EA did it again! - How much do we need single player?

[Flogger23m]

This goes right back to my original point above: 10 hour, $60 single player games don't sell anymore.

Again that is more a fault of gamers. A 10 hour game with a well written story, great gameplay and some replayability is better than a 30-40 hour game where you get 20 hours of repeating quests, inconsistent quality control, fetch quests, and other things to artificially lengthen the game. Sadly most gamers watch their hour counter to see how much value they get rather than the quality they receive.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I don't think its entirely the kids' fault, the developers have cashed in on games that make the most money for them, and that is online games with purchasable worthless cosmetic DLC, loot crates, and worst case, pay 2 win. I find few modern games worth my time.

i dont blame the newer generation of gamers at all, i hold developers responsible However, but if you think about what you said in this post, "worthless cosmetic dlc, lootcrates, & pay2Win" , that is often what younger kids using parents money buy/want. Developers are simply catering to the changing market, which they'd be dumb not to. I simply dont like it, i feel it isnt in the true "gamer" spirit, to sell advantages, or what have you ,to those able/willing to pay. Only a fool would continually buy from a developer who sells crap, unless the money they use to buy said game isnt theyre's to worry about what they blow it on. If the money has no value, the purchases made with the money have less weight, or value. A person earning his budget will undeniably, think before spending, the same cant be said for the person who is given his money. This isnt a new notion though, gains that are worked for, are and always have been, more valued by those who worked towards them. But, i dont blame kids, or the newer generation of gamers, its in kids nature to be foolish, & its not going to change

IMO, the closer Multiplayer can get to 2 people standing next to each other, with theyre elbows touching in an arcade, the better it will be. The further you get from that, the worse it is. Troll Trash talk was near non exsistant when i used to play street fighter, or mortal combat in tournaments in the 90's, there were no hackers, or modded devices, or content some could buy to gain an edge, it was factually the purest multiplayer gaming experience anyone could want/hope for. Obviously, going back to arcade style multiplayer isnt going to happen, but i feel like it would suite gamers in the end, if developers would keep that spirit at heart. Atleast thats what i feel, FWIW

 

[AsRock]

Yeah loved just resting some thing on my mouse button to kill some thing while making a drink, YARN. I played it though a few times it was ok story wise (actually liked the maps too ) but the enemy's sucked ass.

Again that is more a fault of gamers. A 10 hour game with a well written story, great gameplay and some replayability is better than a 30-40 hour game where you get 20 hours of repeating quests, inconsistent quality control, fetch quests, and other things to artificially lengthen the game. Sadly most gamers watch their hour counter to see how much value they get rather than the quality they receive.

O hell no Divinity 1 or 2 is much better game over all and will give many more hours than 40.

 

[remixedcat]

Less linear story games. we got enough of those and you can get the same out of it just watching LPs and not spend a cent. And then that's it. Relagated to the dusty attic part of your brain...

These kinda games are made by lazy devs. Sick of that shite. Got out of gaming BC games aren't worth blowing 50 to beta test pretty much, and beat in a sitting.

Devs that charge that much are wasting it on lavish offices in the most expensive areas and paying peanuts (*nudge nudge* EA). You don't need a luxury studio in san fran or NYC to make good games.

Also too many games take the suprise element out of them... they spoon feed the story and nothing is left to mystery. If the player can fill in the blanks too quick they aren't motivated to keep going.

Another thing they are buggy and rushed and I'm not gonna pay to test, you should either pay me or do like they used to do for game betas...

 

[Poul-erik]

I've never played anything but single player games, it's a shame that they stop this opportunity.

 

[Athlonite]

At EA Games our moto is moar money here at my place it's piss off EA

 

[Assimilator]

EA is just saying what their shareholders want to hear.

 

[RCoon]

As weird as it sounds, what we really need right now is singleplayer 7/10 games about 12-20 hours long. I would kill for more Singularities, more Rogue Troopers, another Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance or even another Dungeon Siege for christ's sake. Sometimes I just want to mong out over the course of a week and be told an average story with average gameplay mechanics that I can sieze with my weak, bare hands after a long day at work.
You can see its kinda what people want, God of War did great, Hellblade did great. Publishers don't want to sell these brief chunks of entertainment because they don't make $800 million a year like FIFA microtransactions do.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm glad indie developers are stepping up to fill that gap like Undertale and Consortium. You even have indie developers that made it big (e.g. Coffee Stain of Goat Simulator and Chucklefish of Starbound) that help other indies get to market (e.g. A Story About My Uncle for Coffee Stain and Stardew Valley for Chucklefish).

