Why are games getting worse???? :(

I feel like over the past 10 years games have been getting worse. I am not sure what it really is. It just seems like game developers aren't putting the same effort into the story, design of levels, character development, and especially music I have noticed has gone down hill. Maybe its because I grew up in the age when Zelda, Ocarina of time was out, or Final Fantasy 10 and 7 were out. Even the original halo was amazing and it felt very refreshingly new back 8 years ish when it came out lol. I think each of these games brought something new to the game scene that made it interesting. The stories and plots pre ps3 Final Fantasy games really sucked me in. Zelda was so fun to feel like you are starting out as a puny runt and then saves the whole kingdom. The character development was great and I think some of the best music of any game is in the older final fantasies zeldas and maybe games like chrono trigger.

So what it comes down to is why does it seem like each new game is just a sequel, there is no actual new games it feels like. Like halo 2,3,odst,reach. Killzone 2,3 and all the call of duties. The whole role playing genre has almost disappeared now days. Mass affect was pretty good but its just doesnt feel the same as some of the older games.

Does anybody else feel the same way? Maybe I just got more mature :\

Use the general games forum for discussions like this.

Being a racing and FPS fan primarily, I would say no... Games have only gotten better from my perspective (gamer since 1977, y'all). I was just playing through "Resistance: Fall of Man" and thinking how good the narative is now, how good the story and character involvement is these days... I'm looking forward to "Wolfenstein" to see where m'man BJ Blaskowitz ends up... I don't mind seeing return characters like Nathan Hale and BJ because these are characters I'm invested in now... It's good to see ol' BJ up there on the screen even if the formula is similar, with improved graphics and physics, it all feels fun.

"Gran Turismo" is a franchise I've been playing for 10 years and I can't WAIT to get my hands on the new one...

... nope. To me, it's a great time to be a gamer.

depends on the genres im 37 and been gamings since atari2600. rpgs&stratergy&fighting are deffinately getting worse but shooters,sports,racing seem to me to be gettin better. but i well admit some older seriws of game in the shooter gnre are getting worse with every release(no names mentioned).

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

depends on the genres im 37 and been gamings since atari2600. rpgs&stratergy&fighting are deffinately getting worse but shooters,sports,racing seem to me to be gettin better. but i well admit some older seriws of game in the shooter gnre are getting worse with every release(no names mentioned).

atc-fanatic

I think people just complain more

[QUOTE="atc-fanatic"]

depends on the genres im 37 and been gamings since atari2600. rpgs&stratergy&fighting are deffinately getting worse but shooters,sports,racing seem to me to be gettin better. but i well admit some older seriws of game in the shooter gnre are getting worse with every release(no names mentioned).

MethodManFTW

depends on the genres im 37 and been gamings since atari2600. rpgs&stratergy&fighting are deffinately getting worse but shooters,sports,racing seem to me to be gettin better. but i well admit some older seriws of game in the shooter gnre are getting worse with every release(no names mentioned).

atc-fanatic

i think the games overseas are starting to pick up where theyleft offbecause western games are getting better

I'm still going through "older" games so for me it's stuff like "F.E.A.R." in my machine now and then "F.E.A.R. 2" waiting on my shelf which will lead to "F.3.A.R." later this year, I'm into "Resistance: Fall of Man" which will lead me to "R2" and then eventually "R3", I played through "InFAMOUS" last Spring, and now early NEXT year we get "InFAMOUS 2"... In the case of a good game, I would love to see where the series goes *KOFF*"Beyond Good & Evil"*KOFF* ...

... I don't mind, if the trip is a good one I'll stay on it when it comes to games. Film is a different matter for me, perhaps because the level of immersion is to a lesser degree in film and you don't get any endorphin rush from passively watching a huge explosion onscreen, as apposed to felling a huge Boss by yourself... Two very distinctly different experiences. And I'm glad the games go on and on. At least, y'know, when they're GOOD.

I'm looking forward to some new IPs like "R.U.S.E." this September, and other games... but I love me some series. And all of the games I've listed, the franchise has improved with every sequel... refining the process.

When we were younger we had lower expectations. Also we did not know what was possible in games, now we are spoiled by the tech of systems and games its only natural to feel like your not getting the same feeling.

because multiplayer is so important these days. very few epic single player experiences these days. theres some sure but not like before.

It is just getting harder and harder to think of something new when you have done everything. A lot of the games you mentioned are shooters. Maybe playing a different genre for awhile will help break up the "every game is the same" feel. It also depends on how much you play and how many years you have been playing. Games are being made to cater to people who have never played anything before. It's not that games are getting shorter necessarily, it's that they are being made so almost anyone can beat it. There isn't that much of a struggle to complete the main quest in a game.

