Rant Word for thought - Crappy games.

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
It's often said, by several people and i'm betting many of us has thought of it, that there's so much crap games going around. Oh long gone were the days of epic gaming, substituted with the monotonous paste that is the 2k game industry.

Common viewpoint, i'd like to think.

I'm not going to go into the whole milking cow thing, or the publishing dates, or other such boring things that we all know contribute to fast produced games with only money in mind. There's plenty of that discussion anytime there's a new NFL/NHL/FIFA/HALO/etc around.

The main thing here is illusion, or delusion on another hand. The amount of good games hasn't really declined, but there are two reasons why it seems that way.

1: The sheer amount of games.

When you're looking for a diamond in a dungheep, it's easy when the dungheep is in your backyard, barely reaching to your ankles. This was the case in the olden golden days. Good games were easy to pick out, as it was most likely a case of 1 in 10. In less fortunate parts of the world, with crappy game stores, if someone was lucky enough to even have a crappy one at all, the nmber would be closer to 1 in 5.

Some even had a healthy "i'll play what i get" situation, where you play the things you happen to have around.

These days, i dare say, the game industry is larger then the movie industry, if looked at from a company amount and the amount of titles launched per year. So, the dungheep is up to our necks, past the forehead and we could live inside it. Finding those gems is a harer job by the day.

Not to mention, there's soon more gamestops and game dispenseries then starbucks.

This ofcourse would be a lovely situation back in the day, a plethora of games to choose from, you could play 24/7/365 and still not manage to go through every game. If it weren't for the second part.

2: Teh Internets.

Back in the day, when gaming was for nerds and not that popular, you'd be lucky if you had a little flop of a magazine in your mailbox(that's...an actual box for mails, not that icon on your screen) to tell you what games rock'em and what games suck more then the mandatory paris hilton sex joke. These magazines in turn had to pick&choose between this game and that, have some good reviews so the magazine isn't all about fails and all in all, they probably reviewed 2-3 bad games. That was your media. Not a really covering expose on the crapNES of games now is it?

Friends ofcourse shared their experiences, but rarely you didn't say that you bought this and that crappy game, but instead told people to try this, or most likely lend them a copy to play 'cause it was just that awesome. The same picky&choosy mentality of the magazines continued there.

So what changed, excluding the previously mentioned rise of game amount? For one, gaming became popular. The more popular it is, the ore media there is. That didn't eliminate the pocky&choosy mentality though, especially with big name magazines more then not taking a bit of a payday to feature big games.

Main change was, and if you read the part after 2 this is not a surprise, Teh Internets. Suddenly everyone had a voice and the voice of teh internets is nothing if not brutal. You will hear endless of rages about bad game this, bad game that, this sucks, that sucks and a rather e-famous person even makes a..well...living from telling what sucks in games(check zero punctuation if you already haven't). Rate the game sites are everywhere, reviews are put out by the thousands and maybe the biggest intenet contribution to the seeming amount of crappy games is this; information.

It's because you know the amount of games out there, that you can call on the size of the dungheep over your gem.

I'm going to leave out the larger rant about why crap games are good for the industry and say it short; they make the good ones stand out, minor good bits that can be used in better titles, muse for the designers as they get their ideas from -everything-(i know, "coffee maker" title is in the works), but maybe most prominently; people learn from mistakes. "That was a bad idea, let's not go there.", or in the excellent scenarios "That was almsot a good idea, let's do it better."

So, what now?

Well the crappy games are not going anywhere. You as a gamer should just relax, let crap games be crap, exercise your right to not buy them, remember that someone else might like it and enjoy the quality games that are around. Check out free games, try to educate people on the good titles and not the bad, leave your rage at home and tell more often when you found a good gem in the dungheep.

The amount of good games hasn't gone anywhere peeps, it's just hidden behind a pile of rage, flung dung and silence. Let's change that shall we.

Think that's it.
 

