Sequel 4: Oh God Why is There Another One!

As I wrote this I realized that it goes in the same direction as my last article and for the same reasons. Overall multiple industries are heading in that same direction, and it is because they think that the public will be swayed by a shiny thing rather than a novel thing. People will go after the same shit with a new paint job rather than something that may or may not improve upon an idea, or shit, even be a new idea.
Here is a quote from a comedian in my top 5, Marc Maron making this point better than I possibly could:
"We’re so easily controlled in this weird way. You know when a movie sucks? You can tell when a movie sucks from the fucking poster. you know that it’s going to suck during the coming attractions. Pearl Harbor, you saw the coming attractions for that movie and were like, this is gonna fucking suck. And the you see it again and go, this is gonna suck. Pearl Harbor, the movie was worse than the invasion itself. And then finally when it opens you think but hey we’ve got to go and see it. And everybody goes just so that they can walk out and say, told you it was gonna fucking suck.But then it makes millions of dollars and they keep making shit and we keep lining up for it. It’s almost like they say, hey we keep filling up the trough and we go, Yay! New shiny poop."

Now on to the subject at hand: Video Games

I love video games. I think it is great that they are becoming more popular as well as easier for smaller companies to produce/get funded (thank you greenlight and kickstarter). There is also a trend among video game companies, especially since a new generation of consoles was produced recently, with making video games look amazing which I think has hurt some aspects of video games as a whole. Better graphics isn't an inherently bad thing, after all distractions from reality are far more effective if they have an "oooh shiny!" factor. It is however a bad thing when there are cuts to other aspects of the game.

A rather good example of this is the Saint's Row franchise. I loved saints row 2. It was funny at times, moving at times, and at its best when it did both together. It was a great example of story telling. One of the best parts of the game is how much you could make the main character your own. You could customize almost everything. You could wear hats at almost any angle as well as wear any combination of clothes you could think of (bright pink thong, fishnets and an expensive tailored suit jacket for an example). Saints Row 3 was way more bombastic in its presentation then its predecessor(a trend that saints row 4 continued by giving you motherfucking super powers) The graphics also got a significant improvement which was kind of nice. But you could no longer wear a baseball cap at 45 degrees with the bill buried in your shoulder (because looking ridiculous is fun) This is a minor gripe, but it felt like the character was less mine somehow, which was sad. The third game also removed context for a lot of the side missions which made them feel less impressive: for instance in SR2 you wield a shit flinging truck to show the bourgeois what's what. Meanwhile you just kinda do it for no reason in SR3. This makes it seem like the game creators cut corners, and if I had to guess more money was put into graphics, so other areas might have come up short. SR3 was still great fun, but felt slightly hollow at some points.

I am also a fan of the pokemon series of games, and I think that some of the newer ones increase in graphical quality reduced the amount of gameplay. Caves all seemed smaller, routes got shorter, and the endgame content of Black 1 and 2 was sparse. X and Y introduced 3D models (which are gorgeous by the way) but it still felt small compared to silver and gold which came across as huge since you get two full regions to explore and conquer. I would have gladly traded 3D graphics for a more expansive world. 

I am an outsider to the industry so take my statements for what  they are: observation. Looking at trends in popular games the graphics improve and the quality of the games kinda goes down or just stays the same but they add/change the sequel number/subtitle. Hell, many games these days are just clones of previously successful titles. The modern warfare/battlefield/call of duty series are a great example. They are all interchangeable shooters that produce a lot of pretty minimalist (at least in terms of gameplay) sequels which all look great, but don't add all that much more. And just like the endless sequels coming out in Hollywood they make a fuck ton of money and sell a lot of copies.

These are kind of old examples, and I don't think that just graphics are to blame. Cost cutting is happening more and more due to a down turning economy, so in an effort to make money in a bad economy game companies are turning out sure wins with nice looking graphics in an attempt to reach as wide an audience as possible (much like my last article pointed out about the movie industry). I would just like to see more passion in my games, which is why (once again) I am glad web sites like kickstarter exist to give the option for people to make games based on a passion for the art, and less a need to keep profits above the bottom line.