and totally isn't compensating for anything at all.

Anyway, I have to get back to building suspiciously large structures in Minecraft.

 

[Twilight_guy]

They filled a power void left by the death of old school adventure games... maybe? I don't know I think it just kind of grew over time and FPS became a default. Maybe its because FPSs are a bit easier to program then other games so more were made and they became popular by volume.

 

[instantbenz]

Government pushes it to make a better soldier from youth ... We had a designer at my school and after he worked on a Cod or Moh ... can't remember ... anyway he said he'd never work with any FPS again as they pushed for him to make the design of things more kid-enticing ...

 

[Wintermoot]

maybe people wantted to shoot stuff from a first person perspective

 

[Griphphin]

It think that a big part of it is that it's an easy genre to make (not like there's a lack of reference material here currently), and for the gamer it's a very intellectually easy genre. You don't have to empathize with the characters to get a good thrill when your helicopter gets shot down or you blow up a scarab, much of the focus is on the actual action that's going on instead of the interpretation of said action.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just what I see from a good few FPS's

 

[Socius]

people. enjoy. killing. things. thats why!

 

[Weaver]

Halo's mind-boggling success probably had something to do with it.

Yeah it's basically all Halo's fault.

People seem to misinterpret your post as "halo did it first" which isn't at all the case, and I know you know that as much as anyone. What halo DID do though was introduce FPS games to a new generation of consoles and a new generation of gamers (aka console kiddies). It also did well in universities as well as a split screen shooter.

What this lead to was big publishers and developers going "Oh my that Halo game sure sold a lot of copies, let's make an FPS on the console!" which brings us to our current situation. Also, if fucking CoD4 didn't do so well publishers would have likely stopped the massive FPS craze but it only made things worse.

 

[Snownine]

I have never had an overwhelming love for the genre like many gamers seem to have. However there will always be a special place in my heart for Doom 2. God I love that game so much. I wish it would work properly on modern systems.