Ominous Gaming Trends

[DainIronfoot]

I rather like iron sights in some games. Stalker, Crysis, Far Cry 2 and Red Orchestra all had it as part of some good fun shooting mechanics.

I suppose if it's done badly and for the sake of emulating COD then that's not so good.

[Batolemaeus]

It's patent nonsense that "we don't know what games are". The fact that he can't be bothered to read Huizinga and Caillois doesn't mean what they've said (particularly Caillois) has any less merit. We've known what games are basically since before video games even happened. More to the point, the things that he derides for "not being games" fit rather neatly into that established classification of games.

What does this have to do with his point, that different forms of games need their own business model?


On the article itself, quite a bit of that is very console centric, and thus does not affect "us". There is a veritable niche of good ol' games that can survive on the pc thanks to the low distribution costs and ease of development that no console can ever hope to fill.
The big blockbuster titles that I rarely play, however, will probably become even more insufferable.

[AndrewC]

'Single Player games are dying' is the same old canard as 'The PC is dying'.

'all shooters are shooters' is neatly tautological, and highly disingenuous rhetorically.

It's nice that he offered some positive advice at the end - about how the perception of 'games' will change and split and that - but a lot of his earlier criticisms ('oh noes kinect', 'oh noes shooters') rely on the idea that 'games' are all one thing.

So: weak, and mostly pandering to those that like to whinge. Often whingers have a core of something very valuable to say, but who cares when it is buried in whinging?

[8-bit]

See this always happens when I visit cracked, I started reading the article then I got distracted by the “oh dear god what the fuck is that” enormous crab monster. I did read up until the starwars kinect bit though and totally agree with that, its just stupid that microsoft think that a device that can only provide an on-rails experience is in any way a good thing for games. now if you will excuse me I need to go find some brain bleach so I don't have nightmares.

[hamster]

I'm guessing you don't play CoD at all, considering Steady Aim + SMG fired from the hip has been a staple of the series since CoD4. Hell, the last CoD's only blatantly broken weapon is broken because it's so accurate when fired from the hip.

And CoD does not make for crappy multiplayer because of ADS. It makes for crappy multiplayer because Infinity Ward and Treyarch are incapable of producing a balanced game. Otherwise, it makes for excellent multiplayer.

I played it @ LAN parties. Nothing unlocked so yeah, no steady aim perk in which case you really can't hit anything past point blank. Anyway i highly doubt that this one perk added a significant dynamic to the game.

[TillEulenspiegel]

Huizinga? "Waning of the Middle Ages" Huizinga?

I haven't read any of his other works, but that one's...quite controversial.

[Anthile]

See this always happens when I visit cracked, I started reading the article then I got distracted by the “oh dear god what the fuck is that” enormous crab monster. I did read up until the starwars kinect bit though and totally agree with that, its just stupid that microsoft think that a device that can only provide an on-rails experience is in any way a good thing for games. now if you will excuse me I need to go find some brain bleach so I don't have nightmares.

Don't worry, Japanese spider crabs are perfectly harmless. Well, they have really nasty claws but that's it. It's not like they snatch you from your bedroom while you sleep, to drag you under the sea and to feed you to their young ones... yet. Apparently, they are also really tasty.

[Ansob]

I played it @ LAN parties. Nothing unlocked so yeah, no steady aim perk in which case you really can't hit anything past point blank. Anyway i highly doubt that this one perk added a significant dynamic to the game.

a) with SMGs, you can hit anything up to mid-short from the hip thanks to the small spread and high RoF.

b) with SMGs and Steady Aim, you can go up to mid-long.

c) none of this changes the fact that you're meant to use hipfire as a fall-back, and actually aim at enemies.

d) which doesn't change the fact that it's still possible to create a class that never ADSes thanks to SMG + Steady Aim + crouching.

So basically, your doubts are incorrect. :)

[thegooseking]

What does this have to do with his point, that different forms of games need their own business model?.

I don't really think the point is bad in itself; I just think he's making the point for all the wrong reasons and arguing it poorly. (Yes, it does make sense that Gears of War is losing sales to Angry Birds because they are both leisure items competing for a customer's limited disposable income. The fact that they're both games isn't even relevant, so why is it relevant that they're vastly different games?)

Huizinga? "Waning of the Middle Ages" Huizinga?

I haven't read any of his other works, but that one's...quite controversial.

I was thinking more of 'Homo Ludens', but yeah, same guy.

[outoffeelinsobad]

This thread just demonstrates how many people are swindled by slippery slope arguments and pessimism. The medium of games is a FRONTIER, not a dead-end.

[deano2099]

Can someone explain to someone that hasn't played an FPS since HL2 what ironsights are?

[vinraith]

Can someone explain to someone that hasn't played an FPS since HL2 what ironsights are?

Holding the gun up so that you can sight along the barrel, basically, often through some kind of enhanced sight in modern-set games.