December 16, 2011
Most games that come out, seem to follow the same formula. Shooter, create story, create drama, same mechanics, send it to the presses. Very rarely do games venture into other genre’s territory, such as a shooter with heavy RPG elements or an action game that changes movement and how you react, defying gravity. We will refer to this, as CrewShadow has called it “C.O.D Syndrome”. This is where a game genre or even company, such as Call Of Duty will not switch its formula in any way, even if it may open the game up to more gamers and avenues. But Why?
—-
Developers have to work with the Publishers, unless they are large enough where they can fully support their development effort. In most cases, that cannot occur. Some games have very long development cycles, such as Alan Wake where no independent publisher could honestly afford to pay for three or four years in development. Thus, game developers have to cater to what a publisher may be likely to pick up. If an idea seems too ambitious and a market for the specific type of game niche doesn’t already exist, the publisher is already running a race they may not be able to win. Thus, to obtain the publisher who may agree to front money and pay for the man hours and promotion, come to them with an idea that has been done to death and has sold games….
Unless your product is being produced by someone who has a good track record of game success, or has an idea so revolutionary that any amount of common sense cannot change the fact the idea will succeed. For a game like that, it has to have a strong visionary who will not let the publisher alter the vision of the game so much it alienates the original content. Those are few and far between, but when they come around, they create great games that mesh genres (see: Bioshock, Borderlands, Fallout 3). But again…
Developers stick with formulas and formats for gameplay that they know are familiar. The gameplay style is a fluid marriage of both looks and functionality, and some developers fear that if their mechanics are not up to par, the game will flop (see: Dark Void and Vanquish). Thus, with the impending deadlines and rising production costs, a developer has to try and do as much as they can, in as short of a time as they can. In most cases, it is disastrous and some games have thankfully been delayed to ensure gameplay mechanics and all of the performance of the game is in good working order a la Gears of War 3. A good developer knows how to tell the publisher what is required to ensure maximum profit.
…But still, innovation isn’t seen as brilliance, but a cursed idea in which a developer will want to be ambitious, but that ambition truly means as creative and functional as you can be within a certain timeframe, pending the mechanics work. Many a game has been released, and then the developers admitted they did not have adequate time to polish the game and create a functional game with an intricate enjoyable story.
This curse will continue as long as developers and publishers know that any Call of Duty, Halo, Resistance or any other game that is run of the mill shoot-em-up or third person shooter. Games like Brink and Dead Space, that push the envelope and try differently gameplay mechanics seem to be somewhat of the future path for the new generation, but they are fighting an uphill battle against the games that come out annually. As long as those annual games sell, originality will suffer.
Source :
http://www.obnoxiousgamer.com/
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar