Have we outlived our time?

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:36 pm

whenever i browse the major gaming sites, i just get so pissed off and frustrated. more than that, it makes me truly, honestly sad. it seems like no-one knows what an rpg is anymore. actual dialogue, levelling that makes a difference, multiple-solution quests, detailed environments... no one cares about any of these things anymore, and no-one thinks they have anything to do with rpg's. a lot of people agree that a "decent" rpg hasn't been published in years, but the fact of the matter is that there hasn't been any rpg's "at all", just fps-hybrids. is there any light at the end of the tunnel? if so, i don't see it.

or are our definitions really outdated? are we just a bunch of angry old men who fail to realise that the times have moved on? should we embrace the shiny graphics and this new "immershun"?

some relief can be found here at dac, at nma and at the codex. but our existence is dependent on our relevance, which is rapidly fading. we no longer discuss gaming, most of the posts here just consist of lamenting our position or calling each other names. do we have a place in this age of "next-gen" roleplaying?

i should probably have posted this in General Gaming, but i wanted to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, since this is an issue close to my heart.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:56 pm

Max Headroom. It finally came to me.

Leveling that makes a difference? Like KOTOR or NWN? Where you can actually choose abilities, or do you mean where it takes a looong time to level up, but when you do, you get plenty of bonuses? I'll say I didn't really care for Fable, if that's the type of game you're talking about...?

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:58 pm

i mean like gurps and d&d, yes. as opposed to oblivion, where you don't notice the difference.

Thor Kaufman · Post by **Thor Kaufman** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:59 pm

Yes, Fable is the game we are talking about. Jeez louise

DAC isn't really about games, anymore, if it ever was. It's just a steaming pile of buttfuck.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:00 pm

I agree completely.

The rpg genre is now a joke and nothing more then a buzz-word for the masses or to make a hack'n'slash. I finally got into PS:T for the first time about 5 months ago and was really engrossed in it, I actually stopped playing everything else, never used ventrilo to talk to mates and just couldn't wait to get home from work to play it. I haven't played a game like that in very long time, perhaps Bloodlines was the only game that did that to me regarding "recent" releases. That sucky had me play it non-stop for about 30-odd hours, and while I slept on a couch my mate was playing it.

Now? Most games feel like an intentional time waste or a rip off, and never engrossing.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:05 pm

My brother all he does is play games like Gears of War, Halo, etc - he can't stand when you actually have to read something. Wherever the blame lies, most people my age and a little younger don't take the time to appreciate a game. Microsoft had to come out w/ achievement points so they could justify selling a shitty 10 hour game for 60 bucks ( USD )
I've played FF3 for SNES (or emulated) probably 8 or 9 times. The graphics suck ass compared to today, but OMFG, it's actually a good game.
I don't think my generation can handle being immersed in a game world where there's lore, and background history. It's either "let me blow the hell out of something" or "I don't want to read - that's what voice acting is for" - it's really sad.

DaC-Sniper · Post by **DaC-Sniper** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:19 pm

Thor Kaufman wrote:DAC isn't really about games, anymore, if it ever was. It's just a steaming pile of buttfuck.

Vote Putin!

edit: just wanna share my thoughts with da thread.

The game industry is all about da quick buck, ya know. You can`t waste thousand of moneys in a game and then release it only on one single plattform, thats no working no more. You gotta keep it big, `caus the shit growed big, from nerds wearing their phat glasses and sitting the whole day infront of da computa to nerds, who don`t want to identify themselv with the stereotype, ya know, they just lie to their friendz, they say, they are doing seriouz business, while they are the whole day on the internet. You can`t show your friends some random RPG without big explosions or gore, splatter or bootys, ya know, you gotta keep it banging. Ma man 2pac said, things will never change, he`s right to a point.

Cthulhugoat · Post by **Cthulhugoat** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:55 pm

Not only CRPGs are getting "streamlined", check out Civilization Revolution.

Before:

After:

B00bies!

Also, why didn't they ever put Hitler as der reichmeister auf das Deutschland civ?

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:42 pm

pics didn't load for me....

Frater Perdurabo · Post by **Frater Perdurabo** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:55 pm

What? New Civs? Seems like a bigger pile of shit than CiV IV but that picture alone. Back to Civ III for meh.

