The Dumbing Down of Video Games

[Random Argument Man]

Edit: Nevermind this comment as well.

 

[freakaknight]

As much as the guy who commented 'console tards' is being slated, he's to a degree right i'm afraid. It's all due to the fact that computer gaming has opened up into such a mainstream market, partially due to the fact that any 'noob' can own a reasonably powerful(though in most cases ultimately shite *looks at imaginary xbox 360 falling to bits*) gaming machine. Thus rises 'casual gamers', the kind of gamers who just want to pick up a hooker, shoot some stuff, pretend they're a mafia boss and then turn off the console and go out on the streets to get pissed (with no reference to grand theft auto *shifty eyes*). I'm not saying games didn't start going this way long before gaming hit the 'mainstream', but it's what really pushed it over the edge into the dumpster with such filth as that fps with 50-cent in(-)it (the game being a prime example of pleasing the mainstream aka council flat rats). Just like anything, where there's easy money and companies there's sellout's.

I'm only 16 myself but i so want a game to not sell itself down that river just for once. I want a new 'EPIC' game, the kind of thins that could bring tears to my eyes, that takes more than 3 hours to complete (preferably more than a solid week) and not just because it's full of cut scene after cut scene.

Fundamentally, what we need to do is be rid of rockstar and nintendo and things may get back to where they once were when games were hard and interesting... or at least hilarious xD

 

[Valentine82]

No thank's Random Argument Man, I'd rather promote quality over mediocrity and try to generate discussion in hopes of getting blogs posted on Gamespot and what have you. Good or bad, it doesn't matter, so long as people are talking the industry is bound to take notice.

Who knows, maybe the industry will take notice.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

to survive in this new market world, you need to be mainstream
and that usually means dumbing things down into "press button, this go boom" and things like that
plus, how the world economy is now, people dont want to loose money into something new that might fail, since if your a smaller company that could cause a lot of damage, and in extreme cases, bankruptcy
hopefully well pull out of this, and have a more... intelligent mainstream consumer

and im a console player, simply because i live in a region (3rd world country in south america) where its impossible to get legitimate upgrade that games most game require

 

[Valentine82]

It just increasingly seems that the industry is only concerned with mainstream games to the point that they're ignoring and alienating other viable markets.

You know there's a real market for games like Dungeon Keeper and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, the only reason those games weren't more successful than they were was because of poor advertisement and little public awareness, not because they were bad games. EA would never make a Dungeon Keeper 3, but if they did and they threw their advertisement power behind it that game would sell like hotcakes even if it sucked.

Well, you know, because EA are masters of advertisement, and also masters at totally ruining intellectual property.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

It just increasingly seems that the industry is only concerned with mainstream games to the point that they're ignoring and alienating other viable markets.

You know there's a real market for games like Dungeon Keeper and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, the only reason those games weren't more successful than they were was because of poor advertisement and little public awareness, not because they were bad games. EA would never make a Dungeon Keeper 3, but if they did and they threw their advertisement power behind it that game would sell like hotcakes even if it sucked.

Well, you know, because EA are masters of advertisement, and also masters at totally ruining intellectual property.

Bloodlines is also a very buggy, enjoyable game - that happens to suffer from typical Action-RPG soggy cardboard combat syndrome. I wouldn't say I like it for the gameplay. It's a good thing the dialog, and setting, really shine through. I'm somewhat of a fan of the WoD mythos because of the game.

That said, it's certainly not a game for everyone.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Many of you are too young (as in, you've just hit puberty) to recall games like Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic, Fallout and Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate 2 Shadows of Amn, and Planescape Torment. Despite their often times well written and deeply interactive stories, the gamer and thus the market has gone in a dumber and more intellectually lazy direction.

Enter the era of dumbed down gaming. Most gamers will be perfectly content with the contrived and mediocre, and most giants of the industry have noticed this. Who needs a meaningful and interactive storyline when you have a pet dog and a big sword? Who needs a solid plot and a decent ending when you have explosions and super mutants? Why have a deep and innovative game when you can have a dumbed down collection of colorful Mini-Games? Kudos to anyone who knows the games I'm speaking of.

Maybe this follows a trend in evolution. Statistically people with an IQ level between 90-100 are more likely to have children and are likely to have more children that people with an IQ level of 110 or above. Given the heritability of intelligence, games and movies aren't just dumbing down, all of society is dumbing down. Society has become more enlightened, but it hasn't become more intelligent. We don't really have to worry about Idiocracy becoming a reality because 90 seems to be where IQ levels bottom out before becoming a hindrance on social function, but we face the real possibility of humanity becoming every bit as dumbed down as our entertainment media has become.