The games in the old days were actually shorter but because the difficulty was always set so high, it took you forever to beat it. Then again some games are just short and bad. It happens like in any other generation. You have good and bad games.

Devs are running out of ideas in some areas... so many ideas where revisited so many times now that some genres are falling quicky into mediocrity.

• RPGs
  
  • "Young country boy is set on a quest to save the world", "Mysterious brainwashed/amnesiac/whatever-fancy-you badass soldier/mercenary/thief is set on a quest to save the world"... damn, it's almost allways "save the world"...
  • Turn-Based combat became obsolete! Well, I guess that the new generations of gamers where too used to action-packed games that they could not cope with the turn based combat... solution? Mix the genres! And than where born the Action RPGs, the Strategic RPGs (A weird definition in my opinion...), but the mixing gone awry in time, and nowadays any action game that have some sort of "experience" and "unlockable power" is called RPG.
  • "Simpler minds call for simpler games" ideal and the "Impressive Graphics" curse... let's get the final fantasy series for example, simply for the sake of the longevity of the series. If you care to check the amount of data and quests you once had, and the linearity that striked the series (since FFX, really), you'll notice how much RPGs are investing in the graphical department and giving up on gameplay.
• FPS
  • "More of the same"!!! Really, it's a point and shoot bullet-fest... single player campaign is getting shorter in every FPS launched (And some may argue that "FPS is all about online ownage" err, ok... than I'd have to say that last time I actively played a FPS was CoD2, a 2005 game... untill I recently got a hold of MW2 Killzone2 and the likes... the gameplay is almost the same, so what are we paying for now? Slightly better graphics?).
• Action/Adventure
  • Smaller games, with dubbed-down difficulty that anyone can reach the end with a few hours (sometimes around 6 or 8 hours...)... but "Oh! They look good!"... really, I played Uncharted/uncharted 2 in crushing difficulty... not so crushing really... (U2 ongoing in crushing).

Lets stop this rant... really, even with what I stated above, there will always be exceptions, there are some good games around, it's just a matter that there are fewer games nowadays, and we have to look closer at what there is in order to find what fancies our tastes.

I think we tend to look back on the past and only remember the good stuff. Overall there have been positive and negative developments in this generation, but I tend to feel the positive vastly outweighs the negatives. There are a lot of sequels - I wish there were more new IP's, but I guess the market has gotten more competitive and sequels sell better because of name recognition alone. They're running some of these franchises into the ground, so I imagine we'll see a shift towards more new games at some point in the future. FPS games seem to have shifted focus to online multiplayer, with only some pitifully short single player campaign. It doesn't bother me much because I was basically bored with shooters by the end of the PS2 era.

On the positive side, there are a TON of great games out there. I'd have to spend 8 hours a day in front of my PS3 just to finish playing every game I'm interested in that's coming out between now and March of next year. Racing games, Western RPG's, action/adventure, horror/survival, heck there's even one or two shooters that look good to me. I think people tend to look at the negative and blow it way out of proportion. There's just soooooo much more positive stuff going on that the negative can be easily ignored in my opinion.

The only thing I think that is failing "and this goes for movies as well"...NOBODY uses their emagination anylonger. Lets look back at simple games like PacMan. Simple yes, but adictive. WHY? Its just puzzles and a yellow circle outrunning ghosts..BUT its satisfying.

Look back at something like Karnov for the NES. Kid Icarus. Wizards and Warriors. Legacy of The Wizard. Altered Beast. Why is there nothing out there along these lines now days? How about Double Dragon? Why no new SSX "like ssx and tricky?" WHere have all the ideas gone? Do we need children to develop games?

I love fps. BUT why so many? Every single one are esentially the same thing. Why not make one that gets FREE UPDATES on a regular basis and stick to it. Learn the maps, the movements, the wepeons and enjoy it for years? Instead of remake after remake after remake???

These are just my views..

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

J-Man725

I find a lot of new games to be absolutely brilliant, but in some cases I actually miss the simplicity of certain games. Like sports games. Nowadays they tend to be more like simulators, and I miss the old days when they were more arcade-like. Same with a lot of other genres, and in some cases I find I spend more time with simpler downloadable games rather than the big name retail games.

I find a lot of new games to be absolutely brilliant, but in some cases I actually miss the simplicity of certain games. Like sports games. Nowadays they tend to be more like simulators, and I miss the old days when they were more arcade-like. Same with a lot of other genres, and in some cases I find I spend more time with simpler downloadable games rather than the big name retail games.

Stressthesky

I haven't played a football game since "Joe Montana Sports Talk Football" in the early 90s for that very reason!!!

