This thing actually worries me

[TheChosen]

You know when people complain that were not getting anything else but games where you shoot things at? Well, Im starting to think that we should be happy that were at least getting those, because it looks like this industry is starting to go to a scary directions.

Do you know whats been popular lately? Games on Facebook and games on mobile devices like Androids and iPads. There's tons of them, they're cheap and they sell like hot cakes, and looks like they're popular enough to cause this

http://www.destructoid.com/industry-vets-start-free-to-play-supergroup-211406.phtml

Now I admit, Im not well versed into games on such devises with exception of couple of quick games of Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail on Facebook (perhaps LJ could tell some stuff, since she's gotta iPad). It worries me however that someone considers these as AAA titles. They're like, games you play for couple of minutes since you're bored/waiting/got nothing better to do. AAA title is something like Super Mario Galaxy, Deus Ex Human Revolution or Uncharted. Hell, even Call of Duty Black Ops fits to the mold. Sure you can make a quality iPad game like Angry Birds, but its not really comparable to Call of Duty.

Now, imagine if all the developers start to think that "Hey! instead of putting effort to next project, lets just make a quick game for an iPad.". There is little to none development costs and you'll get a quick buck. Minimal development costs makes it tempting for small indy-developers too (and there definitely will be not much of development costs if you're porting an old flash game you posted on Newgrounds years ago).

This is starting to show on the business side too. If you've been following the 3DS news, you know Nintendo's been on a lot of turbulence lately. What do analysts suggest? Nintendo should quit hardware, go third party and start making these kind of cheap games (value around a dollar). Nintendo says no and their stocks fall a bit, since everyone believes these small, cheap games are the future of this business.

But that aint gonna happen.....right? Right?

[Eagle of Fire]

Erm... Ain't gonna happen?

I reckon it already happened a while ago. Why do you think I keep whining about the decline of PC gaming in general?

[DarthHelmet86]

Doing that would mean giving up the market on console and PC gaming someone would swoop in and steal all that nice money they just walked away from. No company will ever do that. I would expect that we will see more tie in games on iPads, tablets and Facebook but you only have to play them if you want to.

Do you think Sony will stop making games? They have a console they need games for they will keep making and paying others to make games non-stop. PC gaming hasn't gone anywhere even though plenty of people said it would. All we (and by we I mean all gamers) ever do is bitch and whine about how gaming is not how it used to be and it is all going into the bin and gaming will be over soon, we have from the start of gaming and no doubt will till the end of time.

Basically what I am saying is don't be worried or upset or mad or grumpy just play some damn games and have fun.

[Lulu_Jane]

I don't think it's anything to worry about :)

I'm actually looking forward to a bit of a renaissance in adventure gaming, precisely because the tablet is the perfect medium for it. Both Myst-style games and my personally favoured Sierra/LucasArts style games really fit well with the functionality and format of the tablet.


It's still early days for gaming on a tablet, and I can't imagine them replacing pc or console gaming mostly because of the form of the product. But who knows, maybe some professional devs getting into it will change everything, it's not a bad thing.

Also, although I'm not a fan of "casual gaming" I don't see it as a problem, it's just a market that wasn't there back in the past, "normal" people (eg: not nerds) didn't have ready access to technology etc. like they do today. Casual gaming is just a new extension of the market place. I don't think it will replace anything, more that it's just an extension of what's already around. Besides, it could bring a whole heap of new talent and ideas into the more traditional gaming world.

Aside from anything else, if millions of micro-transactions on some ipad/android bejewelled app ended up help fund my new Deus Ex 4 then I'm not going to complain :)

[BranjoHello]

I recently started working at local elementary school as professor of informatics. On my first class I put on a little interview to all kids 5th-8th grade (in my country there are 1-8 grades of elementary school and there are no informatics in first 4 grades) so they are 11-14 years old. Most of them play games only on facebook.
So yeah, the world of gaming is rolling in the direction of casual gaming more and more. I myself don't play nothing that that runs in browser (I did play Battlefield Heroes a while ago) and don't have or need facebook either, so I don't like this new direction but I can't pretend it isn't there.

[Eagle of Fire]

What I find most fascinating in this era of flash games is that you can draw a direct parallel from the early days of the PC Dos era. Flash game makers knows that their medium is largely restricted by the power of the computer running the game which in turn force them to think thoroughly how to present and make their games so they can work well on old computers or computer with a very limited processing power, like phones, tablet PC, etc.

