Posted January 16, 2011
This list has many valid points, but I strongly disagree with with two of them:
* Cinematic games. What on earth is wrong with games being cinematic? As long as there is a certain degree of interactivity, it qualifies as a game in my book. There is nothing wrong with mixing media types. I do agree that including cutscenes for the sake of it is rather silly in say, a puzzlegame, but for any game that tells a story, it simply enhances the experience. And for adventure games specifically, if it isn't cinematic, it's hardly worth the effort.
* Rail shooters. Honestly, this is a matter of taste. Resident Evil: Dark Side Chronicles, and Dead Space : Extraction are two of my favourite games on the Wii system. They're incredibly well made, have good scripts, good voice-acting, and solid gameplay. And the graphics, considering the Wii hardware, are top notch, particularly in the case of Resident Evil. The fact that the market has become "oversaturated" by crap games in the genre doesn't mean the whole genre should cease to exist. Just means developers should stop making bad games. The FPS genre is far more done to death, and has far more lousy products on the market than on rail shooters will ever have.
On a side note, I'm against any form of DRM. I get that companies want to protect their products from piracy, but if I'm paying you money for a game, I expect that game to run on my system without having to authenticate it online, installing a root kit, or having to install and log on to a separate client to play (read: Steam). It shouldn't be my problem that other people are pirating your games.
I think a major issue with the state of game development today that is lacking from this list is that games today are overdeveloped. By that I mean that they cost too much. We have placed far too much importance on realistic graphics and marketing. And these things drive the costs up so high that to make a return on their investment, the publishers have to place DRM on their products. Piracy has always existed, and so has copy protection, though back in the day, it took the form of having to check a codewheel or other physical materials included in the package. But this was often a part of the experience that could be both fun and in context of the game. I realize this wouldn't be a solution today, but if games cost less to make, publishers might be able to take more damage from piracy, and not have to inconvenience their paying customers.
And lastly; screw the graphics, give us some decent gameplay!
* Cinematic games. What on earth is wrong with games being cinematic? As long as there is a certain degree of interactivity, it qualifies as a game in my book. There is nothing wrong with mixing media types. I do agree that including cutscenes for the sake of it is rather silly in say, a puzzlegame, but for any game that tells a story, it simply enhances the experience. And for adventure games specifically, if it isn't cinematic, it's hardly worth the effort.
* Rail shooters. Honestly, this is a matter of taste. Resident Evil: Dark Side Chronicles, and Dead Space : Extraction are two of my favourite games on the Wii system. They're incredibly well made, have good scripts, good voice-acting, and solid gameplay. And the graphics, considering the Wii hardware, are top notch, particularly in the case of Resident Evil. The fact that the market has become "oversaturated" by crap games in the genre doesn't mean the whole genre should cease to exist. Just means developers should stop making bad games. The FPS genre is far more done to death, and has far more lousy products on the market than on rail shooters will ever have.
On a side note, I'm against any form of DRM. I get that companies want to protect their products from piracy, but if I'm paying you money for a game, I expect that game to run on my system without having to authenticate it online, installing a root kit, or having to install and log on to a separate client to play (read: Steam). It shouldn't be my problem that other people are pirating your games.
I think a major issue with the state of game development today that is lacking from this list is that games today are overdeveloped. By that I mean that they cost too much. We have placed far too much importance on realistic graphics and marketing. And these things drive the costs up so high that to make a return on their investment, the publishers have to place DRM on their products. Piracy has always existed, and so has copy protection, though back in the day, it took the form of having to check a codewheel or other physical materials included in the package. But this was often a part of the experience that could be both fun and in context of the game. I realize this wouldn't be a solution today, but if games cost less to make, publishers might be able to take more damage from piracy, and not have to inconvenience their paying customers.
And lastly; screw the graphics, give us some decent gameplay!
