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?

Super Wii

[HoneyBunchesOfGoats]

Man, I really hope they call it that.

The 9 things

[Jim Hall]

It's a short article, but here are the 9 things for those of you who don't want to RTFA:

1. The Phrase "Next-Gen". (It's not "next gen" until the PS4.)
2. "Halo 3". (Similar to the above, Halo is done, the fight is finished, no need to refer to the version anymore.)
3. Bad Virtual Console Releases. (Referring to Nintendo.)
4. Game Delays. (I'm with him in hating delays, but good luck on that one.)
5. Countdown Clocks. (I guess I never noticed a countdown clock on gaming web sites, but maybe that's because I don't really visit web sites for not-yet-released games. I suppose they have them.)
6. Japan-Only Releases. (If the game is done, why not also release it in the US? Maybe it will do well, maybe not. Give it a try.)
7. The PlayStation 2. (Please start pushing developers to the PS3.)
8. 711 selling Video Games. (Doesn't like the idea of being able to buy a Slurpee and a video game in one stop.)
9. Totilo and N'Gai's Love Affair. (These guys are friends and they talk about each other in their articles, but we'd like to hear more about games than the other guy.)

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.

Re:Things I would love to see gone...

[antic]

- Cut scenes that you can't skip (hello Assassin's Creed!)
  - Game trailers that are 50% intro material, 30% outro and all of 20% actual game footage
  - Proper reviews from people that have played the full game (e.g., Gamespot's review of Assassin's Creed neglects to mention a questionable ending and how annoying it gets to hear "Please sir, can I have some money?" or townspeople being hassled by guards)

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...

I say it every time, but...

[CelticWhisper]

Save points.

This absolutely retarded convention should have disappeared with the Genesis and SNES. Why is it, when I was playing Doom on my 486 back in 1994 and could save (and QUIT...you know... STOP PLAYING ) whenever I wanted, that I have to wait 20 minutes until I get to a magical spot blessed by the video game pope before I can save my game and turn off my Playstation 2 , a system that is orders of magnitude more powerful than the save-on-the-fly-capable PC on which I was fragging zombies?

Attention developers:

• Girlfriends happen
• Friends happen
• Dinner happens
• Fatigue happens
• Storms happen, at least in my region, and as a result...
• Power outages happen
• And frankly, me getting sick of playing during a given session happens

And sometimes I want or need to stop playing on a moment's notice. I don't really want to leave the console on eating up power and running up my electric bill, and I also don't want to lose hours of gameplay (some JRPG dungeons do last that long) because you assholes thought it would be cute to not let me save my game and do something else. Your game is not the only thing in the world I want to do for fun, and moods can change, especially after long sessions. Furthermore, I know you can do save-anywhere because SaGa Frontier, LUNAR, and Persona 2 all did it on the PS1.

Death to save points in 2008. Long live save-on-the-fly.

Agreed

[PixelScuba]

Thank you, I have written about this several times. The video game industry is even worse than the film industry when it comes to trivializing and objectifying women. At least in film, women with "undesirable" figures can land parts and be leads in motion pictures... in the gaming industry, modelers and board executives create their sexual fantasies and incorporate them into the game. 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.

The video game industry is stuck being the fantasy playground of horny young males... and I don't see this terrible trend changing any time soon. Why make a realistic character when you can just model the girl of your dreams... and on the flip side, what horny male teen wants to play a game with a lead character that looks like Kathy Bates?