What happened to the good games!?

[Arkhangelsk]

What's going on, I wonder? I recently noticed that games nowadays have no creativity. I notice this now, cause now I'm more fastidious about games (all thanks to Yahtzee). I play games, and I see no sign of real creativity in them. What has happened to the minds of game developers. Have everyone gone into the pool of mainstream and are good willingly drowning in it?

If I may state my opinion about the good things asked for/required in a game;
1. Creative gameplay. Not asking for much here, but developers seem to think so. I've played tons of FPS's, for example, and most just look the same. Same weapons, same outfits, same enemies, same everything! COD4 was one of the games that did look the same in almost every bloody way, but pulled it off so much better that I actually considered it good, in fact great. Other games (in every genre) I find innovative are games like Gears of War (shooter), Jak & Daxter (adventure?), Kingdom Hearts (Action RPG), FFVII (JRPG), Mirror's Edge (action + parkour) and many others. They all have in common that they do significant changes or invent new ways of gameplay that gives a little variation, and that's all I'm asking for (mostly). What is so horrible is that 90% of all games are ripoffs of these kind of games,usually done very bad,

2. Colorful environments. As Yahtzee have always stated, the constant chase for realism make games go in colors of gray and brown. I remember the days when games brought colorful and silly environments, like in Mario, or Zelda. But games nowadays seem to think that fun and enlightening colors are bad. Not all may agree with me, but I think that games would be more fun if they gave up on the depressing gray worlds, and went back to what Nintendo did so well. Some games do however give some bright environments and some enlightening colors, like RSV, or Halo 3 (not the perfect game, but I respect it for doing things differently)

3. Good story or none at all. In many games, the story is nothing but stupid ideas with/without badly written dialogue. Every game developer seems to think that a deep and immersive story is neccessary, and that is true for some games, but then the writers went fishing and forgot that the story was supposed to be done by Thursday. If there is a good story, great, but if it's bad, it just sickens you. Many games could have gone better without it. Dare to make simply mindless games!

I miss the good old days, when the great genres of FPS and stealth and such, were new and innovative. Sadly, every genre possible has been used up, buried, digged up, and buried again.

 

[Mardy]

Producers realised copies still sell, that's about it.

 

[Souplex]

Henry Hatsworth was good.

Madworld was also good although not colorful.

Fallout 3 was enjoyable.

World o' goo is good.

We are just going through the generation motions. N64 era was all 3d platformers and the market got flooded with em so by ps2 generation nobody wanted to play them and they were replaced by JRPGs. Same thing happened to JRPGs and now we have shooters. Just wait, shooters will have been replaced by something else in two years.

 

[D_987]

"Good" is subjective.

Now as for the lack of creativity...its all down to selling units.

 

[RebelRising]

Methinks you're not looking in the right places, friend.

 

[Madshaw]

i definatly agree with you on your third point, and also partialy on your second however i realy don't see why you want a tacky looking childish colour scheme in a game, i like dark gritty and realistic

 

[lacktheknack]

Play "The Path".




That's all.

 

[Nexus424]

Ah watched that Braid review lately I see. I blame Adrian as well.

I understand what you are saying but as long as money is made then little to no effort will be made to make people like us happy.

You know until I graduate from college and lead the Entertainment Revolution but until then you are gonna have to wait. I'm sorry.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Same old worn points from the "back in the good ole day" crowd.

 

[haruvister]

There have always been richly creative games and there have always been carbon copy games. (For instance, for every Cannon Fodder and Hired Guns, there was a slew of forgettable bollocks released for the Amiga 500.) The difference is that, thanks to astronomic profit margins, there are vastly more games available these days, which means a relative increase in the former and the latter.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

i definatly agree with you on your third point, and also partialy on your second however i realy don't see why you want a tacky looking childish colour scheme in a game, i like dark gritty and realistic

Realism is great, to a point. Gears of War managed to pull it off, but in games like Fallout 3 (Yes, I didn't like it, and that opinion stands, all you fanboys can stop try to convert me) the colors just call for gritty depression. For one thing, video games are the fleeing from the normal worlds, it's supposed to make us glad, and show beautiful things (in my opinion), and for the other, why does games seem to get the understanding that the world only has colors in the "dirt spectrum"? I ask the developers; have you ever looked outside on how the sun lights up the beautiful green grass and the beautiful blue ocean, or have you just lived your entire life in a dark, depressing cage. I'm not saying games should stop being realistic, but if going for dark and realistic, make the nature naturally beautiful. Even in a cave, beauty is an option. As for the tacky, childish colour scheme, I give the word "nostalgia", and I also say that strong colours can give more emotion (not angsty, depressing emotion, I mean the happy kind of emotion)

 

[Irridium]

I agree on the lack of color.
Whenever I bring it up with people they say that it would make games more childish.
How does making things more colerful make it more childish?

