Gaming: Is Elitism Such a Bad Thing After All?

How the hell does one follow up a lengthy rant comparing the original Star Wars Trilogy to the Lord of the Rings movies? It's quite daunting. Well, I guess I'll get things rolling by continuing the geek-fest!

Video games are entering an interesting age (Now there is an opening statement geeky enough to be a worthy successor to the previous post!). Seriously. Gaming has reached a new level of integration into mainstream society, where "normal" people can safely admit to owning a console (usually an X-Box) and enjoying Tony Hawk, SSX3, or even a first-person shooter of some kind (i.e. Halo) without fear of being labelled a loser or lazy-ass video game loner freak. Video game commercials on TV are regular, run-of-the-mill occurances - even during prime time. The "uncoolness" associated with playing games is fading, slowly. A lot of this, I think, has to do with the fact that games have reached a point technologically that they're grabbing the attention of people with only a passing interest in the genre; games are now able to do things that reach a wider audience, like create realistic-looking characters and environments (which lessens the player's need for imagination, which generates a broader appeal).

More people playing games means more money in the game industry, means more jobs in the game industry, more developers, stiffer competition therein, and ultimately, better games. Or at least I hope so. There are a few different possibilities for what growth of the industry can do. One possiblity is that it could mean that you'll get a higher instance of game developers/publishers trying to hit wider demographics with their games (a la blockbuster Hollywood movies), resulting in watered-down crap that everyone thinks is okay, rather than intensely good design that only a few groups of people like. As a bit of a gaming elitist (I admit it), I definitely prefer the latter, but not just because I'm a snob who has an irrational distaste for most "casual gamers" and their attitudes towards the genre (the sort of people who skip in-game cutscenes and then complain about not knowing what to do next). I think that there's more than enough room for everyone; you're bound to find a game that you like sooner or later, and I think a bunch of games that do one or two things really well is a far better thing than a whole bunch of games that vaguely seem the same.

That's part of the problem I have with the whole "Grand Theft Auto Revolution." I'll preface this by saying that I enjoyed playing GTA: Vice City, and found it to be a solid and entertaining game. Certainly, the GTA franchise brings a lot of good things to the table. It's an action game that's about as long as an RPG, counting all the times you repeat failed missions and search for extras. It upped the ante in games for replay value and hidden extras. It's freedom of movement, "do what you want (as long as you plan on killing people and blowing stuff up)" gameplay that blended shooter, action, and racing/driving into one package. Trouble is, now everybody wants their games like that. And I'm not talking about hollow rip-offs (True Crime L.A. or whatever), either. The influence is affecting other genres, and people are starting to feel disappointed when a game presents you with something linear. To be honest, that seems to me to be equivalent to complaining that a really good novel isn't a choose-your-own-adventure.

A part of this melding of genres comes the great casualties of the niche genres being "evolved" into something new. In some cases, it's a good thing (Ratchet & Clank, and Jak, have done great things for the platformer genre). The masterpiece that is Burnout 3 combines the thrill of effectively racing cars with the utter joy of watching them crash and flip through the air like scrap-iron ballerinas, with a huge amount of unlockable tracks and cars (similar in some ways to a Tony Hawk game in that respect). But there are casualties.

The RPG genre is dying. Role-playing games have two main features: the story is a primary element of the game, rather than a backdrop, and there is a focus on upgrading and customizing stats/equipment. There is also, amoungst console-based RPGs, a tradition of having a turn-based battle system - a "plan your move, give your orders, watch the result, watch the enemy's turn, then repeat" way of doing things. What's happening is, developers are ripping out the first two elements, slapping them into other games (for better or worse), and then tossing the third element into the trash. Now, it's pretty cool that there are more games, like sports and action titles, where you can upgrade your character's abilities, learn new moves, get new gear, etc. It's done wonders for racing games (though arguably that level of customization comes from Gran Turismo and its PC-based predecessors, not RPGs). And games like Metal Gear Solid, and Zone of Enders 2, which play like action games but feature rich, RPG-like stories, are a great blessing on the industry as a whole. But what I miss are the games that gave birth to those elements being slapped into other games. People are moving on to RPGs with A.I.-controlled party members, realtime battles, and card-game crap thrown into the main gameplay for no real reason. I think developers are losing sight of the fact that the core audience of RPG gamers are people who fear change, and are historically willing to put up with crap graphics if it means sitting through a good story and solid game design. Moving away from that hardcore nice, I think, is a bit of a mistake.

Hopefully, though, there will be developers/publishers who pick up the slack. Atlus, I think, will prove to be one such publisher. So far, they've brought over three fantastic games by Nippon-Ichi from Japan: Disgaea, La Pucelle: Tactics, and Phantom Brave; all of them 2D strategy-RPG's with brightly-coloured, amazing artwork and a great sense of humour. They also recently published Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, a mind-blowingly stylish and detailed RPG set during the end, and subsequent potential rebirth, of our world (more on that later; I'm going to start playing it later this week). Another game in the Shin Megami Tensei line of games will come out later this year. All of these games are pretty hardcore and aimed at a narrow audience, but they seem to be making a name for themselves. With the success of Atlus' titles, RPG's like Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and oddball experimental games like Katamari Damashi (look it up; it's friggin wierd), I think there will be a place for niche games in a world where Final Fantasy is a bit watered-down and there are more than 3 *mainstream* console games (getting full-page ads, etc) released in a year based, essentially, around straight-up porn.