TN Editorial: IS PC GAMING GETTING MORE AND MORE BORING?

[[TN] Nathan]

Please feel free to politely discuss this article here.

Editorial can be found here:

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/boringgaming/
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[Google]

[meobius]

Remember fallout,
remember starcraft
remember diablo
remember the Ultima series
remember the Zork series
remember the Kingsquest, spacequest, police quest (and leisure suit larry)
remember theif

these games in someways defined a genre. They had story, they had playability. Hell I played starcraft on my 486, and i'm still playing it today, what does that have to say about the game.
All these games required thought of some sort (cept maybe diablo and the endless button mashing) In fallout you had to stratagize the battles. In Starcraft you had to plan your rushes, bunker creeping, drops, etc. Ultima, Zork, and The quests you had to puzzle out what in your inventory would work while fighting off things, or running from things that want you dead.
hell the last leisure suit larry game i played was only mindless minigames which all resembled DDR. Where was the stratagy in that? I was very much dissapointed in it.

Some of the games have taken things to the extreme, with too many units, or too many races, or too many resources to collect. Starcraft was simple. 3 races, a few units, and 2 resources and the name of the game was speed.

The few games I've found which are enjoyable, i find are plagued by so many bugs, it's just not playable.

It's become obvious that the gaming industry is concentrating more on money and less on good games. They concentrate too much on the multiplayer and not enough on the single player.

Every now and then there is a good game that comes out though
F.E.A.R for example, the AI was extremely intelligent, the ambiance was there, the game had feeling to it.

Dungeon seige from microsoft isn't bad as a diablo replacement\

The hitman series is also rather unique in that it extreme massacres count against you.

well that's all i can think of for now.
look
you see a mailbox. There is a path leading north
open mailbox
command not recognized
look at mailbox
it looks like a mailbox
use mailbox
how would you like to use the mailbox?
F$@k the mailbox and go north
command not recognized
north
you walk into the mailbox and die
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[Xal]

Hey Nate, glad to see it up.
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[ToggleHead]

[Runner]

I would consider myself a hardcore gamer, so the fact that you recieved opinions defending the game industries current track record kind of puzzles me. My credentials in PC gaming begin in 1991 on up through the rise of online gaming and into competetive gaming.

Gaming has seriously deteriorated, companies now pander to the lowest common denominator, they aren't willing to take chances and the developers that are tend to be rushed into pushing out a partially finished game, with only a hint of their vision to be found. The industry as a whole is diseased, from slave labor style developer practices to cookie cutter games with ever increasing graphical finesse. The same old tired rehashed game every single time.

Also, console systems have set back PC gaming a few years, Microsoft's XBox being the biggest offender. The console systems, being the biggest money maker for these publishers, have thrust what were once PC games into the hands of couch gamers, only they've been hacked apart and stripped of features to play well on consoles limited scope and ability. Not to mention you can't have a buggy console game, so those features which cannot be made to work in the developement timeframe are cut. They also restrict the amount of time that can be given to fleshing out the game, as more time has to be spent making it work on every system it is set to be released on.

The trouble with all of this is that the intended audience is part of the problem, we keep buying this stuff. We let them get away with it. Newer gaming audiences don't know what PC gaming could and has been like in the past, they don't know what they've missed out on, so theres no reason for them to demand better games. Which leaves it to the rest of us, the few of us who remember those golden days, to scream at the pop culture mass that is the modern gaming crowd, only to have returned a resounding "STFU N00B! XXXXX(insert random game) R00LZ!". In my opinion, we are doomed to fall by the wayside, PC gaming isn't going to change, the publishers don't care that they stiffle creativity. Such is the modern world.

[[TN] Nathan]

Excellent insight Runner.

Too much time is going into making games look better than to actually make them play better.

Kinda like having this amazing Ferrari sitting in front of you all shiny and gorgeous only to open the hood and see it is powered by a chainsaw engine.

Moral of he story, looks only get you so far.
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[fussnfeathers]

One exception to this is MMORPG's.

I play Guild Wars and Star Wars Galaxies on a regular basis, and have dabbled in Everquest 2, EVE, and DDO. All have great graphics, great storylines, and amazing replayability. I've been playing SWG for over three years, almost every night, and I'm still not bored. Of course, a good part of this is the multiplayer aspect, but that's only a small part.