I honestly don't know that AAA publishers like EA are even cable of making small games anymore because there's too many hands in the jar. For example, Consortium's plot and dialog system is so deep and intricate, a team of developers can't make it because the burden of cross communication is extremely retarding on getting it done. Even Bioware, which is infamous for it's branching stories, you can easily tell that it has narrative segregation. For example, the lead writer likely created the overarching narrative while the writers under him would flesh out the world adding random encounters, side quests, codex entries, and so on. If you just take each part of the game, they're only loosely connected together, often by location.

The only exception to the rule I can think of is Dontnod which has made Remember Me and Life Is Strange. They're technically a big (166 employees) independent developer working under contract to the big publishers but not owned or really influenced by them.

 

[remixedcat]

we need more legit sci fi games that are like mass effect, but not ones that shove identity politics down your throat. As a matter of fact, we need to do away with that crap in games. We game to escape, not wallow in more political misery. Leave politics out of it unless it's tied to a story and it's made up and not overdone.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Yeah loved just resting some thing on my mouse button to kill some thing while making a drink, YARN. I played it though a few times it was ok story wise (actually liked the maps too ) but the enemy's sucked ass.

What game?

we need more legit sci fi games that are like mass effect, but not ones that shove identity politics down your throat. As a matter of fact, we need to do away with that crap in games. We game to escape, not wallow in more political misery. Leave politics out of it unless it's tied to a story and it's made up and not overdone.

Your correct. The liberal crybaby claws reach all the way into games. I saw one of my kids playing a call of duty game, which was taking place in nazi germany & they replaced swastikas with some odd symbol FFS, how lame is that? Also, i swear i recall seeing a trailer for the same ww2 cod , which was narrated by a black lady but maybe im remembering wrong....either i am or the game devs did

 

[FordGT90Concept]

we need more legit sci fi games that are like mass effect, but not ones that shove identity politics down your throat. As a matter of fact, we need to do away with that crap in games. We game to escape, not wallow in more political misery. Leave politics out of it unless it's tied to a story and it's made up and not overdone.

If you haven't played Consortium, you should. It's like the concept of Mass Effect condensed into a 4-7 hour experience that is rewarding to replay and behave differently. It's the only game I know of where you can choose to be mute throughout or get involved in conversations to learn about the world.

It's too bad Interdimensional Games (developer of Consortium) don't sell well. It's difficult to explain to people the type of games they make. They're working on Consortium: The Tower now (act 1 available on Steam Early Access) but development has slowed down because they're having to take on unrelated contractual work to pay the bills to continue development. If they had the means to do it, they'd be releasing new games every few years with the same branching narratives as Consortium (and The Tower but what is available now is mostly an intro). The hope is that with each release, the fan base will grow, so they'll eventually reach that capacity.

 

[AsRock]

What game?



Your correct. The liberal crybaby claws reach all the way into games. I saw one of my kids playing a call of duty game, which was taking place in nazi germany & they replaced swastikas with some odd symbol FFS, how lame is that? Also, i swear i recall seeing a trailer for the same ww2 cod , which was narrated by a black lady but maybe im remembering wrong....either i am or the game devs did

DA3.

 

[rtwjunkie]

we need more legit sci fi games that are like mass effect, but not ones that shove identity politics down your throat. As a matter of fact, we need to do away with that crap in games. We game to escape, not wallow in more political misery. Leave politics out of it unless it's tied to a story and it's made up and not overdone.

I think you don’t understand Scince Fiction, then. Not that I don’t agree about what you said, but without it, you don’t have science fiction.

See, SciFi only uses a high tech world, or premise as a VEHICLE to commentary on current societal trends or social and political issues of the time period when that piece of SciFi was released, whether it be book, movie, or game.

