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To make great games you need many different combinations to make the formula work, Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, Lifespan (which every game needs to succeed) and most importantly you need variation, I mean could you imagine playing a games like Smackdown 3 or even GT3 (maybe a better example), imagine playing with only one car on one track or playing smackdown in the same setting with only the two same wrestlers, its hard to imagine now but remember how some games were like this?
Remember that game pong, now this was a game which may not have had much variation but it was so funny watch your friends lash out at the nearest object after missing the all important match point hit, but most importantly addictive as the next game (which at the time there wasn't much to rival it for its pure 2-player mayhem), it required skill by each player to win and that determination to win the game, but you were rewarded for your patience and time in the end.
Practice makes perfect or so they say…
Well that statement isn’t entirely true, because how come new players can button bash on Tekken and beat you? , Nearly all of us have been beaten by the button bashing, even me and I considered myself to be fairly good at beat-em up games, its so frustrating, because there is no variation in the moves, you continually try to fight of the same combo and it becomes harder, the question I put to all of you gaming people is, do games need variation or don’t they? Well let me go into more detail.
One Great example of a game with variation I personally would have to say is GTA3, a game that’s given the gamers (all of us) what we wanted, people said that the original GTA games lacked variation in missions, but GTA3 delivered the goods, why I hear you all ask?, simply because the developer used their time wisely to make the game which is not only fun, but to keep you coming back to play over and over again. So how can developers use their time wisely to make a game with a lot of variation?
Well a simple answer would be to either borrow ideas from great examples like GTA3 and GT3, or look closely at the ideas used and make them better, or even use an idea that has failed in the past and make it work, many developers are put off at the fact that using tried or even ideas that have failed will not turn out well, but if no one tries them then we won’t get anywhere, we will be playing games with very little variation, I don’t want that and many of you people don’t want that, Rockstar took a massive risk with GTA3, but it was executed brilliantly and all of that hard work has paid off, but why are no other companies following suit?, I think its kind of ironic that they are not taking hints from developers such as Rockstar and implementing them in their own games but variation can be good and bad for the following reasons :-
Good
*Different ideas used will add more depth to the game
*Skill in different departments can reward players
*Lifespan increases substantially
*Huge missions/sub games can be created using various genres mixed together (GTA3)
*Many choices in Gameplay options
*Graphics can vary more depending on hardware used
Bad
*Same combo’s/tricks used over again
*Genres mixed do not bode well with game in certain cases
* Repetition in Gameplay
* Longer development times?
* Hard to get to grips with different styles of Gameplay used
* Too many ideas overpower the point of the game
When developing games many more and some of the above factors will surely be taken into consideration, every game will have bad points, developers must now start taking risks, I’m not saying that risks haven’t been taken but more and more games need more variation, this always happens to me and I bet it does to a lot of you, you buy a game and say there is something you want to do in the game like, for instance in Smackdown 3 I said “I wish there were 3D people in the crowd”, we all do it and its down to variation, existing things or features that can be improved upon for the next version of the game, but sometimes it can all go wrong and those features are not put into the sequel to the game or even worse , the game is made worse. Its happened so many times, GTA2 was not drastically different from the original GTA and so it was maybe not appreciated as much as maybe it should have been, the original game could have been improved upon, but not by very much due to the limitations of the engine used, many people soon forgot this though as GTA3 was released as the developers listened to what people wanted and waited until the right hardware was available, but are developers wasting valuable time on other aspects and not on make the game vary as much as possible to keep the gamer coming back?, it’s a question that will be debated a lot, some may say that certain games don’t need much variation, when the truth is they do , and others will say a game needs a lot more variation, its becoming more and more regular as more developers are realising that games need to have fresh and new ideas to make the gamer keep coming back, it could be sub games, it could be multiplayer games or it could be different gameplay elements which are implemented. The word ‘fun’ also plays a big part too, older games may not have had much variation but they were fun, but are today’s games leaving the fun factor out? Well if GTA3 is anything to go by then no, but imagine if in GTA3 you played the part of the cops, would you enjoy it as much? Nope thought not, it’s the whole thought of you play which counts, it makes it more fun being a criminal than being the guys that stop them, so variation is seen from two points of view like most things are, the good and the bad (as mentioned above), old classics like pong and space invaders may not have had much variation but they were so addictive and fun to play, we still need games like that once in a while, because to much variation may stray away from the whole point of the game, as long as the main point of the game stands out and its fun to play then we can enjoy a lot of years with great new games.
