Since the beginning of the 2014, many good games has been released like Infamous Second Son, Metal Gear Ground Zero, Titanfall and Dark Soul 2, all with a good response from gamers. I’ve the feeling that many “senior” gamers don’t appreciate these titles.
I have my personal idea of why and how something is changing.
VIDEOGAMES: THE BEGINNING
Almost everyone knows the birth and the growth of the gaming products, how big companies like Nintendo, SEGA or Electronic Arts, just naming a few, that have become famous for creating product that will interest the young video gamers of the future.
From the beloved console and computer like the Sega Megadrive and Commodore 64, have seen the light of more famous games that have written the story like Super Mario Bros, Sonic or The legend of Zelda.
We need to say that these products are the avant-garde of the gaming world. With every little graphic upgrade or gameplay was sending us to the stars and we can say that in those years the videogames world was a tiny business, reserved to those guys who were spending there weekly money given to them from there parents.
This economic variable, to be a product for a few enthusiast, has prompted developers to overcome and try to create new titles, always better than before. With new IP or sequel to achieve through the word to mouth the “top seller” title on the charts.
We had to wait for the new millennium to gain an increment of audience; yet in the ’94 with the Playstation release and ’96, birth of Nintendo64, the games was created to be unique and for leave some good memories in our heart; anyone can remember joying titles like Oddworld, Medievil, Mario 64 and Majoras Mask.
VIDEOGAMES: THE 2000
With the advent of the new millennium, there are already several levers to be accustomed and to live with the technology, the Playstation was promoted as Sacred Monster and 6 years after we get the Playstation 2 who kills literally the competitors and still today own the title of “The Most sold Console of all the time”.
About the games “we were in the golden age, the development of new games was on fire”.
From the classic adventure/platform Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry to GTA, Gran Turismo 2, the first two Call Of Duty or Final Fantasy.
You will say that some titles already existed and it is true, but with the sequel accentuates the effort made by the creators to make something more than just videogames.
The MMO were far, the multiplayer was playing with a friend on the same screen and for the luckiest, with the multipad, with four people at the same time.
At the end of the first decade of 2000, we started to talk about online game, at least on console, given that we some on pc. We had with Halo, Couterstrike and some strategic like Age Of Empire.
In these years we have seen given birth the majority of titles that still follow us today like the mentioned Call of Duty, Battlefield, Need for speed, Assassin’s Creed and the evergreen GTA San Andreas.
VIDEOGAMES: TODAY
We have said how the gaming industry has born and grown, now let’s try to understand how it’s right now.
The broadband technology exists since the 2000, but was used only for professional and information purpose, it begins to expand the service to the videogames only at the end of the first decade of the 21th century.
These years signs the begin of the expansion of the MMO (massive multiplayer online game), for example the year with more affluence (reaching the 12Milion users) in World Of Warcraft was 2010, while the affirmation as FPS more played of Call Of Duty happen in the 2007.
We’ve seen the born of the first Free to Play, but they were still too little known, League of Legends has leaved the beta in 2009 like Metin 2.
The years go by and the digitization increase, the expansions that bring upgrades to the games and new contents were sold in box years after the game release. After a few years they becomes patch, necessary to improve the games or resolve some bugs, even just after the release and then, transform into something we gamers “loves like our moms”… DLC!!
Updates downloadable for free or paying a “small” price, the most famous are the Mass Effect and Borderland 2, although now they are widely used by developers to mask the release of an incomplete product, only to meet the deadlines imposed by the major and drain our money.
This new trend is object of discussion in the gaming world, dividing us in 2 factions: 1 – we want DLC because they bring new contents on the game that acquire value (…) 2 – WTF! Why I should pay 60$ for Batman Arkham Origins and then 29$ for the season pass? Shit! It will be cheaper if I build a Batsuit and turn my locker in a Batcave! (I’m in this side)
In these years the developers increase the proceeds exponentially, the catchment area between consoles and pc grows so much until it becomes a growing market, so as not to be affected by the financial crisis that began in 2008.
Why then, with all this positive growing, the games are still the same? I mean titles and gameplay.
For years, the senior players ask for new titles with high or innovative mechanical difficulties, but when they come to life are criticized and snubbed, an example you can see in Bulletstorm, Epic Games FPS different from the others through the use of the Skill Shoot various combinations of attacks that gave points based on the difficulty of the shots made a sign and the use of the scenario to take down enemies, this title despite the positive critic has not been as successful as hoped.
The growth of users has meant that there are gamers of all ages but especially with game times different from each other, this has never been a problem in single player, but in multiplayer you have to imagine a scale, on a plate the part of the players who spend a lot of time in the games, it is normal that it is more pretentious, while on the other side players who work, study or just play as a hobby passenger fail to keep up with the first, it is normal from before this scenario the balance hangs from the side more “casual gamers”, basically the end of the first party games for valuable console…(cough cough…PsVita…cough).
This new “need” had two main developments by the creators of games:
1) Free To Play games increase the number of players that can handle both types of players described above; constants players fail to reach the highest levels enjoying a free game and always improved to the maximum (a free to play should always be updated as well to entice people to use it) and casual players can compete with the top spending real money.
2) The questionable choice to simplify the game, in this case the more experienced players point the finger of blame on the players “casual” (an example is the loss of hegemony of the game World of Warcraft, with many hardcore gamers migrate to other games because of the difficulty the game that decreases with each expansion).
Another problem that the manufacturers still have not been able to solve, is the complexity of the new software, first of all those graphics that bring to work for years behind a title hiring legions of professionals; this time “waiting” between a game and the other upset users more pretentious although in this case I think the blame is for both, because of advertising that producers make to titles and then defer the release as in the case of Watch Dogs or perhaps in the worst way as Battlefield 4, an imperfect game came out ahead with numerous problems in the gameplay, some of that resolved with the release of the patch after the day one.
CONCLUSIONS
I don’t want to start questioning the rental plan introduced by Sony and Microsoft with the PsPlus plan and Xbox Live cause is another issue that maybe I will reprise another day, but I surely will scream my disappoint with the quality of the games included in these plans.
I’m personally a PsPlus user and I pay, for who don’t know, 49€ per year and I suppose to have 6 games every month, 2 for every console Sony (Ps4, Ps3, Vita).
Sure I’m glad with it, I think is a very valuable content but in the last 3 months, since the change of some dynamics of the plan, I start questioning the “quality” on these games.
Sony use as a meter, for the choice of the games, the ranking on METACRITIC.COM and something is very bad about this. Why? Just for exemple a “GAME” (cause is not a game) like PROTEUS is ranked with a 77/100 based on 20 (Yes TWENTY) reviews.
For Sony is a HI LEVEL INDIE GAME… (No comment on that… We should talk of this later with the new Expensive Indie Machine…)
I hope to have exposed my point in this article and I’d like to hear your personal feelings about this world, our world.
I’m sure that everyone of you, if you are reading this, are a “professional gamer” and surely you have a personal opinion on this world, how it was and how it is.
Leave your comments below and I invite you follow me on Twitter @666darkamon666 and stay tuned for more news and juicy article that I want to share with you.