Calaen

I am a massive cock who isn't firing atm!
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,538
I'd appreciate it if you kept your thoughts to yourself ;)
 

Ormorof

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,817
hmm perhaps, though as a PC gamer it is incredibly frustrating to have watched previous Gaming shops go all console (of course they go where the money is, most PC gamers buy online anyway i guess) but when you go in and they have 10 shelves dedicated to each console and then half a shelf to PC games, mostly being 1 or 2 new releases combined with "packs" of older games its a bit frustrating :p

combine that with the price hikes, ive noticed that PC games (when i was in UK) went from around £30, to £35, to £40 and now are around £25 (because once it hit £40 they just started pirating them i guess?)

im not too up-to-date on games these days, i do still read PC gamer whenever i can get hold of a reasonably up to date copy for the reviews and pre-views and such :)

i guess the expectation is also much much higher these days, i remember playing some pretty simple by todays standard games and being blown away by the amount of interaction (the gleeful horror of the first Soldier of Fortune game as you shot an arm, and the arm fell off! compared to other games when a wound appeared on the chest regardless of where you shot)
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
Yeah the rise of console popularity, with the following change to downloads by companies, has set the gamestore front back quite a bit.

Though it's kind of better since the money goes to the publisher of PC games directly, not game stores.

Though i miss the big boxes with lots of extra goodies in them.
 

Vasconcelos

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 26, 2003
Messages
4,022
wall of text

The times i remember with more joy are the supernintendo days when i was 14.
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
I think tl:dr works better, that's a really crappy wall :p
 

Thorwyn

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,752
One of the reasons why the industry is going down the drain is - as you said - teh internets. But not just in the way you said. The entire industry is slowly moving away from AAA products and shifting towards the free-to-play market, because the revenues of the masses of casual gamers is much higher, the risk is lower, the developement costs are lower and the lifetime is longer.

The last point is partly a selfmade problem, because the industry never managed to give the customers a awareness for the value of a game. After release, games are going for 40-50€. 2-3 months later, you´ll find most of them for a tenner in the sale-out boxes or as a free copy attached to a magazine.
 

Ormorof

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,817
i liked the goodies (i still have the maps from baldurs gate lying around somewhere, and from DAoC for that matter!)

i want maps, gifv maps and manuals that are written not just for instruction but to provide background!
 

Thorwyn

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,752
i liked the goodies (i still have the maps from baldurs gate lying around somewhere, and from DAoC for that matter!)

i want maps, gifv maps and manuals that are written not just for instruction but to provide background!

Seriously.. did you ever read a manual?
Back in the days, when every game had a different GUI and mechanics, manuals were semi-useful. Nowadays, most games are pretty much standardized and what the player needs to know will be done via tutorials. They are more instructive than a 250 page booklet and it saves a lot of production money too.
 

Ormorof

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,817
Seriously.. did you ever read a manual?
Back in the days, when every game had a different GUI and mechanics, manuals were semi-useful. Nowadays, most games are pretty much standardized and what the player needs to know will be done via tutorials. They are more instructive than a 250 page booklet and it saves a lot of production money too.

not really interested in the instructions, the bits that always fascinated me was the explanations of the game, back story etc, for example in baldurs gate its written from the perspective of a character you can meet in the game :)
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
Not for the controls, but for the useless goodies.

Maps, story, background, etc. It wouldn't cost that much to throw that stuff together(let's not argue about that ;)), but again, it's nto where the industry is heading.

What you say is true ofcourse, it's for the good of the industry to go online, but it also is a bit of a letdown.

It was an experience to go to the store, check out new arrivals, perhaps grab a PC game that you knew nothing about and go home and have fun.

I don't really feel the same joy in launching steam and clcicking "download this".

Without the old time unknowing, i would never have played FF7. Honestly, i thought the whole way home that i bought some weird japanese crapfest :p

So in short; yes, it's good for games that the industry mvoes more to f2p and download content, but, it also turns games into colder objects. Kinda like a hooker; sure f*cking a woman is f*cking a woman, but when you do it with someone you've shared experiences with, it becomes something closer.

Then again, this whole sentiment could be added to any aspect of modern humanity.

Hmm, games do reflect quite a bit on the current human status.
 

Billargh

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
6,481
Heh I still try to get all my games from shops if possible, much more fun than waiting for it to arrive from Amazon etc. Even now and again I'll splash out on a game I've heard absolutely nothing about, always adds a bit of excitement when you know you could've spent your money on shit :p

I miss buying games based on how awesome their box art is tbh.
 