How do we define Variation? It simply means to modify something, basically improving on the ideas you already have, but do developers make note of the definition? Well yes and no. Many games these days are criticised for their lack of variation, because as well all know we don’t want to be doing the same old thing all of the time, we want changes, we want new missions that differ from each other, we want 100+ cars in racing games such as GT3, we want every wrestler in the WWF in the game, but are you personally happy with what current games like Smackdown 3 and GT3 bring us or do you want more? If there is one thing GT3 needs its variable damage, this has be sorely missed from previous GT games, and would make the game so much more real, Smackdown 3 for instance in my opinion needs a little more variation in moves, and then it would be my perfect WWF experience, but which games would be your perfect experience with a little more variation?
New Hardware technology has obviously made a huge impact on the variation, because they allow developers to use massive areas for you to play in, like the massive city in GTA3 and variation in gameplay and graphics, as the new hardware can handle the amount of information that is being shifted around the screen, thus allows for massive genres being mixed together like driving missions and shooting missions both using the same engine with the hardware being able to cope.
The PS2 has created a massive world for GTA3, but with new consoles coming (Xbox and Gamecube) surely the variation is bound to improve, or will it?
The burning question is, do games have enough variation? Or is more needed?
Thanks for Reading
SPiKe2k J
Remember that game pong, now this was a game which may not have had much variation but it was so funny watch your friends lash out at the nearest object after missing the all important match point hit, but most importantly addictive as the next game (which at the time there wasn't much to rival it for its pure 2-player mayhem), it required skill by each player to win and that determination to win the game, but you were rewarded for your patience and time in the end.
Practice makes perfect or so they say…
Well that statement isn’t entirely true, because how come new players can button bash on Tekken and beat you? , Nearly all of us have been beaten by the button bashing, even me and I considered myself to be fairly good at beat-em up games, its so frustrating, because there is no variation in the moves, you continually try to fight of the same combo and it becomes harder, the question I put to all of you gaming people is, do games need variation or don’t they? Well let me go into more detail.
One Great example of a game with variation I personally would have to say is GTA3, a game that’s given the gamers (all of us) what we wanted, people said that the original GTA games lacked variation in missions, but GTA3 delivered the goods, why I hear you all ask?, simply because the developer used their time wisely to make the game which is not only fun, but to keep you coming back to play over and over again. So how can developers use their time wisely to make a game with a lot of variation?
Well a simple answer would be to either borrow ideas from great examples like GTA3 and GT3, or look closely at the ideas used and make them better, or even use an idea that has failed in the past and make it work, many developers are put off at the fact that using tried or even ideas that have failed will not turn out well, but if no one tries them then we won’t get anywhere, we will be playing games with very little variation, I don’t want that and many of you people don’t want that, Rockstar took a massive risk with GTA3, but it was executed brilliantly and all of that hard work has paid off, but why are no other companies following suit?, I think its kind of ironic that they are not taking hints from developers such as Rockstar and implementing them in their own games but variation can be good and bad for the following reasons :-
Good
*Different ideas used will add more depth to the game
*Skill in different departments can reward players
*Lifespan increases substantially
*Huge missions/sub games can be created using various genres mixed together (GTA3)
*Many choices in Gameplay options
*Graphics can vary more depending on hardware used
Bad
*Same combo’s/tricks used over again
*Genres mixed do not bode well with game in certain cases
* Repetition in Gameplay
* Longer development times?
