As illustrated by the last three covers of EGM:
Yeah.
Are you like me? Do you yearn for American games to reach the diversity of other American mass media, like, for example, movies? Right now I can go to a movie theatre and see a quirky indie comedy about a dysfunctional family, or a ridiculous action epic about snakes (that happen to be on a plane), or a screwball comedy about NASCAR racers and baby Jesus, or a documentary about global warming, or a terrible animated film about farm animals, etc. etc. Heck, all in the same day, if I was crazy and cheap!
But if I step into Electronics Boutique, these days I can pretty much only buy "Two Guys With Guns".
To grammatically-incorrectly paraphrase Clara Peller: "where's the genres?"
The thing is, while it's really easy for me to sit here and implore all game developers to try new things (yay blogging!) — and, to be fair, many developers are, like Telltale Games, Keita Takahashi, the Xbox Live Arcade, etc. — I have to wonder: are there simply not enough gamers, non 15-year-old male gamers I guess, to financially support new and different gaming styles?
posted at 3:40 PM
45 Comments:
The Nintendo DS seems to be avoiding "Two Guys With Guns" syndrome quite well!
But what about glorious high-resolution gaming on a television? Why can't it be weird too? Too expensive to develop? Too costly to take risks? BABIES!
That's exactly it, Cabel. Since the development market has merged into just a few large publishing names (Square, EA, Universal, to name a few) those larger companies don't want to take a risk. They want the easy money. So we get things like "Hockey -insert year here-" over and over. The same game as the previous year, just with updated player stats. Nothing imaginitive or unique.
Though, to be fair, some companies have taken risks and brought over the eccentric (Namco's Katamari Damacy leaps to mind), but by and large the US development houses are all about guns.
I have high hopes for the forthcoming Wii. I hope that it will force the market to explore new ideas and take risks. I hope that it will rekindle the thought in gamers minds that games are all about fun, not how many polygons are pushed per second.
-- end ramble --
The second best thing you can do is stop demanding max-budget productions; some of the greatest games are built by a small team of passionate people who can make a simple 2D game look better than any amount of high-res, bump-mapped three dee ultra-realism.
I'm specifically thinking of GUST (Atelier Series and Ar Tonelico), Love-de-Lic (Chulip, Giftpia, Chibi Robo, Coloball 2002, moon, LOL), and D3 Publisher's Simple 2000 series, but there are a hojillion more out there.
The only reservation I have on that is the Wiimote. Is there a better controller for a shooter on a console? Probably not. The first metroid game will be fantastic on there, and probably spur the war clones onto it too. Not to say that there won't be originality also, but the quick-buck merchants will likely swarm.
And in response to the main post: Yeah, what the Hell!
Anyway, I agree with you, but c'mon, don't you like games with guns? Weird games are starting to be accepted here, largly due to Katamari Damacy strangely enough, but it will still be a while before it's widespread. Europe is still stuck in the rut of GTA games, and if you look at recent game sales, four versions of the same football game appear on the top 10.
The FPS genre is full of cash-ins and bastardizations one after the other and until the masses stop buying them it will continue to be as such.
I hate to say it but Halo REALLY gave the genre a push into bland, corporate, repetitive...well crap lol
Now everybody and their mother wants to publish a game with guys with guns and the bigger the guns and faster/cheaper they can get it to market the better.
Lol.
Good point.
Cheese!
I think there is some hope, though. Sony did quite a bit of advertising on Shadow of the Colossus, and it paid off pretty well for them (although not as well as deserved). Hopefully the other megacorps will start taking hints. If not, at least we've still got Nintendo, right?
at least that's my theory anyway.
But they did have the guts to ask the develops of army of 2 or whatever if the pair of assassins were romantically involved with each other. That's why I love EGM.
Meh could be worse, could be the wreckage that is the UK Games industry.
At least the new Super Marios on my DS is fun.
I agree with you, mostly because I am a girl and the best 2 games I can remember are Animal Crossing and Pikimin.
But still, dont forget the other markets that exist.
