What is the gaming industry going to ? Trends and directions.

Hello, everyone.

I’d like to discuss with you, how games in the next years might look like. Are there certain trends ? Into which directions seems the industry to develop ? Where do you take your insights from ?

What do you think ?

Alrik.

P.S. : I’ll post my own thoughts later. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> In short : I personally believe in the industry strengthening the „action factor“ much more.

Well the unreal 3.0 engine looks freaking sweet, but I miss innovation. Is it my opinion or is everything getting repetitive or is everything getting repetitive.

Lets hope that the Nintendo revolution will be revolutionary and hope some of it goes to pc to.

and don't forget GTA SA

DA nuff said <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Always handy to know some Russian. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Mea, only three years left, right?

Übereil

Hm, I rather thought not about specific forthcoming games, but more fashions and trends ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

3D for example is obvious, we don't need to discuss that anymore. But what about other things ?


Alrik.

Hah mean like virtual stuff where you plug your brain into the PC a la Matrix, and have ppl who are either wired or not?

Or is that too far fetched?

Personally I think that eventually, we will have more voice activated games, not only for conversation but also for action moves like hit, fire, search etc etc instaed of having to type, but my guess is that that is at least 10 -15 years down the line, even Dragon naturally is taking it's toll it is possible to dictate but there are so many languages, dialects, and accents that it will become a program of huge proportion.

Not Really Mea.
You need only to set a Sound for a Move.
Who said that the Programms need a correct Language?
With a factor of inaccuracy, there must be no localization for a "Voice" controlled Game. The Sound give the command then, and so you can bark for an action Move <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Virtual games like in that Natalie Wood / Christopher Walken
movie called Brainstorm.
That one guy in the recliner was sure happy.

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

there is a trend in gaming which i am not comfortable with; increasing realism in violence. example; Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto series, etc.

what is with developers & buyers that are so into that? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> i'm not saying they're evil, i just don't understand. so much into the physics engine to make a fall look like a real fall in life, does it make the game so much better in immersion when other factors such as dialogues, problem solutions aren't up to scratch?

3D is meant for practical purposes though as of late, games emphasise too much on eye candy while interactive content is very much the same as how it was before 5 years back. what i mean is especially first person shooter. point & shoot. that's how it was in doom & that's how it is in doom3. what else is new? graphic engine plus some physics engine wizardry. what else?

what makes gaming scene so pathetic nowadays is that games' sake is to push the technology forward & vice versa. & that's it. such endeavour though analogously can be said moves in miles while depth of the games themselves progresses inch by inch.

take the case of WW2 shooter games; while each progression is better graphics-wise, very few can be said to play better than the predecessor(s). so why do they keep on making them?

I agree. Games have been banned here in Germany because of the violence.

Which game always makes me shudder is the game with the murderer with no hair on his head ... don't know his name.

Another thing I noticed yesterday in a warehouse was a shelve with war games on the one side and learning games for young children on the direct opposite. (When you stood before the learning software, you had the war games in your back.) I found this highly disturbing. Especially for children.

I told so an employee, but he said he couldn't do anything because of place constraintes (not enough space for games).

Together with the subliminal violence already on TV programmes that adds. I fear that people who are young today will have this violence in their minds when they are older.

Alrik.

Hitman? And if it is: what makes him so bad compared to others?

Übereil

I just don't get it. you can make a game a realistic you can make the violence so real you even can go as far as drugs sex en violence. Isn't it normal to think that a mature man can see the difference between reality and a game. I am sick and tired of a shooting and games being blamed for the shooting. Tougher gun control better education could solve all these problems. This is the same discussion as fat people suing Mcdonals for making them fat. What ever happened to personal responsibility. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />


agreed some games must be banned for children but as an adult you must be able to buy any game you want you realistic it looks.


as for doom³ yes it's still point and click but the emphisice is now more thriller/survival like. To see a monster jump out of the shadows has had me jumping out of my seat multiple times. yes it's "only" upgrade but it does add to the game. Now I must agree that there aren't that many great FPS but if one is a good game it comes because the variations of FPS and graphical implementation of it.

example

serious sam: ridiculous fast paced action with a lot of enemies
doom & resident evil: thiller/survivor
call of duty: realistic WW2 shooter but with more team play

they are all FPS but yet they are completly diffirent.

