Are Westerns the "Next Big Thing"?
by Chris Suiter · in General Discussion · 05/28/2003 (10:58 am) · 26 replies
As of just a year (actually less) ago there were very few Old West-themed games out there. Which is very surprising considering the world-wide popularity of Western movies. But, in the last few months several Western genre FPS games have been announced.
The gaming world travels in packs. Just look at the history of the FPS. First you had the Sci-Fi games; Doom, Quake, Unreal, Tribes, Half-Life. Then you had the "Realism" games; R6, CS, TacOps, and 90% of the mods released in the last 3 years. Then came the WWII games; DoD, RTCW, MOA, BF1942. It's almost a slash and burn mentality. (Find a plot, suck all it's resources dry, find new plot of land.)
So, is the Old West the next target for game companies?
The gaming world travels in packs. Just look at the history of the FPS. First you had the Sci-Fi games; Doom, Quake, Unreal, Tribes, Half-Life. Then you had the "Realism" games; R6, CS, TacOps, and 90% of the mods released in the last 3 years. Then came the WWII games; DoD, RTCW, MOA, BF1942. It's almost a slash and burn mentality. (Find a plot, suck all it's resources dry, find new plot of land.)
So, is the Old West the next target for game companies?
#2
It was like a 3D version of that LucasArts title and the production values were awesome, it was practically bug free on the first version and played great, level design was awesome, but it never went anywhere.
Same with the Q3 western mod . . . it go ZERO attention.
Plus with all the polictially correct pansies that wear their hearts on their sleeve, the "old west" is just too polictially incorrect for any commercial publisher to touch now a days . . .
Mowing down indians with a gatlin gun would not fare very well in the left wing liberal bedwetting media/press
05/28/2003 (11:08 am)
probably not there was an awesome mod for HL done by a profession studio and given way for free, it flopped. It was like a 3D version of that LucasArts title and the production values were awesome, it was practically bug free on the first version and played great, level design was awesome, but it never went anywhere.
Same with the Q3 western mod . . . it go ZERO attention.
Plus with all the polictially correct pansies that wear their hearts on their sleeve, the "old west" is just too polictially incorrect for any commercial publisher to touch now a days . . .
Mowing down indians with a gatlin gun would not fare very well in the left wing liberal bedwetting media/press
#3
Kick the door down on a white guys house take out his family and dog eat his horse.
then tie him to a tree with his own entrails. make him walk around it till he dies.
05/28/2003 (11:24 am)
it would be if you could be the First Nation's Person (Politically Correct) ..Kick the door down on a white guys house take out his family and dog eat his horse.
then tie him to a tree with his own entrails. make him walk around it till he dies.
#5
The fact is they 'are' going to move on, the question is 'to where'?
@Jarrod - I assume you're refering to "Wanted", which is about as far from awesome as you can get. And at the time, its Dev Team was just a simple mod team. In fact, they produce training simulations now, not games.
And yes, Outlaws was a flop comericially. But that doesn't necessarily doom all future westerns. All it's gonna take is 1 success to bring the others a runnin.
And I see your point about WQ3. However, in all fairness, 99% of all mods receive ZERO attention, irrgardless of quality. CS has seen to that. The Unreal mod community, in particular, is notorious for this.
And how exactly is being a Nazi soldier or Mad-Bomber Terrorist any more PC? In any case, it's false assumption that a Western-themed game MUST contain whites beating up on natives. Name one modern Western movie where that happens. And besides, I don't think any publisher would be stupid enough to allow that sort of content into the game.
Again, I'm not questioning the conclusions, but maybe the logic used to arrive there is flawed.
In any case, if Western games aren't the "Next Big Thing", what are? I still maintain that game publishers are like 5-year olds playing soccer. The ball pops out and 20 kids go running...
Qustion is, where's the ball gonna land next?
05/28/2003 (12:02 pm)
Well, the question was posed out of curiousity, rather than deep-set beliefs. I do maintain that game companies operate in packs, and it seems the current genres of Sci-Fi, Realism, and WWII are quickly being tapped out.The fact is they 'are' going to move on, the question is 'to where'?
@Jarrod - I assume you're refering to "Wanted", which is about as far from awesome as you can get. And at the time, its Dev Team was just a simple mod team. In fact, they produce training simulations now, not games.
And yes, Outlaws was a flop comericially. But that doesn't necessarily doom all future westerns. All it's gonna take is 1 success to bring the others a runnin.
And I see your point about WQ3. However, in all fairness, 99% of all mods receive ZERO attention, irrgardless of quality. CS has seen to that. The Unreal mod community, in particular, is notorious for this.
And how exactly is being a Nazi soldier or Mad-Bomber Terrorist any more PC? In any case, it's false assumption that a Western-themed game MUST contain whites beating up on natives. Name one modern Western movie where that happens. And besides, I don't think any publisher would be stupid enough to allow that sort of content into the game.
Again, I'm not questioning the conclusions, but maybe the logic used to arrive there is flawed.
In any case, if Western games aren't the "Next Big Thing", what are? I still maintain that game publishers are like 5-year olds playing soccer. The ball pops out and 20 kids go running...
Qustion is, where's the ball gonna land next?
#6
And it seems you are pretty wrong about them "not doing games" All the retail games they have produced/ing
and its dev team is far from a "simple mod team" they are a professional software dev house and the attention to detail and production quality showed. Maverick Developments
So poo-poo it all you want, but it was the slickest and most professional and "finished" mod of its time and really should have been a "retail" release, especially if that fiasco called "Day of Defeat" could get on the shelf. The real Day of Defeat for that mod/game was the day they "offically" got involved with Valve/Sierra!
you just answered both your own question, 1) modern westerns are a flop and practically don't exist and 2) the Politically Correct crowd has cowered Hollywood a long time ago, thus the reason for number 1! They are actively working the games side of the entertainment industry even as you read this.
05/28/2003 (4:48 pm)
Well that might be YOUR opinion Chris but just about every HL mod site rated it excellent and none of them bashed it. The mother of all HL sites PlanetHalfLife went so far as to say it was so good it shold have been an "offical add on". This was well before the retail version of CS ever went out of "beta" status.And it seems you are pretty wrong about them "not doing games" All the retail games they have produced/ing
and its dev team is far from a "simple mod team" they are a professional software dev house and the attention to detail and production quality showed. Maverick Developments
So poo-poo it all you want, but it was the slickest and most professional and "finished" mod of its time and really should have been a "retail" release, especially if that fiasco called "Day of Defeat" could get on the shelf. The real Day of Defeat for that mod/game was the day they "offically" got involved with Valve/Sierra!
Quote:Name one modern Western movie where that happens
you just answered both your own question, 1) modern westerns are a flop and practically don't exist and 2) the Politically Correct crowd has cowered Hollywood a long time ago, thus the reason for number 1! They are actively working the games side of the entertainment industry even as you read this.
#7
And I really don't understand your argument - you get all uppity because I felt Wanted wasn't really that great a mod, but then you turn around and bash DoD for no reason, which by all accounts has been infinitely better received than Wanted ever was... huh?
Simple fact is that if you're entitled to your opinion about DoD, how can you argue I'm not entitled to my own opinion about Wanted?
Of course, we could sit around and argue about the merits of every indivdual mod ever made, but that's just dumb. Because, A) That's not what this thread was about, 2) It really comes down to personal preference, and 3) I think everybody's in agreement that Internet arguments are pretty pointless.
And yes, while Maverick does currently make training software, this still does not affect my earlier statement that -
Also, if you hadn't noticed, their lastest game, Machiavellian, was "announced" over a year ago, with no updates since then. And even then they didn't have a publisher. So, I doubt that situation has changed given the lack of updates for over a year. But, in any case, this is really irrelevant to the topic.
What does have relevance however is your assertion that modern Westerns "practically don't exist". Well, that simply isn't the case. Granted, Westerns do not receive the sort of attention that they did during the reign of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. But, the western genre is very much alive and well in Hollywood. Just a few examples -
Silverado
Young Guns
Young Guns II
Wyatt Earp
Geronimo
Tombstone
Quick and the Dead
Wild Wild West
Lonesome Dove
Quigley Down Under
Buffalo Girls
Unforgiven
Granted not all of these were blockbusters, but that's irrelevant. What's relevant is saying that Westerns "practically don't exist" is a fallacy. They certainly do exist, but whether or not they're popular enough to drive the gaming industry is the real question.