 

[remixedcat]

you can have scifi without virtue signalling and shoving identity politics down people's throats and being preachy about it. Also the arts has gone too politically correct ad is afraid to be different and edgy. Now it's so bland and "safe" and all they make is sequals and rehashes of the same old tired shit because they are afraid to offend people. This goes for games/movies/music/pics/etc.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I hate to say it, especially since I am far from a liberal mind, but you are wrong about edgy social issues. They have always been wrapped up in sci fi since the beginning. That’s what the genre is and always has been about. To expect it to be different at this point is basically asking for a boring tech proposal or manual.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Not at all. To quote Wikipedia:

Science fiction (often shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as advanced science and technology, spaceflight, time travel, and extraterrestrial life.

Mass Effect is based around the premise of manipulating mass to facilitate faster-than-light travel as well as biotic powers.
Crysis is based around the premise of nanotechnology mixed with extraterrestrial life and a symbiosis among them and humanity.
Consortium is about an interdimensional technology and turmoil in what should be a utopian world.

I could go on. Crysis really didn't touch on "edgy social issues" at all. Consortium, in a very deep and buried dialog to imply that the player character is gay but if you dig really deep into the lore, you'll find that it's a trick question (the player character is married to a woman). Mass Effect did from the outset with Asari and later with invitro vaccinations. Mass Effect 3 went full retard with Cortez. Even BattleTech has a selectable pronoun "they" which had some people requesting refunds (I think that's sad that they would because it's really just setting up the game to address the player how they prefer to be addressed). Freedom in games is good but games that force contentious social subjects on players...it's not necessary at all.

Demonstrating the point: Bioware injected the same "edgy social issues" in the fantasy-based, Dragon Age games. Genre has nothing to do with it. It's choices made in game design.


Mass Effect has politics (Citadel council), Dragon Age has politics (Fereldan/Orlais, Tivinter/Qunari, mages/templars, etc.), and even Consortium has politics (e.g. London being a police state, Japan being isolationist, North American Union avoiding Consortium, etc.). These games all justify these politics as being points of debate and argument in the game world for well thought out reasons. The "edgy social issues" variety is a special brand of imposition (best word I can come up with). Bioware is especially guilty of this but the reimagination of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider also comes to mind.

 

[remixedcat]

how so @rtwjunkie ? examples of how galactic battles and time travel relate to lesbian dance theory or gender studies... ???

also conflict over resources,territory, is understandable, and engaging and legit but conflict about which pronouns the occupants of the ship goes by is quite boring and is not why I watch sci-fi and same with everyone else. Or like the new star wars was the whole "muh partiarchy" problem modern feminism has... it's just anti-male at the moment and how all guys are evil...

 

[enxo218]

why is it yet to be noted the negative effects of the (always) online gaming model. I mean online games generally have lower spec requirements which makes it hard to justify the use and development of high end electronic equipment beyond servers and computational research.11 gb vram?, 4.9ghz oc on all 8 cores?,+4600mhz ram speeds?....4k? to render the pubgs and like
HAHA HAHA ...but those expensive ugly spider leg gaming routers will be needed for stable Internet connection

 

[rtwjunkie]

how so @rtwjunkie ? examples of how galactic battles and time travel relate to lesbian dance theory or gender studies... ???

also conflict over resources,territory, is understandable, and engaging and legit but conflict about which pronouns the occupants of the ship goes by is quite boring and is not why I watch sci-fi and same with everyone else. Or like the new star wars was the whole "muh partiarchy" problem modern feminism has... it's just anti-male at the moment and how all guys are evil...

Go back through all the great SciFi works, both literature and movies. They always reflect the major societal issues of that time. It’s up to you and Ford to be well read enough to be able to recognize that. When the issues you spoke of stop being issues of concern for our society, they will stop being part of SciFi.

http://www.thestargarden.co.uk/Why-society-needs-science-fiction.html
Make sure to check the issues in the great works at the end.

