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Rather than suggesting new ideas for games, this topic is more about where I personally think future games are heading.
It is clear from most recent releases than entirely new genres of games come along very rarely, most new games seem to work on either putting genres in a different setting, making improvements/variations to the game or blending genres together. As well as this, multiplayer seems to be changing, it seems to be becoming something that every game "needs" to have to be successful and the number of games that simply have an online-only mode seems to be increasing, on the reverse of this various games seem to continue to concentrate on a great single-player mode, these games however seem to enjoy less success.
New Genres
Creating entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very short time.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access, games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger gaming population has been reached.
For the moment, this type of game is usually limited to the number of people willing to pay a monthly fee, necessary to allow the games to continue updating (and providing profit to convince the company it is worthwhile to continue running the game), of course there are lots of people who simply can't afford or unwilling to do this, I personally feel that the first game to offer completely free online play after the purchase of the game will dramatically increase the popularity of this type of game in the future.
Blending Genres
I would say this is one of the most important and interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Games being devloped currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
Games such as Black and White help to show this is happening, this is a game that is hard to class as any specific type and although you can still see it is primarily a god game I feel that future games will become harder and harder to classify.
Simplicity
One other thing I've noticed is that various games released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in the future.
However, I don't feel that this will mean that games will simply re-do previous simple games in the future, instead games such as Diablo will be developed, which are extremely simple to get used to but contain lots of elements to make it remain interesting.
3D
Unfortunatly (in my opinion), this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it can ruin many games.
Unfortunatly, I feel that the general gaming populations is often more interested in good graphics than anything else and more and more new games will start to become 3D.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing. Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Hard Drive space seems to be something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours" install time that consoles have.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of them.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
It is clear from most recent releases than entirely new genres of games come along very rarely, most new games seem to work on either putting genres in a different setting, making improvements/variations to the game or blending genres together. As well as this, multiplayer seems to be changing, it seems to be becoming something that every game "needs" to have to be successful and the number of games that simply have an online-only mode seems to be increasing, on the reverse of this various games seem to continue to concentrate on a great single-player mode, these games however seem to enjoy less success.
New Genres
Creating entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very short time.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access, games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger gaming population has been reached.
For the moment, this type of game is usually limited to the number of people willing to pay a monthly fee, necessary to allow the games to continue updating (and providing profit to convince the company it is worthwhile to continue running the game), of course there are lots of people who simply can't afford or unwilling to do this, I personally feel that the first game to offer completely free online play after the purchase of the game will dramatically increase the popularity of this type of game in the future.
Blending Genres
I would say this is one of the most important and interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Games being devloped currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
Games such as Black and White help to show this is happening, this is a game that is hard to class as any specific type and although you can still see it is primarily a god game I feel that future games will become harder and harder to classify.
Simplicity
One other thing I've noticed is that various games released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in the future.
However, I don't feel that this will mean that games will simply re-do previous simple games in the future, instead games such as Diablo will be developed, which are extremely simple to get used to but contain lots of elements to make it remain interesting.
3D
Unfortunatly (in my opinion), this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it can ruin many games.
Unfortunatly, I feel that the general gaming populations is often more interested in good graphics than anything else and more and more new games will start to become 3D.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing. Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Hard Drive space seems to be something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours" install time that consoles have.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of them.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
sorry
;-)
;-)
Talkie Toaster wrote:
> that was a bad post pb.
you shouldn't take advantage of peoples
> posts to make your word count larger.
Now you should know that sarcasm is supposed to have a ;-) after it....
;-)
> that was a bad post pb.
you shouldn't take advantage of peoples
> posts to make your word count larger.
Now you should know that sarcasm is supposed to have a ;-) after it....
;-)
pb wrote:
> Firebalt wrote:
> New Genres
Creating
> entirely new types of game is
> now extremely hard, games have been created for so
> many years with so many
> ideas of games being thought of that anything completely
> original is hard
> to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my
> opinion) going to
> be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly
> copied with
> multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very
> short
> time.
