I was going to make the same point but it is so blatant it has to be sarcasm.

What I'm worried about is how expensive it is to make a video game. Does anyone have any info for inflation-adjusted costs of creating a triple-A title back in the 90's vs. today? Example: Baldur's Gate vs. Dragon Age 1. You know, something like that. Or even Starcraft 1 vs. SC2. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the cost hasn't changed. But, it sure seems like it...

Same.

I was like, "Wait....this is....wait..."

Anyways, I do agree with some of the points. Honestly, a big reason I'm not fully committing myself to PC gaming is because of DRM, I hate it. Although, we've already seen some similar stuff with the consoles, mainly games purchased over XBLA. The future is both bright and grim.

The indie game market will explode, though. Hopefully. It will, right? Please tell me it will!

I think that yes, game developers will take advantage of their fans.

Does Blizzard really need 15 bucks a month to keep their servers up and running and to make a profit? Pff, no. They do it because they can and people will pay it anyway. Luckily they aren't quite to the point of abusing their players yet.

What with Minecraft and Terraria, I would say that it is extremely likely that it will.

*Cradling Verlox softly in my arms*
SSsshhh,ssshhh. Of course it will.

Seriously, I'm really glad Minecraft took off. It was nice to see such a new, if not entirely original, idea take off so well. It really gave me some hope for the industry. Let's hope that Indie games will continue to gain popularity. Just because the development teams or budgets aren't as big, doesn't make them lesser games. Minecraft is more enjoyable, and even better looking because of it's nostalgic style, than half of the AAA blockbusters currently on the market.

its not all doom and gloom, alot of popular games that went huge in the last two- three years were independant and they offered new types of gameplay that made that game into a genre.

I'm not sure sure about their top 6, but this is my top 5 list of concerns and ominous trends in video games:

1. Bad ports are at the top of my last. I loathe bad ports. Take Red Dead Redemption, for example. It's a wonderful game well worth the $40 I've invested into it, but the PS3 version (my version) is such a terribly-ported version. That (including the related problems stemming from it) is the one complaint I have about the game. It's good fun and riding horses across the open west and Mexico is great, but the game is so blurry. I can't stand its sub-HD resolution and the blurriness partially stemming from it, I hate the lack of shadows and smooth shadow appearance it has, I hate the lack of grass it has in comparison to the 360 version, and I hate that, on top of all that, it still has an inferior average fps.. Rockstar should have done a better job with the PS3 version of Red Dead Redemption... and GTA IV. One could also bring up the PS3 version of Fallout 3... especially post-DLC during which glitches, bugs, oversights, lagging, and freezing grew to unbearable levels. Then there's the Assassin's Creed series and a decent enough number of other multiplatform games. Dragon Age: Origins was a terrible PC port... and somehow the unrecognizable developers at BioWare seem to have taken that to mean something it's not. When I say it's a terrible port, I mean it looks and runs like a pile of guar dung on my PS3. I do not mean, as BioWare seems to think, that I want "MOAR ACTIONZ AND KEWL BLOODFESTS WITH REHASHED EVERYTING 'CAUSE I IS DUM CONSOL GAMERZ". If I have to hear one more accusation of Dragon Age 2 or the "dumbing-down" of certain games being the fault of consoles or console players... Anyway, I've not heard good things about a lot of PC versions of modern games, either. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I hate and am mistrusting of multiplatform developers.

2. Short, rehashed, and/or overpriced games are second on my list. I don't like getting ripped off and $60 is a decent chunk of money. I had better get my money's worth or I am waiting until the related game gets cheaper... if I even care enough to buy it at all. Take Call of Duty and what Assassin's Creed are now falling into, for example. Look at Dragon Age 2. As for simply short games, there are too many too list and I rarely buy said games. The exception are the Uncharted games, as I find them so interesting, but never at the original $60 price and I'm still upset about how short they are. I never cared about Call of Duty, but I liked Assassin's Creed and Dragon Age: Origins (+ Baldur's Gate, for that matter). If it's not worth $60, don't sell it for $60. There needs to be some variability... some type of rating board that plays through these games and classifies legal price ranges based on their content. Also, consumers should be a bit more responsible. They allow these things to happen, continue, and flourish. :glare:

3. DRM svcks, too. Steam is a plague... a terrible disease and a strain of DRM that has successfully invaded PC gaming and ruined it, for me, because people somehow accepted it, welcomed it, and now seem to love it. I hope it dies and withers away... or at least stops infecting new games. I'm so very glad I don't have to deal with it for all PC games or anything like it for any of the console games I'm aware of, but there seem to be quite a few PC titles riddled with it and it's still spreading. On top of the price paid for these games, we now need legal, online permission to use them? I call it bullcrap... and what happens if Steam dies, some day? There are other forms of DRM that are even worse... far worse. I also hate piracy, on that note. Now I need only hope the plague of DRM dies and/or doesn't spread to console gaming. I really hope it doesn't spread to console gaming.

4. DLC is garbage. While overlapping the topic of number 2 (short, rehashed, overpriced games), it is more overpriced, short content that is, quite commonly, seemingly cut from the game, itself, and sold back to rake in ridiculous amounts of money for a single game... one not worth the price paid for it to begin with or overall. Those who support DLC and allow these things to happen also irritate me.

5. I'm going to now pick on those I perceive as irresponsible consumers (although it has little relation to actual design decisions)... those who allow these things I hate to happen. The phrase "vote with your wallet" sounds about right. It should be learned... or a decent chunk of people should get some decent taste/value for gaming. A bit of parents actually giving a damn on what they waste their money on could also help. Then again, individuals never think about the big picture... preferring to believe in that "I'm only one person" garbage, instead. It's a whole mass of only one persons that make up the entire consumer base. You're no special in what you should or should not be able to do and you're not the only one who believes in that terrible phrase. It's a bunch of people thinking that, and/or a bunch of people thinking these practices are fair, that are responsible for a lot of the gaming industry's terrible policies and practices. People will never see that, though, and the only reason things are different now than they were before are because now, gaming is at the peak of it's short life in profits, yet is also, correspondingly, at its peak in consumer amount... hence lack of consumer care. It used to be that only people that actually cared about serious gaming played games. Now, it's everyone, which means there are a lot of people who don't really care, or think, buying these products... and companies love to capitalize on that.

Except Assassin's Creed has stayed good, gotten better even, in each sequel so whats the problem? Say Brotherhood was released 2 or 3 years after AC2 (but exactly the same game), would you prefer that?



You say Steam is a plague but why is it bad? How has it ruined PC gaming?

Mmmm, that's personal opinion based purely on whether games you like are being remade or games you hate are being remade. I know, as a halo fan, I'm not upset at new games being made. But on the flip side I'll be the first to admit I'm a hypocrite when I wonder why another CoD game is being made.

I am getting bored of sequals. Its just more of the same. Which is made worse by every game wanting to be more like CoD or they all streamline the game.

I have plenty of games I still need to buy, and a few im looking foreward too are being released. But a few years from now I may not have much to interest me, if a game is sucessful its copied or gets a sequal, is rare I see a refreshing and original game. I know original stuff is hard becuase everything has been done. But im getting tired of grey, brown and "realistic" games.

Gaming will recover, but only after everyone stops copying the most sucessful game and trimming down games to make them more accessible. "What an RPG isnt selling like CoD, remove the RPG part of the game."
Still there are a few original games out there, mirrors edge was great. If they made it free roaming I would love it. Its unlikely, but it was great, it stood out.

I'm not sure about on consoles but on PC the indie scene is fantastic in my opinion. Not only because they make quality games but the developers are actually involved in the community.

I have looked at indie games on XBL, but nothing interests me. I want fun and value for money, something I havent seen. I havent looked in detail, but I didnt see anything that caught my attention.


2. Some short games are great though. e.g Mirrors edge. I like they are original, but I wait for the price to drop. Its a shame the devs dont get my money. If they charge ￡20 for it, I would buy it, but no way would I be happy paying the ￡40 it originally was. Maybe its becuase I got it cheap is why I love it where others seem to hate it.
Also a game can be short, but have great value, I got Metro 2033 (again cheap) for ￡10 and te original playthrough took me about 12 hours, since then I am on my 4th playthrough. For me 12 hours is short, but due to the amazing atmosphere and detail (I am trying to get explorer achivement, and this is my 4th playthrough, only today did I find some of the places I missed 3 times) I have squeezed alot of time out of it.

4. I dont know where I stand on dlc anymore. Some can be great, like the fallout3/NV dlc. But it is so abused. Like in DA2 the prince was announced MONTHS before release. There is rumored to be a prothean dlc character in ME3, already (it surfaced some time ago). Then you have the new pre order [censored] "buy from X to recieve Y and buy from A to recive B". Its pissing me off they cut content for that. Yes its minor content. But its still witheld from me just becuase I didnt buy from a certain place. I hate pre oder stuff as a whole. I could spend ￡40 on a game brand new, and loose content just becuase I was waiting for details/oppinions.

