Why are games so boring/similar

I also play WinUAE (and highly recommend getting ClassicWB so you can copy the games onto a virtual Hard-Drive and run it from there - much better than virtually swopping disks).

I believe one of the main reasons is that big companies killed off the home game maker. Back on the C64 / Spectrum you could design a game and send it into one of the big magazines (Zzap / Your Sinclair / etc.) and, if it was good, they would publish it. This gave the game creator the recognisition they deserved and, more than likely, they would be snapped up by a big company or go it on there own.

I'd much rather play Kick Off 2 / Sensible World of Soccer than I would the latest FIFA or PES.

A game can be original, of course it can, if you think this is where gaming stops evolving then you are wrong. There will be new ideas (and with 3D gaming perhaps something novel from that) but it just takes time due to the big companies only wanting to release guaranteed hits (hence we have the continuing sage of Call of Duty).

We have had some interesting ideas such as Dungeon Keeper and Black and White. Lets hope for a better year.


M.
 
'Wes said:
That's why BF:3 has been in development for a good few years?
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That's why EA Have been using the Bad Company series? :p

I know it's a different team and all (I think) but the bad company team would have helped loads with the frostbite engine and multi-platform development.
 
HangTime said:
I think it is partly just natural evolution of the gaming genre - 20 years ago gaming was relatively new so it was easier to be original. There was no such thing as a FPS or even RTS in the sense that we know it now.
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Going a bit OT but what was the first RTS...Populous?
 
Its purely driven by cost. Most games are funded by business executives who do not have a clue about anything other than maximum profit. Sometimes they get it right & we get a decent game but recently more often than not the results are lacking.

Doubt this will change much anytime soon as game dev costs are getting out of control which is why the similarity if not going anywhere anytime soon (look at this year most big budget games are sequels). Big budget games also cost well in excess of £25-30M (some are rumoured to cost as much as £40m which is ridiculous but its mainly the staff costs to hire 400-500 people to work long hours to get the game done by a certain date.

Look at the economics if they get it right the game can generate more profit than most movies which is why the business executives control game development budgets.
 
Another issue is as games get bigger and more expensive to develop they have to go multiplatform to make any money. Multiplatform = developing for the lowest common denominator, so the higher end platforms suffer.

Also to recoup costs AAA games now have to sell millions of copies, which means you have to try to widen the game's appeal, which leads to the casualisation of major franchises.

The large teams required to make AAA games are expensive, unwieldy and difficult to manage. Big publishers and developers have many layers of management which makes it difficult getting any innovative or risky ideas into games.

Most of the really innovative games are being produced by indies - either individual developers or small flexible teams, like we used to have back in the 90's. The internet and digital distribution makes it easier for indies to self-publish, and directly reap the rewards from their hard work and innovation. It's more profitable too, because you're cutting out a whole slew of middlemen.

Of course you don't tend to make megabucks from indie development, and it's rare for indie games to sell millions of copies apart from the odd success story like Minecraft, but you can make a very respectable living from it, and I dare say it's more rewarding from a creative point of view than working in a large studio.
 
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Anybody ever watch pure pwnage? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q84m5NO_1Y

Back to the original post, personally I believe simply put the penalty of gaming becoming a mainstream "thing" like movies/music is the necessity of big corperations stepping in/putting the quarterly statement first and innovation last in the pecking order. The need to play it safe

The consumer is partially to blame in all this, obviously

p.s. Dune2 made the genre more mainstream/popular, but there were plenty of titles that predate it wordy... Herzog Zwei(sp?) for the megadrive springs to mind (split screen 2 player for the win)
 
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AWPC said:
Big budget games also cost well in excess of £25-30M (some are rumoured to cost as much as £40m which is ridiculous but its mainly the staff costs to hire 400-500 people to work long hours to get the game done by a certain date.
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£40m to produce a £1 billion product is a good deal especially when you think avatar cost £500 million
 
Dune 2 established things like base building, resource gathering and fog of war. It's features led directly to C and C I think (Westwood did both?). Populous was a 'god game', but it was also a strategy game, too - just a different style. If I recall correctly, Populous won strategy gaming awards. I recently wrote an article about this :D
 
Tefal said:
£40m to produce a £1 billion product is a good deal especially when you think avatar cost £500 million
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And I read recently that the gaming industry is bigger than Hollywood, so it makes sense that big budgets are being applied to games.
 
Having worked on a game mod for 5 years it's easy to say that 'risk' is the main reason as others have stated. Even more so these days as games take much longer to make now that you have physics, complex shaders, advanced lighting, etc. Make one mistake and all your years of hard work goes out the window.