There will always be new types of game, look at Sega's track record and
> then look at Res, due out soon for the PS2. What is important is that games
> copied from popular genres are GOOD rather than basic rip-offs.
Online
> Only
With more and more people having internet access,
> games companies
> seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed
> with the
> popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing
>
> rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time
> with
> things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game,
> however it is
> only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online
> that a larger
> gaming population has been reached.
Without the whole
> nation having broadband access for their PCs and consoles, it will be a long
> while before games go completely online and even then they will always have solo
> quests as well. Online options are (and should be) just that, an
> option.
>Blending Genres
>I would say this is one of the most
> important and
> interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time
> progresses I feel
> that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on
> their own and all games
> will have at least a few elements of another
> genre.
Again, I agree, but it has to be done well rather than just to create
> a cheap game based around another game's engine.
>Games being
> devloped
> currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time
> strategy game, a game
> will mix in RPG elements to create a different type
> of game. Elements like this
> can also be seen in previous games such as
> Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which
> allowed your characters to advance much
> like characters in various RPG games
> advance through gaining experience.
> This seems to be an important change and has
> many advantages, a game that
> doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single
> genre and can mix in
> ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
>
Depends on
> the genre, but for RPG's it's a good thing. Arcade style games need not get
> overburdened with this type of thing, although there is always room for a little
> something to add to the longevity of the game, as long as it doesn't distract
> from the instant playy value.
>Simplicity
>One other thing I've
> noticed is that various games
> released recently seem to go for simplicity
> rather than complexity. Using the
> idea that simple games can be very
> addictive (which they can), many games seem
> to try and use this element in
> the game and I personally see this increasing in
> the future.
Different
> game genres deserve different levels of complexity. Simplicity will work in
> games like Res, but people who play 1st and 3rd person shooters want more and
> more detail to their game.
>3D
>Unfortunatly (in my
> opinion),
> this is becomming more and more important in games and I can
> only see this
> increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game
> can certainly be good
> to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament
> and Black and White I feel
> work well like this), other games I feel are
> actually made worse by this type of
> game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or
> Zelda (already done twice before anyone
> points out) in 3D for example,
> even though I think that in future games like
> this will become developed
> more and more like this. I personally feel that a
> simple view like one
> that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this
> type of game
> much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it
> can ruin
> many games.
Really? Well, there are some games that deserve to still be in
> 2d, such as Capcom fighting games, but now the rush from the original polygon
> madness of the PSX release has dies down, the 3D engines are much more complex
> and help to create a more emersive game world.
Requirements (PC)
I
> personally feel
> that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast
> they are increasing.
> Around the time I bought my computer, system
> requirements for certain games
> seemed to be increasing rapidly and games
> seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto
> 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently
> however most games seem to still allow play on
> a 300Mhz machine. I see
> this increasing slightly in the future, especially due
> to the large number
> of powerful PC's available.
Well, there is always the option of playing games
> on a console, after all that's what they're built for. PCs are still struggling
> with games as they were originally designed for other tasks, but if you want to
> go down the expensive route when the Xbox will have all the PC style games you
> could want then that's your choice!
Hard Drive space seems to be
>
> something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for
> example
> required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that
> are now quite
> old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and
> hope) that in the
> future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit
> to anyones storage
> space and people are getting increasingly bored with
> the time they have to spend
> installing a game, especially when you compare
> to the "0 hours"
> install time that consoles have.
Xbox
> comes with a hard drive and PS2 will follow suit soon.
Conclusion
Overall,
> I forsee that most
> changes to future games will be minor and will try and
> work more and amplifying
> a certain type of play or mixing genres together.
> Minor improvements will
> probably be made to games such as adding more
> depth to RPG's, RPG elements to
> strategy games or more puzzles to action
> games.
Rather than games working on
> producing a single and multi player
> game together, I personally feel that these
> will slowly seperate with more
> and more games being developed that at the very
> least emplify one of these
> modes of play if not just completely leave out one of
> them.
Yeah, but
> there are plenty of other genres that can have improvements, sounds like you're
> concentrating too much on the PC there! New games are coming out all the time,
> but a lot of them miss the PC altogether.