SWG, for example, can be played completely solo, if you choose. And if you don't mind taking the short bus to the cloner alot. After three years, I have yet to explore every corner of the game world, complete every quest, or rid the galaxy of the Empire vermin..........er.......... *shh......don't tell anyone I'm a rebel*

*shifty eyes*

Granted, these games (with the exception of Guild Wars) requires a monthly fee, but if the game isn't worth it, you can cancel. For me, I find these games greatly entertaining, well thought out (for the most part), and you get the added benefit of added content on a regluar basis. Valve is getting the idea, by releasing "episodes" of Half Life 2.

Where I think the problem lies today is that "gaming computers" are just about commonplace. It used to be that a PC gamer was a rare bird. In this respect, I disagree with Runner. Console gaming has been around as long as, if not longer than, PC gaming. Back when I was a kid, we had an Atari 2600, but PC's were not readily available, if at all.......and were 8086 based, 15mhz machines designed strictly for business, with the nifty yellow-on-black screen. Or you owned a Commodore, and could play a small amount of games that were hard to find.

I think alot of the blame for today's bland games can be laid on the fact that there are so many PC gamers now. Back when Doom came out, the idea of playing a game on a PC was an alien concept........PC's were that cheesy beige box you did word processing on. Even as recently as ten years ago, PC gamers were an odd duck, so the games HAD to be good. Otherwise, the company that designed it would go belly-up. Also figure that the upgrade cycle of the typical PC 10 or 12 years ago was two years, if not more.....that game had to have replayability. Sure, the developer could design a game for next-gen hardware, but remember when a processor upgrade was three years in the making?

These days, today's top-shelf gaming machine is a tired old nag in six months (take Maximum PC's Dream Machine 11........it beats their benchmark machine in tests by as much as 70%.........and that rig is less than six months old!).

I do believe that PC gaming is bigger than it ever was, but game designers haven't updated their thinking from the early 90's, when a new game meant new hardware that would be years in development. Console game designers are used to this, as consoles are not upgradable. PC game makers need to follow this ideal, and rather than create a crappy game that looks great on next month's hardware, create a game that will not only look good, but provide enjoyment for the majority that can't afford to upgrade to the latest dual GPU vid card this week.
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[Xal]

Damn, there are some amazingly childish people in the gaming industry, check out the responses some of theses morons came up with
here .

Some good points in here.
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[[TN] Nathan]

Don't you worry about what they had to say, they are just the usual side-liners that like to sit and be critical about everything, yet will never get off their butts to write something themselves.

I have had replies from some of the biggest gaming and hardware websites in the world agreeing with you and they are sure as hell more in the loop than the people that where being rude to you in that thread.

You spoke out and said what you wanted to say, and that I will always respect.
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[Xal]

Thanks :)

I wrote what I felt and I stick by it.
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[Zero_Fresh]

Well written, regardless of what narrow-minded "college graduate" that thinks thier s*** don't stink says. It's good to see an opinionated article out there. Without your opinion placed into a post there isn't anything to debate.

The only thing I can say that I would MAYBE disagree with is a point you made on FPS. Albeit, they are all the same, give or take, in gameplay, I never get anough of them. Again, that is not saying you were incorrect in your statement, I am merely stating that my opinion differs from yours in that degree.

I still find Halo (both the first and the second) quite enjoyable. There really is nothing like endlessly splattering Covenant brains until the next cut scene. lol But then again, I may feel that way because I took the time to read the trilogy of Sci-Fi novels about Halo's story line. I highly recommend reading them. The first explains everything leading up to the start of the first game, the second is basically a run-through of the first game, and the third explains everything that happens between the first and second games. All three are written by Nebula Award winning novelists.
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[fussnfeathers]

0F has a point there. I know that's part of the reason I enjoy SWG..........I mean, what game has a better known storyline than Star Wars??
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[Xal]

I totaly agree, I am an RPG fan myself. Everyone has different tastes. One thing most seem to share though is dissatisfaction with the way things are, obviously with a few exceptions..... Oblivion......
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[fussnfeathers]

Honestly, I don't find Oblivion to be that amazing........good, and worth a play, for sure, but not earthshaking.

I think the term "gamer" needs to be defined.

Let's take the term "musician". Who is truly the musician.........a person who has spent 20 years learning everything they can about a single instrument, or a person who has spent 20 years learing a little bit of every instrument available?

