Preface: With opinion divided over the thoughts expressed in this article I would like to impress upon anyone reading it that this is solely one mans opinion and should be taken as such. With that said I welcome anyones thoughts or reactions on the matter.
With 2010 still shiny and brand new, I wanted to address something close to my heart: a disturbing trend with action properties that I’ve noticed in recent gaming. With Bayonetta receiving rave reviews in all the mainstream media, Darksiders garnering very positive scores across the board, Dante’s Inferno lurking somewhere in the near future and, of course, the shadow of God Of War 3 looming over them all, I am beginning to wonder where gaming is headed in 2010.
Now don’t get me wrong, I can see the appeal of games like Bayonetta and Dante’s Inferno. And, sure, I’ll even enjoy them for a few days, but, after a while, I know I’ll find them underwhelming and lacking in depth and substance. Apart from a minority of modern games, such as Demon’s Souls (2009) and Heavy Rain (both PS3 exclusives), I am certain that we are witnessing the beginning of the breakdown of hardcore ‘real’, gaming.
Here’s why.
Do you remember in November 2006 when the Ninendo Wii was released? Everyone was convinced that motion controls were the future, and that hardcore games for adults would soon make proper use of the features. All well and good, but now, looking back on the last few years since that supposed game-changer, and all I can see is pointless, brainless, mind-numbing casual gaming crap.
Gaming’s latest revolution has given us an industry devoted to stuffing our TV’s with bite-size, substance-less party games with no creative merit whatsoever. And why do this? MONEY. Yes, there’s money to be had in gaming: in Wii balance boards, in Dance Dance Revolution mats and in Blockbuster Movie tie-ins. There’s money to be made in endless sequels such as Halo: ODST (A series Reaching for yet more cash), Final Fantasy XIII or Gran Turismo 5 with ‘incredible ideas’, such as playing as a different character in a dubiously different story or slight upgrade in graphics. But most ly, there’s money to be made in so called, ‘casual’ gaming, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Project Natal and the PS3 motion control just confirm this fact – pointless pieces of technology designed to cash in on the never ending Wii craze.
‘But whats the problem with that?’ I hear you say, ‘I like being able to sit down with my gran and my little niece and my son and my dad and my seven mates all in one room for a nice Hello-Kitty-Halo-Online-MW2-MotionPlus-Wii-fitness-balance-boarding session. Gaming is for the people! Gaming is for everyone!’
The problem with that comment, is that it devalues the art of gaming (for there is art in videogames), making it little more than staring brainlessly at flashing lights on a screen. This brings me back to 2010’s action gaming extravaganza. Nowadays, publishers only seem interested in pushing out the next big action game as quickly as possible with no concern for innovation, inventiveness, or for hardcore gamers (Bayonetta, Dante’s Inferno, GOW3: DMC and the original GOW did that already).
Action games are great, but where’s the depth? Where’s the intriguing plotline that DOESN’T have your character die in a nuclear explosion? Where’s the gameplay that encourages skill rather than encourages running around with a knife annoying people? Where’s the combat system that doesn’t reward button mashers? Where are the countless other things that hardcore gamers like me wish they could find in gaming today?
The answer? Publishers don’t care about you, the hardcore gamer. They care about the bottom line, they care about money, they care about casual gaming. They don’t want to make the innovative games or the risky games, they don’t want to take things in new directions. It’s safer to take an old mechanic and an old premise and dress it up in new clothes so it looks original. So they’ll re-use and re-hash and water-down original IPs until they can be spoon fed to the masses, each year, for £60, or $60 or €60 a slurp (Don’t get me started on the price of games).
Where’s my evidence to back up this outrageous claim that may bring the entire internet fanboy population down on my head? It’s all around you. Pick up one of many games released recently, such as Bayonetta, Darksiders, Halo ODST, MW2 or a host of others and tell me that it isn’t a derivative piece of crap devoid of ideas and innovation. I’m tired of reading about the ‘next big thing’, which is actually the same as something that was around several years ago, but the mainstream media have forgotten.
I want to old days back, where I would spend hours in games stores marveling at the imagination on display. Now, all I have to do is fight my way through hordes of screaming kids and confused parents just so that I can come home and be called a ‘fag’ by a 13-year-old on XBOX live.
2010 – The Death of Real Gaming. It’s closer that you think.
EDIT: I added a response to many of the readers comments on N4G, viewable here.
