Games

There is a problem I've had for the last decade, and I really need to get it off my chest. I am deeply concerned with the decline of solid gameplay to be found in games, particularly when solid gameplay is sacrificed to increase sales amongst non-gamers.

The problem first started back when the 16 bit systems first came out. At the time, you had a lot of people screaming that they were sacrificing gameplay for graphics. Now, anyone who gives the matter two seconds of thought knows that the graphics of a game and the gameplay are created by completely different people, making this sort of claim preposterous...

... one would think. There actually were some sacrifices made to accommodate those improved graphics. For starters, sprites by and large got a good deal bigger. Not across the board of course, we still had games like Super Mario World which kept sprites the same size and simply added more detail through the increased color palette. However, we also got games like Altered Beast, and Mega Man X, where all sprites were quite notably increased in size, effectively decreasing the window through which the player sees the world. This actually has a major impact on your traditional sidescroller, where it's vital that you see the upcoming terrain as soon as possible.

Speaking of Mega Man X, here's another sacrifice made for the sake of graphics. Tight controls. Go back and play just about any 8-bit action game. Assuming your reflexes are up to snuff, you should be able to instantly jump, stop, inch forward a single pixel. In order to accommodate more realistic and complex animation, response times have been decreased over the years, and controls have generally become much sloppier.

This sort of thing of course I'm always willing to let slide. Sure, it's somewhat annoying, but it ultimately just means I have to hit A 1.5 seconds after the monster shoots at me, not 2.0. The first really big problem to plague games was the inclusion of non-interactive sequences.

It used to be that the longest you'd ever go between turning a game on and really playing was about three seconds, maybe five. As soon as the system has power, or maybe after a 1 second console logo, you're on a title screen. Press start, you might have to wait a second for a level label or a character hopping onto the screen, and bam. You're in the game. Those days are long gone. Heck, with modern systems, you have a five second wait just to get through the logos for the console.

That's a waiting period I can live with of course. I just take my time moving from the power button to my chair, but after actually starting up a game, it is becoming more and more commonplace to be forced to sit through a non-interactive introduction that can last for up to a whole hour. A freaking HOUR. There are games I can win in less time than it takes others to let you even start playing. That sort of thing is on the extreme side of things of course, but it's an exceptionally rare sight to find a game that actually lets you start playing without sitting through a ten minute intro movie, or mandatory tutorial, or slow-scrolling-text back story. Suffice it to say I'm not a big fan of mid-game cutscenes either. Long ending movies don't really bug me of course, seeing how I've finished playing once they start.

The really big thing I take issue with though is something generally accepted to have come about with the next hardware generation, but I think it honestly started back with Sonic the Hedgehog. Designing games explicitly for people who don't want any sort of challenge, and just want some eye candy. The Sonic games honestly are the best example I can give here come to think of it. A good 80% of the gameplay consists of holding forward while various springs propel you helplessly forward through the level. Way back when, that sort of thing was really a novelty, but most modern games simply parade around a bunch of nice looking enemies who essentially just stand around waiting for you to walk up and shoot them with one of your 8 super-cool weapons. Meanwhile, if you're actually looking for some sort of challenge, you have to go dust off your NES.

Now, the typical response to this sort of thing is "Hey, companies only exist to make money. If there's more people interested in buying a mildly interactive movie than a game, that's what they're going to make." Anyone who makes this statement however is, quite frankly, an idiot. Companies, at least the majority of them DON'T exist for the sole purpose of making money. Granted, it's one of their biggest goals, quite possibly their only goal, but it isn't the reason that company sprung into being. Companies are created, ultimately, because people have some product or service they enjoy creating/providing, and want to share with as many people as possible. The whole making money bit just comes in there because you need it buy stuff, and it's good to kill two birds with one stone. In any case, it's fair to say that anyone starting a game company should be doing so out of a desire to make games, and that the making of enjoyable games should darn well be their ultimate goal. If your ultimate goal is to tell a sweeping story by way of spectacular visual effects and such, you should go make movies, not games.

So, what is the point of my saying all this? Well, for starters, as the title bar suggests, it's kinda the whole reason this page exists. Now, what you can do to solve the problem, that's another story. I'm assuming that none of you out there reading this are game publishers, and I'm fairly sure the only developers out there are in the business of making RPGs, which have never really involved any skill, although they did require a good deal of thought and such back in the day. Mainly, I'm assuming everyone reading this is one who spends a good deal of money on games, and that a good chunk of those fall into that target audience who don't actually want to play games, and just want to see the pretty pictures and read the stories. To those people, I would kindly ask you to please stop buying games, and go watch more movies, because there isn't room in this market for both of us, and unlike you, I don't have anywhere else I can go to get what I want.

Oh yes, and a lot of people out there have been asking me to plug this message board more prominently. I think they meant, say, in those links on the right, but I'm too tired right now, so take what you can get.