You all remember playing Doom the first time, right? It was new… it was fresh… it was cool as hell. Running around and shooting scary aliens was the greatest thing ever. (Or were they aliens? I couldn't really tell). To blow the pixelated guts of an outer-world creature all over the nearest wall was just amazing, we all loved it. (Or maybe not, depending on your age. If you're a little younger, replace the words "Doom" with "Half-Life" and it'll make more sense.) Thus First Person Shooters were born.
Remember Command And Conquer? Creating an army of miniature green pixel-men and sending them to blow up the red pixel-men was great. But, to do so, you had to collect little gold bits that were somehow scattered all over the battle area. This was your currency. Whoever could collect enough of this gold stuff fastest and amass the biggest army was certain to win. But did we care? No. We had power. We had glory. We were winning wars. This is where the Real Time Strategy genre flourished.
All well and good so far. But when were these games created? Early 90's? 10 years ahead we are still playing the same games. This is where the problem lies. Games companies nowadays have a total lack of imagination. Sure, we have prettier graphics, but blowing the pixel-shaded, totally 3D guts of perfectly proportioned enemies doesn't quite have the same impact as it did when you first played an FPS game. RTS's are now in 3D. Now we have to do a little thinking instead of just gathering a huge army, but it still doesn't have the same kicks. Do we care? Apparently not. Every year there are innumerable clones of previous games, and we just lap them up like hungry wolves.
Sure, ill hand it to them, occasionally there is an innovative game, and occasionally there is a good innovative game, but do we prefer these? Obviously not. We don't want imagination, we don't want originality, we want to nuke someone in full 3D. Check the charts every couple of weeks, and you will see the same old story. There will always be the latest RTS game riding the waves somewhere. There will always be the latest FPS game sitting in one of the slots. There will always be another fricking Sims expansion pack. Hello people! I think its time to wake up and smell the bed sheets. Sure, it was fun to keep your little man alive for a few weeks, but that's all. Every year EA will release an expansion pack that adds a new rug and a couple of beds, and every year you people will go out and hand them your money. There will always be the "cashing in" in the games industry, but only if we swallow it. The way things are going, with new ideas creeping out of the woodwork every year or 2, and then doing badly in the sales charts at the hands of the latest Command and Conquer clone, more and more developers are going to be discouraged, and just make that clone instead of following that idea through.
What are the most anticipated games at the minute? Ill tell you:
Sequel, Sequel, Sequel, Sequel, Sequel and Sequel. Note that most of them are FPS's too. Is this what we want? In another 10 years, do we want to be playing Command and Conquer 7? The 15th Sims expansion pack? Or do we want to be playing something original? That's more like it.
Day 1: We eat Oatmeal today. Yum.
Day 2: Oatmeal again. Wahey!
Day 3: Oatmeal? Hmm…ok.
Day 4: Oatmeal. Ok. This is getting out of hand.
Day 5: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ANYTHING BUT OATMEAL!
Similar story. In a perfect world, the gaming industry would come to their senses and realise this, but this isn't a perfect world. The almighty dollar rules all, and whilst we keep eating the oatmeal, they're gonna keep producing it.
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Dark Flame