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Shooting is boring. We're stuck in a rut.

CS2x

By CS2x
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CS2x

CS2x

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I was watching a friend play the Resident Evil 5 demo the other day. And it suddenly occurred to me that he was just shooting at things! There were just legions of these figures getting blasted from the front of the screen from various hovering guns.

Most of my 360 games involve shooting at things. Bang bang bang. I go to places where someone plays on their PS3 - and you walk into the room, and there's always the sounds of machine gun fire, shouting, and explosions there to greet you. "Hello", they say. "Want a go?" And when you come in and watch supposedly different titles, it dawns on you that they are all doing the same exact thing. And I'm not being overly reductive here - I hate it when theorists reduce literature or films to a few universal basic plots - it's just that the sheer lack of imagination and originality in gaming mechanics really is a bit depressing.

I mean, how boring has gaming become? And how much has anything moved on since Space Invaders? Let's just be honest. Apart from beautiful exceptions here and there (obviously, I've enjoyed plenty of gaming gems), and apart from puzzlers/party games and all that shite, it's all the same thing - it's all moving around and killing. No wonder non-gamers laugh at us. I used to be so absorbed in the details, in what distinguished this FPS and that, but, in this drunken epiphany, I have realised that weeks have been wasted on mindless rubbish.

:D

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cowilus

cowilus

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Yeah, and music is just scales, chords and rhythm; you've heard it all before. You need perspective man! There are many, many different kinds of games out there, and I think an infinite variety of possible game mechanics to explore. Sounds like what's happened is you've spent a lot of time with a popular genre and are just now poking your head up and looking around. It's easy to get caught up playing games that so many other people play; it's the social aspect of FPS games that has made them so successful, and you can see this same kind of thing happen in any genre. Didn't you know you were just a guy sitting on his couch twiddling his thumbs? Maybe you just like hanging out with friends and games are a medium for that.

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

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You've come to the same conclusion that lot's of people do, myself included a year or so back.

In general games are fucking rubbish.

Yet theres about 30 years of gaming history you wont have even scratched the surface of. Buy some older consoles and a shedload of games.

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Cyhwuhx

Cyhwuhx

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PSN will solve your problems :D

.::: WIth games like Super Stardust HD, Crash Commandos and, oh wait...

But yeah, the explosion of the shooter genre has always irked me. Mind you, I'm not against conflict, but it feels like there are now more shooters than there were platformers during the 16-bit era.

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RIKT

RIKT

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Yet theres about 30 years of gaming history you wont have even scratched the surface of. Buy some older consoles and a shedload of games.

I'm 35 years old and have been playing games since i was about 10 (started on the Acorn Electron). I've had every console other than about 3 that i can think of at one time or another (from a Famicom / NES to a FM Towns Marty) and more than enough games for each format. While i can think back and fondly remember loads of different titles i honestly can't think of any of those that i'd be interested in spending more than perhaps 5 minutes with now. They were great at the time, but let's be fair, for nothing more than time wasting. They're of no importance in the grand scheme of things.Compare that to films or books. I've never been a big reader so it's hard to say, but there hundreds of films i'd happily watch again.

Likewise there are loads of new films that i've not seen and loads of new books that i wouldn't mind reading, whereas with gaming there's nothing for me.

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Jarik

Jarik

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I've never really been into FPS', which I find to be a problem when I want to play a console online as that is the primary type of game that I find to have the most presence.

Burnout Paradise is the first console online game i've found that doesn't involve shooting guns at each other, while being more than just a racing game.

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Cyhwuhx

Cyhwuhx

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I'm afraid it's just because we're all old, miserable and shit.

.::: I think it has more to do with the relative simplicity of the intended actions.

As soon as you see (your avatar and) a gun on screen it's clear you have to "shoot shit". Which speaks for itself. Compare to Super Mario Bros. which doesn't give you any indication you can jump atop enemies (extreme comparison here). This makes it easy to understand for a large audience. Just put that same large audience in front of Noby Noby Boy and they'll initially just close up, because they don't understand.

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MW_Jimmy

MW_Jimmy

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I mean, how boring has gaming become? And how much has anything moved on since Space Invaders? Let's just be honest. Apart from beautiful exceptions here and there (obviously, I've enjoyed plenty of gaming gems), and apart from puzzlers/party games and all that shite, it's all the same thing - it's all moving around and killing. No wonder non-gamers laugh at us. I used to be so absorbed in the details, in what distinguished this FPS and that, but, in this drunken epiphany, I have realised that weeks have been wasted on mindless rubbish.