Which brings us finally back to the point of this thread - Are western-themed games going to be the next target of Game Publishers? Just in the last few months Western-themed games are becoming increasingly popular to produce. Just a few recent examples -
Dead Man's Hand
Red Dead Revolver
BoomTown
Gunfighter 2
Personaly seeing so many Western games announced so quickly together leads me to beleive that the Publishers are smelling blood in the water, so to say. So please, let's keep this discussion to the topic at hand - the future of the FPS genre.
05/28/2003 (6:01 pm)
Okay, I don't really see the need for the venom Jarrod. I was simply trying to discuss the future direction that FPS games might take, with one possibilty being Western genres. I don't really see the need to turn this into some pissing contest.And I really don't understand your argument - you get all uppity because I felt Wanted wasn't really that great a mod, but then you turn around and bash DoD for no reason, which by all accounts has been infinitely better received than Wanted ever was... huh?
Simple fact is that if you're entitled to your opinion about DoD, how can you argue I'm not entitled to my own opinion about Wanted?
Of course, we could sit around and argue about the merits of every indivdual mod ever made, but that's just dumb. Because, A) That's not what this thread was about, 2) It really comes down to personal preference, and 3) I think everybody's in agreement that Internet arguments are pretty pointless.
And yes, while Maverick does currently make training software, this still does not affect my earlier statement that -
Quote:And at the time, its Dev Team was just a simple mod team
Also, if you hadn't noticed, their lastest game, Machiavellian, was "announced" over a year ago, with no updates since then. And even then they didn't have a publisher. So, I doubt that situation has changed given the lack of updates for over a year. But, in any case, this is really irrelevant to the topic.
What does have relevance however is your assertion that modern Westerns "practically don't exist". Well, that simply isn't the case. Granted, Westerns do not receive the sort of attention that they did during the reign of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. But, the western genre is very much alive and well in Hollywood. Just a few examples -
Silverado
Young Guns
Young Guns II
Wyatt Earp
Geronimo
Tombstone
Quick and the Dead
Wild Wild West
Lonesome Dove
Quigley Down Under
Buffalo Girls
Unforgiven
Granted not all of these were blockbusters, but that's irrelevant. What's relevant is saying that Westerns "practically don't exist" is a fallacy. They certainly do exist, but whether or not they're popular enough to drive the gaming industry is the real question.
Which brings us finally back to the point of this thread - Are western-themed games going to be the next target of Game Publishers? Just in the last few months Western-themed games are becoming increasingly popular to produce. Just a few recent examples -
Dead Man's Hand
Red Dead Revolver
BoomTown
Gunfighter 2
Personaly seeing so many Western games announced so quickly together leads me to beleive that the Publishers are smelling blood in the water, so to say. So please, let's keep this discussion to the topic at hand - the future of the FPS genre.
#8
I actually played Red Dead Revolver at E3 in 2000, so I don't think that list is that close together, there has not been one peep out of it since, it was amazing to look and and the play was "innovative", it was VERY poorly received at E3 that year, almost nobody stopped at the playstations running it, and the few that did spent only a minute or two playing the game, by the end of the show, 4 of the 5 PS2's running it were running Smugglers Run instead. I was really looking foward to that one. The statement that it will be available 2003 across Europe proves that the any kind of "American Wild West" that is not completely politically sanatized for all the liberals is just going to be too much of political powderkeg for the US market.
And all the movies you listed were either sanatized for your protection or completely fabricated. I love all the Actors and Actreeses and Sam Rami, and I loved "The Quick and the Dead" but it was not based on reality. It would make a great game plot, but for historically correct or even semi-historically correct games that even mention anything to do with actual American History, you probably won't see anything from a major publisher.
So if you think "Politically Correct Hollywood Westerns" might be a hot genre, I say go for it. But for anything based on history, which is what I would want to play, it would get lots of negative press from the "watchdog" groups just waiting to be offended.
