Bad Gaming Trends

The video game industry is a billion dollar business. For every great video game, there are 10 bad ones that are left sitting on store shelves or are tossed into the bargain bin and are never to be heard from again. The way in which we interact with video games has drastically changed as well. The old method of buying video games was to simply head on over to your local retailer, purchase the game, pop the cartridge or disc into your machine and begin to play the game. Nowadays, games have become more complicated with larger instruction manuals and the game aren’t ever really finished thanks to new updates from developers. Some new innovations such as the internet have allowed gamers to try and beat each other’s high scores or allow them to play against each other in competitive battlegrounds. Other new video game trends have  not been as kind and are only increasing the frustrations and anxiety of video game users to the point of an almost certain backlash. Here, we take a look at a few bad gaming trends that we hope are modified for the better or are completely annihilated in the near future.

Linear Gaming Design

-The first bad trend on our list is an obvious choice to any person that has ever played a video game before. A linear game forces gamers to follow only one path when trying to finish a video game. Some examples might include invisible walls where gamers see an interesting area on a map but aren’t allowed to go and explore that area since the video game developers didn’t make that area an active part of the map and don’t want the video game developer to venture off from the task that they’re supposed to complete. Video game testers are often left shaking their heads when they need to write down about being stuck in a glitched wall or can’t explore a part of the world that is inaccessible to them. It can be very frustrating when a user has difficulty trying to find something in a game that is obvious to the developers but isn’t as clear for the user. We are proud to say that many video game developers are trying to open worlds up  that will allow you to explore different parts of the game without being punished if you go offtrack a bit. Still, this is an issue that pops up year after year and can be quite frustrating for a gamer and take them out of the experience of the game.

(Non-Limited) Limited Editions

-The title sounds a bit confusing but it simply means when items aren’t as rare as you were led to believe. For example, when Gears of War 2 and Halo: Reach were released; they came out with limited editions of the game complete with bonus artwork, collectible items and more. You would think that these items would be available for a limited amount of time and then disappear and be hard to purchase unless you went on Ebay and bid on the item to get it at a much higher value then what it was sold at originally. This was not the case. You could still find a few of these items being sold at retailers long after the game was released. If you’re going to give the title of ‘Limited’ to something, you better make sure that there’s only a specific stock quantity available to give this gimmick any validity.

Lack of Gaming Exclusives

-There once was a time when an amazing video game could only be purchased from one of the top manufacturers such as Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft. Now, it seems that the trend is for one company to get the intellectual property exclusively for the first few months before it then gets ported over to the other systems. One big example of this trend is the recent success of the Goldeneye relaunch on the Nintendo Wii. It’s not really that successful if both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 are now getting the game for their systems soon which takes away any exclusivity that Nintendo had at making bigger profits. The reason that a gaming system is supposed to be better than another system isn’t only because of the hardware inside the machine but because of the software that is being sold with the machine. What’s the point of buying one system over another if all the same games are going to be on the machine anyways in the end.

Online Gaming Frustration

-Every video game that comes out needs to have online gaming attached. The game can lack any type of multiplayer appeal but yet developers are still trying to find ways to jam an online mode into the game somehow. Games such as bioshock 2 and Uncharted 2 tried to jam multiplayer modes into their games but were met with less than stellar reviews. Also, it seems that developers are forcing people to play with other people over the internet. It’s like forcing people to meet each other at a weird cocktail party. Sometimes, people just prefer to stay within the same social circle of friends that they have. Multiplayer games lack the split screen death matches that were common on previous generations of games. It’s nice that developers want to incorporate the internet with their video games but sometimes I just want to sit down with some friends on a comfy couch and play against each other. I don’t want to have to buy 2 separate video game systems and attach them to two separate televisions in different areas of the house just to be able to play against each other for fun. Also, some games are just enjoyable based on the storyline involved in the game and don’t need extra value that will be wasted and could be put to better use on helping to make the next video game even better then the last one. It also sucks when a certain game mode is included with the game but can only be played if you have a working internet connection. What if you don’t have online access at home? What happens if your online connection is wonky or isn’t as fast as you’d like it to be and get lag as a result? This is all the more reason to make sure that the same main gaming modes in a video game can be played both on the internet and without the internet at the same time.

Pre-Order Bonuses

-These things suck for various reasons. First off, this trend only came into existence to try and slow down the growing used video game market that had sprung up recently. This forces gamers to purchase the game at the full retail price in order to get a certain item that is either useless or will be available to purchase online at a later date. In addition, you may find out that the game sucks or have other video games on your wish list and don’t want to be attached to a game that you won’t want to purchase a few months down the line. Finally, these bonus items are basically hidden items that were already included on the disc and would have been made available to you anyways had they not come up with this clever plan. The bonus isn’t actually a bonus at all and is basically something that would have been a regular feature in the game before video game developers figured out to milk more money out of the gamer.

Multiple Sequels

-There has been a long list of titles that have been cancelled and won’t see the light of day. Why were they cancelled? Well for starters, the developer isn’t in the mood to be optimistic about whether the game will do well in sales and would prefer to go with a specific sequel to an already popular game that they know will help to make them a decent bit of money. Game productions costs are becoming higher every year because of increased levels of staff members that are added to try and finish the game by a specific deadline and the increased size of facilities being used to create these games.It’s much easier to create a game that you know will make you some money versus the one that might be new and become a total flop and cause your company to go belly up especially in these tough economic times. We’d like to see more originality in the video game industry but you’re seeing this originality from games on your cell phone or IPhone because they’re cheaper to produce and require less production time and staff members in order to finish the game on time.

Overpriced Bonus Content and DLC

-The game that you just spent 40 hrs. playing is now finished. Yay. The developer has now released some new levels for you to play via an online update. This is great news as now there’s some new content to play for that game that you really enjoyed playing and finishing till the end. But wait? 10-15$ for 3 new maps? I liked the game but I didn’t like the game THAT much. Video game users are starting to smarten up and realize that they’re not going to waste their hard earned money on something that provides very little value to them as a consumer. You need to take into account the value being offered versus the price that the developer wants you to spend on this content. Most of the time, the two don’t equal up and you’re wasting your money on something old and repetitive that can be put to better use on an all new video game with brand new content for you to enjoy.  

Which brings me to my next bad trend…

Milking Video Games on a Yearly Basis

-Hey, remember that great video game you played last year? Remember how you could hit somebody into the glass? Well, guess what? That glass now breaks! The sticks break too! All for 75$ compared to the 75$ you spent last year and the year before! Lots of video games (sports video games in particular) are coming out with new editions every year that change very little from the previous version but expect you to pay the same price for a game with very little new content thrown in. I’m guilty of this myself. I buy these sports game year after year hoping that something new will be in it for me. These games are mainly bought because of the fear of seeing others move over to the new game and then you becoming lost in the shuffle being unable to find anybody online to play against. A simple roster update to move players to their new teams would be a lot cheaper and would allow the video game developer to come out with a new game every few years that actually improves upon the previous game with content that will actually universally change the way that the game is played.

Overhyping a Game

-Every year, video game marketing gurus are throwing around catchphrases like ‘Best Game Ever’ and ‘Better than anything you’ve ever played before’. These developers are so full of their own baloney that they’re already planning 2 to 3 sequels to make their game a trilogy or a quadrilogy before the game has even been released yet. Games such as Too Human and Advent Rising were supposed to be trilogies but failed to deliver at store shelves and those sequels never came out. Marketing is all part of the video game business but sometimes it’s better to use these catchphrases after the video game has actually sold a few copies rather then to prophecize about it being the best thing ever before it’s even made its way into retail store shelves.

Actors in Crappy Video Games

-There used to be a time when actors wouldn’t dare do voice over work for a video game. Their agents pleaded with them not to do the job so that they didn’t ruin their reputation in Hollywood by doing a job that was considered beneath their acting ability. A few actors would show up and do video game voice over work such as Mark Hamill but that was basically it. Now, you have actors wanting to do voice over work for any video game out there as video game audio is seen as a brand extension to allow actors to make some extra cash on the side. Most of the actors (with a few rare exceptions) doing voice over work are not big name actors and are either C or D list actors that haven’t been in the spotlight in a very long time and are looking for a way to get back into Hollywood’s good graces.

Being an actor is not the same thing as being a voice specialist and lots of video game voice over actors are being replaced by actors who simply aren’t as good at expressing emotions or portraying different characters in a video game. These specialists are chosen because they can play multiple roles and are paid the same rate rather than having to choose multiple people to play different characters and have increased labor costs. In addition, Hollywood actors don’t come cheap as this is only going to increase production costs even more and make the chances of a sequel become even higher because of the bigger risks involved with the game.

*We’ll put an asterisk next to the following trends as it’s still too soon to tell whether they’ll be successful or not. The discussion of 3D gaming, touch screen and motion control video game accessories will be an interesting area to explore in the future as we see how new technologies such as the Microsoft Kinect , Nintendo Wii U and the Ipad progress with the software that is provided to them and whether or not we’ll see some legitimate breakthroughs in gaming or if they will become another bad trend in the video game industry.