What I find fascinating is that it is always when the developers are limited in such a way that they manage to get the best of their medium.

[Lulu_Jane]

Hmmm, I've never thought of that parallel before. That's a pretty good point.

It will be interesting to see how everything evolves :)

[Japo]

Doing that would mean giving up the market on console and PC gaming someone would swoop in and steal all that nice money they just walked away from.

That.

[Smiling Spectre]

Well, I agree with Eagle of Fire here. It is not "total regress" here, it's just opposite: "a new beginning".

Every new medium with new auditory goes to "casual" way. Well, I can only extrapolate this from cinema, and I can only vague imagine all this computers of 80s, but I quite aware of PC. :)

It was first peak of "overcasual" games in early 80s - Pacman, Space Invaders, Bruce Lee, etc. Then target auditory grown up, and games (in whole, of course, not every one! :) become more mature. Just up to late 80s-early 90s, when cycle repeats itself with relatively cheap computers and gigatonns of shareware. :) Just the same Dices, Pacmans and Galaxians. :) Then it become more serious on PC (and most of this nice and simple casuals goes to consoles), and we had "Golden Era" of Fallouts, Quakes, etc. :) In early 2000s casual games strikes back with, well, the same shareware but on new level! Reflexive, Alawar, Big Fish - all of them was over-casual on the beginning. Then Flash become very easy platform and, well, another teratons of "simple and easy" games here again! And new medium - Facebooks, Java phones, pads - only added to this huge wave of simple games.

But... it is looks so grim only if you are looking on the beginning of it. Shareware of 90s very fast goes to quite "serious" projects. Reflexive before extinction publicized such games as Avernum 4, Disciples 2 and Tales of Monkey Island that are quite far from "casual enjoyment". Big Fish even now gives big selection of simple-but-complicated JRPG and quite a bunch of "serious" games of the past. Even Flash have some "serious" projects already!

So I think, it is repeating process for every human neophyte: casual games - light games - serious play - hardcore. Of course, not every neophyte will become light gamer, and there is only handful of hardcore gamers. And every such transformation requires time. So for me market only reflects this tendency: it have a lot of fresh players now (so lot of casual games) and some of "light" ones (so "light" versions are popular now too). More heavy-involved gamers almost non-exist on this background, so games for such players almost non-exist too. But it's only matter of time, you see... :)

[Panthro]

There will always be people making PC games. We may not be the major focus (the time when we were was brief), but there is still profit to be made and we will be served by the likes of Paradox even if the major publishers desert us.

Consoles on the other hand, may be in more trouble.

People may start thinking why they should bother buying a console when they can play games through facebook, mobile devices and tablets/laptops. Most people who would be in the right demographic to buy a console are in the same demographic to buy smartphones, laptops and the like. Why buy multiple devices if you can get plenty of cheap games on the ones you already have?

For people who would call themselves "gamers", there will always be a console or gaming PC and the companies producing for that demographic. But the majority of people wouldn't ever call themselves gamers despite how many iphone games and facebook games they play. The success of things like Farmville shows the potential for this market, and now everyone wants a piece of the action.

But as I said before, I wouldn't worry about the future of PC gaming just yet. There are plenty of smaller PC game developers who will provide us with games for the foreseeable future.

[Lulu_Jane]

It was first peak of "overcasual" games in early 80s - Pacman, Space Invaders, Bruce Lee, etc. Then target auditory grown up, and games (in whole, of course, not every one! :) become more mature. Just up to late 80s-early 90s, when cycle repeats itself with relatively cheap computers and gigatonns of shareware. :)

This is a really good point, and I'm slapping my forehead that I'd not seen it that way before. Of course ye olde arcade games were casual games.

I guess the circle of life is just continuing to go around :)

[Scatty]

While at the same time developing, and the next big ideas of the possible appearance of big scale future video games are already sprouting. Of course even there the circle of life repeats itself, since the ideas are not that different from the cyberpunk virtual reality visions of the 80's of 20th century.

[Red Fortress]

It get really bad when publishers try to cash in by turning solid game series into casual :whops: games.

Case in point:
http://www.2kgames.com/civworld/alpha/img/civworld_hed_3.jpg

Here's the gameplay :ph34r: video... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZJ97DCNXXo)

One of the :headslap: reasons I'm currently on a retro gaming binge, looking at old games that I missed out on.

[Eagle of Fire]

It get really bad when publishers try to cash in by turning solid game series into casual games.
They've screwed around about every good series so far... I actually wonder what took them so long.