>Thanks for
> reading.
>Firebalt.
My pleasure!
that was a bad post pb.
you shouldn't take advantage of peoples posts to make your word count larger.
by the way, nice post Firebalt
> Firebalt wrote:
> New Genres
Creating
> entirely new types of game is
> now extremely hard, games have been created for so
> many years with so many
> ideas of games being thought of that anything completely
> original is hard
> to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my
> opinion) going to
> be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly
> copied with
> multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very
> short
> time.
There will always be new types of game, look at Sega's track record and
> then look at Res, due out soon for the PS2. What is important is that games
> copied from popular genres are GOOD rather than basic rip-offs.
Online
> Only
With more and more people having internet access,
> games companies
> seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed
> with the
> popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing
>
> rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time
> with
> things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game,
> however it is
> only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online
> that a larger
> gaming population has been reached.
Without the whole
> nation having broadband access for their PCs and consoles, it will be a long
> while before games go completely online and even then they will always have solo
> quests as well. Online options are (and should be) just that, an
> option.
>Blending Genres
>I would say this is one of the most
> important and
> interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time
> progresses I feel
> that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on
> their own and all games
> will have at least a few elements of another
> genre.
Again, I agree, but it has to be done well rather than just to create
> a cheap game based around another game's engine.
>Games being
> devloped
> currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time
> strategy game, a game
> will mix in RPG elements to create a different type
> of game. Elements like this
> can also be seen in previous games such as
> Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which
> allowed your characters to advance much
> like characters in various RPG games
> advance through gaining experience.
> This seems to be an important change and has
> many advantages, a game that
> doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single
> genre and can mix in
> ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
>
Depends on
> the genre, but for RPG's it's a good thing. Arcade style games need not get
> overburdened with this type of thing, although there is always room for a little
> something to add to the longevity of the game, as long as it doesn't distract
> from the instant playy value.
>Simplicity
>One other thing I've
> noticed is that various games
> released recently seem to go for simplicity
> rather than complexity. Using the
> idea that simple games can be very
> addictive (which they can), many games seem
> to try and use this element in
> the game and I personally see this increasing in
> the future.
Different
> game genres deserve different levels of complexity. Simplicity will work in
> games like Res, but people who play 1st and 3rd person shooters want more and
> more detail to their game.
>3D
>Unfortunatly (in my
> opinion),
> this is becomming more and more important in games and I can
> only see this
> increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game
> can certainly be good
> to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament
> and Black and White I feel
> work well like this), other games I feel are
> actually made worse by this type of
> game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or
> Zelda (already done twice before anyone
> points out) in 3D for example,
> even though I think that in future games like
> this will become developed
> more and more like this. I personally feel that a
> simple view like one
> that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this
> type of game
> much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it
> can ruin
> many games.
Really? Well, there are some games that deserve to still be in
> 2d, such as Capcom fighting games, but now the rush from the original polygon
> madness of the PSX release has dies down, the 3D engines are much more complex
> and help to create a more emersive game world.
Requirements (PC)
I
> personally feel
> that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast
> they are increasing.
> Around the time I bought my computer, system
> requirements for certain games
> seemed to be increasing rapidly and games
> seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto
> 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently
> however most games seem to still allow play on
> a 300Mhz machine. I see
> this increasing slightly in the future, especially due
> to the large number
> of powerful PC's available.
Well, there is always the option of playing games
> on a console, after all that's what they're built for. PCs are still struggling
> with games as they were originally designed for other tasks, but if you want to
> go down the expensive route when the Xbox will have all the PC style games you
> could want then that's your choice!
Hard Drive space seems to be
>
> something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for
> example
> required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that
> are now quite
> old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and
> hope) that in the
> future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit
> to anyones storage
> space and people are getting increasingly bored with
> the time they have to spend
> installing a game, especially when you compare
> to the "0 hours"
> install time that consoles have.
Xbox
> comes with a hard drive and PS2 will follow suit soon.
