Nightlinker's Video Game Rant.

[The Nightlinker]

Forget the purple for this one, I want you to get the full-on no holds barred experience for the next few minutes.

Video Games. I love them. They are simply the best things you can use to fill any empty space in your day. They can take you to places that simply are impossible to get to by mundane means. You can chat with people halfway across the world with little more than a broadband internet connection and a microphone. You can, for a little while, become something you could not otherwise.

Then why, oh why, are the hardcore fans ruining it for all of us?

Yeah, you heard right. Not companies, not studios. The gamers themselves are destroying the video game industry. Don't believe me? Read on.

Let's take a recent title. Modern Warfare 2. Hailed as the greatest shooter of all time. The king of action. The don of storytelling.

No. No. No. No. No. No.

What Modern Warfare 2 is, in fact, is a spawn of Modern Warfare 1. Twisted horribly by the demands of the mainstream audience.

The events in MW2 have already been told in MW1. For example, in the Favela mission you have to run across the rooftops and eventually into a chopper that pulls up just in time, you barely making it onto the ladder.

Huh. Didn't they do something like that in the first game? You know, pretty much right at the beginning?

But wait, why would they (Infinity Ward) do this? Why reuse content?

Simple. The fans loved that scene so much, talked about it a lot on the forums and Infinity Ward is smart enough to know that most gamers want games with the depth of a spoon and are willing to put in things that are cool. Notice I did not say original.

But this isn't just MW2, this is happening in sequels across the spectrum. Reuse of content from the previous games because it was considered so amazing by the community it would be simply blasphemy to not have it again.

It's already happening, but soon enough all of our games will be completely and utterly geared just to sell, not geared to entertain like they were meant to.

[sayuri]

I agree with you on some level but I think the reuse of content is something specific to shooters. You can improve graphics and add new features but it is a very confined genre. Maybe I just don't understand shooters but show me Halo and Call of Duty and I can't tell the difference. My point is any sequel or new innovation in the First Person Shooter market is the same, slightly more polished shtick. Of course, the same could be argued for RPGs and most every Nintendo franchise but I think shooters are more vulnerable to to the quantity over quality stalemate.

[Wintermoon]

The game industry is the same as any other artistic field. The most prominent titles are always overproduced overhyped mainstream garbage. Want to watch a good movie? Avoid summer blockbusters. Want to listen to good music? Avoid the pop sensation du jour. Want to play a good game? Avoid, well, pretty much the entire mainstream game industry. All of the games I bought in the last five years have been indie productions.

As for content reuse specifically, I don't see why this is such a big problem. If the sequel has no new content, that is a problem. If the sequel forces you to replay the original to get to the new parts, that is a problem. If the game includes a couple of scenes that reference the original - hey, why not?

[MaiMai]

It's already happening, but soon enough all of our games will be completely and utterly geared just to sell, not geared to entertain like they were meant to.

That's what crappy video game tie ins for movies are for!

[IceD]

Most of mainstream developers are just plain to lazy to think of something new and interesting, So they cling to reuse everything time after time. Of course, they still want to make loads of cash, equaly to their pockets as well as to support their monstrous companies.

That's why I love indie devs.

[Lunethex]

You shouldn't blame the fans for sequels.

The only reason we suffer from this "sequel-itis" is the economy. They can't afford to make new IPs so they do sequels instead.

[dstarsboy]

God of War 3 is a game that plays very much like its predecessors as well.

I don't think it's the fans demand that causes this to happen, it's just, as a fan of a game, they expect the sequel to be similar... if it's not, you alienate your fan base. Hitman 2 plays alot like Hitman 1. Uncharted 2 plays alot like Uncharted 1. I don't see the big deal.

The formula is usually... find something that works and duplicate it... but they usually add a few small original items to the new versions to "test" out new things that could work for the next game.

[dstarsboy]

You shouldn't blame the fans for sequels.

The only reason we suffer from this "sequel-itis" is the economy. They can't afford to make new IPs so they do sequels instead.

Oddly enough, sequels almost always make more money than the originals (in video games, at least). If every game was a new, original one, they would be missing out on alot of cash.

[The Nightlinker]

Alright, so my quote tags aren't working, so I'll just adress the general comments.

Shooters do suffer this a lot, that's true.

And it's not exactly an issue if they reuse things that don't have anything to do with the series as a whole. For instance, in all the Halos you play as the Master Chief, the iconic figure of the series.

Great, cool, but can we get master chief to do something else except shoot covenant? The entire Halo series could've been told on one disc and we would've had a lot of fun shooting the bad aliens. But why drag it out to three discs? And now these two new "expansions" ODST and Reach. They're trying to milk as much money out of the name "Halo" as possible. I think Bungie should be using their talent to making new and different titles instead of trying to add sprinklings of pennies onto their great money pile.

It's not even the economy that's the issue, video game studios are making tons of money like they have been for a good long while now. Modern Warfare two was the single most popular entertainment (Movies, music, games) release ever.

[LVUER]

If we're talking about companies, things aren't just as simple as anymore... money, obviously, takes priority more than ever. Would you invest money on business that have ROI on 50 years while you must spent billions? Those people who runs the company (not ones who make the game) are just simple businessman (time is money, money is more money).

[The Nightlinker]

If we're talking about companies, things aren't just as simple as anymore... money, obviously, takes priority more than ever. Would you invest money on business that have ROI on 50 years while you must spent billions? Those people who runs the company (not ones who make the game) are just simple businessman (time is money, money is more money).

Money really is everything, which is the sad realization. Game developers aren't really looking for original concepts more than looking for "what looked cool in our last game".

My rant is pretty much over, I usually don't get that fired up about stuff, but it's a pretty frustrating truth.

[LVUER]

I just want to remind you that people who make the game and run the company could be (and usually are) different people. Of course as one who work under the company, people who make the game must obey people who run the company. This is also one sad truth that make game that only concerned with money.

Not just the content, pushed deadline (resulting in content cut, buggy release, etc) or drastic change in title/content, or even pissing-off the creators themselves are among the sad truth in video game industry (and other creative industry like anime or manga)

[The Nightlinker]

Yeah, and I agree with everything you're saying, really. Maybe people like us should be running these companies xD

[LVUER]

Yeah, and I agree with everything you're saying, really. Maybe people like us should be running these companies xD

Ahem... I wouldn't say that so easily... Running a company is not as easy as it looks.

[Wintermoon]

The problem isn't with the developers so much as with the publishers. There are lots of really creative and talented people in the game industry making crappy games because that's the only way they can obtain funding.