Are computer games too Bland? {Article}

Kris

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
10,882
Reaction score
0
Points
36
Are computer games too Bland? Should games have a deeper connection with characters & in depth plots?

I thought I would put the questions up for debate because 1. I am having a very slow day in the office 2. It something that I have been thinking about for a while now & I wanted to hear some other opinions on the subject.

Are computer games too bland?

We are at an age where computer games are at their peak for sales and popularity. We have long surpassed the stage where the gamer is stereotyped as a geek that is a social recluse. Nintendo, the once proud dominator of the computer game industry in Europe, America and Asia has fallen off the pedestal and trails both Microsoft & Sony, however it has smartly changed it market to open up games to the middles aged & Elderly. Wii & DS offer alternative games & of course they still dominate the Asian market.

Yet despite all of this, gaming genre have all fallen and managed to compress themselves into one massive genre ‘shooters’

Take out sports games (for obvious reasons) and almost every game out involves shooting a gun. I for one am getting a bit tired of this pattern of gaming. Why at such an advanced age, where we have 3d television & do absolutely everything with our mobile phones, can we not come up with new and creative games? The think I have deciphered the reasoning.

1. Multiplayer
2. Call of Duty

Multiplayer – The majority of game makers are now focusing hard on multiplayer features, leaving a good single player campaign hard to come by. Games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo offer poor single player options, most of them lasting a mere 6-7 hours game play with barely any focus on the plot/story. People seem to be more focused on destroying rivals over the internet to prove they are better than everyone else. Of course there is nothing wrong with that but what happened to playing games online for fun?

Call of Duty – The game’s popularity sky rocketed with the release of Modern Warfare, which coincidentally enough has a decent single player mode, characters and plot. The game is rated 18 but I assure you the majority of players are adolescents, given the game by the pathetic modern day parent to shut them up.

call-of-duty-3.jpg

Pew Pew! Moderator Alfie likes to show off his COD skills.

Most developers are now trying to compete with this by bringing out there own unique version of the same game. It’s all a numbers game. Companies are no longer happy with selling a few hundred thousand copies; they need to be in the millions.

Nobody is prepared to take risks anymore, instead they settle for mediocre ****. For example, very few new IP’s are made every year. Instead we find every game is now a sequel. And the one’s that aren’t don’t sell too well and cost more in marketing so they recuperate less of their overall spend and don’t survive. For Call of Duty, you pretty much just need to mention to a big magazine, or a big website, that you’re making the game and they effectively market it for you for free.


Should games have a deeper connection with characters & in depth plots?

Gaming is like the movie business in a lot of ways, action films tend to lead the way but every now and again you get a film with a story that grips you and you feel a deep connection with the characters. The games industry is just like that.

Games that have taken that effect on me, most notably are Mass Effect & Heavy Rain, the latter does so in a **** near perfect way, using a unique interactive game play that brings you into the story and makes you feel a very strong connection with the characters. The fact that there is no set ending and your actions throughout in turn, affect the way the ending plays out.

heavy-rain-movie.jpg

Heavy Rain's storyline and character interaction, are it's main selling points.

More games should be going down this route because gaming is just another way of telling a story. It should be a more engaging story we’re moving towards. That’s the nature of interactivity I think. People don’t seem to grasp that. Definitely some like Bioware and Rockstar North do, but we’ll see how it goes down in the future.

Really want to see more games with involving storylines. Shame most people just want to kill stuff.

* * *

I would love to hear other views and even counter arguments regarding my points. Perhaps you have a game that you feel deserves a mention for having a gripping story that lets you connect with the characters?

Hope you enjoyed this very long & crappy attempt at an article XD
 
Last edited:
As long as there are guns and lots of explosions , i'll buy it.
 
they are definitely become more bland, i very rarely buy games now.still playing games that were out 5-10 years ago. there are very few in depth innovative single player games anymore.

---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------

As long as there are guns and lots of explosions , i'll buy it.
and this kinda sums up why. seems the majority of players these days are like this
 
I love Rpg games but when I get home from work half the time I'm too tired to concentrate on story lines and characters, that's why things like fifa or battlefield get put on, minimum effort but can still have a good bit of fun.

If I had more free time I would definately be playing through more of ny single player games instead of getting a quick hit of an online game
 
and this kinda sums up why. seems the majority of players these days are like this

It's a joke? oO)
Just because I personally do not focus to heavily on the actual storyline and characters is that a reason to put me in the bracket of the majority of players?
Besides , I actually play games very rarely , other than FM.
 
LA Noire rockstars latests project looks immense
 
For people like me who such at online Call of Duty and cant be arsed enough to spend 4-5 hours a day playing it Online, I look for games that has got a good single player plot that puts me into the story, thats why I feel left out when my friends go on and on about their k/d ratios and new classes and guns etc.