NATIK · Post by **NATIK** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:03 pm

Games are getting worse and worse, hell the only time I get excited about games anymore is when old games get rereleased in compilation packs for cheap.

New games have shorter and shorter playtimes, the stories are worse and graphics become unimportant after 2 secs (IMO), but then again, those two seconds are all the games need to get a sale (screenshots, teasers) after they got the sale the gameplay dosnt matter anymore as they dont care whether people keep playing the game (look at all those utter crap games that get released as platinum, gold or whatever they call them versions for games that did well in retail the first time, I doubt anyone buying them actually liked them, they just bought them for the graphics).

My list pf games that I play is almost exclusivily populated by games from the 90'ies, very few games from after 2000 can capture my attention for more then an hour or two.

Blargh · Post by **Blargh** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:13 pm

In a word - No.

I wouldn't define 'my time' by anything like agreeable software.

Oho.

PsychoSniper5 · Post by **PsychoSniper5** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:07 pm

Welcome NATIK, exellent post.

And my game list is quite similar as well, minus a few from the early 21st centrut.

Game designers are essently pulling a herve caen, they care less about quality, and more about making a quick buck, thus they pump something out with too much hype, and dont focus in a game that DOES have years of replayability (fallout) because they DONT want you to play it years from now, they want you to buy their next game.

Of course if asked YES they can see you playing it years from now, cause their PR is SUPPOSED to lie about everything it can to make you buy it.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:34 pm

most "classic" roleplaying games beyond wasteland, fallouts 1 and 2, torment and arcanum don't have much "role playing" either. bloodlines, for instance, is an ultralinear piece of shit. baldur's gates, final fantasys and the like are elaborate fighting games with stats tacked on. rpgs aren't getting "worse and worse", there was one decent developer that made some pretty good games for a few years when computer games were just starting to spill over into the mainstream, that's it.

anyway who cares, if you want a "true" role playing game, that's not something easily provided in the medium of a video game. even fallout has its limits - a lot of the dialogue is awfully shallow, for instance. just play shadowrun or something, jeez

the long and short of it is that only fools play crpgs -- people, often middle class liberals, who need contrivances like "backstory" and "believable dialogue" to make them forget their pangs of white guilt. that's unnatural -- the masses, not blinded by such elitism, know the true visceral pleasure that a first person shooter can bring, without getting bogged down by concepts that are all in their heads. indulge yo selves

PsychoSniper5 · Post by **PsychoSniper5** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:57 pm

I prefer cRPGs cause I dont have to deal with godmoding fags.

Just Ian shooting me in the back.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:42 am

Bloodlines was still linear as all buggery, but it was still a very fun game. Most games now rely on repetitive shite for decent length, anything else kind of just blows it's load quickly after 3 hours.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:51 am

Bloodlines was pretty cool until about halfway or 3/4 when it just became a pure combat game. It had multiple choices and all the stuff to some extent, yet it wasn't really a full blown RPG. It was an action rpg with heavy on the RPG maybe? It had a lot of potential.

Mechanurgist · Post by **Mechanurgist** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:00 am

Games were originally built by and for nerds. Nerds love to read, and they adore complexity, which is why so many early games were text-heavy dungeoncrawls with labyrinths, riddles and puzzles. The target group revelled in such lamery because it appealed to their minds. Eventually games began to expand to the children's demographic, which is where Mario & Company originated. This gave us simple platformers. Then college kids started getting into the gaming thang, and shooters suddenly became popular with the advent of simple 3D graphics. 3D, in turn, allowed almost any activity to be modelled, which allowed game developers to publish everything from adventure-mysteries to sports franchises.

Games publishers started hunting the general public instead of stay-at-home, puzzle-loving bookworms. Everybody from preppies to jocks to inner-city black rappers started playing games, at first furtively, then in the open, and franchises like EA Sports became king. Reading and story was no longer the bread-and-butter of gaming. Now it was visceral reaction, adrenaline rush after adrenaline rush, and instant, action-movie impact that sold the most product, and the RPG was dead. Welcome to the desert of the Now.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:15 am

I blame consoles.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:25 am

Caleb wrote:I blame consoles.

I also blame developers who now only want money. As Mech said, videogames were originally made for nerds by nerds, money only started becoming a big thing for video games when people besides nerds started playing video games. Now in order to compete, you gotta appeal to the lowest common denominator.