The overall image he creates. I know that this is by design, but he's the kind of type I even wouldn't want to meet in bright daylight.

@Morbo : It partly depends on who plays it.

But on the other hand, it's just too much for my taste. I've bought a new gaming mag today, and the first 20 pages I flipped through, not even reading them . They were filled with war games and FPS games. There is almost nothing else ! What I miss are games without shooting, action, war, weapons etc. Maybe I should begin playing the Sims. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

And playing only games which incorporate these elements all of the time might leave an impact somehow, I believe. I know that you know that these are only articifial games - products of "unreality" - but what about the unconscious part of our selves ? I know that people easily can say "this is just a game; this is no real violence, I don't actually hurt someone", but what's about the unconscious mind ? Is it really able to distinguish between real life models on on the PC and real life out on the streets ?

That's what makes me uneasy.

this I can agree upon. last year was FPS maddness far cry, doom , halflife...

buit then again next year is RPG madness with <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />² diablo 3, morowing oblivion and other rpg's i don't now the name of. personaly i mis a good space RTS or TBS game.


Still waiting fo star trek armada 3 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

Diablo is NOT an RPG!

Übereil

Correction . D2 is an RPG - but an Action-RPG. A sub-genre creatzed by Blizzard and higly supported by money-greedy publishers. (Should I really say that ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> )

hmmm this topic is having a funny turn from what should they be, to what is wrong today?
However I really dont see the point in banning the latest Larry Leisureuit and releasing things like hitman, since I am a firm believer in "make Love, Not War" there's a good point though aside from a few comp like Larian Obsidian and Bioware,who actually concentrate on story and due to the fact that the majority of their games are RPG and thus can involve many different things, whereas FPS RTS etc are basicly the same the point of the game is to be the best at what you do by either being a canny shooter or a good stratigist, or a good tennis player what ever the case may be.

we can make a game that completely and faithfully reproduces Tiger Woods ... but the fun is in beating the inbuilt chance (I.E. the AI)thus it becomes an amusment value of sorts and thus it is all down how well the AI is structured.

While I love, nay adore NWN, it has it's own bugs ... how many times have you had your henchman not following you? after you gave the command, heh I have seen ppl refer to that as the Lethargic Henchman AI, That is what will improve, what will not improve is the actual scripting, it just becomes more sloppy, (this is understandable) because you can only take soo much time to make a game (due to the progress of this technology) and thus more lines of code must be written in the same time, take MS-DOS and MS-Win XP, yes it is easier to use then DOS for the n00b, but think about thewhole program, what it has to check what is has to do, these are all lines of code, that need to be checked and rechecked and then tested and then some more.

Bluddy H*ll I am ranting aren't I? Ok sorry I shuddup <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well you just proved my point of sub genres. Just like there are survival FPS en tactcal FPS there are action and real RPG's. Shure we know diablo is not an real rpg but for the misinformed gamer (95% of gamers) they see diablo like a rpg just like we say CS is just a FPS.


As for Blizzard. Blizzard ain't no EA there support exelent and they frequently release extra maps and updates.even after all these years the servers for D2 are still running something I would not see EA doing any time soon.

As for the money-greedy publishers. I must agree if it was money-greedy publishers. But since Blizzard have created theire own publisher company. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

WOW support is ideal thats why the little fanboy rant. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Morbo, I have to agree with Alrik: I have 3 games magazines per month to find innovation for the library funds and I can flip over 3/4 of these "tests", "previews", "views" etc. => it's war, slaughter and violence - a bit sports and online games. And it's very difficult for me to find games I consider suitable for our customers.