You know, a few years ago I would probably have agreed with these sentiments, but I've mellowed with age and I think they rather annoy me now. The plain fact is, people have different tastes.

As someone who has taken pleasures of equal magnitude, if different content, from both Shakespeare plays and TV gameshows, I find it rather annoying when people go on about different types of media as though one is somehow "superior" to another. Their merits might be different. They may deal with different or more "weighty" subject matter. If I want a thought-provoking game, I'll play Bioshock; and if I want something a bit lighter, I'll go for a bout of Team Fortress 2. Sometimes I prefer one, sometimes the other. I don't think one's "superior" to the other because of their subject matter, although TF2 is by far the more playable IMO.

The fact is, there are games for just about all tastes, just as there are films and music for all tastes. We've got a more diverse market of games, music and film than we've ever had before. We're in the middle of a golden age, and yet nobody seems to recognize just how good they have it.

Well thanks to the Internet, the other thing we can do more than ever before is provide feedback. Entire TV series have been built on what the "fans" have asked for. So if you want a product and you don't think it's out there, speak to someone who might be interested in developing that product and see what they say. Or failing that, make it yourself, whether it be a piece of music or video or a videogame - again, this is something that's easier than it ever was before, thanks to tools readily available online.

 

[Valentine82]

TheMadDoctorsCat: But you can objectively measure the consistency and writing of a script, such as that of Fallout 3. You can actually compare features and elements between titles and see what's there, and what's missing, in a non-subjective way.

Now if you want to say that I shouldn't be calling games that have been simplified for the masses, such as Fable, dumbed down, that's fine. I'm going to anyway because I don't subscribe to your notion of everything being just a matter of opinion. Anyway, by making this thread I'm not just wasting time. This thread will be logged in google with all the responses for any CEO or game designer to come across and read. This thread also has gotten a lot of feedback, far more positive than negative, suggesting to me that even if this were a matter of opinion it would be a fairly wide spread opinion.

For every person who reads this and then is inspired to go write a blog on the issue, that's a gain for me. Anytime someone posts on the subject or starts a new, similar thread, then it is as I had hoped. For every reviewer who reads this and in one way or another reflects it's message in a game review, that's a win for me. For every item that get's added to google reflecting this sentiment, that's a step towards making it harder and harder for the industry to ignore, and a step towards the industry recognizing an under-exploited market that has all but been abandoned.

Any time someone in the industry reads an article like this and thinks "Hey, with everyone else competing in the mainstream market, these guys represent an under-tapped market with little to no competition" then I have done what I set out to do. It means that people in the industry might actually set out to make games with deep and dynamic stories again, and if they do it in full 3d with full voice overs, all the better.

 

[Valentine82]

Bloodlines is also a very buggy, enjoyable game - that happens to suffer from typical Action-RPG soggy cardboard combat syndrome. I wouldn't say I like it for the gameplay. It's a good thing the dialog, and setting, really shine through. I'm somewhat of a fan of the WoD mythos because of the game.

That said, it's certainly not a game for everyone.

I would like to note that there is a really good community patch for Bloodlines that corrects most of if not all of it's bugs, and breaths new blood into the combat system.

There's also a mod that makes the combat more actiony and makes guns and swords more abundant and useful.

 

[Darkrain11]

Yes you do have a point. The games of today don't have the great stories and what not like the games of the past. However, it would be unwise to expect every new game that comes out to be completly original and oozing philisophical elements in it's story. At some point everything has been done in some way, shape, or form and we just have to accept the new games for what they are at some point.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

I would like to note that there is a really good community patch for Bloodlines that corrects most of if not all of it's bugs, and breaths new blood into the combat system.

There's also a mod that makes the combat more actiony and makes guns and swords more abundant and useful.

But that's not how the game was released. That's something that fans of the game made long after Troika went out of business.

Saying "this game should have gotten more attention when it was released: look at all the fan-made patches that make it playable!" is missing the point. VTMB was a good game at it's core, but at the time of release, it was severely lacking in the polish department. I can see both "the diamond in the rough" and why people would have passed on it for a game with better gameplay.

 

[Carnagath]

I'm sick and tired of hearing about Planescape Torment. The fact that a game features walls of text does not make the player clever or even the game good. This is what Planescape Torment was: overwritten. Its characters were memorable due to their weirdness factor, but not especially well fleshed out. Four out of five massive dialogues that you were given to read where nothing more than incomprehensible snorefests. Occasionally you'd run into some clever parallel world side-tale that made you think: "Interesting, that might be a good idea for a book in the hands of a good writer. Too bad none of those worked for this game". If you saw it as a book, it was bad. Really, if someone gave you the text of Planescape Torment to read, you'd pass out on about the 10th page. And if you saw it as a game, it was absolutely horrible. Bugs, billions of chains of same-ish fetch quests, gazillions of NPC's most of which spoke somehow differently, but not really, and they influenced nothing. The only high points were the occasional outbursts of brilliant black humor and the artistic design of its graphics. Take the nostalgia glasses off, it's not even funny.