I really like GTA IV and I had high hopes for SVR2011 because of how I can immerse myself into the story, i hope developers pay more attention to this side of games 2
 
It's a joke? oO)
Just because I personally do not focus to heavily on the actual storyline and characters is that a reason to put me in the bracket of the majority of players?
Besides , I actually play games very rarely , other than FM.
jokes dont tend to travel well across the internet without some sort of emoticon

you dont focus on storyline and characters, along with a seeming majority of players who dont, thinks its a fair deduction.

Spend a bit of time on any games forum, the type of player is changing, call of duty etc caters well to their needs so it sells.

Average Joe, agree time is definitely a huge factor, but you could argue plenty of gamers who happily rather thrash out 8-10 hours on a weekend on call of duty multiplayer, than think their way through heavy rain
 
Depends, if you're after an online shooter you need no real connection [obviously]. I still think the single player games [Maybe apart from shooters, although there is the odd exception] have a degree of connectivity with the characters.

Mass Effect being one, and most definitely Halo. I agree with Heavy Rain having a character influence, but it was made with the single player in mind [again, obvious] so I don't see any real comparison between the two.

Even a game as silly as Portal [Woo Portal] has a connection with the character and user. I do think there is a good mix of games out there for both the Single-player and multi-player gamer in mind, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Heavy Rain, Portal, Half Life [Never gets old <3], Splinter Cell and on the multi-player aspect, the obvious shooters, which is the main attraction for multi-player, understandably as it creates a fast paced environment.

So as long as they keep the balance I don't see why it should change, I, for one, enjoy the mix of games available.

ps Nintendo please make a console to battle the PS3 and 360 :)

Edit: Fallout too <3

Edit v2: Gahhh Red Dead Redemption <3
 
I rarely buy computer games as it is, as they're usually awful compared to what I prefer. Mass Effect was a breath of fresh air, but I'm still waiting for a character such as Minsc.

YouTube - Minsc and Boo
 
Kris said:
call-of-duty-3.jpg


Pew Pew! Moderator Alfie likes to show off his COD skills
.
lol but yeah that is one of the reasons why i am getting fallout and other games like that now as they are more offline based
 
Games that focus on the online side of the game rather than the single player side i do get bored with quickly and i would say are bland. I much prefer games with a strong single player campaign like RDR, Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect, Half Life. These games are certainly not bland.
 
Maybe it's my age now but finding most computer games boring and bland. There is no emphasis to create something new but the run amok and shoot someone genre. Halo for me started the downfall of todays shoot em ups.

Used to like role playing games like KOTOR which had a lengthy storyline to it but even now if a rpg game comes along the storyline is so weak the games not worth trying.
 
I agree that most of the best games out have been shooter's but I would like to see different types of games becoming good or just as good Cod or Halo. Heavy Rain was really impressive, Final Fantasy has always been good, I always liked Metal Gear Solid when I was younger more stealth then running around shooting I thought it could of been made a film.
 
It's too easy to make money with minimal development on games like Call of Duty, since they're simply lapped up by millions annually. Development costs, duration and complexity have increased massively over the past 10-15 years, which makes making an in-depth game with a great storyline a very expensive risk which takes a lot of time to come to fruition, and when it does you can't guarantee a return on that investment in the volatile video games market dominated by various shades of FPS clones and whoever can afford a great marketing team to stir up lots of hype. As Cliff Bleszinski has recently said, there is no middle class games market anymore, only AAA titles and indie ventures sell millions and are successful at the moment.

As for the actual gameplay side of things, I love a great game with a deep and engaging story which expects you to do more than pew pew your way through set-piece after set-piece, but I can also appreciate a well crafted multiplayer game which requires skill and is well crafted and balanced. What I don't appreciate is the army of similar FPS games with 6 hour campaigns and gimmicky multiplayer with no regards to skill nor balance that are released every year.
 
Last edited:
I enjoy a mix of different genres, but I do seem to be spending less and less time playing console games (probably because of FM and this site!). I was really into earlier COD games but have really gone off them due to the problems with the latest version.

I have bought games such as GT5, Dragon Age, Fifa, Final Fantasy but have barely played them, unable to get really drawn into the game. The last game to really connect in such a way was the last Metal Gear, and before that Shadow of the Colossus. I'm actually really looking forward to the next Metal Gear installment and The Last Guardin as a result. It seems that more and more people enjoy the pick up and play games that require little thought. They can become very addictive
 
I thought Assassins Creed 1 & 2 was very good game something different
 
The best games are those that keep you interested for the longest time in most cases. Spending 40 quid on a game that lasts just 8 hours or so isn't good enough. That's why CoD is so popular, it isn't because people are like 'Haw haw I like to shoot people' but because the replayability is quite insane. With many people getting more than 240 hours worth of play time on it.
 
Top