“It’s Overused and Abused!”

Video games have been around for quite awhile, and the one thing that has been around far too long is the recycling and reusing of genres. Excuses ranging from “updated graphics” or “updated roster” does not make a new game. Especially not your $60. Since we are the consumers, I think it is time to say “no.”

Many people judge a video game just by its advertisements, and to be honest, why not? Sure its not a detailed review, but if the ad can make you buy a game, then that’s wonderful. The question is will you enjoy what you purchased? Many gamers are quite casual, so they will not be as meticulous as others may be – so it really is all up to the individual and their tastes.

What I am really wondering is do people really want to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of others describing and reviewing a video game? Quite frankly the attention span, especially in America, is getting shorter and shorter as time goes on. There will always be a group of people that won’t have any issues reading “the never-ending story,” but for the majority, people just want to know is the game good or bad, and is it worth their time and money?

Getting back to the origins of this topic, I believe its important that there needs to be fresh new games in this industry. Do we really need Dynasty Warriors 21? Or Madden Street Ultra 2012? Or another generic game based on a movie?

 

Below are the following three genres that are being overused and abused, and scream “please stop.”

• The Shooting Genre: Ever since Goldeneye 007, the amount of shooting games being produced is just one too many. With hardly any new innovations, its very difficult for a game to stand out, unless it has tons of advertisements and press coverage. That’s when games get too over-hyped (Gears of War for example) and fail to deliver in many consumer’s eyes. Ever since Halo 2 arrived, I have yet to experience a better shooter. It really upped the bar and set the standard — and every video game that has come out after that is either a slight improvement on its system, or a step back.

You can have as many artistic styles as you want (Team Fortress 2 for example) but when it comes down to it, its getting tiring. Shooting games are getting very boring and repetitive.

• The Generic Game based on a Movie: This is getting out of hand. It became very popular in the 80’s to do this, but come on video game designers! If there is an awesome movie that is being released, and you are making a “fetch and quest” game, that’s not right at all. Maybe that’s why there really has not been any video games for any of Miyazaki’s movies. Because these movies are so special that everyone is too scared to step up to the challenge and create a video game for his movies. It is appalling seeing a game like Shrek the Third being sold. I purchased this game for $4 new, and that is perfect considering its weird gameplay aesthetics and mediocre animations. Once in a blue moon a video game will do a movie justice, and that’s great news – but I still have yet to experience that “wow factor.”

• The Sports Genre: This is ridiculous. I understand having 2008 slapped next to a title is a great marketing tool – but think about it – wouldn’t it be so much better if that game had so much more than a few new features and updated graphics? Instead of churning out a new sports game year after year, video game companies need to create a franchise where each sports game that is released gets a significant overhaul. Many features can be added as downloadable content, so stop with the yearly version .2 and .3 – its been tiring since the Super Nintendo days.

While there are quite a few more genres that could use a slap in the face, these are the main three that are very well known.

Once in awhile we can get wonderful games out of these three genres, but for the most part its getting more stale than the bag of crackers sitting behind your cupboard.