* Hard to get to grips with different styles of Gameplay used
* Too many ideas overpower the point of the game
When developing games many more and some of the above factors will surely be taken into consideration, every game will have bad points, developers must now start taking risks, I’m not saying that risks haven’t been taken but more and more games need more variation, this always happens to me and I bet it does to a lot of you, you buy a game and say there is something you want to do in the game like, for instance in Smackdown 3 I said “I wish there were 3D people in the crowd”, we all do it and its down to variation, existing things or features that can be improved upon for the next version of the game, but sometimes it can all go wrong and those features are not put into the sequel to the game or even worse , the game is made worse. Its happened so many times, GTA2 was not drastically different from the original GTA and so it was maybe not appreciated as much as maybe it should have been, the original game could have been improved upon, but not by very much due to the limitations of the engine used, many people soon forgot this though as GTA3 was released as the developers listened to what people wanted and waited until the right hardware was available, but are developers wasting valuable time on other aspects and not on make the game vary as much as possible to keep the gamer coming back?, it’s a question that will be debated a lot, some may say that certain games don’t need much variation, when the truth is they do , and others will say a game needs a lot more variation, its becoming more and more regular as more developers are realising that games need to have fresh and new ideas to make the gamer keep coming back, it could be sub games, it could be multiplayer games or it could be different gameplay elements which are implemented. The word ‘fun’ also plays a big part too, older games may not have had much variation but they were fun, but are today’s games leaving the fun factor out? Well if GTA3 is anything to go by then no, but imagine if in GTA3 you played the part of the cops, would you enjoy it as much? Nope thought not, it’s the whole thought of you play which counts, it makes it more fun being a criminal than being the guys that stop them, so variation is seen from two points of view like most things are, the good and the bad (as mentioned above), old classics like pong and space invaders may not have had much variation but they were so addictive and fun to play, we still need games like that once in a while, because to much variation may stray away from the whole point of the game, as long as the main point of the game stands out and its fun to play then we can enjoy a lot of years with great new games.
How do we define Variation? It simply means to modify something, basically improving on the ideas you already have, but do developers make note of the definition? Well yes and no. Many games these days are criticised for their lack of variation, because as well all know we don’t want to be doing the same old thing all of the time, we want changes, we want new missions that differ from each other, we want 100+ cars in racing games such as GT3, we want every wrestler in the WWF in the game, but are you personally happy with what current games like Smackdown 3 and GT3 bring us or do you want more? If there is one thing GT3 needs its variable damage, this has be sorely missed from previous GT games, and would make the game so much more real, Smackdown 3 for instance in my opinion needs a little more variation in moves, and then it would be my perfect WWF experience, but which games would be your perfect experience with a little more variation?
New Hardware technology has obviously made a huge impact on the variation, because they allow developers to use massive areas for you to play in, like the massive city in GTA3 and variation in gameplay and graphics, as the new hardware can handle the amount of information that is being shifted around the screen, thus allows for massive genres being mixed together like driving missions and shooting missions both using the same engine with the hardware being able to cope.
The PS2 has created a massive world for GTA3, but with new consoles coming (Xbox and Gamecube) surely the variation is bound to improve, or will it?
The burning question is, do games have enough variation? Or is more needed?
Thanks for Reading
SPiKe2k J
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Thanks for all of the replies guys, much appreciated :-)
Variation is certainly important in games. Its important everywhere I guess. What would happen if we all looked the same...
"If everybody looked the same, we`d get bored of looking at eachother"
... mercedes yada yada yada!
So, as you pointed out, do we need more or less? I think too much variation probably isn` t a good thing, as you may be a person who enjoys racing games, and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a tetris mini game, or perhaps you are a person who enjoys rpgs, but suddenly finds the main character in a kart racing game.