Conclusion
Overall,
> I forsee that most
> changes to future games will be minor and will try and
> work more and amplifying
> a certain type of play or mixing genres together.
> Minor improvements will
> probably be made to games such as adding more
> depth to RPG's, RPG elements to
> strategy games or more puzzles to action
> games.
Rather than games working on
> producing a single and multi player
> game together, I personally feel that these
> will slowly seperate with more
> and more games being developed that at the very
> least emplify one of these
> modes of play if not just completely leave out one of
> them.
Yeah, but
> there are plenty of other genres that can have improvements, sounds like you're
> concentrating too much on the PC there! New games are coming out all the time,
> but a lot of them miss the PC altogether.
>Thanks for
> reading.
>Firebalt.
My pleasure!
that was a bad post pb.
you shouldn't take advantage of peoples posts to make your word count larger.
by the way, nice post Firebalt
Firebalt wrote:
> New Genres
Creating
> entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so
> many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely
> original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my
> opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly
> copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very
> short time.
There will always be new types of game, look at Sega's track record and then look at Res, due out soon for the PS2. What is important is that games copied from popular genres are GOOD rather than basic rip-offs.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access,
> games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed
> with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing
> rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with
> things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is
> only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger
> gaming population has been reached.
Without the whole nation having broadband access for their PCs and consoles, it will be a long while before games go completely online and even then they will always have solo quests as well. Online options are (and should be) just that, an option.
>Blending Genres
>I would say this is one of the most important and
> interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel
> that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games
> will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Again, I agree, but it has to be done well rather than just to create a cheap game based around another game's engine.
>Games being devloped
> currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game
> will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this
> can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which
> allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games
> advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has
> many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single
> genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
>
Depends on the genre, but for RPG's it's a good thing. Arcade style games need not get overburdened with this type of thing, although there is always room for a little something to add to the longevity of the game, as long as it doesn't distract from the instant playy value.
>Simplicity
>One other thing I've noticed is that various games
> released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the
> idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem
> to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in
> the future.
Different game genres deserve different levels of complexity. Simplicity will work in games like Res, but people who play 1st and 3rd person shooters want more and more detail to their game.
>3D
>Unfortunatly (in my opinion),
> this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this
> increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good
> to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel
> work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of
> game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone
> points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like
> this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a
> simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this
> type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it
> can ruin many games.
Really? Well, there are some games that deserve to still be in 2d, such as Capcom fighting games, but now the rush from the original polygon madness of the PSX release has dies down, the 3D engines are much more complex and help to create a more emersive game world.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel
> that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing.
> Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games
> seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto
> 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on
> a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due
> to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Well, there is always the option of playing games on a console, after all that's what they're built for. PCs are still struggling with games as they were originally designed for other tasks, but if you want to go down the expensive route when the Xbox will have all the PC style games you could want then that's your choice!
Hard Drive space seems to be
> something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example
> required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite
> old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the
> future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage
> space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend
> installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours"
> install time that consoles have.
Xbox comes with a hard drive and PS2 will follow suit soon.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most
> changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying
> a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will
> probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to
> strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on
> producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these
> will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very
> least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of
> them.
Yeah, but there are plenty of other genres that can have improvements, sounds like you're concentrating too much on the PC there! New games are coming out all the time, but a lot of them miss the PC altogether.
>Thanks for reading.
>Firebalt.
My pleasure!
> New Genres
Creating
> entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so
> many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely
> original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my
> opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly
> copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very
> short time.
There will always be new types of game, look at Sega's track record and then look at Res, due out soon for the PS2. What is important is that games copied from popular genres are GOOD rather than basic rip-offs.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access,
> games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed
> with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing
> rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with
> things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is
> only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger
> gaming population has been reached.
Without the whole nation having broadband access for their PCs and consoles, it will be a long while before games go completely online and even then they will always have solo quests as well. Online options are (and should be) just that, an option.
>Blending Genres
>I would say this is one of the most important and
> interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel
> that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games
> will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Again, I agree, but it has to be done well rather than just to create a cheap game based around another game's engine.
