A friend of mine who is studying to be a game developer alerted me to this article. He mentioned two currents in the gaming world:
* RPG's are changing to become stories that draw in the player, that's why Hawke was made human and why family was more involved, to make the story more personally compelling
* shooters are the games that sell the most right now
I read what Greg Zeschuk said while keeping that in mind:
"RPGs are and always have been our bread and butter, our heart is there, but at the same time I think - [...] "The genres are blending right now, you're getting lots and lots of progression and RPG elements in shooters - online persistence and so on."
And:
"It's funny because the RPG in the context of the current world is - well, it's not specifically irrelevant, but it's becoming less relevant in and of itself," he continued. "It's more a function of, 'Hey, this game has a great story.' For us, [it's] having that emotion but also having other great features like combat and persistence of character progression and stuff."
I couldn't help but notice it seems he's talking about a shift from story/RPG with combat as a function to combat with a story/RPG as a function. Maybe because shooters are selling big time and they want a piece of that? It seems a simplistic explanation, I don't know if it's right, but the last paragraph of the article seems to support that:
"It's not hard to see BioWare's changing attitude reflected in its more recent games, particularly Mass Effect, which is not so much an RPG as it is a conversational shooter."
But but but...http://www.insanebea...uture-of-games/The writer, Cody, puts it very well (article is from 2010) so I'm going to quote two paragraphs without snipping:
"It is my personal opinion that genre blending could turn out to be a very dangerous practice in the long-term future of video games. It is true that genre blending has produced some of my all-time favorite games, and I think it would be foolish to shun the practice, but it would also be terribly unwise to go forth without any thoughts of the consequences. The next ten years could very well kill off artistic masterpieces like Shadow of the Colossus (The Last Guardian should be a good indicator of things to come) and transform the gaming landscape into portable MMOs where achievements for walking ten steps backwards fuel harmfully addictive “gaming.” I suppose genre blending is more of a symptom of the greater problem, commercialization, but whatevs.
The future of video games is literally being decided as we speak. One could argue that we’ve already seen the systematic elimination of stealth and horror games
and RPGs could be up next. The key is for RPG developers to find a way to make their craft commercially viable in a market that lusts after everything that critics of our industry cite when debating the artistic worth of video games. Perhaps genre blending, despite the terrifying potential of its pitfalls, is actually the key to helping this medium ascend to the realm of high art. Maybe the next few years will see a golden ratio of engaging story, visceral gameplay, and immersive worlds that could have never been created within the confines of the rigid genres of the past. Or maybe we’ve already seen that and publishers thought there wasn’t enough multiplayer…"
I think BioWare is moving in the right direction with genre blending, or breaking the confines of rigid genres, because I believe Cody is right when he says it's the key to an engaging story, visceral gameplay, and immersive worlds.
But really, an achievement for switching a map from day to night? Pitfall alert! I really hope BioWare won't go down that road, that they will learn from DA2 and will use the medium of genre blending to ascend that realm of high art and deliver those artistic masterpieces. Let's see what ME3 brings
Modifié par LukaCrosszeria, 23 août 2011 - 08:14 .
Retour en haut