However, as you pointed out, some variation is needed. This variation must be both within the games themselves, and between games in the same genre. For example, GT3 and Burnout. They are closely linked by their racing nature, but there is a great deal of variation in their gameplay styles.
As you say, not too much, but not too little, and you have a perfect amount of variation!
"If everybody looked the same, we`d get bored of looking at eachother"
... mercedes yada yada yada!
So, as you pointed out, do we need more or less? I think too much variation probably isn` t a good thing, as you may be a person who enjoys racing games, and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a tetris mini game, or perhaps you are a person who enjoys rpgs, but suddenly finds the main character in a kart racing game.
However, as you pointed out, some variation is needed. This variation must be both within the games themselves, and between games in the same genre. For example, GT3 and Burnout. They are closely linked by their racing nature, but there is a great deal of variation in their gameplay styles.
As you say, not too much, but not too little, and you have a perfect amount of variation!
You asking a bit much there mate! :D
more replies..pwease... :D
Variety, yes, something every console needs to survive in order to keep us all intrested in games that are on the console. Without it, we may well live in a Fifa world, and that would be bad!!!!!
Seriously though, with out the variety gaming would soon become very boring as no new ideas would ever come about. We would end up playing the same thing all the time and soon get bored.
Thankfully, developers relise that games will not sell unless there is anything new in the game, this means that there are often new games sent into the market. Sometimes these may be sequals to older games where the plot is updated or even changes, and new elements of gameplay are put in to give an added gameing experience, or just to improve the already good one. Also new ideas bring new, original ideas to gaming, which is great and without this ingenius 'thing', todays games may never have existed.With new games with added varietion to them, it gives us a greater gaming experiance.
However, this variation idea is not always taken seriously by developers, and the best example is Tomb Raider.When this game first came out it was revolutionary, a whole new area of gaming and obviously sold well as it was a really good game that gave us a whole new experience. It was one of the first of its kind, a huge adventure game.When the second came out, this was good too, and there was much added to it, new moves, vehicles, new plot ect. Again the game was really good and great to play, and again sold. Eidos knew that they were onto something here, and because they were getting much money with the games they thought why not make more, and that is what they did.3,4 and 5 followed and were all as bad as each other, offering little new other than a new move, weapons or vehicle, there was nothing totally new in there that really showed off the game, and in all, they lacked variation. Fifa is also a classic example.
And this is what happens when developers make money the most important asspect.
As you said, GTA 3 is a good example of a great game with much variation. The game includes lots of variotion withing the game, and offers great lastability. Also games like Pro Evo have veriation, as with the evo series, no two games are ever the same, the game had been made so that each game is different, which is great for us.
At the minute there is not a greater variation of games on the PS2, none the less, there is still some. There are plenty of choices out there for you, and with games coming out thick and fast the choices are becoming more apparent as i know, recently winning GAD i find myself spoilt for choice for which game to pick.
Developers are starting to come up with new ideas all the time, and every week there is at least one new, original game out there, and there will be for some time to come.
Apart from that there is not much more i can say, you covered most of it! Great post mate.
Seriously though, with out the variety gaming would soon become very boring as no new ideas would ever come about. We would end up playing the same thing all the time and soon get bored.
Thankfully, developers relise that games will not sell unless there is anything new in the game, this means that there are often new games sent into the market. Sometimes these may be sequals to older games where the plot is updated or even changes, and new elements of gameplay are put in to give an added gameing experience, or just to improve the already good one. Also new ideas bring new, original ideas to gaming, which is great and without this ingenius 'thing', todays games may never have existed.With new games with added varietion to them, it gives us a greater gaming experiance.
However, this variation idea is not always taken seriously by developers, and the best example is Tomb Raider.When this game first came out it was revolutionary, a whole new area of gaming and obviously sold well as it was a really good game that gave us a whole new experience. It was one of the first of its kind, a huge adventure game.When the second came out, this was good too, and there was much added to it, new moves, vehicles, new plot ect. Again the game was really good and great to play, and again sold. Eidos knew that they were onto something here, and because they were getting much money with the games they thought why not make more, and that is what they did.3,4 and 5 followed and were all as bad as each other, offering little new other than a new move, weapons or vehicle, there was nothing totally new in there that really showed off the game, and in all, they lacked variation. Fifa is also a classic example.