 

[Baby Tea]

"Good" is subjective.

Now as for the lack of creativity...its all down to selling units.

That's what I think people fail to realize.

Game developers aren't out there to change the industry. They are out to make money. And what works, works.
A few will try something different every now and again, but only if they think it'll sell. It's all about the bottom line. The almighty dollar.

Like it or not, your favourite developer is first and foremost a business.
And a business is there to make money.

Now game developers are obviously concerned about quality control (For the most part, and depending on the developer), but that isn't so that their 'vision' comes to life. It's so that more people will buy it.

Take, for example, my favourite developer of all time: Bioware.
They, in my opinion, make the best RPGs on the market. At the very least, I don't think people can deny that they make successful games (Check meta critic if you don't believe me). Now they are good at what they do, they like to put out quality, successful games, and they themselves say that they strive to bring immersive, player driven, deep storylines to games and the gamers.
That's their hook.
That's their niche.

You may or may not agree that their stories are as they claim (Or claim to strive for), but it certainly works as a marketing gig. Fans know to expect it (As do critics), and if you do something well (Again, check meta critic) then why do something different? Every epic Bioware RPG has had a major emphasis on story, regardless of gameplay style. Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, they all played very different from each other, but they all had the same 'epic story' marketing tagged onto them.

I love Bioware.
Bioware makes great games.
And they are out to make money.

 

[TheGRRRRRRR]

They died and the hogs ate them. simple as that

 

[TitaniumBlue]

I haven't really stayed in the cutting edge of gaming scene for years. I bought Counter-Strike:Source and Guild Wars some years ago and Nintendo DS for last Christmas. Lack of innovations is one point. Why buy any of the new shooters when CS:S has as much tactic and customized servers as one ever needs, without excessive system requirements? I play every eye candy turned off to save framerate anyways.

I started playing Diablo I again. In spite of some of the bugs, it has great atmosphere. Heroes of Might and Magic II & III are also good and so are Age of Empires (I & II) for RTS's.

 

[MagnumJoe]

What's going on, I wonder?

You want one word?

Capitalism my friend. Profit profit and profit. Nothing more.

 

[Xanadu84]

Play "The Path".




That's all.

I must re-enforce this statement repeatedly. "The Path", though flawed in many ways, is a few stumbling steps into a revolution. Play it immediately.

Also, I don't think your looking at this clearly. Truly great games, like every other genre ever,from music to movies to paintings etc, are few and far between. Sure, you can pine for the good old days, but that's just because the good old days took place over many, many years! We can pick out the best parts, and forget the rest. For every Mario, there was a dozen weak platformers trying to capitalize off of Mario's success. Same with JRPGs, and everything else. Meanwhile, great games come out present day, but we tend to assume those are the exception, and say that the rule is all of the dregs. Game innovation is as alive and well as it has ever been, we just like to complain to keep pushing the envelope.

One point is that developers have realized that pushing out innovation-less games makes a lot of money, and that this stifles creativity. Alright, fair enough. But on the flip sides, video games are now mainstream enough that you can find tons of small development teams doing crazy, innovative things that should wet your whistle. I am a PC gamer, and I am having trouble keeping up with all of the strange and innovative games that have been popping up on Steam. Lets see, Braid, Perimeter, And Yet it Moves, Caster, The Path, Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble, and The Maw in just the past month, for games ive actually bought! There's plenty more that I just don't have time for Theres plenty of stuff for you to play, you just have to look.

Start with, "The Path" please

 

[Madshaw]

i definatly agree with you on your third point, and also partialy on your second however i realy don't see why you want a tacky looking childish colour scheme in a game, i like dark gritty and realistic

Realism is great, to a point. Gears of War managed to pull it off, but in games like Fallout 3 (Yes, I didn't like it, and that opinion stands, all you fanboys can stop try to convert me) the colors just call for gritty depression. For one thing, video games are the fleeing from the normal worlds, it's supposed to make us glad, and show beautiful things (in my opinion), and for the other, why does games seem to get the understanding that the world only has colors in the "dirt spectrum"? I ask the developers; have you ever looked outside on how the sun lights up the beautiful green grass and the beautiful blue ocean, or have you just lived your entire life in a dark, depressing cage. I'm not saying games should stop being realistic, but if going for dark and realistic, make the nature naturally beautiful. Even in a cave, beauty is an option. As for the tacky, childish colour scheme, I give the word "nostalgia", and I also say that strong colours can give more emotion (not angsty, depressing emotion, I mean the happy kind of emotion)

its just down to personal opinion, i prefer a darker grittier world to toy with, and you may enjoy looking back on games from your childhood

 

[Arkhangelsk]

"Good" is subjective.