Thorwyn

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,752
Maps, story, background, etc. It wouldn't cost that much to throw that stuff together(let's not argue about that ;)), but again, it's nto where the industry is heading.

Throwing that stuff together is just half of the work though. You need to localize it, review it, print it, pack it etc. All that for the 20% of people who are willing to read it.

I don't really feel the same joy in launching steam and clcicking "download this".

This is strange, because it´s completely different from my POV. Back in the days, I wasted so much money on games that turned out to be utter crap when I played them. The dissapointment factor was always there. Today, I can grab some titles on Steam for a couple of bucks and if I don´t like them, hey, they´re at least not wasting any space in my bookshelf. :)
Yes, it´s fast-food mentality, but that´s how it is. (btw you can see a similar effect in almost any other media, be it music, movies, books or TV. The golden years are gone).
Steam also gives a lot of indi teams a chance to sell their products, which is a good thing.
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
Yeah about throwing stuff together, same industry so the costs etc are quite familiar ;)

Just from say, Halo POV the production costs are so up that it wouldn't be much of a hazzle, but, as said, industry is changing and luckily there's the odd collectors edition, modern equivelant of just that big-box of goodies thing.

The Indiana scene sure is blooming due to this new way and in, say year or two, if some companies rise from the casual hellhole, we can expect to see a new JAgged Alliance, X-com, Carmageddon to be for sale for a mere penny.

Which is good.

Let the big guns do the new stuff, move the Indy market towards retro gaming i say.
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
FH Subscriber
Joined
Dec 27, 2003
Messages
44,617
I take it as a given that most games will be crap these days, very few will give me more than 20 hours gameplay. From last year off the top of my head

Minecraft
Fallout New Vegas
Gran Turismo 5
World of Warcraft, Cataclysm.
Final Fantasy (was that last year?)
Dragonage (was that last year?)

That's about it really. I probably bought about 30-40 games in total...mostly on the cheap via steam.

I still think on the whole, gaming is the best entertainment for value for money. You just have to be careful what you buy. I look at the meta score on steam now rather than magazine reviews or website reviews, which are often biased due to advertising/exclusive deals.
 

PLightstar

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 29, 2003
Messages
2,103
Its a definite minefield because of peoples conflicting views and personal tastes. For example I love Two Worlds, thought it was a charming game that I still play to this day and I never touched the MP side. But many people I talk to hated it with a passion. Maybe I was lucky never encountering the bugs people complained about.

I understand how the places like Steam has almost devalued certain games. Because I will buy games on Steam if they are cheap in a sale and may not really like them, but because its cheap I have bought them. But this has lead me to discover other games like Droplitz which I love now but would never have thought to buy it as I didn't know what it was. But because it was cheap I got it and loved it.
 

ford prefect

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
1,386
The PC Market developers have destroyed the industry for themselves. In its prime they were constantly programming for the latest hardware and then there was the compatibility issues with the latest direct x and open gl. Games were often buggy and expensive and to be fair usually there were cleaner and easier to use versions on a console, especially after PSOne came along.

As an industry the PC gaming market has had its time now. You have consoles with incredible hardware and they can go online. The next generation will probably bury the PC gaming market for good and to be fair, it is probably about time. I think a four or five years from now, it will be mainly an indie format.
 

Ormorof

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,817
i think many mmo's will hang around on PC's for longer than that though, simply for ease of communication, since vast majority still do not use voice comm/vent/teamspeak

in 5-10 years when everyone plus pet dog are using it then it wont be an issue and consoles will have finally grind us pc gamers to dust :(
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
As an industry the PC gaming market has had its time now. You have consoles with incredible hardware and they can go online. The next generation will probably bury the PC gaming market for good and to be fair, it is probably about time. I think a four or five years from now, it will be mainly an indie format.

The moment i can stick an XBOX where my computer is, hook it up to a nice sized monitor, a mouse and keyboard, then yes, it could be dead.

As it is, having your games, work station and other PC related magaggin in one convinient box is rather pleasant.
 

