Are games getting predictable?

[McMock]

I find that they are, up to the point where I can predict what will happen almost up front. Scene 3 - long cooridor, seemably empty. You KNOW that at the end, there will be an ambush. Do cooridors exist without an ambush in real life? Yes. But they don't exist in the game world. And it gets soooo tiring.

Oh look. A bridge. And I've just picked up a panzershrek. I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN? I WONDER IF, LIKE REAL LIFE, NO TANK WILL SHOW UP BECAUSE THE ODDS OF THAT HAPPENING ARE MICROSCOPICALLY SMALL. *walls gets knocked down and a fucking huge tiger tank shows up *

I hate that kind of stuff in movies, and now it seems to have creeped up in games too. That whole 'if there is an opportunity to surprise the player with something cool, we should do it' kind of thinking that no executive bigshot seems to realise that it has been done a million times before. And nobody ever bothers coming up with new tricks. You could do so much with peoples suspension of disbelief here. They know you're gonna drop a tank on them when you give them a panzershrek. Drop an airplane on them and have them hide from it, instead. BUT NO! ROLL IN SURPRISE ENCOUNTER TANK #1

There are so many examples I could give. It's gotten to the point where hardly anything that happens in a game I haven't seen before. And it makes me long for the times when you went into a level and there wasn't a single spin in it. Just simple mario, mushrooms in blocks, and jumps. Pure gameplay, but at least gameplay that didn't try to be anything else, didn't try to be a movie, and succeeds at being a lot of fun.

Yeah. It bugs me. I actually thought of all of this when I was playing metal gear solid the other day, and finished it. It had a lot of great moments, and not a single one of them predictable. Like, at the end level, I'd go up tthe ladders, explore, and I was absolutely certain that there would be a squad waiting for me. That there would be a trap, and instead there was just an enemy. Nothing special. Thank god for game designers like that.

[DeadKennedys]

I think it's because we've played the hell out of games since we were kids, not that the games themselves are changing, but we are.

I mean, I started gaming when I was four. Back then, and for a long while after that, picking up a panzerfaust and having a tank bust through the wall would have surprised the hell out of me. But I've been playing games for ages and I know more what they're about. Doom 3 didn't get progressively more predictable, but we got used to the old "Head into dark corner, pick up gun, monsters come out from nowhere," deal.

[Emu]

Not that they're predictable, it's that they're making more sense. I mean, compare a recent game to something from the 80's like Mario Brothers. If you can say with a straight face that you could predict being an Italian plumber that gets attacked by mutant turtles, you should run for president.

[McMock]

Good points, thanks. I guess I'm too cynical. I miss the old days of gaming.

[Rongi]

Originally Posted by McMock

I guess I'm too cynical.

[the_dudefather]

i dont think there was ever a golden age of gaming, at least not yet.

look at say; the 80s when games where REAL games and ready to do anything and everything. for every contra, castlevania and mario there was reams of shit

its the same then and the same now... (even if some franchises are starting to get tired)

but one golden month still sticks in my head: november(ish) 1997, Castlevania SOTN, final fantasy 7 and goldeneye

why cant we have one of those months again

[Captain Goodtimes]

They're fucking Video Games, they are for entertainment purposes, if you are not entertained by them, then go do something else, preferably outside, you fucking nerds.

[eggyolk]

Why is it that there's always one person who thinks they are witty by making the above statement?

[Captain Goodtimes]

Why is it that there's always one person who thinks they are witty by making the above statement?

[eggyolk]

Because you touch yourself at night.

[Captain Goodtimes]

Oh my god, your such a creep.

[the_dudefather]

Originally Posted by Captain Goodtimes

They're fucking Video Games, they are for entertainment purposes, if you are not entertained by them, then go do something else, preferably outside, you fucking nerds.

this is a fucking forum, it is for entertainment purposes, if you are not entertained by it, then go do something else, preferably outside, you fucking nerds.

[Captain Goodtimes]

Dudefather, do you kiss your many girlfriends with that mouth.

I do.

[HickMan]

lol

[Tallyho]

Play Silent Hill, stupid. There are a ton of dark rooms with weird shadows, and you KNOW something's under the bed, but there's nothing.

You said MGS is good at this too. Maybe Konami has a golden touch or something.

[AChimp]

Since we're good at predicting what will happen in video games, imagine what we would be like in a real war am I right guys?

Seriously. I've seen footage of soldiers in Iraq and I've been yelling at the TV, "For fuck's sake, man! Strafe!"

[DamnthatDavid]

I tried Strafing in a paintball game... you only trip.

[executioneer]

so look where you're going instead of where you're aiming :/ its not like paintball guns are very accurate :/

[FS]

Originally Posted by AChimp

"For fuck's sake, man! Strafe!"

[the_dudefather]

rocket jumping in real life is definatly not advised, armor or no armor

[McMock]

Heh. I remember reading a story on a site, it was a couple of years ago, of some guy who played a lot of Team Fortress and went on a ghost ride where you could fire at the ghosts, and he thought he'd hit them all because he thought his aim would be really good from playing the games all the time. AND HE MISSED ALL THE GHOSTS AND SUCKED! LOL.

[executioneer]

yeah but if he'd been playing lots of house of the dead it would have been another thing entirely though i bet

[darkvare]

Games are not getting predictable, the fact is that there are so many cliches that if you want to avoid one you must fall in a completly diferent one, wich is faggy

[McMock]

That's not true, Darkvare. Come on. Game creators are just losing their edge. They're afraid to so something risky.

How many superpowers can you come up with? Let's say, sandman, who is capable of shooting a ray of sand at you. Deathman, who can extract life out of you with his mind. Not very hard to come up with something here.

Yet every video game that has a superpower in it has a variant of bullet time. Bloodrayne, a vampire, has some kind of crappy aura something that comes down to bullet time. It's completely unrealistic, there are so many more cool thing they could do with the concept, yet rather than come up with something, they copy Max Payne. Because that works.

I understand why it's being done. It's risk minimalisation and you see it with movie studios as well, it's done because games cost so much money to make that they damn well can't afford to have one flop.

But I think there is a big difference between doing it for trivial, important matters, and taking it too far and having it influence the really creative, vital things. You can steal what works from the good games, but you can't skimp on having a good story, or a nice set piece, because unlike with game mechanics, a good story really turns into a bad one when it's recycled stuff.

So I disagree with you. It is very much possible to avoid clichés. Not alltogether, and not in every department, but in story, level design, things like that, games don't need to re-use what other games have done, and they do not benefit from it at all.