(no subject)

[strredwolf]

So I'm reading John C. Dvorak's latest editorial about the state of gaming... or the decline of the first person shooter.  I read through it, and my initial reaction is "He's right."  But if you distill it down, Dvorak's saying "Strip out all the fancy graphics, and concentrate on the plot.  The plot is basically all the same, there's no ideas there."

That's basically it.  He's basically saying "You've seen one FPS, you've seen them all."  It's all "fight your way through the mess to the main boss and assassinate him."  Everything else is all eye candy.  Compare Wolfenstine 3D and Spear of Destiny to the latest, Doom 4.  Wolf3D used "sprite stacks" or animated GIF's of each character and had a block-like 3D enviroment to fit inside of 640K.  Doom 1, 2, and 3 started using more memory with the polygonal maps.  Quake 1 started using polygonal models instead of sprites.  Quake 2 upped the antie with slightly better model representation, as did Quake 3 Arena.  Doom 4 (the latest out there, the retelling) is basically the same, you're just getting a more realistic view that starts taxing the newer hardware we now have.  Unfortunately, that's only just the graphics, the plot is the same!

Dvorak in comparision pulled up the movie Starship Troupers.  If you haven't seen this movie, I'll save you the trouble:  In a Nazi-like future, to gain citizenship, you must enlist.  Our hero does that... and sees the horrors of warfare.  However, as he goes to leave, the planet is attacked by a known enemy.  He stays on, and goes through five types of hell to get his girl out of danger and help capture the boss.  Sounds familiar?  Goes through five types of hell to capture the boss and get the girl.  Sounds like Duke Nukem to me.

Maybe Dvorak needs to relax to Bass Landing for the Playstation.  I'm just waiting for folks to start porting all these other games to Linux/SDL.

Comments

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

The starship troopers movie being like a video game was exactly his point.

He left entire genres off his list though. He probably lumped them into adventure and simulation though. What about console rpgs? Or quirky games like Harvest Moon? Animal crossing? I suspect he hasn't played either of those two games.

I haven't really PLAYED a first person shooter since Unreal 1. I've dabbled in them a bit, but never got far. Speaking of unreal 1, that was an interesting plot to me. It boils down to essentially the same thing (blast all the aliens and escape) but starting out with almost no health as a prisoner in a crashed prison ship then ending up blasting away the aliens who have taken over the planet made for a fun plotline to me.

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

Yes, FPS's all have the same plots. At least the Duke Nukem's had some decent comedy strewn in them.

Save yourself from Starship Troopers movie and just read the book.

You can stick Linux on a PS2 and make games using it. Close enough?

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Too late. Did both. I reguard them as seperate works.