Ormorof

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,817
maybe im a late adapter (and if there were more console people on these forums i may be crucified) but i have played some FPS games on console and they are cack compared to PC, it just feels sluggish/inaccurate compared to WASD + Mouse :p

so im in the camp that wont adapt until i have to!
 

Zenith.UK

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 20, 2008
Messages
2,913
The last point is partly a selfmade problem, because the industry never managed to give the customers a awareness for the value of a game. After release, games are going for 40-50€. 2-3 months later, you´ll find most of them for a tenner in the sale-out boxes or as a free copy attached to a magazine.
This is true. I picked up Brutal Legend and Bayonetta for £19 with £12 part-ex (paid £7). They were released at the tail end of 2009 so they're not "old" games, but they've already run their retail cycle.

Digital distribution has some merit. Steam is probably the best known games delivery system. Part of the reason it is successful is because they price the games reasonably. Most new AAA titles start at £30-£40 but quickly drop to £20 or so. They also often run sales so you can pick up a game for a decent price. I picked up Mass Effect for £4.99 and ME2 for £9.99 at Christmas, compared to nearly twice those prices usually.

A couple of my mates once challenged me to Quake 2 on the Dreamcast. They used controllers while I used mouse and keyboard.
I wiped the floor with them. :)
Consoles have some plus points. PC have others. I prefer PC games but I'm not so picky as to think that console games are better/worse.
 

Access Denied

It was like that when I got here...
Joined
Jun 14, 2006
Messages
2,552
Now if you're going to wax philosophical on the subject... :wanker:

Prize for guessing what that's from.
 

ford prefect

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
1,386
The moment i can stick an XBOX where my computer is, hook it up to a nice sized monitor, a mouse and keyboard, then yes, it could be dead.

As it is, having your games, work station and other PC related magaggin in one convinient box is rather pleasant.

Thats not an issue for most people outside IT though is it? Most consoles sit happily next to or on top of the set top box or whatever with a 30 odd inch LCD TV above them and for surfing people stick to their laptops, because they are relatively cheap and convenient these days compared to a tower.

Aside from the MMO industry, there are few software developers who are willing to throw cash at the PC market anymore. As Thorwyn and Zenith have said, the retail cycle is incredibly small, and a console version will have a lot longer life span, especially if they release some chargable DLC for it.

The PC games market has had a pretty impressive run really, but as always happens on any format, the demise is inevitable, and well it began some time ago.
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
Disagree to a point, it's not really that much dying. Plenty of stuff brought to the PC. Note in first post; larger market.

Not to mention that others may enjoy a laptop, some of us don't.

Nerds use PCs(try coding on an XBOX :p), Nerds like games, market is there.
 

old.Tohtori

FH is my second home
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
45,210
That is to say; it may seem smaller, but it's still large quantity wise. Also less games means less crap as producers put their money more into "surefire" deals.

Consoles are the main media, no doubt, but that's simply due to the rise of consumers in the gaming industry and the demand for a simpler device.

Oh gods...someone is gonna start on that "it's not a simple device!" thing right? :p
 

Thorwyn

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
4,752
Nerds use PCs(try coding on an XBOX :p), Nerds like games, market is there.

In my opinion, this old cliche doesn´t hold anymore. PC´s have become normal devices. Every man and his dog is able to handle a PC these days. Sure, there´s still a small group of users that you could describe as "nerds" in the old sense of the word. But when you take a closer look, it´s not really a market anymore.

Some statements:

1. Core gamers are useless for monetary purposes. They buy one game and play it intensively and competitive. If you want to earn money as a company, you´re bound to target casual gamers, preferably older ones. The people that buy games, play it for a couple of hours, then buy the next game. Or - even better - jump from game to game and spend money for micorpayment stuff.

2. Casual gamers - these days - are more or less all PC users. It´s the kind of peopple that log on to some multigaming site every day, play some f2p stuff and that´s about it. The CORE gamers are slowly leaving the PC, heading towards consoles. This trend started when they played Fifa Soccer in serious CPL leagues and it´s still growing. The only... and I mean ONLY thing that stops this trend are MMO´s. If we wouldn´t have MMO´s, the PC market would have been dead long ago.. at least in terms of serious AAA titles.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom