(06-28-2022, 05:18 AM)anthony Wrote: [ -> ]A big part of the problem with 'fps' in particular is the label 'fps'. I've been thinking a lot lately how this industry takes language and labels way too seriously and so has its thinking constrained, first on a critical level in shaping how people receive these things, and eventually at a top level when the memes get to the people making the games.
(06-28-2022, 06:12 AM)Brucean Wrote: [ -> ]There is indeed still a thriving (if we count sales, I suppose) FPS genre, capturing the minds of millions still, so it is still existent. To rephrase, I think I should have said "why has the FPS genre, once known for a wealth of different experiences, become so tedious?" The general inter-genre trends for perhaps the last decade have been towards homogenization,
The short answer to this is "pipeline":
(08-18-2022, 05:47 PM)Chud Wrote: [ -> ]I said this before in the "Great Flattening" thread, but I'll restate it here in more detail:
The increase in graphical fidelity de facto reduces the fidelity of other aspects by increasing the absolute cost of production. Recall the square-cube law: a 2048x2048 texture has sixteen times the surface area of a 512x512 one (and such a drastic jump is not a thought experiment). Likewise with the poly-counts of 3D models. Linearly increasing the standard of visual fidelity quadratically increases the number of artist-man-hours needed to add anything visible to the game; thus, when graphics pass a certain threshold, the production of a new game becomes an economy of scale akin to the production of a new prescription drug. Risk-taking is discouraged. Artistry is a fast-track to making expensive mistakes.
Chud's comment here well outlines what I'm defining as "pipeline", but I'd like to elaborate in some other directions:
"Structure" is not
necessarily bad.. (hard to say that after posting this video) games (and especially newer games as Chud pointed out) can be as complicated, costly (this is one of the primary issues, overspending in stupid ways), and require manpower similar to major movie productions, so of course management and workflow cohesion is necessary to actually
finish these ambitious projects, yes?
(08-16-2022, 10:10 PM)anthony Wrote: [ -> ]The spirit from which cool games emerge is dead. Men who like cool man stuff are basically barred from working in creative fields as anything but beasts of burden to handle technical stuff. The point is not to be an outpouring of truth (what is cool is true), these games are now constructed monuments to untruth. Games are made to force a fake image of reality as a bunch of weirdos want it, not to affirm, enhance and complete the world as it is.
Continuing Anthony's point— the problem is that in the past, there were key trends such as "3D" (or any "computer graphics" even 2D, though less) being seen inherently as surreal:
(To stay on topic, I've only selected screenshots from western FPS games made before 2008: Doom 3, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Painkiller Black, and Pathologic. Before anyone tries to point out that these are all
horror FPS let me state that "genre" is the
excuse you use to get
paid to make something.)
..and so, there was an expectation that "games are weird" and games are
for weird people. There was a direct benefit to even strict western games (like anything by Valve for example), as it created a better atmosphere for and in gaming culture. This also goes into the faux-nerd "masstroon" that happened in the late '00s, but I assume everyone's pretty familiar with that and all the havoc it's caused— one point I'll bring up is that cultural shift is a major reason why Japan lost its dominion on gaming (the other is that gaming, much like 4chan, is now a Mexican hobby instead of a white one).
(06-27-2022, 08:57 PM)Brucean Wrote: [ -> ]How many games can't even manage to get working mirrors, when FEAR could over a decade ago?
"The
televisions found in the apartments in the Half-Life 2 chapter Point Insertion can be unplugged, after which they will immediately turn off."
The televisions in HL2 also use a (I believe) completely unique projection method— what you see on the screens is happening real time around you, but miles below the map where it cannot be reached. It's then projected onto the screens, rather than using a .gif or some kind of FMV. This is why HL2's TV's or other screens look so significantly better than any other games.