>Games being devloped
> currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game
> will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this
> can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which
> allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games
> advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has
> many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single
> genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
>
Depends on the genre, but for RPG's it's a good thing. Arcade style games need not get overburdened with this type of thing, although there is always room for a little something to add to the longevity of the game, as long as it doesn't distract from the instant playy value.
>Simplicity
>One other thing I've noticed is that various games
> released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the
> idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem
> to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in
> the future.
Different game genres deserve different levels of complexity. Simplicity will work in games like Res, but people who play 1st and 3rd person shooters want more and more detail to their game.
>3D
>Unfortunatly (in my opinion),
> this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this
> increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good
> to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel
> work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of
> game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone
> points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like
> this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a
> simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this
> type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it
> can ruin many games.
Really? Well, there are some games that deserve to still be in 2d, such as Capcom fighting games, but now the rush from the original polygon madness of the PSX release has dies down, the 3D engines are much more complex and help to create a more emersive game world.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel
> that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing.
> Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games
> seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto
> 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on
> a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due
> to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Well, there is always the option of playing games on a console, after all that's what they're built for. PCs are still struggling with games as they were originally designed for other tasks, but if you want to go down the expensive route when the Xbox will have all the PC style games you could want then that's your choice!
Hard Drive space seems to be
> something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example
> required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite
> old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the
> future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage
> space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend
> installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours"
> install time that consoles have.
Xbox comes with a hard drive and PS2 will follow suit soon.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most
> changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying
> a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will
> probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to
> strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on
> producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these
> will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very
> least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of
> them.
Yeah, but there are plenty of other genres that can have improvements, sounds like you're concentrating too much on the PC there! New games are coming out all the time, but a lot of them miss the PC altogether.
>Thanks for reading.
>Firebalt.
My pleasure!
Nice post Firebalt.
I do agree that 3D graphics are getting more important even though when you think about ti they shouldn't, this is what atracts people towards a game.
I do agree that 3D graphics are getting more important even though when you think about ti they shouldn't, this is what atracts people towards a game.
Rather than suggesting new ideas for games, this topic is more about where I personally think future games are heading.
It is clear from most recent releases than entirely new genres of games come along very rarely, most new games seem to work on either putting genres in a different setting, making improvements/variations to the game or blending genres together. As well as this, multiplayer seems to be changing, it seems to be becoming something that every game "needs" to have to be successful and the number of games that simply have an online-only mode seems to be increasing, on the reverse of this various games seem to continue to concentrate on a great single-player mode, these games however seem to enjoy less success.
New Genres
Creating entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very short time.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access, games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger gaming population has been reached.
For the moment, this type of game is usually limited to the number of people willing to pay a monthly fee, necessary to allow the games to continue updating (and providing profit to convince the company it is worthwhile to continue running the game), of course there are lots of people who simply can't afford or unwilling to do this, I personally feel that the first game to offer completely free online play after the purchase of the game will dramatically increase the popularity of this type of game in the future.
Blending Genres
I would say this is one of the most important and interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Games being devloped currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
Games such as Black and White help to show this is happening, this is a game that is hard to class as any specific type and although you can still see it is primarily a god game I feel that future games will become harder and harder to classify.
Simplicity
One other thing I've noticed is that various games released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in the future.
However, I don't feel that this will mean that games will simply re-do previous simple games in the future, instead games such as Diablo will be developed, which are extremely simple to get used to but contain lots of elements to make it remain interesting.
3D
Unfortunatly (in my opinion), this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it can ruin many games.
Unfortunatly, I feel that the general gaming populations is often more interested in good graphics than anything else and more and more new games will start to become 3D.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing. Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Hard Drive space seems to be something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours" install time that consoles have.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of them.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
It is clear from most recent releases than entirely new genres of games come along very rarely, most new games seem to work on either putting genres in a different setting, making improvements/variations to the game or blending genres together. As well as this, multiplayer seems to be changing, it seems to be becoming something that every game "needs" to have to be successful and the number of games that simply have an online-only mode seems to be increasing, on the reverse of this various games seem to continue to concentrate on a great single-player mode, these games however seem to enjoy less success.