A gamer needs to be defined likewise. If you ask around the SWG galaxy, I'm a well-known name, and have a reputation as being one tough SOB. Drop me into an FPS, and I'm an alien chew toy in minutes.

Being a gamer doesn't mean you play alot of games, but rather that you excel in one field of games, even down to just one game. After reading some of the posts on other forums, I find that there are few "gamers" out there. Just a whole lot of noodlers that can't decide what game they should play.
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[Mordacain]

Hi all, registered just to make this post (stumbled onthe topic by accident while looking at cooling gear reviews). That should say something about the interest-level of the topic.

I find it important to make sure we are not judging games entirely off the way they make us feel. What I mean by that is simply that you shoul dnot take the feeling you remember from the first time you fragged a Nazi in Wolfenstein 3D and try to qualitatively compare that to how you felt when you bag your first Techno Ninja in F.E.A.R.

The reason I say that is that they are many other variables involved in the passing of time that can color our memories.

For example, I was far more of a console gamer when I was a teenager
(mainly because PC components were cost-prohibitve). I fondly remember a game called Lunar: The Silver Star on the SegaCD. This was the first console RPG I truly enjoyed and it became my favorite game of the time (still is one of my all-time favorites). Fast forward a number of years to the Sony Playstation days. A revamped version of Lunar was made to include some of the story ideas cut due todevelopment time constraints (to appease the rabid fans of the title). This version was superior in every way to the original, graphics, story, dialogue, cut-scenes. Everything was beautifully and lovingly created. A great game (for fans of this style of game). However, something was missing that I just could not put my finger on...eventually I realized it was that the original had become part of my childhood memories. Subsequently replaying that title confirmed that I was enjoying the game now by tapping into my memories of childhood.

Now, with that being said, here's my two cents on the topic...

Personally, I'm not too worried about the state of the industry at the moment. Our long-time past-time is finally becoming mainstream. While this has its good points, the negatives are equal in quantity. I feel the game industry is starting to mirror the music industry of the early fifties (no, I'm not that old, I just happen to be something of a history buff). The industry is just starting to bustle and the talent is bustlign with creative energy. The realization being made by your executives in the industry is that there is money to be made, and lots of it if we play our cards right. Capitalism is ensuing in full-swing and there will be lots of knock-off games trying to emulate your true stars. There is only one Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry or Elvis after all.

This is really nothing new. Sequels upon sequels are certainties on games that make a big market impact. That's not to say they are any less creative. Quake 2 was a far superior game to the original Quake in my opinion and was far more enjoyable. The same can be said other big franchises (Might & Magic, Warcraft, Zelda, Mega Man, etc). The funny thing is, the games tend to get better as we progress, but it may never replace the feelings you had from younger days. I'm chalking it all up to simple nostalgia.

Sometimes a dud comes along that might leave a bad taste in your mouth (Doom 3 comes to mind), but by and large, I feel this is actually a very intersting time to be a gamer (I realize this is focused on PC, but I a gamer regardless of the platform). I just finished F.E.A.R. the other day and was engrossed throughout the whole experience and now consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. Some people on the other hand play that and see just another FPS w/ pretty graphics. It's all about how a game appeals to you in the end.

To sum-up, I think games are evolving constantly evolving and we are all living in an exciting time to be a gamer.

As a side note, while playing F.E.A.R. I was able for the first time to justify my tech obsession (constant upgrading) because having the graphics cranked to the max truly helped the overall ambience and creep factor.

[Mordacain]

Hi fussnfeathers,
Not to step on any toes since I'm new here, but I have to disagree with your definition of a gamer.

I don't think a gamer can be defined with such a short scope, nor a musician for that matter.

I'm a musician myself and while I play many instruments, I specialize in guitar. I play wiht others on a regular basis who play multiple instruments, may have limited technical ability, but tons of creativity. I still consider them to be excellent musicians because the total creative effort is interesting and pleasing to listen to.

Relating this back to gaming, most gamers are not selective about the genre of game they play. They play whatever they think is intersting. Personally, anyone who enjoys playing games, on some level, is a gamer. You have levels of devotion, but we are all gamers just the same. I like playing Fighting Games, but I am not particularly good at them. Drop me in a good FPS and I'll frag the board before they see me (exagerrated for effect).

Only point was that you don't have to specialize anything, you can be a gamer just by enjoying games.

