Yes, it’s that time again, when all the game sites roll out their lists. “Best of This”, “Most Innovative of That”, and “Worst of The Other”, ad nauseum. I’m ignoring all of them.
In contemplating the past year, I’m confronted by the dismal fact that I played only four new games, three of them independent products. Along with this is the realization that of all the releases this year, I was only really interested in one, namely The Witcher.
I did have a passing interest in Hellgate: London, but reading around the net pretty much quashed that. Ditto for a couple of other titles I thought were promising, but turned up mainly “same-old, same-old”.
The one major release I did play was, of course, Neverwinter: The Movie (some call it Neverwinter 2). I didn’t bother with the add-on Mask Of The Betrayer, since that would mean reinstalling the game and then getting patches. Not on dial-up, thank you.
As it was, I got more pleasure out of the three indies: Fate, Geneforge 4 and Eschalon: Book I. Pondering this, it seems that each year, I’m drifting farther away from the more “mainstream” games.
Then again, most of them continue to be directed to that “18-34 male demographic”, so perhaps that’s not surprising. What the market appears to want these days isn’t what I do.
This doesn’t make for a promising outlook on the future. At least not so far as “A Titles” are concerned. That’s so depressing. Wow, do I miss the good old days of looking forward to the next Ultima, Might & Magic or Wizardry.
But those days, alas, are gone forever. It’s a miracle if just one game comes along that lives even half-way up to all hype. That doesn’t need umpteen patches to work properly. That’s actually fun to play.
Yeah, I’m feeling morose. That’s what happens when you start feeling starved for a few good games to play. And I’m not too sanguine about what the larder will hold in the coming year. Sigh…
Long time lurker first post.
I would have to agree with you concerning not many commercial games look interesting. I think a lot of the indie games that are coming out look great and would be a better investment of my hard earned dollars.
Major game companies seem to be afraid to take risks anymore. Everything is so overproduced yet underproduced (what’s the deal with all the patch downloads after buying a game?).
I miss the old days too. You mentioned the good ol’ days of looking forward to Ultima, Might & Magic and Wizardry and it made me think back to when I first played The Bard’s Tale and the excitement I had for that game.
Anyway, I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe more indie/garage development companies. More people taking a chance on making good games.
Just my two cents.
Thank you,
Dan
I’ve been tuned out of AAA games for a decade now, and I can’t say that I miss them that much. I certainly don’t miss the massive, constant upgrading costs and perpetual driver treadmill. Computers last a long, long time when you don’t try to play AAA games on them. I have enough old games and console games backlog to play that I’m in no hurry to upgrade or buy any remotely recent titles.
It doesn’t help that the genres I prefer are dead or dying, or that the currently popular genres annoy me. I have no use for rat-in-a-maze FPSes, RSI-inducing RTSes, time-sink MMORPGs infested by digital sociopaths, the yearly roster update of the sports titles, the MOTS revisions of racing or flight simulators, the virtual dollhouse known as The Sims, etc.
If you are looking for adventure games to explore, you may want to check out the titles available here:
http://www.the-adventureshop.com/US/
You may need to contact their customer support to see what options are available if you are not on broadband – see if they can ship you a disc, or maybe work out an arrangement with a community member similar to how you got Eschalon.
I, for one, really appreciate your commentary and reviews on the games you play! I’d forgotten how much I’d missed ’em!
Scorpia,
Aren’t you forgetting that many people also were looking forward to the next Gold Box release, the next Bard’s Tale, the next Wasteland, the next Magic Candle, or Bulder’s Gate release as well.
Also, Scorpia,
Were YOU REALLY looking forward to the next Ultima after Ultima 8 came out? Or Ultima 9?
Were you REALLY looking forward to the next M&M came out after M&M 8? Or M&M 9?
think it was M&M IX that sucked badly. it was one of those free movement guide with the cursor crap fests that i installed, created and then deleted from the HD in about 15 minutes.
Absolutely, Presto. I just didn’t want to make that sentence too long.
And I was talking about the early times, before those series (except Wizardry) all went down the tubes into horrible travesties of themselves. I loathed Pagan (I can’t call it U8) and didn’t touch Ascension, for instance. I also didn’t play the last Might & Magic.
Otto, the sad thing, as we’ve talked about before, is that most “A titles” come from companies beholden to corporate entities. They care only about the bottom line, and given the cost of production these days, are not willing to take any risks.
Hence the usually-awful “movie tie-in” games, for example. Or the other way around: the awful “movies based on games”. hard to say which is worse ;)
Verbose, I dunno if any genre is really dying. Just that some of them aren’t being properly worked these days.
Coyote, thanks for the link. Will have to check that out.
I recall that two-year period or so where the consensus was that “RPGs are a dead genre.” Then Diablo happened. And Final Fantasy VII on the consoles. And then Baldur’s Gate. And then the “word on the street” was, “RPGs? Dead? Who said that? Not us!”
It’s all marketing B.S. anyway. Sure, players get tired of playing games that are too much alike and don’t offer anything fresh to the mix. I think that might have been where we were pre-Diablo. Those attempts to really re-invigorate the genre (like… oh, Pagan) did so by pissing off their established fan base without offering anything to draw in new players.
Then Diablo happened on the PC. (Most) established RPG fans grudgingly admitted that it was fun, though it wasn’t really there idea of what an RPG ought to be. But it drew in new players in droves. “Reinvigorated the genre” an analyst might say.
But the bean-counters are idiots, and so they’ll demand that EVERY game from there on out be like Diablo. It only takes a couple of failures out there for them to say that the genre is dead, and then sometimes it just takes a single success for them to jump all over the successful game’s coattails and ride it until it keels over.
They won’t ask WHY.
So I’m kinda hoping some indie RPGs become fabulously successful and at some point garner mainstream attention. Not that I necessarily want mainstream publishers jumping back into the pool that I wanna swim in. But it’s kind of a “Nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah, nyah!” thing. They abandoned these games prematurely.
Though that probably doesn’t explain what happened to Wizardry 8. It’s got an almost fanatic following, seems a very competently done game (I’ve only played the demo – trying to buy a used copy now costs more than the game did originally!), yet didn’t sell all that well.
Out, vile unclosed italics tag! Did that do it?
From what I remember, the dying Sir-Tech had to strike an exclusive distribution deal with Electronics Boutique just to get Wiz8 on the shelves. Not everyone had an EB close by, and the typical EB doesn’t stock many copies of anything, let alone a niche product like CRPGs had become.
Well, Scorpia,
Since Wizardry is alive and well in Japan, what do you think is the likihood of theses games coming to the US (ala the Final Fantasy games have done)?
Granted, it all depends on their agreement wit Sir Teck.
Ahem. Yes, I forgot to close a tag properly. It’s fixed now ;)
Presto, the brand “Wizardry” may be alive in Japan, but I’d bet that what they have over there (in terms of new product) is not much like the Wiz we know and love.
And yes, Sir-Tech Canada (which made Wiz 8) did make a deal with EB, because otherwise there was no distribution for the game. A sad commentary right there.
Coyote, you know that, and I know that, and everyone in the gaming world knows that. Unfortunately, the corporates aren’t part of the gaming world.
Well I think the absurd content regulations that exist in different terms in both Europe and North America also contribute to the lack of charm and appeal in say, most recent rpg’s stories and settings.
Yet the GTA series which is certainly the poster child for the “do not let your kid buy this” games is, if im not mistaken, the PC single player game sales champion. Weird pattern here.
To be really honest the only game where I found the story and setting and dialog not boring, overdone or childish or just plain annoying was Planescape: Torment.
Considering over the years I played most decent and half decent RPG’s for the PC including titles that are now abandonware…heh makes you wonder about who the hell sets these writing standards for pc RPGs and who exactly are they trying to cater to, if anyone.
Fenril, yes, the whole situation is absurd, one way or another. Sex is okay in one place but not another. This one objects to the violence and the other doesn’t (or not very much). Then again, the only consistent thing about human nature is its inconsistency. ;)
As for the RPGs, sometimes I have wondered that, myself. But we must recall that, while PS:T had devoted fans, it was not a big seller. Likely that was related in part to the amount of text (one person here referred to it as Planescape: The Novel). And all the non-standard characters that could be in the party.
It’s what has been discussed here before: players ask for innovation and then find it too unsettling.