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Hide and Go Sneak - The Rise Of Stealth Gaming

Posted by simoniker on from the be-vewy-vewy-quiet dept.

Thanks to Slate for its article discussing why stealth elements are now integrated into some of the most interesting new videogames. The author argues: "10 years after Doom, the rampant weapon-play can start to seem tedious. Kill your enemies, reload, kill some more, reload - man, what a drag. You become a pacifist for the weirdest possible reason: not because the virtual violence seems so awful but because it's so bloody repetitive", before suggesting that, although "many of these games do, in the end, require you to resort to at least some violence", an "unexpected benefit" of stealth titles such as Thief: Deadly Shadows is that "Your aesthetic experience becomes much better. Most lightning-fast 'twitch' shooter games are so fast-paced you barely have time to notice how wonderfully detailed the 3-D world is... Stealth turns gamers into tourists."

5 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Mostly true by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

    "You become a pacifist for the weirdest possible reason: not because the virtual violence seems so awful but because it's so bloody repetitive"

    I play Q3 with a coworker nearly every day. The fun of the stealth mode isn't because it isn't repetitive, but because making him say "PUNK!!!" never gets old.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  2. It's a NEW PARADIGM by slubberdegullion · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm personally startled by the degree to which "shoot and reload" games like Thief 1(1998) have been replaced by stealthy games like Unreal Tournament 2004. Surely it heralds a new era of gaming!!!!!

  3. Stop and ogle by empaler · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought tourist gamers had been around for quite a while in FPSers?
    Think about all the video booths and strippers in DN3D...
    "Shake it baby..."

  4. reload? when? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Kill your enemies, reload, kill some more, reload - man, what a drag."

    That is why doom features the CHAINGUN! Cut out the reload part for 100% fun!

  5. Stealth = Realism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I love stealth games. If I actually went ahead with my plans to infiltrate a super-secret military/criminal facility, killing the administrator and his minions and stealing his secret plans, whilst armed with only a shotgun and a crowbar- well, let's just say my plans call for LOTS of hiding.

    Stealth aspects are low-rent immersion, I love it!!

    Of course, all the tetrahydrocannabinol delta 9 I take helps the immersion as well. Enough of that and you'll *want* to hide.