05/28/2003 (10:42 pm)
well the fact that you include "Quigley Down Under" and "Wild Wild West" as a westerns clarifies things, the first was not set in the "Old West" and the second is NOT a Western, that is a Fantasy movie and only a couple of them are recent and set in the very very late "Western" setting, most of them are 10 years ago movies, thus explaining the lack of contriversal content.I actually played Red Dead Revolver at E3 in 2000, so I don't think that list is that close together, there has not been one peep out of it since, it was amazing to look and and the play was "innovative", it was VERY poorly received at E3 that year, almost nobody stopped at the playstations running it, and the few that did spent only a minute or two playing the game, by the end of the show, 4 of the 5 PS2's running it were running Smugglers Run instead. I was really looking foward to that one. The statement that it will be available 2003 across Europe proves that the any kind of "American Wild West" that is not completely politically sanatized for all the liberals is just going to be too much of political powderkeg for the US market.
And all the movies you listed were either sanatized for your protection or completely fabricated. I love all the Actors and Actreeses and Sam Rami, and I loved "The Quick and the Dead" but it was not based on reality. It would make a great game plot, but for historically correct or even semi-historically correct games that even mention anything to do with actual American History, you probably won't see anything from a major publisher.
So if you think "Politically Correct Hollywood Westerns" might be a hot genre, I say go for it. But for anything based on history, which is what I would want to play, it would get lots of negative press from the "watchdog" groups just waiting to be offended.
#9
Westerns were good back in the days of John Wayne, but the closest you should expect to see from a cowboy nowadays is Cowboy Bebop ;)
My two cents.
- Christopher Dapo ~ Ronixus
05/29/2003 (2:30 am)
Actually I believe the next step for FPS is going beyond just FPS ;) Of course there will still be the famous sequels like Doom and Quake, but as for new ground that's generally FPS I'd say they're headed out to 'Save Private Ryan' and 'We Were Soldiers' in an MMOG ;)Westerns were good back in the days of John Wayne, but the closest you should expect to see from a cowboy nowadays is Cowboy Bebop ;)
My two cents.
- Christopher Dapo ~ Ronixus
#10
Jarrod, when you say stupid crap like this "left wing liberal bedwetting media/press" your only making yourself look like an idiot... please take a few moments out of your day (even though you expressed that your time is so incredibly valuable ;) ) to think about what you say before you say it. This doesnt insult me because its critisizing liberals, but because you obviously have a warped view of liberals which you are vocalising a predjudice against based on your own bigotry. If your going to spread hate then please do it towards a group that deserves it, instead of interjecting your dissaproval of a few individuals points of view on an entire group through loose association. Oh yeah, and dont call yourself a liberal anymore (as you did in the sadamn thread), or at least not untill you understand what it means, and dont call the press liberal, its also an insult to liberalism to be associated to the nazi news, as all you hear nowadays on the radio is facists talking about jesus and abortions, and the news is filled with praise about how great bush is for invading everyone and their brother, and this whole liberal press myth, who do you think started that? THE PRESS! would a liberal press call themselves liberal? No, because if they were a liberal press then they wouldnt think they were liberal, they would think they were normal and the other side was facist.
So did anyone hear the news this morning? apparantly the canadian prime minister sneezed on his last visit to the white house. Bush has accused canada of making a direct biological attack on the US, we will be going to war with canada shortly.
05/29/2003 (3:12 am)
chris, how is cowboy bebop western? besides the word cowboy in the title... I thought the central themes were crime syndicates, bounty hunting, searching for your past and jazz. If you ask me Trigun is 1000000 times more western than cowboy bebop... still, both great shows :)Jarrod, when you say stupid crap like this "left wing liberal bedwetting media/press" your only making yourself look like an idiot... please take a few moments out of your day (even though you expressed that your time is so incredibly valuable ;) ) to think about what you say before you say it. This doesnt insult me because its critisizing liberals, but because you obviously have a warped view of liberals which you are vocalising a predjudice against based on your own bigotry. If your going to spread hate then please do it towards a group that deserves it, instead of interjecting your dissaproval of a few individuals points of view on an entire group through loose association. Oh yeah, and dont call yourself a liberal anymore (as you did in the sadamn thread), or at least not untill you understand what it means, and dont call the press liberal, its also an insult to liberalism to be associated to the nazi news, as all you hear nowadays on the radio is facists talking about jesus and abortions, and the news is filled with praise about how great bush is for invading everyone and their brother, and this whole liberal press myth, who do you think started that? THE PRESS! would a liberal press call themselves liberal? No, because if they were a liberal press then they wouldnt think they were liberal, they would think they were normal and the other side was facist.