Thanks for bringing some attention to them in the world!
Well, I hate shoot-em-ups. That's why I'm such good friends with Nintendo. I support them in any way I can. I buy games before they become players choice, I subscribe to Nintendo Power (fanboy-ish but still don't diss other systems), and I appreciate what they do in every way possible. People wonder why I don't have an XBOX or a 360. There's my reason right there. At the top of this blog.
I agree. We are all too visual for our own good.
But cabel, that is very true. What happened to strategies? I guess american gamers don't wanna think while they're playing their games.
This is sorta off topic, but I haven't bought another game for my Xbox 360 since NFS: Most Wanted. Most of the games are bad- and anyway, I'm waiting for Halo 3. :D
I realize that's not what this post is about, but I thought I should share that anyway.
I was at the annual Swedish Game Concept Challenge, where our game concepts were to be judged by a panel of people from the industry. One group had a really interesting game wherein the main character was a woman, whose chest wasn't ridiculously inflated and who otherwise looked pretty average. Now, after the presentation, when the judges were commenting the concept, one guy from a publisher (don't remember which) said something along the lines of, "Interesting concept, but the girl needs bigger boobs, and couldn't you make that friendship thing into more of a love sub-plot thing?" Everyone groaned, but the guy argued for a while about it, and he was the kind of guy who decided what the publishers publish. And while he agreed that it didn't really fit the game, he said that's what the audience wants.
I have had SO much fun with quirkly little titles like Chibi-Robo, Animal Crossing, and Mario Party -- at least as much fun as I have with tough, "male" games like Resident Evil or Eternal Darkness. (Nothing wrong with a little zombie-killing after all, it just isn't everything).
I just hope people remember - you vote with your pocketbook. Buy these games that show a little originality and a little spirit. Try something outside the norm, and pay full price. Your dollar speaks louder than words, so go support the people who are putting some heart into these games.
Thanks, Cabel, for another insightful post.
:p
I grew up as an adventure gamer, and that is a genre which has declined significantly, especially in the past 10+ years. There are the games out there, just very few A-level games. Perhaps why we can see more experimental games on the smaller platforms like Nintendo DS or even cell phone games might be due to lower cost to develop them, which means less risk for the publishers. Games these days have just become far too big and far too expensive to be worth it to anyone anymore. I'm just wondering when we will finally reach critical mass and the games can no longer get any bigger.
But as others have mentioned, I'm looking forward to the Wii to see if this helps inject some fresh blood into a tired industry. Hey, I bought a DS just because of the game Brain Age, which has been a great style of game play for me since I just don't have the proper amount of time to sit down and play games for hours on end, week in and week out.
2nd party developer Naughty Dog - creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter series which together sold over 37 million games - has abandoned the genre! Their next PS3 game is realistic and violent. But we saw this coming - Naughty Dog has been progressively trying to make their Jak games more "X for extreme" by emphasizing guns and racing. Guess what, the original "Jak & Daxter" with its classic gameplay outsold all the "Xtreme" sequels.
Platform games used to be the bread-and-butter for consoles. And while they are not as popular now as in the NES days, they still sell millions. I'm disappointed to see the genre skipped over my Sony. At least Nintendo is keeping platformers alive.
Nintendo is the glimmer of hope, as others have said. They can do Metroid, but they can just as competently do Brain Age. I own an Xbox 360 and a PS2, but the DS is the only reason I'm playing video games right now. The Wii will probably be the next reason.
That said, magazines they need to cater to people who would buy a publication about games. It's not so easy to put a Japanese neuroscientist on the cover, unless there's a real story to back it up.
Anyway, Nintendo is my favorite, because their games are...Great. Diverse. FUN. Yes, all X-Box is selling is crap about guns n' stuff. "This time he SCREAMS while shooting!"
I never have liked X-Box, and I don't think I EVER will because they have barely any diverse games.
Don't worry!! Nintendo Wii and DS will work together to change the world!!!! (sorry, got carried away, big Nintendo Fanboy.)
Problem solved, meltdown averted and all that.
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