Face it: gamers are suckers for new things. They love the new and best creation. No one loves the Subaru of gaming. It may be reliable, but it sucks in terms of flashiness. No, gamers are more for the jaguars and the lambourghinis of the world. Developers know this, and the constantly are trying to find new ways of making their games the best and most intriguing they can be. Development has always had its share of "techniques" if you could call them that. There are certain trends and repetitions in the industry that seem to always be a source of that flashiness and popularity. Most of the time the new trends developers try to do crash and burn. This can range from majorly oversized chest areas and inventory wheels. But some of the time developers do find that golden ticket of a technique. They find an implementation that works, and they share it with others, effectively creating a "development technique". Over the last 5 years many more of these have come into play. Once again, most are absolute crap; but some have shown signs of absolute mastery. 5 techniques specifically have changed the face of gaming.
TECHNIQUE #1: Westernization
The power of the west has finally trumped the east. For so long genres such as RPG and RTS have been dominated by the Japanese and Koreans. Eastern development ways and trends dominated so much of the gaming scene since the early 90's. The new millenium saw a subtle shift in this trend, however. You see, western and eastern development are very much day and night. Western development always focused more on an all around experience with great gameplay, great integration, and a great story. Eastern development always focused more on specializing one of these things. In the eras of the PS1 and PS2, Eastern development fit. The power of the machines could only keep up with one of these things. Eastern development found a nice spot in terms of gameplay and graphical capacity, and decided to focus on the unique stories and setpieces that can only come from the east. Games such as Final Fantasy VII and the Tekken series brought the eastern flair to the world. This is what people liked, and what people wanted at the time. But as the graphical and gameplay possibilities began to be experimented upon, western development began to become much more intriguing. These were down to Earth stories, created with the idea of mass appeal. The scales were shifting, and when the new Xbox and Playstation hit the world, the balance of power, especially in terms of RPGs, changed. Western development began much more popular. Techniques such as gigantic development crews and a less linear way of development replaced the old ways of small development numbers paired with a very concrete development scheme. No better example is present than that of Mass Effect. This was one of the first western RPGs to majorly outsell and outlast any Japanese RPGs. The industry looks like it is comfortable now with westernization too. Many successful devs have stated that they are shifting their development philosophies, most recognizably Hideo Kojima, who will be implementing a western development cycle for Metal Gear: Rising.
TECHNIQUE #2: Realism
Another complete shift in game philosophy is realism. Going back several years from the present most developers were focused on a very fantasy and fictitous development realm. They were focused on pushing the envelope in terms of believability. This wasn't a bad thing by any means. Some great games were created because they pushed it in terms of realistic presentation. But just as gamers grew up and had more mature and realistic minds, so did the games they played. Developers recently have shown a trend in making games much more realistic. This is mainly for two reasons. The first is the most obvious: the technical barrier. 10 years ago technology only allowed for so much. There were no tools to create realistic physics or create a believable environment. The best skill to have at the time was to use the tools you had to push the envelope into something completely awesome. You couldn't rely on the technology to give you your perfect vision. If anyone knows this, it would be Tim Shaffer. Some of his greatest games, such as Grim Fandango, were great in vision but flawed due to the low technological capabilities. As tech became better games could do more in the realistic realm. Realistic physics and damager are possible now. Mouths and eyes can be moved to mimic a real person and add detail and personality. These things helped shape a new way of development. Devs don't have to compromise a vision. They can push the limits without the limits breaking. Tim Schaffer can now make a game that fits with his vision (Brutal Legend). Another less obvious reason for more realism is demand. What used to be fun to do isn't anymore. Terrible physics and blocky graphics were acceptable at one time because the scope and the fun of the game made it okay. It was excuseable because there was no way to fix it. Now, real physics is possible. Graphical capabilities are at there highest. There is no excuse for these things. They aren't fun.
