If it's the same, does it suck?

[DjinnFor]

I really don't get this double standard we get in the industry as far as sameness goes. I saw a dude play Arkham Origins, and I, once again, heard the most common complaint about it (namely, that it's Arkham City 2.0). I find that there's a bit of a double standard because there are some games that don't change much, and people complain about it, while others (like, as far as the consensus goes, Call of Duty, Madden, God of War, etc.) get their sameness ignored & sell like hotcakes.

The problem with your logic is, the same people who complain about the "sameness" aren't the people buying those titles like hotcakes. People who are complaining about the lack of originality in Arkham Origins are probably doing the same about Call of Duty, Madden, God of War, etc.

The "games industry" is just a collection of people; you can't ascribe actions to the entire industry, only the individual people within it.

 

[Vivi22]

I really don't get this double standard we get in the industry as far as sameness goes. I saw a dude play Arkham Origins, and I, once again, heard the most common complaint about it (namely, that it's Arkham City 2.0). I find that there's a bit of a double standard because there are some games that don't change much, and people complain about it, while others (like, as far as the consensus goes, Call of Duty, Madden, God of War, etc.) get their sameness ignored & sell like hotcakes. Is this a genuine double standard?, or am I thinking too much into this? [and in case I come off the wrong way, I'm not one of those people who hates mainstream titles because it's cool (heck, I like God of War), just want your opinions on the matter].

Thing is, it's not really a double standard since the people complaining about each game being too similar are often the ones who aren't buying every iteration of another franchise guilty of the same thing. Those games sell a lot because there are just a lot of people out there who either don't care, or take a lot longer to start being turned off by the repetition.

 

[Something Amyss]

It can be a double standard, but I don't think it has to be one. there's nothing wrong with more of the same if more of the same is good. However, while I've not played Arkham Origins, I've seen some pretty solid justifications for the criticism. Since I haven't played it, there's the possibility these justifications are wrong, but based on what I know, I'm inclined to think it's justified.

At the same time, I bought the last two CoDs before Ghosts plus season passes and still passed on Ghosts because nothing grabbed me and I couldn't justify another hundred+ bucks for more of the same. IF someone likes it, that's fine, but I was already sorta let down by the rehash maps in Blops2. Now we had maps that looked like literal rehashes in the core game (multiplayer).

It's a bullshit thing to say anyways. Take pokemon for example. If a pokemon thread ever comes up, there are those people that ***** about it staying the same.

In fairness, it hasn't totally ditched its roots and become a first person shooter, so it's doing it wrong.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

It can be. for COD it sucks because the base is faulty making each reproduction dumber. For AO you have a game that was not given alot polish time and it came out bugy and somewhat rushed. FOr AAA games liek this I wait for the game of the year edition with all the patches and fixes

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Refining = Good!
Retread = Bad!

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

For CoD yes I feel it is. I used to be a big fan of the series but after they started doing yearly releases I haven't felt the games have been little more than expansions since CoD 4. WaW was very much CoD 4 in WW2, I missed MW2 due to removal of PC features and then BO finished the series for me. The reason why I stopped playing after BO was due to it feeling like some weird half game. A bit more than expansion but not a full game in its own right.

The single player since 5 has been fine but some bits were dumb with how it the levels were laid out. As far as multiplayer goes they haven't fixed problems that plagued the series for years and their level designs have only gotten worse. The only thing I really feel they added to it post CoD 4 was power creep for general weapons and instead of having only 1 or 2 OP weapons about 5 OP weapons.

Although, I suppose we've not had an actual non spin off CoD game which is how I tend to think of all games post CoD 4. Maybe if they get around to making an actual CoD 5 it might change some stuff.

 

[Gennadios]

It really depends on how much the IP brings to the table despite the sameness.

If you've played one modern warfare shooter you've played them all. Battlefield, CoD, Homefront, the story's the same, the characters are cutouts, the setpieces differ but if you've played one, it's a safe bet you've played them all. Even Spec Ops: The Line, which was supposedly a deconstruction, hit all the same notes and played it so straight that I just got... bored. I got the message, but meh.

It really depend's on the player's threshold for whatever's being recycled.

 

[Auron]

There is being the same, but good. Like CoD.

I lol'd... Hard.


Yes it's a double standard, people buy a cod reskin per year for 5 or more years now. I liked Origins, thought the story was great and loved the many references to Batman's comic history. Most non-fans won't get most of it though I suppose... I seriously don't know how Arkham maintained such a high rating in an age when people think of Batman they think of Nolan's atrocities.

Mechanically it didn't offer a lot of new stuff(but they were there, especially the parts that make you remember Batman's a detective, scripted as they were.) but to be fair other than a bit more open world map, city offered nothing new to Asylum either. I just don't get people to be honest.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

No one really dislikes a game because it's too similar to it's predecessors, that's just an easy complaint. Sure it's possible to grow bored of a particular style of game, but it's equally possible to continue enjoying it and want more content.

Really when people complain "It's the same!" they're just saying they dislike the game and aren't really able to articulate why.

 

[hermes]

If it is basically the same, but it improves on things the previous game left unexplored, it is a good thing. For example, one of the problems of God of War 1 was the relative lack of variety in terms of stages and bosses, so the second game is pretty much the same game, with what feels like a lot more content.

If the changes doesn't add too much or the additions are not significant to the core experience, they dilute it. That is one of the main problems I had with AC3... Too many systems, many of which added nothing and were barely used (do you remember separating people during fights? or spurring pigs?) make the game felt like the playground of too many designers.

On the other hand, it is a personal thing. Annual iterations tend to exacerbate the problem more, so seeing it in games like FIFA or COD is far more common; but I have seen people complaining about this with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, even when the games are relatively different and several years apart.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

part of the point in a game being in a franchise is that gameplay elements and various themes go from game to game. honestly, i could play the same game over and over if the story and environments are different and bring something interesting, mostly in narrative sense.

 

[spartandude]

I think it is a double standard and yes its one i take part in. For me however is if the game "feels different" and if i liked the gameplay in the first place and usually also cost.
For example i dont play CoD because each game is the same as the last.... and i didnt like the gameplay to begin with as such i dont buy it. However i do like the Batman Arkham games but i wont buy the new one until i see it fairly cheap because it doesnt seem all that different from the last one. However something like KotOR even though they play exactly the same, the two games feel so different and offer 2 different experiences that if there were new games id happily pay full price for them.