[Xal]

I agree on the nostagia point, I remember beeing blown away by Commander Keen as a kid when that was the first PC game I ever played, nothing can come close to that feeling and I don't expect anything ever will. Still, asside from nostalgia, I feel something is missing in todays games and so do many other people. The ammusing thing is that the "missing link" so to speak seems to be different for different people. Some feel, like myself, that the storylines have become weak and cliche, others that realisim has unseated playability.

Thanks for your input, it is a good point.

Another thing that has been bothering me about new games. They are catering only for those with the $$ for the latest PC kit. Playing Doom 3 on an old Geforce FX 5200 was like pulling teeth and was about as visually impressive as quake 3. It seems that if you turn off part of the eyecandy you are left with bad diffuse maps, shoddy lighting and STILL have poor FPS. No effort goes into making the games look decent for the average gamers out there, you know, the guys with the Dell and the low end GFX cards. Its not hard to make you diffuse (skin) textures look good without effect nor is it hard to include less intensive shaders so lower end users can play the games with at least some enjoyment. I think this is one of the main reasons that alot of people are dissapointed with games today, not everyone can afford an upgrade every time a new game comes out. Most people I know are running old Radeon 9000 series and Geforce FX range cards and although they can play new games the graphics are frankly nothing to write home about, without the eyecandy there is certainly a lot left wanting in games today.
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[Mordacain]

You raise some good points. There should be more "legacy mode" options available. Perhaps having these as downloadable replacement cabs.

However, I don't think we can expect game manufacturers to output for the extra expense for what is probably the lowest percentage of their audience. On the plus side, I don't think I have ever seen PC kit so cheap. You could put together a gaming rig capable of running every game out right now (at around Med-High settings) for around $500.

To draw a parrallel to consoles, once a new generation of console comes out, the older console is eventually phased out. There's really no way around it, our tech won't last forever, upgrading is an inevitable evil.

[ToggleHead]

Mord....very good points. I wrestled around with what i wrote earlier in the thread and i think im seeing it in a different light now. Yes i still agree that some of the current games arent up to MY par...but what MY perception tells me, is only MY concern. I remember playing Tiberian Sun a while back and it happened to be at the right time of my life with the right friends to make that a very memorable game and experience. Looking back, the first command and conquer was WAY better IMO, but still, this expansion stuck with me.

FnF, as for your description of gamers/musicians, i also disagree. I see your angle, but not enough to concur. Mordacain has it right. I too am a musician, and while i play upwards of 10 instruments, i do focus only a selcet few. However, i CANT write a tune. Am i still a musician? I can play almost anything you put in front of me, and a bass line for anything, but put me in charge of lyrics and you can almost watch the fans walking out of the venue.

When it comes down to it.....games are evolving, but are we? Doom 3 was a let down in my opinion, but it was one of the first of the next wave of games. Just like when the original Doom came out. It was AWESOME....till wolfenstien IMO.

...isnt it possible our lack of interest in todays games come not from the poor quality of the games themselves, but from our inability to percieve what angle they are coming from?

Welcome to the board Mordacain.
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[Xal]

Yes, it is a very good point.

Doom 3 still sucked as a game though, no matter the perspective or age of the player. Although the nostalgia factor may attribute to a large part of our dissatisfaction, it does not account for the dissatisfaction of younger gamers. I spoke to a number of younger gamers in my research for this editorial and found a large number of them also thought games today lack flare.

It just comes down to what kind of games you like and personal opinions really. One thing that I am fairly certain of is that games in the next few years are going to take off. With all the fanfare about eyecandy finally becoming common place I think designers will finally start focusing more on style and enjoyment again. I believe the last few years have served the industry as an evolvement period, a time to switch from the tech that was to the tech that is. Now, with that finally mostly done and ballances being struck between realisim and system performance I am hoping we will see some more inovative titles hitting the market.
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[Xal]

Yeah, and welcome to the boards

Stick arround and enjoy the forums. There is a great bunch of people here :-)
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[Mordacain]

Thanks for the welcome Been awhile since I've actually bothered to post on anything. Think actually my last post on a forum was about AMD's lawsuit against if that tells you anything about time.

I did have a though earlier and I saw you echoed that as well, in that this is definitely and period of evolution and as Technology starts to plateau, designers will be more focused on gameplay.

However, with that said, I don't think that gameplay has gone totally south. I can name a few exceptional games for each year I've been a gamer (all 16 or so of 'em) that are incredibly fun and have pushed at least one boundary. There are also quite a number of titles that were just plain fun, rehashed though they may be...think Painkiller (true successor to Doom IMO).

