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    FPS-Creatively Dying?
    Topic Started: Sep 30 2011, 05:05 PM (238 Views)
    quillmert
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    King Dedede
    Obviously, sales for FPS games are massive. However, I'm sure you've all seen side by side comparisons of big name games, as well as played them, and for the most part they're more or less the same. Shooters just don't seem innovative anymore. Since goldeneye, FPS advancements have been about how real the game can be, and it would seem that we've more or less hit that ceiling graphically, and now no one knows where to go.

    Ever since COD 4, developers have jumped on the call of duty bandwagon and copy pasted the formula for online shooters, and we end up with a genre clogged with the same type of game: call of duty, battlefield, medal of honor, killzone, and homefront all feel the same.

    There doesn't seem to be any innovation creatively in FPS, games that try something new like bulletstorm end up failing commercially, because all the kids are too busy slobbering over the next COD. It's quite possible my view is too extreme, but I just don't see the FPS genre growing at all, it seems utterly stagnant and devoid of new ideas. Anybody want to share some hope with me?
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    SNESDNA8
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    ChuChu
    how about an underwater fps? were you battle water creatures or something.
    when in doubt, frag out.
    TO THE VILLAGE, SLAPPY DUMMY MAN!
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    Picklegod
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    Don't you agree, Zach?

    quillmert
    Sep 30 2011, 05:05 PM
    Anybody want to share some hope with me?
    BioShock Infinite. Nuff said.

    I do somewhat agree with you though. It bothers me that the popular FPS tend to be the military shooters, but I guess that's because they have the most tried and true multiplayer styles. Personally, I prefer story in my shooters. The games that work hard on story, however, often seem to do so at the expense of multiplayer. At the end of the day, good multiplayer = more replay value = more popularity. It seems like gamers don't typically want to deviate from their traditional shooter multiplayer styles. I guess there are other popular FPS's that are different though in multiplayer. L4D2 is still going strong for example. Anyway, I'm not a big FPS expert, especially when it comes to multiplayer. Those are just my unorganized thoughts.

    I'll just leave with this: There will always be creative FPS's like BioShock, Bulletstorm and L4D. They're just destined to be far fewer than the CODs and Halos of the gaming universe. So don't despair. There will always be an FPS for those of us who want something different.
    Edited by Picklegod, Sep 30 2011, 09:50 PM.

    Foremost is the chromatic substance accomplishment to Picklegod! Pickle contributes to all parts of the forum, stays astir, and mostly is awful to everyone he meets. A wonderful, intelligent somebody, Pickle testament now better us with every day NF decisions. Approval Picklgod!
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    Professor Oak
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    ChuChu
    It seems that the popularity of genres comes in waves. I've only seen three genres really take off in the past twenty years, maybe four.

    A fighting game craze was launched by Street Fighter II in the early '90s, when I was a young and impressionable lad, and it lasted about a decade. Many fighting games popped up: some good, some bad. Some were really bad (War Gods for N64 comes to mind). Among the good ones were the Capcom games (SF series, Darkstalkers, Marvel fighting games) and Mortal Kombat games (by Midway, with the exception of the nearly series-killing MK4).

    You couldn't get away from fighting games for a long time, it seemed. They were everywhere, and they took up most of the space on the game racks at retail stores. As I mentioned before, quality in most of these games really waned, and gamers burned out on them for the most part.

    RPGs began to get a strong fanbase in the mid-90s with the plethora of great RPGs for the SNES. However, the genere really took off in popularity beginning with Final Fantasy VII (PS, 1997), and I think they were the most popular genre in the US for several years. Whereas in the mid-90s a lot of great JRPGs never saw Western release, longtime fans of the genre were seeing nearly every major RPG localized for the US. In the late '90s/early '00s, companies were even going back and localizing old games for new platforms in the US.

    The Western RPG video game, which hadn't really been a major player in the genre since early PC days (with series such as Ultima and Wizardry, among others), began to see a renaissance around 2002/2003 thanks to companies such as BioWare. To me, that was really an unexpected consequence of the RPG boom.

    Of course, the spinoff genre of the MMORPG was really taking shape around the beginning of this period as well. Ultima Online and Everquest were really the first major games which I'd label "MMORPG." Throughought the '00s, it seemed that every RPG developer was making an MMORPG, and many major IPs (Matrix, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Warcraft) got MMORPGs based on their mythology.

