Games Industry Things We Should Leave Behind in '07

MTV's Multiplayer blog has a list of nine videogame concepts we should be 'leaving behind', left to rot in the now-passed year of 2007. From the countdown clocks to Halo 3, their snarky list leaves no stone unturned: "The Phrase 'Next-Gen' - Ladies and gentlemen, 'next-gen' is now. Everyone from PR firms to development studios are still using this phrase. Please, I beg of you, stop using "next-gen" until the PS4, Xbox 4000, and the Nintendo Super Wii are slated for release. Those consoles will officially be 'next-gen.' The PS3, Wii, and 360 are the current generation of games. Now is the time to accept it."

Comments

Can we leave "Top # $THINGS" lists?

[fotbr]

Please?

Misogyny

[crosson]

I think one of the major barriers to the video-game industries quest for mass media acceptance is the stuck-in-the-1980s tendency to portray women as sexual objects with boys-club-only lack of shame.

Things I would love to see gone...

[Hamster Lover]

Recent game developments I would love to see dismissed forever:

• Non-interactive, long, drawn out, cinematic cut scenes. Just let me play the fucking game.
• Downloadable content that isn't downloaded but only unlocked on the game disc.
• Unrealistic release schedules.
• Timed exclusives.
• Rabid fanboi 360 versus PS3 frame by frame game comparisons. I love great games on any system.
• Shitty, utterly tacked-on Wii games.
• The yearly $60 sports games that feature incremental improvements and roster changes. We should be able to download roster changes by now; keep major changes to the game engine to a release every couple of years.

Arg, no

[Rix]

Please stop putting cheap ass wifi chips (which only support WEP) in consumer electronics. I really shouldn't have to leave my network open to all comers to use your shit.

From the Wishful-Thinking department

[FlyByPC]

Things in the gaming world I'd like to see a lot less of in 2008:

• If-it-moves-shoot-it games. Portal was really cool. How about more innovative games like that?
• Emphasis on online games. (Aren't geeks supposed to be antisocial?)
• Handwriting-based mind games (this means you, Brain Age!)
• Sports games.
• Internet-required-to-play or disc-required-to-play security. Including Steam -- although the ability to download a game across the 'Net is very cool. What, are you trying to make us download a cracked copy??
• Console-only games. I'd bet PCs are more popular than any one console...

Truly it's the most brain dead list in years

[Moraelin]

Ya know, I'm already fairly tired of "Top X Worst Y" types of list, that seem to serve the only purpose of showing that the author can talk smack. Generally. But this one is the most brain-dead and clueless I've seen in years. And yes, I did RTFA, but I'll use you summary just because I'm too lazy to write my own.

1. The Phrase "Next-Gen". (It's not "next gen" until the PS4.)

This is the only one which actually has a point, so I thought I'd give it a nod before moving on to the real offenders. Though even here, good luck getting marketers to quit using meaningless buzzwords.

2. "Halo 3". (Similar to the above, Halo is done, the fight is finished, no need to refer to the version anymore.)

Actually, IMHO your summary here is slightly inexact. What he demands is that they stop hyping and advertising Halo 3, and start hyping again when they release Halo 4. He has nothing against the version number, and his expecting a Halo 4 kinda doesn't imply that he sees the fight as finished. He's just tired of hearing about Halo 3.

Well, sadly

A) that's just capitalism in action. If MS thinks they can still sell Halo 3, how's that different from still advertising last year's model of car, or last year's CD of some band?

B) that advertising pays for some other things he's getting cheaper or for free. E.g., since the site name seems to imply having something to do with MTV, I'd like to see how MTV would survive without massive advertising. All those music videos are, effectively, advertising for whichever band the recording companies manufactured this year.

3. Bad Virtual Console Releases. (Referring to Nintendo.)

WTF? It's not like it even costs much to release a ROM for an emulator. But more importantly, what's _his_ problem there? It's not like anyone forces him to play or buy those anyway. Plus, being that they're ancient games, he should be able to find tons of reviews and whatnot.

Plus, here's the fun part: not everyone has the same tastes. What's crap for him and he doesn't want re-released, could be someone else's nostalgia moment. Even something like "Donkey Kong Jr. Math," well, why not? Some mom or dad might think that that's useful for their 6 year old.

4. Game Delays. (I'm with him in hating delays, but good luck on that one.)

Now this is truly brain dead. Those delays don't happen as some premeditated marketing ploy, they happen because people are bad at guessing the future. The fact is, even if you could know exactly how much code you'll need to write (you don't), and exactly how long it would take to _write_ it, you can't guess what bugs you'll have to fix. Therefore, nor how much time you'll spend fixing those.

Then there are the inevitable design changes. Some things it's easier to just see how it looks in the game, before you decide how you'll do it. Some things sound good in theory, but you'll find out that they suck when you sic the playtesters on it. Etc.

Sure, there are ways to make things more maintainable and reduce the surprises, but even that isn't 100% bullet proof. And good luck with getting the game industry to follow best practices anyway. Especially when:

A) you have the publisher telling you that it _has_ to be ready within X months and Y dollars, you just don't have the time or budget for UML diagrams and funky frameworks, and

B) you have to push the edge in terms of graphics and whatnot (because screenshots sell), but still have a finite budget of CPU cycles and GPU gigatexels/second, and you know everyone will moan if the frame rate is even 1 less FPS than in another similar game. So, you know, you end up doing evil hacks just to meet those constraints.

Seriously, short of hideously overestimating (which the publisher will reject from the start) or being able to see in the future, it just won't happen.

5. Countdown Clocks. (I guess I never notice

Re:Agreed

[king-manic]

Damn near every female game character is some archetypal short, buxom, hyper-sexualized character to fulfill the designer, artist and players sexual fantasies. Why isn't Alyx Vance a little husky? Why is Lara Croft a sex bomb with huge breasts when her figures and career tells me should would probably be closer to flat chested and sinewy. Conversely why isn't kratos a bit tubby with glasses? How come Solid snake isn't 5'0? Why isn't Link obese? It's because they're selling fantasy. Lara croft i agree is just lame. But Alyx Vance at least looks like a girl i might meet outside of a strip club. I think Alyx vance highlights how far they've come from the Tomb raider days. Frankly I'd have some more problem buying into a game if we have a 5'0 350 lb man or woman hoofing it across a broken cityscape at full sprint for a 15 min session.