An excerpt:

Spoiler

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, science fiction is the only genre that depicts how society could function differently. This is the first step towards progress as it allows us to imagine the future we want, and consider ways to work towards it. It also makes us aware of futures we wish to avoid, and helps us prevent them.
Perhaps the most famous example of the positive effect of science fiction comes from the inclusion of a multiracial cast on the original Star Trek television series. When Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, was considering leaving the series, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay[7a]. King argued that her inclusion on Star Trek was important because, as a black woman, she helped represent a future people could aspire to, one where people were judged solely on the content of their character.
Shortly after, Nichols publically criticised NASA for only selecting white male astronauts, she was invited to NASA headquarters and asked to assist in convincing former applicants to reapply[7b]. This led to the selection of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford, who became NASA's first female and first black American astronauts respectively. NASA's first female black American astronaut, Mae Jemison, directly citied Star Trek as an influence[8], and later appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In some ways, society has changed dramatically since Star Trek first aired in 1966. Many things that were once science fiction have already become reality: we have walked on the Moon, we have created clones, and synthetic life, and many people now have access to almost all human knowledge through a device that can fit in their pocket. Technology is progressing so fast that it is changing society, leading to unprecedented moral dilemmas and scientific challenges. This means that science fiction is more important now than ever.

For the societal reflections in some film:
http://www.stuartfernie.org/scifi.htm

I'm not saying I agree with many of the reflections, but to simply see SciFi as a genre about technology is a very simplistic response.

 

[remixedcat]

as long as they are legit issues, than that's fine...however most advanced civillizations are over the gender pronouns thing lol.

 

[rtwjunkie]

as long as they are legit issues, than that's fine...however most advanced civillizations are over the gender pronouns thing lol.

We can hope it is so!

 

[Vario]

Written sci fi is often political. Nearly every Asimov book is that way for example. But sci fi games can be however you want them since generally it is merely a vehicle for explosions and chaos.

As far as games go I am very dissapointed that Grand Theft Auto is now GTA Online. Online was fun for free roam but the added content each month is total garbage and an attempt by Rockstar Games to sell more Shark Cards (in game currency). I would rather they sell a $20 single player add on like previous single player DLC such as The Ballad of Gay Tony, The Lost and Damned, and Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare.

I miss buying a multiplayer game for $40 that contained everything at the beginning and no further unlocks. For example, my favorite game of all time, Tribes 2 was $40 and it contained 60 vs 60 multiplayer maps, all weapons and armor unlocked from the start, all maps available, and the game was easily modified so that there were more maps and mods for multiplayer than any other game I have played and they would download nearly instantly through the in game server browser so modded servers had good server populations.

Another multiplayer game I miss is Rainbow Six 1,2, and 3 Raven Shield. These games came with all weapons and body armor unlocked, the only cosmetics was the barely customizable arm band that you could draw yourself. The maps were slow paced and realistic. Siege has no appeal for me.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Even science fiction games based on literature like the Shadowrun series don't blatantly inject "edgy social issues." That's not by happenstance either. Games are a unique medium that involve the player. Impositions like Bioware has done destroy immersion when presented. Additionally, games are rarely created by an individual (unlike entertainment books which are written by one). Injecting "edgy social issues" creates strife among the developers working on the title. Keeping it out entirely, to a minimum, or presenting it naturally (e.g. player attempting to start a romantic relationship and getting shot down because the subject isn't interested) improves development cohesion and player immersion. Cortez dropping "boyfriend" at random makes most players do a double take: "did he just say what I think he said?" Zevryn in Dragon Age Inquisition is a character Bioware got right. I think it's very likely that the influence of EA pushed Bioware to be edgier.

Crystal Dynamics' writer was going to make Lara Croft an unabashed lesbian. It's a good thing someone put the kibosh on that idea. Destroying established characters for the sake of political correctness is totally not okay.

 

[Vario]

Even science fiction games based on literature like the Shadowrun series don't blatantly inject "edgy social issues." That's not by happenstance either. Games are a unique medium that involve the player. Impositions like Bioware has done destroy immersion when presented. Additionally, games are rarely created by an individual. Injecting "edgy social issues" creates strife among the developers working on the title. Keeping it out/to a minimum improves development cohesion.

Don't like it, then don't buy it. Dragon Age Origins was similar as well, it is nothing new for them. I don't really care for any Bioware games including KOTOR.

Industry websites such as Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun force these issues that very few care about into the mainstream games. They tried to railroad the Rimworld developer for having asymmetrical male/female relationship models, it was completely absurd.

A lot of phony controversy was made over this, here is the link:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/11/02/rimworld-code-analysis/

The reality is no one actually buying the game gave a shit and since it is an indy developer, there were no investors to satiate.