So did anyone hear the news this morning? apparantly the canadian prime minister sneezed on his last visit to the white house. Bush has accused canada of making a direct biological attack on the US, we will be going to war with canada shortly.
#11
A: Game companies like to stay current
B: Most large game companies are somehow tied to large corporations.
I think we're going to see a lot more "Desert Warfare" or "Anti-Terror" games on the market. I remember hearing on either WBAI or KPFA (excellent radio stations that can be picked up on-line as well) that Sony bought the trademark "Shock and Awe".
I'd still like to see a game set in the American Revolution--the first one!
05/29/2003 (6:50 am)
Since: A: Game companies like to stay current
B: Most large game companies are somehow tied to large corporations.
I think we're going to see a lot more "Desert Warfare" or "Anti-Terror" games on the market. I remember hearing on either WBAI or KPFA (excellent radio stations that can be picked up on-line as well) that Sony bought the trademark "Shock and Awe".
I'd still like to see a game set in the American Revolution--the first one!
#12
The problem is the weapons. A weapon that has a max fire rate of 3 rounds a minute doesn't lead to fantastic, quick gameplay.
I'd like it from a simulation point of view, but I doubt it would go over as a FPS.
05/29/2003 (7:30 am)
"I'd still like to see a game set in the American Revolution--the first one!"The problem is the weapons. A weapon that has a max fire rate of 3 rounds a minute doesn't lead to fantastic, quick gameplay.
I'd like it from a simulation point of view, but I doubt it would go over as a FPS.
#13
And I agree that virtually all movies & games (not just Westerns) have been PC-ified in recent decades. (Is that a word?) ;-) In fact, it's probably much worse than you realize. However, the PC police aren't going to stop anyone from making games & movies, as is obvious from today's market. PC, or not, this stuff is getting made.
So, while the "recent western movie's are too PC" argument might be valid, it really has nothing to do with lots of western titles being announced recently.
But, as for calling them "fabricated", uhhh, isn't that what Hollywood/The Game Industry does? I can't recall any "First Person Historical Documentary Shooters" at the moment... again, while the point may be valid, it has nothing to do with what's actually getting pumped out by these companies.
That's a very interesting point you bring up about E3. Kinda funny how the press seems to ignore that sort of news. Only the latest and greatest gets the attention. It'll be interesting to see what sort of effect that'll have on Red Dead Revolver, as well as the other games recently announced. On one hand it could obviously spell doom for these dev teams as the publishers pull the plug. Publishers are famous for such moves. Only time will tell. But, on the other hand, all it takes is for just one of these games mentioned to "make it", and the copycats will soon follow.
@Christopher - I agree that the FPS will begin bursting its seams here very shortly, and this is certainly a good thing. The enter room, kill, find key, open door, enter room, kill here cycle is getting very, very old.
As for "Cowboy Bepop", while I agree that is very much a possibility, it is really more up to the dev team than the genre itself. Just because you're not allowed to mow down natives like John Wayne, doesn't mean you can't be gritty. Imagination is the key to any story, genre is irrelevant.
@Eric - We just got this discussion back on track, please don't come trolling here hoping to derail it. As I said before, the whole liberal/PC argument is irrelevant to the discussion.
@Neo - Sorry, but I really have to disagree with you. How many "Realism" games have been successfull since the release of CS? Besides the Rainbow series, I can't think of any. (I may be wrong of course.) How many have ben released? Lots & lots. This genre has been sucked dry. That is why there has been so many WWII based games recently. (And how "current" is WWII?) While I agree that we haven't seen the end of realism games for the future, I do disagree this market is as fertile as it once was. CS has seen to that quite nicely.
And Erik is right, while the idea of a American Revolution game sounds appealing, the possibilty of translating that into a FPS setting is incredibly remote.
So, if Westerns aren't gonna be the next thing, what is? Thoughts.
