Is it just me, or are gaming series getting worse each year?

[Ramus]

To the point that we are now, the Game Designers are walking in thin ice, they need too: make old players like, new players like, make a good job in the online aspect of the game and they need do good graphics because now days graphics became one of the most important things in a game (Not that I believe in it).
So they start doing things that is suppose to make everybody happy but this is not possible, normally new player get those things better because they don't have something to compare and so they get happy with a thing that is good, now the players that already played the series for a while get pissed off because they feel like the new games aren't like old ones.
Resident Evil 6 is a example, people bitch because they seem as more action oriented, if you take a look in the old REs you will see that the old game play would not sell so well, besides they needed do something online oriented so people had more post-game to play.
In the end of the day any series that is running for a while will suffer with this to the point that the critics become contradictory like.
Final Fantasy X Level Up is overly complex.
Final Fantasy XIII Level Up is almost completely automatic (As the whole game).
Also the games content wise are becoming shallow ,some at least, while in the past generation of consoles most had a decent amount of post-game the new ones come as DLC.
They changed but like many said we are getting older and everything will feels better when is from our generation.

 

[Ghengis_John]

There's been talk among the folk around online, in 8wr, & in public too much about (any or all) gaming series. Most of the talk is all negative it seems, & it tells me that games aren't going well in the up coming future. I know that every game will always have a hater in it, but for it to be highly common to hear from alot of other ppl as usual, gets to me.

Imho: I think game designers are faltering fairly good. Game series like Halo, CoD, SCV, Elder Scrolls, Borderlands, SSBB, Final Fantasy, DOA, etc. etc. are showing remarkingly strange differences. Differences that make you possibly go "fuck this game...." & loads of bad rumor spreading. Like I said before, this is gone wild. & it doesn't look pretty to me.

Before we begin let me ask you to clarify something. When you say it doesn't look pretty do you mean the state of the communities or the state of development?

 

[damn-I-Suck]

I think it's half nostalgia, and half the fact that some things nowadays just flat out aren't as good as they used to be.

This statement is not limited to video games, but pretty much everything in life.

Look at music for example. There isn't a shred of doubt in my mind that the music of today fell pretty hard in quality over the years. I remember when pop was actually somewhat (I'm being pretty generous here) decent. Michael Jackson made a lot of great songs. The pop of today is laughable in comparison (looking at you Bieber).

Now, there is absolutely nothing anyone can say that can somehow quantitatively prove this. This is all subjective, but surely the definition of quality must mean something tangible to most people. In other words, our notion of quality must have some basis in objective reality. Otherwise, you wouldn't have most straight men in the world all agreeing that Angelina Julie is fucking hot. The quality of her beauty has some scientific objectivity, and the same thing can be said for the quality of music.

The difference is that in music it is much less obvious, or rather much more mysterious how that basis for quality is judged. Some might say to each his own, but I couldn't disagree more. The way I see it, at least when it comes to music, most people simply aren't sophisticated enough to grasp or appreciate what makes quality music. Or to say it another way, they don't have a very refined sense of taste. Even if you hate the genre of music such as classical or jazz, a good musician or a musically inclined person would recognize the quality of the music regardless of it's style.

I used to think that heavy metal was garbage, and for the most part, it's true. All it takes is one artist to really show you how the seemingly ugliest things can be quite beautiful if played with elegance and skill. Bands like System of a Down, Death, Metallica, and Kreator come to mind as successfully being able to combine the raw savage nature of heavy metal with the soft melancholy of tragedy. It is both soft and hard, ugly and beautiful, savage and sophisticated.

I never liked Jazz either, but GOD DAMN Al Di Meola can play his fucking ass off. This guy literally plays the guitar at a level that most professionals could only dream of. This guy is the real deal. You can hate jazz all you want but you can't hate this guy.

Now, back to the discussion, I think that the notion of objective quality has something real behind it in video games as well. Popularity isn't the #1 factor here, as that can simply be explained away as the majority of people just simply not knowing what is good, due to ignorance or stupidity, or maybe even having a short attention span.

It's the same reason Twilight is popular: Simply put, people are stupid (and I don't think anyone can argue that).

How can we define what quality is in a video game? I have no idea. Such a homework assignment is more a question about philosophy than it is about video games. It's quite possible that it ends up being some unknowable metaphysical concept, but that doesn't mean objective quality doesn't exist. What it does mean is that people have this concept of quality that they can never justify with empirical evidence ( at least when it comes to the arts).

In the Book "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" the author attempts to define what objective quality is philosophically. It's a great book that changed my life and I never thought of quality in the same way again. The title is quite misleading, because this book has little to do with motorcycles and is pretty much a philosophy book.

Now, if it's true that many of the arts are declining in quality as of late, then maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is whether or not we also think that mankind as a society is declining.

How many times have you heard some old guy saying things like this?:

"Music sucks nowadays"
"Kids are spoiled these days"
"TV sucks these days"
"Education sucks these days"
"The new generation is getting dumber"
"Young people had more respect for their elders in the good ol' days"
"Young people today are lazy"

How much of this is nostalgia and how much of this is actually true? I think it's a little of both. I for one hold the opinion that mankind is on a downward slope to scrubbiness. People tend to have a weaker willpower than they used to. People today are slaves to their addictions and vices, as well as excuses and lies.

If the video game world is indeed declining (I'm on the fence on that one), then maybe it's a symptom of something much bigger and much worse: The downfall of mankind.

A wise man once told me that mankind will not go out with a bang, but rather a wimper (or was that a Doctor Who episode? IDK). It's not bombs and destruction that will destroy us, but rather from the weakness that plagues from within.

Face it, we're doomed :)

 

[Death_Emperor_X]

Before we begin let me ask you to clarify something. When you say it doesn't look pretty do you mean the state of the communities or the state of development?

both

How can you not remember how BS this was?

Maybe because I wield an axe.... & I don't spam n.n lol, Idk really, but I do remember gettin my shit stomped then I would have to respawn at the main base because I didn't bother healing myself.

What you said about an online COTS mode, that actually sounds really fucking awesome. That I would totally try out in future installment if they ever decided to do something like this (unlikely).

I know, right n.n I make ideas that sound so fuckin devastating, however, I won't know if they'd work out.

Spoiler: More detail about DEX's Idea scheme (If you would like to read about it)

That's why my dream job is to be a lead game designer, so I can put my ideas in action & see if they work out, see if it was great, & go by benevolence amongst the ppl, by talking to them more often, what's their opinions & etc. because the consumer is the one I'd care about most (Not what I have to say about it, if you get my drift). It wouldn't be about the money, really. Even though I know their a multi billion dollar industry. I'm just that asshole who wants to make a difference out of what I love the most in life. So I chose what I loved the most & whent with it hardcore.

Final Fantasy X Level Up is overly complex.

FFX had one of the greatest stories that I heard in any game. In my personal list of good stories its 2nd to COTS in SC3. Now look at other FF stories. They aren't as interesting anymore in comparing against FFX, but their stories are really damn good though. I say FF has a gift for making good stories, but their best one was FFX.

I think we're all just getting older.

My older bro said the same thing. I personally think its because game developers are faltering slowly each year.

 

[undefined.yuuki]

Well that escalated quickly...

My only real opinion on this is the current need to make games 'more accessible'. Basically; dumb it down. This is what bugs me about most current game design...