Reasons to be cynical

I've had a few comments from people I know in real life who read my blog that a number of my posts in a row seemed quite cynical. There are two explanations for this, choose whichever one you prefer.

One, I'm a quite impressionable young stallion who has recently enjoyed watching alot of the Zero Punctuation reviews, which has inadvertently resulted in me leaping to the conclusion that cynicism is what all the cool kids are doing these days.

Two, I'm genuinely disappointed with alot of gaming. Surely among the multitude of games, PC, console and 'other', there would be one that would appeal to me and, upon playing it, would engross me so much I wouldn't stop playing it until I realised that unholy smell intruding upon my game experience was me.

Some may say I'm being too cynical, that the games industry has released many gems and I'm just too picky to see it. Well I like to think my pickiness makes me a more disconcerning gamer, and in an industry where Neverwinter Nights 2 did well enough to warrent 2 expansion packs I think this cynicism is well earned.

To use a philosophical metaphor (in a literal sense, not "It's like the man in the room in the chinese room thought experiment", ho ho, academic humour) we're currently in the medieval age of gaming. In the grand experience of Philosophy, it all started with a bunch of Greeks who started asking annoying questions and wouldn't shut up about it, to the point where most mainstream greeks were really annoyed with them. These Greeks established a vast number of the still-used-modern ideas of philosophy, most of them just adapted by the basic principle still in use.

The Romans came along next, and while there were some original ideas, alot of what they were doing was building up upon the original Greek philosophies, pretending it was their own (like they did with alot of things Greek).

Following this period of Greek (and Roman) philosophical shouting came the Dark Ages. This is a period where no one much cared about philosophy, but it was followed by the Medieval period. All philosophy in this period revolved around "How can we apply Aristotle and Socretes to the bible?" in which there WERE no original ideas beyond their masterful ability to put their hands over their ears and shout "la la la, I can't hear you saying Aristotle wasn't even a christian, la la la". In essence they ignored a vast majority of ideas that existed, and those they liked they tried to shoehorn into an idea they were comfortable with.

It wasn't until some guy named Descartes came along during the renaissance and asked a few new questions was philosophy really reinvented. Ok, he was completely wrong on nearly all accounts, but the fact he tried something new was bloody amazing. From him sprung whole bunches of new philosophers and philosophies, all written in other languages so that students who only speak english need to make do with translations that often go as word-for-word as they can, resulting in phrases like "an individuals being-in-experience-without-influence-of-their-being-in-pants" and other awkwardities.

Hang on, this is supposed to be a post about computer games, and I just spent the last four paragraphs summarising down the history of philosophy so much I've probably become completely wrong. But that is where it gets ingenius.

Look back at the 'Old' days. Yes, you remember those. The heady days of the NES, SNES, Mega Drive and original gameboy. The days in which if you wanted to use something motion sensitive it meant you were playing baseball outside. Games of such weirdness in storytelling and gameplay, where the immense variety of games was made possible because, let's face it, making one required nothing more then you to be a nerd, have a computer, and be able to make pixel art (sometimes).

From that period to about a dozen years ago, roughly, was the Greek era of gaming. Alot of new and interesting ideas, experimental thoughts being tried out and abandoned if they didn't stand up to scrutiny. About 12 to 8 years ago was the Roman period, where there were some new ideas but mostly it was just improvements upon the genre's already in place. The FPS was continually advanced, polygons got so impressive they could give Lara Croft pointy nipples (that word isn't going to stop my google-porn-results problem*) and Starcraft had ruined the lives of hundreds of nerds as they had their egos crushed by massed hordes of pixels screaming "kekekeke".

What happened eight years ago to ruin it all? This may be the cynical side of me talking, but to me if feels as though the computer games factory suddenly all packed up and went home, but forgot to turn the machines off, pumping out hordes of similar games in which the only difference is if you're a Space Marine, a normal Marine, or a Viking. It's like the games industry said "Well that's it boys, we've perfected the games, no need to strain yourselves now. Just clone Halo/Starcraft/World of Warcraft/GTA, and reskin."

I understand the limitations of time and money, resulting in games being difficult to find funding unless they're based on a tried and true concept which the publisher feels is highly likely to work. But come on, surely there's room for a few enterprising ideas. On a brief trip back through memory lane, the only big games I can think of in recent years that weren't either sequels or retreads of incredibly familiar gameplay mechanics are Spore (which I disliked) and Mirror's Edge (which I've never played). Everything else is either the eleventibillionth in a series that should have finished at 2, maximum 3, a game using such similar mechanics to other stuff it might as well be a sequel, or a reasonably shallow 'merge' of two different game genres that can proclaim originality but really is still in the shallow end of the pool.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed alot of games over the years. Knights of the Old Republic, the Total War series, Mass Effect, Chaos League, the Armoured Core series, City of Heroes and the original Homeworld all kept me going for ages. But few of them drag me in for extended periods of time.

I think it's why I get so enthusiastic about single player RPGs (ones that AREN'T solely shoot and slacks. If there are genuine options in the dialogue that do more then give you good ending or bad ending, I get excited in my pantaloons), since if you discount the MMOs there aren't many that are so successful they inspire direct clones with reskins. And even the ones that could argueably be like this (Morrowind/Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, etc) the mechanics are either so unique or outright copyrighted, making copying them pointless. This means that aside from a simple staple of RPGs (agility is avoid hits, strength is carrying crap, etc) they all have to be somewhat unique. I love relearning rules and working out how to manipulate them for my benefit with a characterful... character. It's like learning the ins and outs of sex with your girlfriend in all her disgusting kinks, then breaking up with her for someone with a better body and lower inhibitions. Repeat ten times, then go back to your first girlfriend and find out it's still FUN.



Note to self: Upcoming post, do "Why Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack 'Storms of Zehir' went wrong/sucks."