Though... translating a German phrase => where's the hen and what's the egg?

Do publishers go for realistic graphics/environment when it deals with violence because the public wishes this kind of entertainment or does the public have to wish for these games because a lot of publishers don't produce anything else? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

When I started with PC games about 9-10 years ago I found more innovation (or maybe I thought it was innovative because I was a newbie?) Result => I don't buy many games for myself anymore, why? Well, graphics is nice for a start, a smooth engine too - but then? Graphics/engine don't keep me tied to a game, it's the plot, the story.

And for the library? Well, no violence, no shooters, no online games - a bit sports, a bit of strategy and... well... a dying genre IMO.

Kiya

no i don't think so...

but industry in general probably can't be innovative for a very long time or at least can't be innovative in all fields, except in the beginning of its history.

I think it's quite cyclic... I think that for the 2-5 next years the innovations if real would be mainly technics. It means that except for margin exceptions stroies'interest would be sacrified, but what it would be after that, i really don't know.

what i say here is not concerning only game industry and it's also forcing an open door <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> but well i say it whatever...

But, As my young self remembered a few years ago there was a board game phase. lots of board games came out on cd, chess checkers, risk, scrabble, ... but they didn't sell because it more fun to play person to person with an actual board game. most of them didn't even have a on-line function (what the only argument is to buy such a game otherwise a real game is more interesting).

now these FPS with all the violence is way over hyped. Well I do have to agree there is some real filth out there (postal, narc, the sims). But when you go to a lan parties it's not to play multilayer scrabble (we do that with a real board) but it's kind of hard to simulate a FPS in real life without a mess (paint ball paint is messy). So we use those game to transport us to an unfamiliar setting. I have to agree graphical candy with UT2003 we didn't play that at all. but UT2004 was great since it had isn't enough. we still play UT classic at the lan parties (I rock at UT) had real innovations (assault was back, onslaught ...). but UT is only fun when played with friends.

another example is rome total war. the graphics are great but personally I play best with the TBS facet of it.

It's kind of hard to see a RTS game that isn't based on destroying the other player.

So in to make things short. innovation is important and graphics can be used to improve those innovations (surprise when a monster jumps out of a shadow). Graffic for good graphics never worked or it has to be that the players who liked the first game wanted more and buy the second game (new levels & perhaps new graphics). Why buy NFSU2 if it's the same concept then NFSU not for the graphics but for the new levels.

Personally I miss the old platfom games mario 1,2,3 sonic...


Does any one know other pc games that aren't
FPS
RTS
sport
strategy
board games

only the last 3 can be accomplished without war/shooting violence

Hmm *giggles inanely* hehe *blushes*

CRPG ?

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

@ Mea -> trying to be cute, eh? .... well u succeeded. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

@ Kiya -> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/XmasJump.gif" alt="" /> somehow i knew heavy topic like this will draw u out from the dark part of the forum. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> welcome back!

@ Morbo -> i'm a gamer, i know there are many kinds of FPSes out there but it's frustrating (similar to Kiya & Alrik) that the ones dominating the industry in terms of production, advancement are all FPS-centric. whatever happened to other genres? only eastern european developers so far are the most daring ones & sadly always under the radar of gamers. if only there is a magazine that caters to indie developers.

check out Game Tunnel for some very innovative games without violence or war which are very very smart in gameplay. furthermore they're developed by indie developers.

maybe not all is lost?

Reading this "Column" (means Opinion-Article) about the Closing of Ion Storm, I came to these interesting articles :

http://www.gamedev.net/columns/events/coverage/static_feature57.asp

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/03/burn_the_house_.html

Another interesting Column is this one :

http://halflife.ingame.de/article.php?intID=1814&intTemplate=69&intSite=13

Discussion about it : http://forum.sacred-game.com/showthread.php?t=36529

Alrik.