    Just as with fighters, I think the market became oversaturated with titles that just weren't cutting it (RPG and MMORPG alike), and staple series (such as Final Fantasy) began to lose quality as well.

    I would personally argue that the FPS craze saw its beginnings with Goldeneye 007 (N64, 1997). I am aware that genre-defining FPS games that preceded Goldeneye had significant fanbases, such as Wolfenstein 3-D and the Doom series. However, not many people were dedicated PC gamers in the mid-to-late 90s. A lot of people had N64s, though. To say that great PC shooters released in the late 1990s, such as Quake and Unreal, didn't have an effect on starting the trend would be disingenuous of me.

    I may be wrong and showing "console gamer bias" by contributing the start of the actual FPS trend to Goldeneye. However, I would argue that Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom I & II, while fantastic games, had more of a cult fan base for many years. I noticed that, following the release of Goldeneye 007, a lot more people were playing FPSes, and the FPS multiplayer model was being used in many games (even those of other genres). When Bungie's Halo: Combat Evolved (X-box, 2001) was released, I think this opened the floodgates to a full-blown FPS craze that still hasn't waned 10 years later. I would speculate that what you're seeing, with regards to the decrease in quality games and numerous "CoD copycats," is the end of the same popularity cycle I described with fighters and RPGs.

    The fourth genre I mentioned, the one which I'm not 100% certain is going through this cycle, is that of casual games. I really think casual games started taking off with the launch of the Wii in late 2006. I don't know one person, myself included, who wasn't wowed by Wii Sports the first time they played it.

    The market for casual games has been so significant these past few years that Nintendo, as we know, has largely catered to them this generation. My personal "hardcore" gamer feelings aside, who can blame them? It is a thriving, large demographic, and Nintendo has not done this well in sales for a looooooong time. I remember dark days in the N64 and Gamecube generation when there was talk of Nintendo getting out of the console industry. Longtime Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi said several times in interviews during this period that the day Nintendo stopped making gaming hardware was the day they would totally get out of the gaming business (software and all). Even though that was likely an empty threat, you can imagine the fear that struck into the heart of a longtime Nintendork like me. To see a 180-degree shift from these dark times was a great relief.

    In addition to there being a significant number of casual games at brick-and-mortar retail outlets, there are so many casual games being digitally distributed for all platforms. These range from the browser-based games that probably started the genre, to cellphone/iPod games, to downloadable games on traditional gaming platforms. While a lot of what's out there is garbage, I think that the digital distribution of casual games has also opened the door for independent games (casual and hardcore) to have more of a market. This can only be a good thing for gamers and developers alike.

    So, that's my take on things. There is usually a "hot genre" at any given time in the video game culture. The lifespan of the trend is limited, and it usually ends when the market is oversaturated with low-quality titles of the genre. Does that mean that the genre dies out completely? Not at all. Established IPs live on, and they often experience a renaissance. I haven't seen fighters or RPGs, however, reach the heights that they had previously when they were hot trends. So, while there will continue to be a dedicated FPS gaming culture, if we are indeed seeing the waning of the FPS trend, I wouldn't expect it to reach its previous levels of popularity.

    Then again, as with sports games, the FPS genre in general has a lot of qualities that good games generally need. That is to say I think the FPS genre would be more likely to see a second wave of massive popularity than fighters or RPGS.

    It would also be wise to note that I'm describing trends in the US gaming culture. Although sometimes the video game genre trends in different regions overlap, that is often not the case. When the fighting game boom was happening in the US, I understand that an RPG boom was going on in Japan (even though fighters were very popular there as well). Just thought I'd add that caveat to what I've just said. I'm not familiar enough with the PAL/EU region to describe the history of game trends there, sadly. :(
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    zane09
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    Burst link!

    I wouldn't say Golden Eye was the last innovative FPS.

    The Halo series brought in Aim assist, The Trueskill system, and many other things.

    Call of duty brought in Customizable loadouts.

    I don't argue that FPS's are getting stale, but it's ignorant to say that there hasn't been any innovations in 16 years.
    Holy Crap I'm old :(
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    quillmert
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    King Dedede
    zane09
    Oct 8 2011, 03:22 PM
    I don't argue that FPS's are getting stale, but it's ignorant to say that there hasn't been any innovations in 16 years.
    I thought he was just saying goldeneye started the craze, not that it was the last innovative shooter, but regardless... Thanks professor. That was a really interesting read, and I appreciate you putting so much thought into my question.
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