roofles

Evening all. I figured it was about time to stop lurking around so here's some food for thought. For the sake of cutting some fat, you may skip to the asterixes as I tend to wander a bit before going in for the kill. Since this was a semi rant, I left the "fat" in for the purposes of texture and juicyness.

I've been playing computer games forever. Since my old apple IIe, then a few macs, and the last 8 years has been with pcs. Until recently, I have always been looking forward to the next generation of graphics, AI, sound, and generally speaking a richer experience with every wave of games. I do have something of a technical interest in games as well so I confess to getting off on small subjects such as sound occlusion and squad AI and the like.

Until recently these developements have been enough to keep me coming back. I feel that the evolution of games has reached a sort of plateau. The truth is more likely a combination of that and myself reaching a saturation point. As of the last few years the rate of change in game complexity seems to have levelled off. Of course they still change but not as much as before.

In addition, I feel that games are changing faster in the wrong ways. Let me elaborate on that. The fact of the matter is that every game from every major studio has bad ass graphics with bad ass sound, with bad ass sound tracks and some manner of kick your teeth in AI in it (i feel they [the industry] are predominantly full of shit on the last count, more on that later). I remember that at some point only some games had bad ass graphics while the rest didnt. And that was ok. It was like that one movie having mind blowing special fx. It just wasnt absolutely necessary. But let me get to the fuckin crux of the matter before I continue, in case someone made it this far.

*** DING DING ***

Heres the dealio folks. Games rely entirely too much on the novelty of their own medium. Bad ass graphics and sound certainly provide a slicker experience but what then?

After playing the aforementioned game for some time; after I stop ogling (takes a little while, still), what then? I need a reason to keep playing. Multiplayer based games need not apply here. Personally I find a lot of satisfaction in the social and ever changing aspect of multiplayer games so graphics and sound are icing on the cake. Back to the single player realm. I require motivation to complete a game. The mere act of playing the game and working the game machine, if you will, is not sufficiently entertaining. Many games seem to presume that this action alone along with a tenuous excuse for a storyline is enough. A storyline about as meaty as those poor runway models in the fashion shows. We likes women with a bit o meat right? (this is for everyone, you know what i mean gals)

In my memory and opinion, the the best games ive played have always had incredible stories. Top two I'd say say were the marathon series and deus ex (ok thats 4 but whats a few games between friends eh?).

More Later. Somethings just come up. What you tink?

Thanks for readin'.