TECHNIQUE #3: Guided Free-Roaming
It is as if gamers were pregnant. Early on devs were focused so much on created a linear experience. If you consider some of the best games of the 90's, they are a lot of platformers. This fit for the times. People loved a great experience that led you on a path. Take it to the beginning of the 21st century, free-roam became a very popular trend. This is in part to the major fame and success of the Grand Theft Auto games. These games posed a new way to play a game. No goals. No paths. You choose. This was intriguing. It was amazingly clever. It was awesome. But it got old after a while. Gamers have begun to crave a controlled experience more and more and more. They want that great story and immersiveness. They also wanted choice and freedom, too. Early on it seemed as if these two could never mix. But devs found a way, and games that combine these two things are vast and abound now. This might be from a free-roam game with moral choices. Developers such as Bethesda with Fallout 3 created a gigantic free-roam post-apocalyptic Washington D.C., but they also created a set story (an immersive one at that). They gave the player very tough moral choices, one that affected the story, giving it a linear feel in that respect. This could also be a linear game with openness built in. Games like BioShock have a very set story, but things such as customization in weaponry, plasmids, and equipment and the several hours that can be invested in finding Big Daddies and audio tapes open up the experience. Devs have found a sweet spot. They played around with the chemistry set quite a bit over the years, and they finally found a nice way of making rock candy.
TECHNIQUE #4: More people, less work
This is a plaguing problem with gaming. To make a game it takes many, many hours to make it. Early on in the industry people were working 20 hours a day for at least a year to push a game out into the market, having no idea whether it would do well or not. They were, for lack of a better word, overworked. This is a trend that is dangerous to the gaming industry. Too much commitment to work and not enough liesure time hurts the common worker in any situation. Most people can recall the issue of overworking with EA in the last 7 years. EA has been accused many times of overworking their employees unjustly to push a game out on time. This resulted in a major controversy. Developers have finally realized something: they are a company, and they hire people to work for them. They realize that as the developers now grow older, newcomers will come into the industry. They want to create a good working environment, not one of too much work. So many developers have done a smart thing: hire more people. Through this decision, many side-effect have occured, good ones at that. First, more workers is always good. It allows more flexibility in development cycles. Secondly, more workers has lead to more ambition. Ubisoft Montreal has hired over 400 people for Assassin's Creed II. The ambition for the game is enormous, and instead of tackling the game with 100 people, they spread the workload evenly and well. Lastly, this growth in the number of devs has led to more companies. As veteran devs make room for young developers, they have begun to form there own studios, such as 343 Industries made up of old Bungie employees. Don't get me wrong: gaming is still very constraining in terms of time. But the fact that devs have at least some room for there personal lives is a great.
TECHNIQUE #5: The console is the way
This one is hard for me to fathom. Gaming started on the PC. It was the great ability of the PC community that formed gaming today. Unfortunately, PC no longer has the power it once had. PC used to be a major SKU for developers. Every game that was getting made for a console would be made for the PC. No questions asked. This is in part because porting PC games to a console was extremely easy. The original Xbox (and even the Xbox 360, to an extent) was a glorified PC beneath its chassis. Porting a PC game to it was a piece of cake, and was just more money in the developer's and publisher's pocket. But the new console generation has brought a dilemma to the PC. Consoles are outlasting the PC in almost every way. Graphical capabilities are easier to obtain on the consoles. High quality graphics on the 360 and the PS3 can be compared to top of the line PCs. Most people don't have top of the line PCs, and will gladly fork money over for consoles that have these than constantly purchase high end components for their PCs. Accessibility is much more on the consoles. It is easier to play a game on the consoles than it is on the PC. Even internet, a feature always triumphed by the PC, is being bested by consoles. Face the facts: console games now sell much better than PC games. Developers will prioritize consoles games first, because they make more money. Many devs have even stopped PC development all together. PC isn't gone by any means, but consoles have much more power in sales, and just like a smart company should, developers have flocked towards consoles.
No matter what happens because of these techniques, game developers always have one thing in mind: create the best game they can. They want you to buy their game. They want to make a worth while experience for you. Don't ever think that these new techniques and trends in gaming are to exploit the gamer. These are all changes for the better in my opinion, and they are techniques which I believe will stay for a while. Like it or not, dev trends are changing.
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