Some studios paid the price with innovation such as Westwood. It's a safe bet that releasing 'Call of Duty: Back to the Future' will be a success since it's a tried and testing formula.

Indie is really where innovation will most likely grow from. You don't have a big budget so taking a risk is more appealing as it could lead you to great success rather than trying to clone an existing idea. Minecraft is the best example. I wouldn't be surprised if a big studio tried to buy the guy out.
 
Rozzy85 said:
Minecraft is the best example. I wouldn't be surprised if a big studio tried to buy the guy out.
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Valve approached them, but then the company has to be willing to actually sell to be bought out...

But either way good example of innovation, they've sold well in excess of 1 million units, I can think of plenty of big name titles which cost 30x the budget Mojang had and probably never sold half as many copies
 
Rozzy85 said:
Having worked on a game mod for 5 years it's easy to say that 'risk' is the main reason as others have stated. Even more so these days as games take much longer to make now that you have physics, complex shaders, advanced lighting, etc. Make one mistake and all your years of hard work goes out the window.

Some studios paid the price with innovation such as Westwood. It's a safe bet that releasing 'Call of Duty: Back to the Future' will be a success since it's a tried and testing formula.

Indie is really where innovation will most likely grow from. You don't have a big budget so taking a risk is more appealing as it could lead you to great success rather than trying to clone an existing idea. Minecraft is the best example. I wouldn't be surprised if a big studio tried to buy the guy out.
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yes, but i think for people that are into FPS like me, that there isn't anything original wth regards to storylines that you can try...it's all been done before.

you have SAS, terrorist shoot outs, Zombies, GEARS OF WAR, DOOM, HALF LIFE, BIOSHOCK, Borderlands etc, all that you can do will be variations on that theme, it's the same as art; there's nothing i can do that hasn't been seen before.

this is seen by many as boredom........... yea' that's life i'm afraid!
 
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hood1971 said:
look to indie gaming for invention. Easiet way to do that is to follow Neil79 around ;) .Big game companies are too scared to try something inventive as games cost a fortune to produce now. In the amiga days the developers were a 2-5 man band.
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This - the games i play most on steam are indie games, at the moment im right back into Osmos.
 
Amiga was the finest gaming system I have ever owned apart from Bertie sat here right now seeing as it play's Amiga games via emulator, but I think you just need to broaden horizons a bit.

Can you honestly say the Mass Effect series isn't something fresh and incredible? They practically created a new universe, new ideals, races of alien with personalities and traits... just for a GAME.

Go on Steam and look at games like Penumbra, Amnesia:Dark Descent.

The Hitman series never gets old for me.

Portal? Dead Rising 2?

Have you seen the footage of LA Noire yet? Heavy Rain?

Even the Assassin's Creed series offers something new and original.

Just be willing to branch out a bit. I've just started playing Ghost Trick on the 3DS and honestly, if this was on Steam, it would sell boat loads. Amazing idea.
 
hairyfeet said:
Valve approached them, but then the company has to be willing to actually sell to be bought out...

But either way good example of innovation, they've sold well in excess of 1 million units, I can think of plenty of big name titles which cost 30x the budget Mojang had and probably never sold half as many copies
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They might just go at it alone but who knows. They could just be a one hit wonder, too. I'd imagine the community will have very high expectations of their next venture.

Mal X said:
yes, but i think for people that are into FPS like me, that there isn't anything original wth regards to storylines that you can try...it's all been done before.

you have SAS, terrorist shoot outs, Zombies, GEARS OF WAR, DOOM, HALF LIFE, BIOSHOCK, Borderlands etc, all that you can do will be variations on that theme, it's the same as art; there's nothing i can do that hasn't been seen before.

this is seen by many as boredom........... yea' that's life i'm afraid!
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Well there's still life in the FPS genre but if it doesn't appeal to the masses then it won't happen anytime soon. It has got boring as everything just seems a rehash of something before with a crappy storyline. People seem to like boring, mindless, shooting so studios will pump it out until interest fades.
 
this is the way i see it.
in the begining there was nothing, so everything was good and different.
then once more and more games came out, a pattern emerged as to what games/genres sold well.
companies latched on to this, then decided to flood the market with loads of games that fit these genres.
so to get new and exciting titles, stop buying clone after clone of the same old game. no one buys, no point making.

i know this is a really basic explanation, but its the way i see it, everything these days is supply and demand. until we stop buying then they have no reason to look for something different, as it might fail to sell. companies know that the same old FPS style games will sell well accross all platforms. so will arcade racers and RTS.
if you think, companies jumped on the bandwaggon of rock band and guitar hero, and the latest releases have been a disaster sales wise as people got bored of the novelty aspect. so companies will stick with what sells.
 
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