We must stop the trend of shallow games!

With the next generation consoles coming out, what do we get? The same exact games with more textures. Oooohhh. You sense my excitement? Ooohhh, it has more polygons, thus they expect I must buy the same game again and again and again.

Is it just me or do almost all the games today have the playablity of a cardboard box? Yes, it looks interesting. Sounds interesting. But you can't do too much with it. You don't want a game that you'll stop playing within a few days. When I buy a game, I want to be playing it for a long time. I think most gamers do.

I've tried playing a recent Final Fantasy game and I'm like, "What is THIS!?" Dull gameplay? Fifteen minute cutscenes? Lots of mini-games? Whatever happened to the actual 'game' like Final Fantasy 1 or even 6? If games were books, they would have more and more beautiful covers and less and less words. Or perhaps its better to say that so many games today are 'fast food' games, to be consumed easily with little to no nutrition. All these cutscenes, mini-games, and elaborate voice acting is nothing more than 'fat' within. And like fast food, many of today's games taste great going down.... but after a few days you look at the game and go, "What in the world was I thinking?"

Is all food priced the same? Heck no! Fast food and junk food is flashy and cheap. Food going bad is marked down at bargain prices. But 'gourmet' items are much more expensive based on the quality of the product.

So why is gaming consumption priced all the same? All games, even bad ones, are priced in the $30-60 range. When games are bad (when they don't sell), they get discounted fast. So the customer sees a $20 game and thinks, "It is old!" or "No one else wants it!"

You remember the true gaming classics that had you playing forever? These games featured very high replayability. Yet, they are priced the same as the pieces of junk around it (if these boxes were filled with rocks, you would have much more replayability). The only way customers know of these 'great games' is either through reviews and demos (which very few people see) or through word of mouth (which seems to be the most used method). As far as the customer is concerned, there is no way to tell if a new release is 'good' or not because they are all priced the same.

What if we took the classics you loved and upped the price? Take a game like Civilization. Would you pay $80 for it? I sure as heck would. You get more playability in that game then in a hundred other games. What about Master of Orion? Or Ultima 7? Or Star Control 2? The Blizzard games alone would still sell immensely at $80 (which we end up paying anyway for buying the expansion pack).

Game development is a long tiring and almost thankless task. I am sick and tired of seeing shallow products put out. I am even angrier at unfinished products being put out there. Why should it matter to the distributor if they are unfinished or not? If they are shallow or not? All games are priced around the same. People often only see the covers and screenshots. Hey, more polygons = better screenshots = more sales. This is a vicious trend that we must stomp out!

If I was a customer, and I saw a game that was priced twice as high as the other games (say around $80), I would instantly pick it up to look at it. I would wonder, "WHY is this game SO expensive?" I would read everything on that box because I'm very curious. With such a game priced so high, I would then read many reviews. The reviews will tell me that this game isn't like NORMAL games, because it has a lot of DEPTH. It says that this game will not be boring for a long time.

Curious, I get a demo for this expensive game. Now, I hate playing demos. Why? Because I hate nag screens. I also hate demos because I'm installing a program on my computer and demos are so short. A demo has me playing it less than five minutes for most of them.

[continued in next post]