Future of Gaming, my thoughts.

[Whist]

It's no secret that games are becoming less and less innovative due to rising production costs to meet next gen graphic requirements. Companies cannot afford to take risks when they can just recreate the best selling game of last year and cash in. I am not blaming the video game companies for doing this for they are businesses and their main goal is money. But this has gotten so insane that companies have to literally guess what the technology will be like when their game is released and create it upon that knowledge or else it will look graphically like they're releasing a game made years ago (when they started production).

However, the problem as I stated is innovation is being lost in video gaming. I want to focus on online gaming. As you know and have seen online games consist mainly of mmorpgs and FPS that provide very minor differences in game play over the others. The rest of "online" games are simply flash mi****mes and other games like chess.

Now if you're like me and you wish you could have a chance to play a lot of Korean games you hear about as they come out, but you don't have the money and time to just drop your current studies to study Korean and move to Korea to have your chance at programming(animating in my case) for these Korean games or just so you can play them when you're not doing your depressing day job of sorting paperwork. You probably have been kind of hoping that some English based companies would start creating games like GunZ, Rakion, ect. (Well, rakion if it was less pay-to-win).

Korea has been putting out quirky online games for quite some time now. These game rarely have top end graphics and usually support some sort of innovation. Not saying there isn't plenty of games that are copies of last year's big hit, but they seem to be releasing successful games that find better ways to break away from the typical mainly because their main production costs aren't going toward graphics.

Now, most Korean games are not released outside of Korea due to likes and dislikes between them and westerners. Korean and most other asian gamers (who live in asia) tend to be able to enjoy games that require tedious repeated tasks (hence majority of their mmorpgs being epic grind fests) but a few are released to the world and have been quite successful (well not as successful as games from video game giants but ijji and nexon's profits are nothing to be ignored).

As you can tell from a visit to your local Target or 7/11 these online game portal's cashshop item cards have been taking over gift card stands in the recent years.
I can see online gaming breaking off into two directions, one that follows the set current proven money making path of releasing the same high-end-graphic fps shooting game with attempted forced teamwork that ends up being a headshot contest over and over again and the other toward innovative fun online games that don't put their main focus on graphics for those with lower end PCs and those who don't want to spend 60 dollars (and monthly fees in the case of a mmo) to find they hate the game or just simply don't enjoy the idea that they paid money to end up getting their faces mashed in by some 14 year old kids who have all day to play and talk crap non stop ruining the gaming experience (halo, or really any online game on xbox live).

EA seems to be the first to really try to jump start on the American market toward these types of free lower end games with Battlefield Heros. I believe if EA is successful with this game other companies will follow in their footsteps. And with a popularity spike in these types of free online games with optional cashshop it will (I believe) give the "little guy" a chance at making video games again.
Independent game developers have great ideas but cannot afford to make a game that people will actually purchase enough for them to turn themselves into a small business. Look at games like Noitu Love 2 - Devolution an insanely fun 2-d side-scroller by Joakim Sandberg who I had the pleasure of speaking with. He has gotten work for some Gameboy games (including Contra remake on DS) but mainly makes his own games. Games that are really astonishing especially considering the fact he has had no schooling on any game development. You won't see his games reviewed gamespot or anything though, because he didn't make it under the Capcom/EA/Squareenix/ect license.

I am currently beginning school for animation and I have my heart set on cartooning or video game animation depending on what's available. However I want to work with smaller companies. I don't want to be owned by EA or some other big name company. I would have loved to be able to work with Maiet on GunZ (not just because I play it, or because I want to slap them in the face for being so damn lazy). And I personally would like to be able to get work with some American based game developers on innovative and fun games.

I am going to support EA's Battlefeild Heros because I really think this is the way the market will be going. BF:heros is EA's test game in the ad-based market. I am unsure if they plan on implanting a cash shop with it. I also think you should to, even if it's not the best online game you've played (but it can't be terrible, it's made by the people who have been making the battlefield games) I believe it will be a step toward the right direction toward the creation of English online games that aren't created by the big name developers(even though it will start with big names only) and won't cost you 60 dollars only for you to realize that you hate it.

(I didn't type this in word (though I should have), nor did I reread it very in-depth so please forgive me if there are some confusing misworded areas)

[LordShaft]

I'm going to have to agree with you completely, any ironically enough I'm also trying to work towards becoming an animator. You always hear about the latest high-end graphic game that you can possibly play with 2 gfx cards and a 2000 dollar computer. People don't seem to play games for content much anymore. For example GunZ: It's horrible graphics wise, yet the game play is original, same with some older games and i love and other people refuse to try due to the lack of graphical capability (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

anyways, i agree with u and hopefully Battlefield heroes will be a huge success

[Whist]

Originally Posted by LordShaft

I'm going to have to agree with you completely, any ironically enough I'm also trying to work towards becoming an animator. You always hear about the latest high-end graphic game that you can possibly play with 2 gfx cards and a 2000 dollar computer. People don't seem to play games for content much anymore. For example GunZ: It's horrible graphics wise, yet the game play is original, same with some older games and i love and other people refuse to try due to the lack of graphical capability (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

anyways, i agree with u and hopefully Battlefield heroes will be a huge success

You should try the demo of Noitu love 2. It's not a hard game really but it's amazingly fun to combo moves. The game is 20 bucks which is a little expensive but I think worth it to support this guy who has obvious talent.