:D

Thats just you though isn't it? You've just chosen to buy games that involve shooting a lot. This is because typically amongst enthusiasts this is what is talked about and celebrated as being great.

If you actually try looking you will find things that are not about shooting, that move gaming in other interesting directions.

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Uzi

Uzi

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I always assume people moaning about these things are just lazy. Pure and simple lazy.

Theres plenty of variety out there in gaming today if you just go looking. Shooty games are just popular, just like romantic comedies and action movies are in the cinema it doesn't mean you have to exclusively watch them, just like it doesn't mean you have to follow the herd everytime, look at your collection and cry. Don't wanna play gears at the moment, then download or get Dreamfall!

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mtrc

mtrc

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.::: I think it has more to do with the relative simplicity of the intended actions.

As soon as you see (your avatar and) a gun on screen it's clear you have to "shoot shit". Which speaks for itself. Compare to Super Mario Bros. which doesn't give you any indication you can jump atop enemies (extreme comparison here). This makes it easy to understand for a large audience. Just put that same large audience in front of Noby Noby Boy and they'll initially just close up, because they don't understand.

I disagree. Mirror's Edge is very straightforward, but it's not shit. Similarly, Doom is probably even more simplistic than something like Killzone. You can argue that Doom was original then, and since then the shooter genre has become jaded, but there were a lot of platformers around fifteen, twenty years ago. Too many. At the time, that was the default genre, and yet I remember happily lapping up anything that came along.

The thing is, I often watch my brother play Halo 3 - he's a decade younger than me - and think, "Good god this is boring." But I know if I were his age I would be all over that stuff. It's definitely about age. If you don't find the right games, you can easily go off gaming.

I can barely play shooters nowadays. I think the last 'straight' shooter I played was Half-Life 2, but maybe that's a special case?

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misterSquare

misterSquare

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.::: WIth games like Super Stardust HD, Crash Commandos and, oh wait...

:D

Well yeah, admittedly PSN has some shooting games, but its also home to Flow, Flower, Locoroco, Nobi Nobi Boy, Wipeout HD, PixelJunk Eden, PixelJunk Monsters and Siren. The download services are where all the unique games are migrating this gen - you've got stuff like Rez, Outrun, Braid, N+, Castle Crashers, Lostwinds etc. on the other consoles too.

It is true that the 'proper' games of this gen do seem to be largely shooty-shooty games though - the 'bald space marine' cliche hasn't just sprung out of nowhere. Its a bit disheartening really - my PS2/GC/Xbox games collection is amazingly varied in terms of genre, but looking over my PS3/X360 boxes, its just Shooter, Racer, Shooter, Shooter, Racer, etc. The Wii fares a little bit better, but sadly the majority of its games are a bit poo...

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Cyhwuhx

Cyhwuhx

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:D

Well yeah, admittedly PSN has some shooting games, but its also home to Flow, Flower, Locoroco, Nobi Nobi Boy, Wipeout HD, PixelJunk Eden, PixelJunk Monsters and Siren. The download services are where all the unique games are migrating this gen - you've got stuff like Rez, Outrun, Braid, N+, Castle Crashers, Lostwinds etc. on the other consoles too.

It is true that the 'proper' games of this gen do seem to be largely shooty-shooty games though - the 'bald space marine' cliche hasn't just sprung out of nowhere. Its a bit disheartening really - my PS2/GC/Xbox games collection is amazingly varied in terms of genre, but looking over my PS3/X360 boxes, its just Shooter, Racer, Shooter, Shooter, Racer, etc. The Wii fares a little bit better, but sadly the majority of its games are a bit poo...

.::: Jesus. Next time I'll add ten smileys just to be sure...

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MK-1601

MK-1601

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I'm 35 years old and have been playing games since i was about 10 (started on the Acorn Electron). I've had every console other than about 3 that i can think of at one time or another (from a Famicom / NES to a FM Towns Marty) and more than enough games for each format. While i can think back and fondly remember loads of different titles i honestly can't think of any of those that i'd be interested in spending more than perhaps 5 minutes with now. They were great at the time, but let's be fair, for nothing more than time wasting. They're of no importance in the grand scheme of things.Compare that to films or books. I've never been a big reader so it's hard to say, but there hundreds of films i'd happily watch again.

Likewise there are loads of new films that i've not seen and loads of new books that i wouldn't mind reading, whereas with gaming there's nothing for me.

Take it to a fresh air and exercise forum, grandad.

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