And this is what happens when developers make money the most important asspect.
As you said, GTA 3 is a good example of a great game with much variation. The game includes lots of variotion withing the game, and offers great lastability. Also games like Pro Evo have veriation, as with the evo series, no two games are ever the same, the game had been made so that each game is different, which is great for us.
At the minute there is not a greater variation of games on the PS2, none the less, there is still some. There are plenty of choices out there for you, and with games coming out thick and fast the choices are becoming more apparent as i know, recently winning GAD i find myself spoilt for choice for which game to pick.
Developers are starting to come up with new ideas all the time, and every week there is at least one new, original game out there, and there will be for some time to come.
Apart from that there is not much more i can say, you covered most of it! Great post mate.
Great post Spike-if this doesnt get a GAD I will have to have words with someone. ;)
Yeah I think that there should be more variety of games on the market right now because quite frankly people get bored with the things game makers are chucking at them. Think about it, the PS2 only had driving games, sports sims and couple of RPG's released for it so far. I mean there should be many more games coming out for a next-gen console such as the PS2. It would be good if developers stopped making games that blatantly try to be like GT3, Pro Evo Soccer etc. Look at some of the driving games on the market-Driving Emotion Type S, Stunt GP and er the Flinstones game..They are all pants and in my opinion after a games such as GT3 come out, developers would concentrate on something else rather than making themselves look foolish with a game that is going to be ranked down because it just doesnt match the best game of the particular genre.
From time to time developers do come out with gems of the gaming world-Fantavision and ICO are just 2 of the examples but these kind of games are still hard to find. Developers prefer to concentrate on games they know will succeed (thats why we see so many sequels being churned out at us) and decide not to try out some new ideas.
So in my opinion the developers should start exploring the power of the PS2 more and start coming out with original games. Many companies have the ability to make it look good and play solid, its just they havnt got the guts to go into the new territory. EA have done it with SSX, they took a well-developed genre and made it more exciting by introducing all the features that make SSX one of the best games on the PS2 to date..
Thank you
Yeah I think that there should be more variety of games on the market right now because quite frankly people get bored with the things game makers are chucking at them. Think about it, the PS2 only had driving games, sports sims and couple of RPG's released for it so far. I mean there should be many more games coming out for a next-gen console such as the PS2. It would be good if developers stopped making games that blatantly try to be like GT3, Pro Evo Soccer etc. Look at some of the driving games on the market-Driving Emotion Type S, Stunt GP and er the Flinstones game..They are all pants and in my opinion after a games such as GT3 come out, developers would concentrate on something else rather than making themselves look foolish with a game that is going to be ranked down because it just doesnt match the best game of the particular genre.
From time to time developers do come out with gems of the gaming world-Fantavision and ICO are just 2 of the examples but these kind of games are still hard to find. Developers prefer to concentrate on games they know will succeed (thats why we see so many sequels being churned out at us) and decide not to try out some new ideas.
So in my opinion the developers should start exploring the power of the PS2 more and start coming out with original games. Many companies have the ability to make it look good and play solid, its just they havnt got the guts to go into the new territory. EA have done it with SSX, they took a well-developed genre and made it more exciting by introducing all the features that make SSX one of the best games on the PS2 to date..
Thank you
Thats why I really like rockstar games and any game by them gets me interested because they like to take risks and they pay off take smugglers run the first one although flawed was amazing but it was a launch game so it was bound to have faults with SR2 they have ironed out all the faults of the first and it is 1 of my fav games just behind GTA3
Thanks for ur time
Great post btw
Thanks for ur time
Great post btw
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