Karou Ariyen wrote:
The entire Game Industry has suffered a De-Evolution of Intelligence.
I
this comment.
But really something else is happening here. And not just to Squenix.
Today's games have a number of components. Plotting, puzzles, graphics, and fanservice to name but four. There are more but I am several tequilas into my evening so I will stick with these.
Plotting... Nothing new here. I mean nothing new can be invented in plots and hasn't been since long before Shakespeare. He stole EVERY ONE of his plots. And got the writing down better than everyone he stole from. Except perhaps Aristophanes. But that's another story. (Play?) The way the plotlines are presented can vary quite a bit. And add or detract from your personal gaming experience. But NEW? Sorry.
Puzzles... Squenix has a problem with puzzles. Its called guides. They and their loyal fanbase got so used to guides that often there is often literally no way to solve a puzzle in game. You HAVE to use a guide or a wiki. FFXI even has HIDDEN quests. You don't know you have them. They don't show up in your log.
Red beauties indeed.....
In general they are little rewards in a lot of games, solve one and feel good. All games have them, even FPSs, most have BIG IMPORTANT puzzles somewhere. Presentation, solvability, and rewards are really all that differences them. FFXI: use the wiki to solve, AoC: presented with naked boobies, ... see my drift here?
Full disclosure: I quit Fallout II at the final puzzle. Despite a 2 percentile IQ I didn't see a way through that puzzle without a guide. I looked at the guide. I tried to reverse engineer the answer. I saw no way to get through it except by save, trial, and error. Left as bad a taste in my mouth as the ending of Bakshi's Wizards.
Graphics... I think the advances in graphics have been driving the whole fricking gaming industry for almost a decade now. And almost nothing else. Once DVDs were out and the amount of content that could be put in a package matched or exceeded what you got in a paperback novel.... Well what else IS there?
Look at FFXI and FFXIV. XI's were the best of that generation's graphics. XIV's are flat outstanding and horridly demanding. Are they $500 worth of computer better? Have I bought games just for the graphics? Have you?
Fanservice, the final frontier... Anyone else here read Sankakucomplex? I have had this NEED for a Japanese culture fix since the '80s and
Mangajin. Today its Skk. While the Japanese seem to enjoy more ... IDK how to say this, kind a dose of reality in their fantasies not unlike what Marvel's silver age introduced to US comics, what drives sales there is fanservice. The single most innovate, and perhaps best received, game in the last year or so was Catherine
(Catherine figure, probably NSFW). Reminiscent of a certain '80s quatersnatcher in the way it climbs, great puzzles, Ummm plot? Does it have a plot? Serious question, haven't played it, just read about it. And NO ONE EVER MENTIONS A PLOT.
Full disclosure: I still have all of the bikinis I got in XIV. And do notice the difference between XI's swimsuits and XIV's bikinis.
Look, this isn't just in games in the 21st century. Way back in the 1960s it was known that if you wanted to sell a magazine put a pretty woman on the cover. Didn't mater if you were selling it to men, women, or model train enthusiasts. Just get a good looking woman on the front.
No conclusion, this isn't a proper essay, just a few thoughts. I may well revisit or expand on these subjects later.
Despite having mod and admin rights here I can't figure out how to move a topic.