:lol:

yea i think our expectations are pretty high now , we have have gotten sum decent surprises over the years and now when we dont get those same things in new games along with extra surprises we get disappointed IMO...gta sa and gtaiv for example...graphics were amazing when released but alot ofthe extras were dropped so big disappointment...not even a garage for your cars lol hard to fulfil ppl expectations ...

can can dress up put lipstick on a pitbull but its still a pitbull

I love fps. BUT why so many? Every single one are esentially the same thing. Why not make one that gets FREE UPDATES on a regular basis and stick to it. Learn the maps, the movements, the wepeons and enjoy it for years? Instead of remake after remake after remake???

These are just my views..

VanDammFan

That very thought beats the idea of "profiting", something that developers hold very dearly to heart...

Personally I think games are always getting better, I've been gaming since 1980 and some of the games I've played over the years I would find extremely unplayable now. It just boils down to what you are used to. Also, I think expectations are far too high.

I will agree that there seems to be a trend of devs releasing sequel after sequel, but when you consider the tens of millions of pounds or dollars it costs to develop some of these games, then developing a new ip is a very high risk.

Completely disagree, now that games r getting more expensive to make developers r putting alot more time and effort to create better games. Hell as a playstation owner ive never before experienced such a large amount of quality games like i have on the PS3

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

J-Man725

Yes I agree with this all the way. I mean there still fun games just shorter. And easier

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

J-Man725

[QUOTE="J-Man725"]

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

x-2tha-z

Thats true but you have to say. Games have gotten a little less hard.

I think people just complain more

VanDammFan

[QUOTE="J-Man725"]

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

x-2tha-z

I realize that, but what I mean is games used to have a sort of innate difficulty. Where today's games show you exactly where to go, who to talk to, what to do, that wasn't so much the case with older games. It was like a puzzle, you had to figure it out for yourself.

Difficulty in today's terms means things like upgrading the weapon damage of enemies, increasing they're health/AI, decreasing your own weapon damage, etc.

I just liked how the older games had a certain degree of difficulty built-in.

[QUOTE="x-2tha-z"][QUOTE="J-Man725"]

I wouldn't say they're getting worse.

They are, however, getting much easier and shorter in length, which I absolutely hate. Not the same as what I grew up with.

J-Man725

I realize that, but what I mean is games used to have a sort of innate difficulty. Where today's games show you exactly where to go, who to talk to, what to do, that wasn't so much the case with older games. It was like a puzzle, you had to figure it out for yourself.

Difficulty in today's terms means things like upgrading the weapon damage of enemies, increasing they're health/AI, decreasing your own weapon damage, etc.

I just liked how the older games had a certain degree of difficulty built-in.

The video games of today are actually getting better, much better than anticipated, tho there are some that are just too short nowadays.

There are few games that continue to do so well after the 2d era, Zelda is a great example of this, yoou see game like a link to the past that is one of the greatest games of all time, and you see ocarina of time still continue to deliver awsomness. There are very questionable games like castlvania when it went 3d and it totally sucked back then, idk how the new one will turn out, but it looks very interesting to me.

Anyway What I'm getting at is that games are being developed at better quality, yeah are soe games that just fit into that category, but big titles like MGS4 show that games are not getting worse.

i wouldnt saqy getting worse. its just the fact that back in the n64/ps1 times, games were still deveoping and improving, and like you said games like OoT and final fantasy were revolutionary and awesome. today the gaming standards have been set i think, so games arent so revolutionary any more, but they are still good games.

sounds like youre just letdown by the fact that the rpg genre is slacking these days. there are TONS of great new games, and they just keep on coming. listen to somebody who has been gaming since the beginning. there is no better time than right now!

[QUOTE="J-Man725"]

[QUOTE="x-2tha-z"] Most games have several difficulty levels. Up a game to its hardest difficulty and I'm sure you'll find a decent challenge.bussinrounds

I realize that, but what I mean is games used to have a sort of innate difficulty. Where today's games show you exactly where to go, who to talk to, what to do, that wasn't so much the case with older games. It was like a puzzle, you had to figure it out for yourself.

Difficulty in today's terms means things like upgrading the weapon damage of enemies, increasing they're health/AI, decreasing your own weapon damage, etc.

I just liked how the older games had a certain degree of difficulty built-in.

[QUOTE="bussinrounds"][QUOTE="J-Man725"]

I realize that, but what I mean is games used to have a sort of innate difficulty. Where today's games show you exactly where to go, who to talk to, what to do, that wasn't so much the case with older games. It was like a puzzle, you had to figure it out for yourself.

Difficulty in today's terms means things like upgrading the weapon damage of enemies, increasing they're health/AI, decreasing your own weapon damage, etc.

I just liked how the older games had a certain degree of difficulty built-in.

x-2tha-z

To each his own.

Personally, I see that as part of the enjoyment of the game (figuring out what to do next) not as something that eats up time. It's gameplay, all the same.