05/29/2003 (10:46 am)
@Jarrod - Yes, for the purposes of this discussion I'm refering to "Western-themed Games" (as mentioned in my first post), which is a fairly loose definition. But, so is "Sci-Fi", "Realism", and just about any other genre. Heck, even FPS is pretty loosely defined nowadays.And I agree that virtually all movies & games (not just Westerns) have been PC-ified in recent decades. (Is that a word?) ;-) In fact, it's probably much worse than you realize. However, the PC police aren't going to stop anyone from making games & movies, as is obvious from today's market. PC, or not, this stuff is getting made.
So, while the "recent western movie's are too PC" argument might be valid, it really has nothing to do with lots of western titles being announced recently.
But, as for calling them "fabricated", uhhh, isn't that what Hollywood/The Game Industry does? I can't recall any "First Person Historical Documentary Shooters" at the moment... again, while the point may be valid, it has nothing to do with what's actually getting pumped out by these companies.
That's a very interesting point you bring up about E3. Kinda funny how the press seems to ignore that sort of news. Only the latest and greatest gets the attention. It'll be interesting to see what sort of effect that'll have on Red Dead Revolver, as well as the other games recently announced. On one hand it could obviously spell doom for these dev teams as the publishers pull the plug. Publishers are famous for such moves. Only time will tell. But, on the other hand, all it takes is for just one of these games mentioned to "make it", and the copycats will soon follow.
@Christopher - I agree that the FPS will begin bursting its seams here very shortly, and this is certainly a good thing. The enter room, kill
As for "Cowboy Bepop", while I agree that is very much a possibility, it is really more up to the dev team than the genre itself. Just because you're not allowed to mow down natives like John Wayne, doesn't mean you can't be gritty. Imagination is the key to any story, genre is irrelevant.
@Eric - We just got this discussion back on track, please don't come trolling here hoping to derail it. As I said before, the whole liberal/PC argument is irrelevant to the discussion.
@Neo - Sorry, but I really have to disagree with you. How many "Realism" games have been successfull since the release of CS? Besides the Rainbow series, I can't think of any. (I may be wrong of course.) How many have ben released? Lots & lots. This genre has been sucked dry. That is why there has been so many WWII based games recently. (And how "current" is WWII?) While I agree that we haven't seen the end of realism games for the future, I do disagree this market is as fertile as it once was. CS has seen to that quite nicely.
And Erik is right, while the idea of a American Revolution game sounds appealing, the possibilty of translating that into a FPS setting is incredibly remote.
So, if Westerns aren't gonna be the next thing, what is? Thoughts.
#15
05/29/2003 (11:16 am)
Did you know that the author William Gibson lists Sergio Leone as one of his biggest influences? Not surprising when you think about it, since you can draw many similarities between their respective works. But it goes to show that the definition of any genre is constantly being redefined, just as both those artists did.
#16
2. You may be right about "reality-based" games.
3. What about games like Deus Ex that are set in dystopian futures? Could those be the next big thing?
05/31/2003 (5:48 am)
1. Why are we stuck that games HAVE to be FPS. Why not a C&C type game? 2. You may be right about "reality-based" games.
3. What about games like Deus Ex that are set in dystopian futures? Could those be the next big thing?
#18
Now Trigun had a "Future West" theme, but it also had an annoying hippyfied PC "morality" play, I guess to counter balance the extreme violence to make it "acceptable".
Now a Trigun game would be awesome, but you could not play the main character "Vash the Stampede" for it to be fun you would have to be able to play as "Wolfwood" the preacher with the huge calverty cross machine gun!
06/01/2003 (6:21 pm)
@Chris - Have you even seen Cowboy Bebop? I mean hell they use the term to mean bounty hunters not cowboys.Now Trigun had a "Future West" theme, but it also had an annoying hippyfied PC "morality" play, I guess to counter balance the extreme violence to make it "acceptable".
Now a Trigun game would be awesome, but you could not play the main character "Vash the Stampede" for it to be fun you would have to be able to play as "Wolfwood" the preacher with the huge calverty cross machine gun!
#19
06/02/2003 (1:29 pm)
Westerns are not a good game theam. Western games would get boring fast, and have an unoriginal plot because of the thousands of Westen movies that poeple have seen.
