The 6 Most Ominous Trends in Video Games

[the7k]

If you want good games in the future, you're going to have to look to the same place we're getting good games now - the downloadable networks. The place where paying off retailers to stock and carry your game is irrelevant. The place where the only thing keeping you from publishing your game is just a fistful of dollars and your passion.

Everyone may see a digital future as a horrible thing - and hey, I prefer a nice colorful album over a bunch of iTunes files just as much as the next guy, but the days of Jimi Hendrix are over.

In much the same way as all you'll find at Wal-Mart is Hanna Montana, that Justin Beavis dude or whoever the hell kids listen to these days in the music section, all you are going to find at GameStop in the coming years will be sequels, first person shooters, and sequels to first person shooters. If I have to choose between digital gold or physical crap, I'll go with the first option.

[Ivo]

I'm not AT ALL worried about the future of gaming. As a retro gamer, there are enough quality games *right now* to last until I die without even having a chance to play a small percentage of the genuine gems (it helps that I like several genres and don't mind "dated graphics", of course).

That does not mean I'm not excited for the possibilities of entirely different gameplay experiences (I love original stuff on the DS's touch screen! I'm excited with the Wii U, which is basically a DS on a console, has loads of potential as far as I'm concerned). But if those different gameplay experiences turn out to be crap, I will always have plenty of "backup" in older games.

My most significant concern then is that the hardware lets me play the older games, but with emulators and PCs I find it extremely unlikely that this is not going to continue being possible.

Ivo.

[molotovwars]

I thought it was a good read. I really don't play any modern games. Besides a DS and a PSP, a PS2 is the most recent system I have. I can't comment as much on this generation and while I enjoyed reading the article, I wonder more, what can be different?

The industry is repeating these trends, but isn't the emergence and success of the iPhone a new direction in its own? Just like the Wii had success in being different it forced other companies to explore other ideas that otherwise would have been "too risky" (as discussed). They might be poorly implementing them, but honestly what kind of gaming experience are we supposed to expect? You can improve graphics to a point and then ask where to go next, but it seems that any attempts to do something different just get written off as a gimmick.

Riding the bus today I thought about what a game would have to do to be different and successful. What could possibly be industry changing? Where does the author really expect the industry to go? Kinect tried taking motion controls a step further and seems to be getting shunned. Sony tried out the Eye Toy last generation and it didn't get anywhere. The idea of scanning trading cards for some game seems fascinating. And maybe that's no different from the GBAs eReader, but what does the author expect.

Everyone is thinking of what is to be next. To do this, developers are looking at all of the various sources that give us entertainment. Videogames are adapting story telling and ideas from books and movies. Miyamoto played with the idea of raising pets with the Nintendogs series. There are all those terrible 'Imagine' games. Cooking Mama has turned cooking into a game, Sudoku and all sorts of board games are having an influence on games. Games are getting integrated with devices we already use and internet connectivity is adding new ways of communication in games. But none of this is adequate? How much have novels changed over the last several decades? How about movies? Bigger budgets maybe, but not much else. Why must games be pushed forward when we as retro gamers so easily enjoy what we already have?

[MrPopo]

inect tried taking motion controls a step further and seems to be getting shunned.

Because it was one step forward and several steps back. With the Wiimote+Chuck you have all the benefits of a regular controller AND motion and pointing. That's just straight forward.

Sony tried out the Eye Toy last generation and it didn't get anywhere.

The tech was FAR too immature at the time, detection was spotty, yadda yadda yadda.

[MrEco]

With the Wiimote+Chuck you have all the benefits of a regular controller

I unfortunately have to disagree with you on that, sir.

[J T]

I think the point with the wiimote+chuck is that you can still move around with an analog stick. The Kinect lacks any intelligent way to allow for locomotion. Most of the games require that you only move around in a small area and nothing more. Games either have to be on rails or static.

[Erik_Twice]

As games stop being limited by technological or budgetary limits and with an ever growing market we reach a new turning point: The age of bland


Go to the local cinema. All bland movies. Get a list of the biggest bestsellers: Bland, generic, cliché. This is where videogames are heading.

[Breetai]

...that Justin Beavis dude...

Beaver. It's BEAVER, get it right.

I happen to like Just-in Beaver.

[o.pwuaioc]

As games stop being limited by technological or budgetary limits and with an ever growing market we reach a new turning point: The age of bland


Go to the local cinema. All bland movies. Get a list of the biggest bestsellers: Bland, generic, cliché. This is where videogames are heading.

But that's why there's indie/art house movies, and same with music and games, in order to rescue us from corporate blandness. Now if only there were an indie console to play indie games on...

[MrPopo]

As games stop being limited by technological or budgetary limits and with an ever growing market we reach a new turning point: The age of bland


Go to the local cinema. All bland movies. Get a list of the biggest bestsellers: Bland, generic, cliché. This is where videogames are heading.

But that's why there's indie/art house movies, and same with music and games, in order to rescue us from corporate blandness. Now if only there were an indie console to play indie games on...

I hear there's this thing, called the PC, where anyone can program for without having to pay licensing fees.