New Genres
Creating entirely new types of game is now extremely hard, games have been created for so many years with so many ideas of games being thought of that anything completely original is hard to think of. For this reason this type of game is (in my opinion) going to be a rare appearence and when it does appear will be rapidly copied with multiple games of a very similar nature appearing within a very short time.
Online Only
With more and more people having internet access, games companies seem to want to take advantage of this. For this reason mixed with the popularity of multiplayer games, I see this type of game increasing rapidly in the future.
This type of game has existed for a long time with things like MUD's and various other types of online-only game, however it is only recently with games such as Everquest and Ultima Online that a larger gaming population has been reached.
For the moment, this type of game is usually limited to the number of people willing to pay a monthly fee, necessary to allow the games to continue updating (and providing profit to convince the company it is worthwhile to continue running the game), of course there are lots of people who simply can't afford or unwilling to do this, I personally feel that the first game to offer completely free online play after the purchase of the game will dramatically increase the popularity of this type of game in the future.
Blending Genres
I would say this is one of the most important and interesting ways that future games seem to be going, as time progresses I feel that many existing genres of games simply won't exist on their own and all games will have at least a few elements of another genre.
Games being devloped currently show this, rather than being a purely real-time strategy game, a game will mix in RPG elements to create a different type of game. Elements like this can also be seen in previous games such as Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which allowed your characters to advance much like characters in various RPG games advance through gaining experience. This seems to be an important change and has many advantages, a game that doesn't feel the need to just stick with a single genre and can mix in ideas from other genres can improve games significantly.
Games such as Black and White help to show this is happening, this is a game that is hard to class as any specific type and although you can still see it is primarily a god game I feel that future games will become harder and harder to classify.
Simplicity
One other thing I've noticed is that various games released recently seem to go for simplicity rather than complexity. Using the idea that simple games can be very addictive (which they can), many games seem to try and use this element in the game and I personally see this increasing in the future.
However, I don't feel that this will mean that games will simply re-do previous simple games in the future, instead games such as Diablo will be developed, which are extremely simple to get used to but contain lots of elements to make it remain interesting.
3D
Unfortunatly (in my opinion), this is becomming more and more important in games and I can only see this increasing in the future. While a nicely developed 3D game can certainly be good to play and does fit some games (Unreal Tournament and Black and White I feel work well like this), other games I feel are actually made worse by this type of game. I wouldn't want to see Diablo or Zelda (already done twice before anyone points out) in 3D for example, even though I think that in future games like this will become developed more and more like this. I personally feel that a simple view like one that can be seen in Zelda on the SNES or Diablo make this type of game much easier to play and adding a 3D view just for the sake of it can ruin many games.
Unfortunatly, I feel that the general gaming populations is often more interested in good graphics than anything else and more and more new games will start to become 3D.
Requirements (PC)
I personally feel that requirements for games have slowed down in how fast they are increasing. Around the time I bought my computer, system requirements for certain games seemed to be increasing rapidly and games seemed to increase from 133Mhz upto 2-300Mhz quite quickly, recently however most games seem to still allow play on a 300Mhz machine. I see this increasing slightly in the future, especially due to the large number of powerful PC's available.
Hard Drive space seems to be something which has stayed fairly similar recently, Baldur's Gate 2 for example required less storage space than Baldur's Gate, other games that are now quite old also seemed to require a lot more storage. I think (and hope) that in the future this will stay fairly similar as there is a limit to anyones storage space and people are getting increasingly bored with the time they have to spend installing a game, especially when you compare to the "0 hours" install time that consoles have.
Conclusion
Overall, I forsee that most changes to future games will be minor and will try and work more and amplifying a certain type of play or mixing genres together. Minor improvements will probably be made to games such as adding more depth to RPG's, RPG elements to strategy games or more puzzles to action games.
Rather than games working on producing a single and multi player game together, I personally feel that these will slowly seperate with more and more games being developed that at the very least emplify one of these modes of play if not just completely leave out one of them.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.