The Gaming Industry: A Shift in Personnel?

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:21 pm

The creation of video games has always been in the hands of the technical elite; programmers, 3D modelers, developers, etc. This is, of course, common sense, as the mathematically minded are the core of how a game comes to be. In this new generation of gaming, (ever since the turn of the century, that is) we've seen an incredible shift toward the creative side of things, your writers and storyline developers. It's hard not to look at a game like Bioshock and think to yourself, "Wow, this must've taken some serious manpower to create such a finely-crafted story." Currently, most games have two key players in story creation: Your developers, who come up with a general idea, and screenplay writers, who create the story. Now compare that to high-budget films, who have entire staffs appropriated to such tasks. My question to you is, do any of you foresee major changes going on in the gaming industry in the future to tailor to creating more advanced storylines, and making creative and technical entities more separated? Discuss!

CTFan

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:45 pm

Can you dumb that down a little so I can understand it please?

Post by **Triton** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:21 pm

all i can say is i hope to dear god that videogame industry doesnt become the next hollywood!

dudex77 · Post by **dudex77** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:45 pm

Dr. KillGood wrote:Can you dumb that down a little so I can understand it please?

Ugh..
Triton, I hope so as well but you can already see it's coming to that. Games now all need realistic explosions all the time, lots of swearing, and as much gore as possible, not that it's a bad thing but it really appeals to hte masses. I can see the gaming industry moving towards other stupid women movie type (no offense to women) things aswell now that Nintendo is trying to get women interested in gaming. I like all those stupid action films and such but it is a Hollywood thing. Man I miss the nineties when videogames were about bright colored animals going through bright colored worlds instead of just shooting people.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:00 am

dudex77 wrote:Man I miss the nineties when videogames were about bright colored animals going through bright colored worlds instead of just shooting people.

QFT. I hate to admit it, but I rarely like modern games that involve you wielding a gun. I fail to see the greatness of games like Halo, Gears of War, GTA, etc. Gimme Mario or Sonic over such (dare I say it?)... crap any day.

Dr. Killgood wrote:Can you dumb that down a little so I can understand it please?

Sorry, but that is impossible.

benol · Post by **benol** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:08 am

There need to be more good 2D platformers. Actually, game idea right here!

*You are a little man or something like that
*Popular music is playing
*The stage moves to the music, and the background is a beat visualization
*You have to use knowledge of the music to know when things are going to happen, because the stage moves to the music

Title: BeatMaster

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:35 am

I want another point and click adventure game (read: Monkey Island 5)

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:36 am

Portal is fun and original!

DK · Post by DK » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:08 am

benol wrote:There need to be more good 2D platformers. Actually, game idea right here!

*You are a little man or something like that
*Popular music is playing
*The stage moves to the music, and the background is a beat visualization
*You have to use knowledge of the music to know when things are going to happen, because the stage moves to the music

Title: BeatMaster

Reminds me of Vib Ribbon for the PS1. What a game

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:39 am

I think there will be a change when there's more smaller companies releasing games that are original and fun. I know that I really enjoyed Alien Hominid, it was a great side-scrolling plat-former as well as Viewtiful Joe. It's a 3d side scroller with action and time slow down.

To get back to the main point, I think the change will be in the story department and a smaller development team. Or vice versa with a small story team and a large development team to get the game done sooner.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:51 am

Dr. KillGood wrote:Can you dumb that down a little so I can understand it please?

Basically I'm asking if you think scenario writers in games (AKA the people who write game stories and dialogue) will come to play a bigger role in the future of the video game industry.

Triton wrote:all i can say is i hope to dear god that videogame industry doesnt become the next hollywood!

Oh god, that would suck, but the sad thing is, it might. Games are becoming much more mainstream, and fast, too.

To add a little something to the discussion, I've always wondered just how much technical skill (programming and the like) guys like Kazushige Nojima had to break into the positions they are in today.

CTFan

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:34 am

Every single hit game today is a FPS. It seems that video game makers are missing the point of the plot. I play video games for a good plot. That seems to be lacking in today's video games. What's the point of realistic explosions and the likes if it isn't fun?

We need some good light-hearted games like Earthbound. Ones that aren't made by stupid-ass companies for 3 year olds. Games that are fun to play, that have an always cheery mood, and some laughs. Too bad they canceled Earthbound 64 because it sucked. Japan-only release.

We should start our own video game company! Benheck Videgames: Bringing the "fun" back in to "fundamental physics engines".

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:07 pm

Kurt_ wrote:We should start our own video game company! Benheck Videgames: Bringing the "fun" back in to "fundamental physics engines".

Ugh!

I agree about an apparent lack of games that aren't first person shooters, but how do you come up with something new that isn't instantly slapped with a label like RPG, puzzler, action-adventure, etc? There have been a couple of games that I've been playing recently that aren't first person shooters though, like Shadow of the Colossus and God of War. I felt those had a unique story to them, one that hasn't been hammered to death before.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:51 pm

I'd enjoy another game with a good Diablo 2 feel. Nothing like WoW, I found that boring and repetitive.

Go World of Starcraftblo 2!

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:59 pm

I just want arcade racing games that aren't rice racing. You know, like Need for Speed Carbon? Rice. They give the game an "urban illegal street racing" feel, and over-emphasize drifting, which makes the game handle like crap. (As soon as you turn more than 1/4 of the way the back end starts coming out, even in a 1970s CAMARO

) You spend more time "customizing" your car than you do tuning it. That's why I like games like Gran Turismo 4 and Forza 2: more time and effort goes into performance tuning and learning how to really drive than making the car "OOH SHINY!".

In a way I wish they'd take the NFS series back to the "Hot Pursuit" days, where it was just all-out, point-a-to-point-b arcade racing.