Where do YOU want gaming to go next?

[Ago Iterum]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread entitled 'is gaming a dying fad?'. I got a lot of good feedback and response, with much debate.

That then led me to think, if gaming IS going to carry on, what do you want from it?

Critics complain all the time about things being 'more of the same'. But to be honest, that's where I feel safe. With new crazy game ideas, that make no sense to me (Like Morrors Edge) I feel less at ease with the gaming world.

So are you content with more of the same? Or do you enjoy this crazy new gaming style. The answer of 'both is good' is fine, but which is your favourite?

Your thoughts, please.

 

[fix-the-spade]

easy enough: Larger scale.

I realise that there are technical problems with this. But I want massively multiplayer to cover more things than role playing games.
The two extremes I can think of are a Gran turismo style endurance race, but with a full 48 car grid, each with two or three drivers who have to swap in and out at the pit stops, much like real endurance racing Giving a 144 player racing game.

The other place it could really work is FPS games. Imagine joining a server with a Far Cry 2 or Fallout 3 sized map, populated by a thousand or so humans. granted it would need set factions and some way of getting the battle scaled down. such as giving different units specific objectives, which could change as other members of your team either succeed or fail to complete theirs. Not to mention a way of dealing with team killers (give them their own faction maybe).

I find the idea of epic, unscripted battles lasting several hours quite appealing.

 

[Good morning blues]

I want new, innovative games. I want something different. I love FPS games, but I am sick of the standard tightly-linear, corridor-choked, run-and-gun shooters in tightly restricted environments, with enemies that rarely fall away from the standard molds of "footsoldier," "tank," "supersoldier," and "easily-killed horde monster."

I absolutely do want to play new games, and I'm sick of the publishing oligarchy and skyrocketing development costs that are preventing these new things from happening. Frankly I don't see why anybody would want to keep playing the exact same clones of the exact same games for the rest of eternity.

 

[Jonathan Hexley]

We need new ideas.
Look at a new releases list, what do you see genre-wise?
One or two Rhythm Games, some RPG's, a helluva lot of FPS's, and some adventure games.
We need some new ideas for genre, or at least a way to make the old ones a lot less boring.

But new ideas never STAY new. Example: Rock Band 1 brought drums and singing into the mix of guitar and bass, now most new Rhythm games are doing that. Just without the singing sadly.
It was a great new idea then, but it's becoming the norm.

 

[nikomas1]

I want even shinier visuals and even more expensive har...... waiiit a second, All I really want is gamedevs taking more chances here and there. I mean, what happend to free thinking and innovative ideas? I picked up mirrors edge just for it being kind of different and I don't regret my decision at all.

I've heard this before before but I want a game like this, Oh yeah if your an American please don't take offence.

What if in a game you were controlling a terrorist (or a group) in a major city, Washington or Paris just to name some, Then you have to plan your bombing (or whatever you want to do) and in the end you will get a score based on the destruction you caused, What I'm talking about here is a full blown terrorist simulator/sandbox game. Sadly this one will never ever get made, Well at least not until I become a game developer.
^Now hows that for innovative?^

so what I really want is all that censorship crap to be lifted and the devs could make any game they wanted with no interference.

 

[Altorin]

I want it to stay just like this, but more.

 

[Good morning blues]

I want even shinier visuals and even more expensive har...... waiiit a second, All I really want is gamedevs taking more chances here and there. I mean, what happend to free thinking and innovative ideas? I picked up mirrors edge just for it being kind of different and I don't regret my decision at all.

I've heard this before before but I want a game like this, Oh yeah if your an American please don't take offence.

What if in a game you were controlling a terrorist (or a group) in a major city, Washington or Paris just to name some, Then you have to plan your bombing (or whatever you want to do) and in the end you will get a score based on the destruction you caused, What I'm talking about here is a full blown terrorist simulator/sandbox game. Sadly this one will never ever get made, Well at least not until I become a game developer.

so what I really want is all that censorship crap to be lifted and the devs could make any game they wanted with no interference.

The only thing stopping that from being made is the fact that no publisher would ever want to be associated with it. Nothing stopping you from grabbing some sort of editor and making it yourself.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

more fine tuning, greater detail, better physics, realistic terrain deformation, realistic plants(no more cut and paste 2d grass!)

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Games based on historical events that aren't World War 2. Mirror's Edge would be a lot cooler if it was set in New Orleans after Katrina and you were trying to survive. Call of Duty 5 would be a lot cooler if it was set in a war I don't know much about and I could learn as I played.

 

[FireFly90]

I agree that most FPS games now are still quite linear. Mirror's edge is not quite off the linear side, but its got the right idea.

Games of the future need to offer more choice in route, method, speed and environment. Codemasters are developing a game called 'Fuel' which is supposed to be a non-linear racing game over huge maps, not quite sure what scale they mentioned.

Edit: just did search and saw 5000-6000 sq mile maps

 

[RockSays]

I want it to disappear for a couple of years...

Maybe then i can finally save some of my money not just pretend i did, but mainly i hope they could use this time to find some originally other wise stay away long enough for us all to forget it ever existed.

Maybe then it be easier to swallow some of the diarrhea dribbling out of the cloning machine.

 

[shadow skill]

I want more real freedom, I want colours that actually match real world colour tones. Let me elaborate on real freedom quickly. I do not mean "zomg sandbox" I mean things like having the character model hold a gun in the hand that you would naturally hold it in, being able to turn on and turn off various aspects of the interface etc.

I would love it if FPS' stopped pretending they can really come up with AI that can really defeat a human and focused on things like traps. Fallout 3 does a nice job of tossing a mine, or a grenade on a string at you. I lived in fear of the beep, beep or tick, tick, tick of a grenade rolling down a hill.

With all of this next-gen power and games like Crysis the colour tones should not be a dead fucking give away that you are in a game. That is all I can think of right now.

 

[Ronwue]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread entitled 'is gaming a dying fad?'. I got a lot of good feedback and response, with much debate.

That then led me to think, if gaming IS going to carry on, what do you want from it?

Critics complain all the time about things being 'more of the same'. But to be honest, that's where I feel safe. With new crazy game ideas, that make no sense to me (Like Morrors Edge) I feel less at ease with the gaming world.

So are you content with more of the same? Or do you enjoy this crazy new gaming style. The answer of 'both is good' is fine, but which is your favourite?

Your thoughts, please.

Well... I like new and interesting concepts to run through as well as some of the old school stuff. From what I have seen I would really like more new stuff breaking on the surface. I think we are all tired of the same and with new concepts, new control techniques or game types will blow over. We all know the age of starcraft and heroes of might and magic. Now who can't say that the guy who thought to combine these two elements didn't strike gold with Medieval Total War (I am of course speaking of real time elements with turn based elements). If it was not so late I probably would come up with more examples but to tell the truth, I am sick and tired of the same thing with a different wrapping. I like to vary things in life and games make no exception. So far I can jump between RTS and FPS since these appear to be the main genres that get any decent titles in the last few years. I would love to have a decent RPG as well from time to time... Fallout 3 was... decent... but not the life changing experience the hype made by it lead me to believe. I also had a brush with more than one simulator (and I am not talking about sims although the idea of it was a decent one).

What I am actually trying to say in this late hour, is the fact that the gaming industry needs new blood, not the steroid pumped stuff that repacks bring out with each new generation of DirectX.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I like new stuff, but it doesn't have to be cutting-edge avant-garde new for me, it just has to be different enough from what came before to be interesting. I think the quality and depth of the game are a lot more important than being "new" for the sake of new--especially if "new" and "screwed-up buggy" go hand in hand.

My gaming interests are pretty narrow, but I like to see more stuff in the RPG line that expands the genre. I'd also like to see a MMORPG that actually looks interesting. The existing ones have completely failed to appeal to me, but that new Star Wars one that Bioware is working on MIGHT be worth looking at. It depends a lot on how they implement the "individual stories" thing they were talking about.

I would eventually like to see a fantasy MMORPG that contains no NPC's--plot and so forth is run dynamically by professional players, and people are encouraged to play lots of characters that take different roles. Ideally, you'd be able to have a main character and also do things like create your own village of orcs that goes out and tries to raid a nearby settlement. So I suppose it would be something like a mix of MMORPG and real-time strategy.

I'd also like to see this theoretical MMORPG have a scripting interface that doesn't involve actually loading up the game, so you can set your various characters to do things while you aren't logged in.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Im happy to let it go the way its going. That way when the industry implodes I can be freed from the soul crushing, brain rotting, social life ruining monotony of gaming without the need for willpower or effort on my part :-D

 

[Good morning blues]

I think indie games are the future of gaming, at this point. All of the major studios are hell-bent on maximizing profit by offering only the safest innovations and holding tightly onto their franchises. Indie games, in the meantime, are coming up with bizarre concepts and new types of gameplay. Let's not forget that Portal was based on an independent offering... I think it was some sort of university project or something like that?

 

[Woe Is You]

All of the major studios are hell-bent on maximizing profit by offering only the safest innovations and holding tightly onto their franchises.

Not completely true if you look at what the big companies have been releasing quite recently. Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, Boom Blox and Endwar for instance. And the stuff on the DS and the Wii are a whole different ball game altogether. I'm still busy with Bangai-O Spirits, Rhythm Heaven is coming and games like Avalon Code and Winds of Nostalgia are in the horizon.

But indie stuff is nice as well, Aquaria was nice, Braid was awesome and World of Goo has been game of the year for me. Crayon Physics Deluxe looks good, as well. I'm not terribly fond of indie games in general, though. A lot of them seem to be content in being stuck in 1995 and doing old school 2D titles and not putting much thought to them. So, yes, I like new games, not reheated games from over 10 years ago.

 

[Altorin]

I think indie games are the future of gaming, at this point. All of the major studios are hell-bent on maximizing profit by offering only the safest innovations and holding tightly onto their franchises. Indie games, in the meantime, are coming up with bizarre concepts and new types of gameplay. Let's not forget that Portal was based on an independent offering... I think it was some sort of university project or something like that?

today's indie devs are tomorrow's clive barker.