#20
Cyberpunk games do have potential. They sorta blend the lines between realism and sci-fi, and so they give the developers a good amount of leeway, while allowing elements modern players are familiar with. I also expect to see more titles in this genre.
In fact, HL2 seems to be a good example of this type of game.
@Jarrod - Actually, no I wasn't familiar with Bebop. I merely assumed they meant bebop as in 'campy' like Roy Rogers. That's an interesting take on the theme. However, like most things Japanese, I don't see it ever going mainstream in the States. I don't know enough about the European market to say, though.
@Josh - Hmm... no. First off, while there have been lots of western movies, I think "thousands" is a bit of an exageration. In fact I think anyone would be hard pressed to even say they've seen a hundred. And if they have they're probably past 40 and not a big-time
gamer. Have there been any less war movies, sci-fi thrillers, or police action thrillers? Yet there are games being pumped out for these themes contstantly.
Heck, just look at the summer movie lineup - name _ONE_ summer blockbuster that's completely original. Not a one, AFAIK. Yet, they're all gonna make millions.
While YOU may find westerns boring, that doesn't mean the genre's inherently boring. Any theme can be overdone *cough* CounterStrike Clones *cough*, but just because something's been done before doesn't mean a fresh spin can't be applied. Again this is true for any theme, not just westerns.
The genre itself doesn't make or break a game, it is up to the dev team to inject some originality. Having a good theme doesn't gaurantee you a great game. Just look at StarTrek games. How many of those didn't suck.
All I'm saying is that it seems more than coincidence that 4 different games have been announced so close together. It seems the publisher's have identified untapped resource to me.
As an indy gaming sight it seems more people would be interested in the trends of the gaming industry, if for nothing less than to pick up the leftovers. Personally I think identifying untapped markets BEFORE the big companies is one of the keys to this industries survival. Again I'm really shocked more people don't take an interest in this.
Game developement is just as much about marketing as it is about pushing 1's and 0's.
06/02/2003 (1:58 pm)
@Neo - I don't think all future games _have_ to be FPS. (Dang, who would want that???) I'm merely refering to FPS-type games for this discussion since it seems the plotlines for current FPS games are running thin, and since there seems to be a rash of recently anounced western themed FPS games.Cyberpunk games do have potential. They sorta blend the lines between realism and sci-fi, and so they give the developers a good amount of leeway, while allowing elements modern players are familiar with. I also expect to see more titles in this genre.
In fact, HL2 seems to be a good example of this type of game.
@Jarrod - Actually, no I wasn't familiar with Bebop. I merely assumed they meant bebop as in 'campy' like Roy Rogers. That's an interesting take on the theme. However, like most things Japanese, I don't see it ever going mainstream in the States. I don't know enough about the European market to say, though.
@Josh - Hmm... no. First off, while there have been lots of western movies, I think "thousands" is a bit of an exageration. In fact I think anyone would be hard pressed to even say they've seen a hundred. And if they have they're probably past 40 and not a big-time
gamer. Have there been any less war movies, sci-fi thrillers, or police action thrillers? Yet there are games being pumped out for these themes contstantly.
Heck, just look at the summer movie lineup - name _ONE_ summer blockbuster that's completely original. Not a one, AFAIK. Yet, they're all gonna make millions.
While YOU may find westerns boring, that doesn't mean the genre's inherently boring. Any theme can be overdone *cough* CounterStrike Clones *cough*, but just because something's been done before doesn't mean a fresh spin can't be applied. Again this is true for any theme, not just westerns.
The genre itself doesn't make or break a game, it is up to the dev team to inject some originality. Having a good theme doesn't gaurantee you a great game. Just look at StarTrek games. How many of those didn't suck.
All I'm saying is that it seems more than coincidence that 4 different games have been announced so close together. It seems the publisher's have identified untapped resource to me.
As an indy gaming sight it seems more people would be interested in the trends of the gaming industry, if for nothing less than to pick up the leftovers. Personally I think identifying untapped markets BEFORE the big companies is one of the keys to this industries survival. Again I'm really shocked more people don't take an interest in this.
Game developement is just as much about marketing as it is about pushing 1's and 0's.
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