Now as for the lack of creativity...its all down to selling units.

That's what I think people fail to realize.

Game developers aren't out there to change the industry. They are out to make money. And what works, works.
A few will try something different every now and again, but only if they think it'll sell. It's all about the bottom line. The almighty dollar.

Like it or not, your favourite developer is first and foremost a business.
And a business is there to make money.

Now game developers are obviously concerned about quality control (For the most part, and depending on the developer), but that isn't so that their 'vision' comes to life. It's so that more people will buy it.

Take, for example, my favourite developer of all time: Bioware.
They, in my opinion, make the best RPGs on the market. At the very least, I don't think people can deny that they make successful games (Check meta critic if you don't believe me). Now they are good at what they do, they like to put out quality, successful games, and they themselves say that they strive to bring immersive, player driven, deep storylines to games and the gamers.
That's their hook.
That's their niche.

You may or may not agree that their stories are as they claim (Or claim to strive for), but it certainly works as a marketing gig. Fans know to expect it (As do critics), and if you do something well (Again, check meta critic) then why do something different? Every epic Bioware RPG has had a major emphasis on story, regardless of gameplay style. Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, they all played very different from each other, but they all had the same 'epic story' marketing tagged onto them.

I love Bioware.
Bioware makes great games.
And they are out to make money.

That developers are in it for the money is half-true. Some developers do it for the same reason that musicians do good music or painters make beautiful drawings; to make a piece of art. If we're gonna name some here, my award for ambitious and great company goes to SquareEnix. The FF series and the Kingdom Hearts series are seriously the best games I've ever played. The well done game-play, the immersive story (although KH can't possibly be taken seriously for it's story, but who cares, it's still awesome!), the beautiful graphics (for it's time I do keep in mind when you look at the older ones). If I'm to blurt out my favourite games, 3 out of the top 5 are made by SquareEnix, and those games are Chrono Trigger, FFVII, and KH2. Now I'm being shown off as a JRPG fan, but if you can tolerate it for what it is, you'll love it. There are those who make games just for money, but they are cheap and idiotic bastards who can't commit to a something that could possibly be good. 90% out of the 90% bad rip-offs were actually ideas that could have possibly become something good, but the developers never did anything about it and made another crappy game for us to pay for, when we could've used the money for other things, like wiping our asses with it!

 

[Arkhangelsk]

i definatly agree with you on your third point, and also partialy on your second however i realy don't see why you want a tacky looking childish colour scheme in a game, i like dark gritty and realistic

Realism is great, to a point. Gears of War managed to pull it off, but in games like Fallout 3 (Yes, I didn't like it, and that opinion stands, all you fanboys can stop try to convert me) the colors just call for gritty depression. For one thing, video games are the fleeing from the normal worlds, it's supposed to make us glad, and show beautiful things (in my opinion), and for the other, why does games seem to get the understanding that the world only has colors in the "dirt spectrum"? I ask the developers; have you ever looked outside on how the sun lights up the beautiful green grass and the beautiful blue ocean, or have you just lived your entire life in a dark, depressing cage. I'm not saying games should stop being realistic, but if going for dark and realistic, make the nature naturally beautiful. Even in a cave, beauty is an option. As for the tacky, childish colour scheme, I give the word "nostalgia", and I also say that strong colours can give more emotion (not angsty, depressing emotion, I mean the happy kind of emotion)

its just down to personal opinion, i prefer a darker grittier world to toy with, and you may enjoy looking back on games from your childhood

100% true, but most games are only set for the realistic alternative, while the other games are shoved under the sand to not be found by the public. There are few games nowadays who move close to my vision of good, imaginative games, but they didn't pull it of good enough for me to like it, and that's a sad fact. But I guess they are aiming at another audience, leaving the rest of us crying in the back room while re-playing Mario and Metroid and giving us nothing new to blow our noses in.