Project $10 pisses me off too. I buy games pre owned, so I should be punished. If they made better games maybe there wouldnt be as many pre owned.

5. I vote with my wallet. If I ever buy a bioware game, its going to be pre owned from now on. Allthough I buy most games pre owned. Which annoys me a bit, I want to support devs, but I need to save money too.


Im sure CoD fans think that about CoD.
I didnt get brotherhood. It looked to similar to AC2 to convince me to buy it. Same with ACR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

I hope the video game industry falls for a few years personally maybe then some creative may jolt into our brain. At activision and it's dame devs they own it seems like they don't focus on making a good game just a good looking over-hyped piece of [censored]. The people at tryarch said they put soo much effort into the game oh what you took the MW2 worked with it for about maybe two years and copy and pasted some elements from the last game and added a few little things of your own. COD has gone the same route that has Madden has does recycle the same [censored] every year and make it shiner and more BOOM! Seriously people at these triple AAA companies going to make the "BEST FPS AAA EXPERIENCE EVER" just [censored] stop, grow a pair and make something original bending over to the publisher to make the same [censored] just with a few new things is getting annoying.. I view COD as candy for children

*note to self, learn to take things apart, remove whatever ruins it after a certain amount of time, and put it back together*

No, I would prefer they do another game entirely from the bottom, again. The fresh sense of new-ness instilled by both Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 were great... enough to fully make a purchase feel worth it. Brotherhood felt like a modified Assassin's Creed 2 resold for the same price as any brand new game. It's milking the series with minimal effort. Give me a new art style, a new protagonist, a new setting, and new mechanics... not an overpriced mod of Assassin's Creed 2. The brand new Assassin's Creed 2 was well worth $60. It was new and a real gem glistening with time and effort put into providing a new game. Now, they're just capitalizing on the ability to do minimal effort and sell a game... with multiplayer (surprise). They're doing the "new" game a year thing, ensuring the storyline can't be followed unless one buys the spin-offs, and making as much money as possible off the series instead of just going for the third game in the series. I don't need the series to continue to be a convoluted mess relying on generally the same, becoming-stale mechanics and setting.

They ditched the good things they were doing with the series with 1 and 2 (making fresh, new games with effort) and are now milking the series... and Brotherhood wasn't too polished. The story felt rushed, the sense of staleness brought down the game, and the game, somehow, performed in a technically inferior manner (stuttering, mostly) to both 1 and 2. Ubisoft has also, since 2, delved into the "cut content out of the game to sell as separate DLC" game. Where's chapters 12 and 13 in Assassin's Creed 2, one may ask? Why, they're being sold separate from the main, $60 game as DLC. They intentionally cut content out of the game to sell as DLC because Talos forbid an Assassin's Creed game keep a person busy for at least 30 hours for a mere $60 [/sarcasm]. Meanwhile, take a look at the average RPG length.

Steam is bad simply because it enables the "I don't own my own games" sense to be instilled into consumers... or at least myself. It's bad in that it also shows that DRM can be successful. When I buy a physical copy of my games, why should I not be allowed to simply play them? Why do I need Steam forced on me? I don't like it and I've never been less inclined to play games on my PC as opposed to my PlayStation... especially with some of the more ridiculous forms of DRM imposed on PC gaming... such as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed-based DRM.

So, Ubisoft has managed to incorporate annoying DRM, short length/rehashed games, poor handling of DLC, and poor porting all in one package that is what I formerly liked and called Assassin's Creed.

The only two indie games that have really caught my attention are Minecraft and Mount and Blade. They're nice, but other than that, I'm not too interested in the indie game market. Still, those two are among the most original games I know of, so kudos to their creators.

I got minecraft. Hated it. Its just not for me. I cant get M+B becuase my laptop svcks and I play on xbox.

Still I have a wii and will eventually get Okami and some older gamecube games (no idea what aside from WW atm) for that.
I would also look for more old xbox games, but the next generation consoles may not play them (most likely wont) and its likely to die in a year or two, conveniently after the warranty expires with my luck.

Also looking at older games, e. g planescape. I prefer physical games though, I dont like the idea of digital. And physical copies of games like that are expensive.

Assassins creed annoys me. They can go in any place in time, but here AC2 and ACB looked pretty much the same, and ACR still has Ezio, same era... Wasted potential.

Are you sure your laptop is that bad? I don't have a decent PC, either (It's a laptop) and primarily play PS3 games, but even it can handle Mount and Blade (Warband, specifically, in my case). There's a demo available for download from the official Mount and Blade site, if you're interested.

... I got lagjust playing minecraft. Its just that terrible.
Also laptop controls are annoying.