 

[captainwalrus]

Enter the era of dumbed down gaming. Most gamers will be perfectly content with the contrived and mediocre, and most giants of the industry have noticed this. Who needs a meaningful and interactive storyline when you have a pet dog and a big sword? Who needs a solid plot and a decent ending when you have explosions and super mutants? Why have a deep and innovative game when you can have a dumbed down collection of colorful Mini-Games? Kudos to anyone who knows the games I'm speaking of.

Its a gross generalization to say that video games are being dumbed down.

Throughout the thread, you've stuck with a choice few selection of games you say exemplify the intelligent story and plot of past video games. I'll just reiterate what has been said before, by saying that for every Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum, or Fallout, I can show you a Diablo 2, Dungeon Siege, Divine Divinity, or Gothic. For every Deus Ex or System Shock, I can show you a Doom or Quake. Countless games that are as "dumbed down" or more "dumb" than games today. And today, for every Titan Quest or Hellgate: London, I can show you a Witcher or Mass Effect. And in either "era", I can show you countless titles that fall in the middle, neither extremely intelligent, nor entirely devoid of it.

However, that's not my main criticism of your thesis. You entirely ignore major video game genres, in order to make your point. You especially ignore the gameplay mechanics of these genres. The gameplay mechanics of real-time strategy games and turn-based strategy games have become more involved - requiring more mental acuity and intelligence. Case in point: Compare WarCraft 2 to WarCraft 3. Compare Shogun: Total War to Empire: Total War. In terms of gameplay mechanics, they require much more thought and involvement. Flight simulators, as I understand them, have only become more realistic and immersive, and sports games have also evolved to require more thought and analysis.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

This isn't just a video game exclusive phenomenon. Look at movies and books as well.

See: Twilight and any "Blank Movie"

 

[blaze96]

The gameplay mechanics of real-time strategy games and turn-based strategy games have become more involved - requiring more mental acuity and intelligence. Case in point: Compare WarCraft 2 to WarCraft 3. Compare Shogun: Total War to Empire: Total War. In terms of gameplay mechanics, they require much more thought and involvement. Flight simulators, as I understand them, have only become more realistic and immersive, and sports games have also evolved to require more thought and analysis.

I agree with this, it all depends on the genre. A platformer is obviously going to be more immersive than an FPS and less immersive and intelligent than an RPG. The industry is also producing more which means the crap becomes more noticeable as there is more of it.

And to all who claim console owners to be the root of all evil in the gaming universe please for the love of god sew your jaw shut. Yes there are more stupid people on consoles this I will concede, but this problem has been systemic since long before console gaming took control of everything. The problem is the same as it has always been...this is an industry. ET is a prime example of this problem using a gimick to make some quick cash at the cost of quality. Most early disc consoles had this problem as well, they used the gimick of using CDs and turned videogames into a glorified Saturday morning cartoon. This problem lies in the casual gamer who does not educate themselves and buys anything with a shiny shell or fancy gimick of technology with no heed to quality. Blame not the gamer but those who pose to be gamers.

 

[Naeo]

Elder Scrolls is a good example of dumbing down. Skills cut from Daggerfall to Morrowind and at least from Morrowind to Oblivion (never played Daggerfall...yeah, I'm ashamed) more skills and freedoms to screw up your game were taken out.

In general though games are becoming more about shooting the baddies and seeing as much blood and guts as possible. Not that there aren't games that don't do that- there are still good intellectual games out there, but they seem less common to me.

 

[Ashbax]

What about Half Life 2, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, and Portal, to name just a few? I believe you are merely viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses, as it were.

Indeed! ok, we know that the escapist will hate whatever is popular, but videogames have taken off since becoming 3d. Why? maybe becuase its funner than waiting half an hour for a game consisting of two controls to load and is 2d. FPS's are only posible in 3d, and they are some of the most popular games at the moment. Anyway, our current games are fun, why complain? if you dont enjoy modern games such as bioshock, TF2, Left 4 dead and fallout 3, then...well, There is no hope for you.

 

[scotth266]

So there is your answer. There will still be deep and engrossing games made because the market is there. Just don't expect it to be a standard because video games are considered toys in the end and do not have the same media credit as books or movies. I do love it when a video game makes me think about hard issues.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. This has also revived my desire to make a text-based game, because those can be about anything. Heck, I could make one about a man in a asylum, trying to escape while slowly going mad in the process...