[fussnfeathers]

I should re-write myself a bit.........my previous comment didn't mean that a "gamer" didn't play other types of games, any more than a guitarist doesn't occasionally play drums. What I meant to say was that the "gamer" that the developers still cater to is a specialist.........not your run-of-the-mill plays a bunch of different games, but doesn't live or breathe that game.

There are people out there, particularly competitive gamers, who not only perfect gameplay in one specific game, but also are willing to spend hundreds, if not thousands, fine-tuning their rig to play that one game.

Back when Quake hit, that was the game to play. Quake fans, even today, use specialized hardware, graphics drivers, and a few I know even upgrade their rigs every 4-6 months........all to get peak performance out of Quake. To my mind, that is a true gamer. Using the musician analogy again, a guy who just plays guitar for fun will buy an inexpensive guitar, decent amp, and maybe a stomp box, and has some fun. A guitarist, on the other hand, will spend thousands of dollars (and more.....I've sold some amazing rigs in my time) to just to perfect their sound. Saying that everybody who plays a game more than twice a week is a gamer is like saying everybody who plays guitar is Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's just not true.

Anyway, like I said, game developers appear to still be in that mindset........if we build it, they will buy.........and buy from our hardware partners, buy our convention tickets, t-shirts, action figures, etc.

I was digging through my game collection, and I have a short list of games that have stood the test of time, and new games that continue to make me want to play:

SWG, Jedi Outcast, KOTOR and KOTOR2, the Myst series (except Myst 4, that one sucked), Painkiller/Battle Out Of Hell, Diablo 2, Clive Barker's Undying (awesome game, if you've never played it), Mechwarrior, and Serious Sam. There are some great strategy games out there, like Battle For Middle Earth, Black and White 2, and Civilisation......I just don't like that sortof game too much.

It's sad though, to walk into EB Games, and see so much space devoted to shelf fodder........something to fill the gaps, and maybe make a few bucks.

That said, though, I don't really consider myself a gamer. My X800GT is more than enough, I'm only halfway decent at one game, the rest I just hack my way through when I'm bored, and my rig is optimized for daily usage.
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[Xal]

I see FnFs point, its one thing to be a guitar player who goes out and buys a decent stock guitar with a good amp and a bunch of effects pedals and totally another to be the guitar player who goes out and plays every guitar in the shop then buys the one (good make or bad) that sounds good anly to take the thing home, strip it down and find out WHY it sounds that way and then retro fit it with expensive custom pickups and goodies.

The first guitarist may go out and buy a Gem (a great guitar) and have the best the shop has to offer but the second will customize and fine tune it till it sings his tune. The same goes for gamers, I had a friend who speciallized in Counter Strike MP and he CREAMED US ALL in it but as soon as we shifted to quake 3 or UT we handed him his ass. He, to this day, swears the CS is the only game worth playing and is in love with CSS. But he thinks FEAR sucked. His opinion is biased by speciallity. Sure, he likes playing other games but CSS is his preference. There are a lot of FPS fans out there that will eat up almost any FPS you throw at them and the industry is more than happy to oblige. We will always see this trend because there will always be the specialists.
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[Mordacain]

I see your point now FnF, thanks for the explaination.

However, I'm still not sure I can totally agree. There are always guys out there who can buck the point.

Example: Tom Morello from Rage still uses the same, beat-up 50-watt Marshall JCM800 2205 head. His guitars are modified, but only the electronics and trem system (for the main Rage guitar he called "Arm the Homeless").

Stevie Ray Vaughan again, used the his old Strat for most of his career, and reportedly never switched out the electronics. Same can be said for Rory Gallagher and Jimmy Page's old Tele (used on the first two Zep albums and on the solo for stairway to heaven).

Only point I was trying to make there is that I don't think there is a hard and fast line. Some of the best games are great because they are universally appealing. I can think of quite a few off the top of my head:

World of Warcraft - love it or hate it, it's massive popularity speaks for itself. I know plenty of people who never considered themselves "gamers" that have been addicted to that game (some still are).

Myst - very popular, for reasons unknown to me...again, not a game made for "gamers"

Sims - personally I hate this game, but there are tons of people out there who love it and bolstered it to infamy. - again, not branded with gamers in mind

I could go on, but I just wanted to establish the trend