The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design ... eslave/</a>

Game design for those with little free time. I didn't read it completely, nor did I read it thorougly, but he does come to conclusions I've also come to.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Don't companies get slammed by the hardcores for implementing these very things?</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I don't blame you, it was kind of painful to read; he wrote like Comic book guy. Perhaps someone should tell this guy about Sunday =)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>I don't see what this really has to do with the amount of free-time you have. Just because you're 15 and unemployed doesn't mean you want games to waste your time with pointless bullshit. These are just examples of failures/mistakes in game design.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>That's just a matter of wanting games to be challenging. But a game can (and should) be challenging without resorting to time-wasting.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>However, I wouldn't want to waste my time with a game that is as easy and pointless as the one he describes, I find those boring. I think the type of game he is looking for is something along the lines of Mystic Quest. Well, if all the dungeons were like the first one.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>At that point, I think you're more tolerant. You're also less jaded, and not as able to see through plot and gameplay devices.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>I don't think he's really taking about RPGs. It's funny that we read the article talking about action games, and we think of it as problems with RPGs, just because of those RPG-colored glasses we wear.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>You should tell Capcom that. No, seriously. Maybe they will start making the difficult gameplay on Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe (among every other Capcom game ever made) intelligent, instead of mindnumbing repetitiveness.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>It's times like these I wonder if I should procreate or start playing games.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Short is not the same thing as easy</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I don't think Capcom is the company we want to look towards for innovation; their business model is establish a franchise and milk it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>lol, so true.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Sega, Nintendo, Konami, and often Namco. Sometimes Capcom is in there as well, this is how they establish the franchises to milk :-)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I don't know what people have against evolutionary gameplay versus revolutionary gameplay. If a game is great and another one comes out that's basically the same with minor changes and more refined design, I'm happy (this is why I'm a MM fan). But, if it doesn't work, it's awful (MM6)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>I don't know what you're talking about. Capcom is the only company that does it RIGHT, imo</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>How many Castlevania installments are there? How many GTA installments? How many FFs? How many Tekkens? How many Ridge Racers? How many Metal Gears? How many Donkey Kongs, Mario Brothers, Zeldas, Sonics?

Everyone singles out Capcom as "milking their franchises" for some reason. I think it's bullshit. The only reason we see so many Megamans, so many Resident Evils, and so many Street Fighters is because these are games which essentially <I>defined</i> their respective genres. Innovation is the <I>lifeblood</i> of Capcom. They're a company that became successful first and foremost through consistently bringing new ideas into the gaming world.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I think Capcom is a great company that often exploits and, ultimately, cannibalizes its own innovations. Megaman and Resident Evil are good examples. The last few games of those series have been pretty bad (Megaman X6, Resident Evil: Dead Aim). But the real problem is that Capcom has no sense of pacing when it comes to their flagship franchises, releasing game after game after game until new titles become so ubiquitous that most people cease to care whenever a new Megaman/Resident Evil game is announced. Resident Evil 4 looks to break the mold, but maybe that's because it's the first "new" Resident Evil game in six years (the Gamecube remake and Resident Evil Zero were just exercises in filling plot holes, though the remake was pretty good), and because Capcom is hyping the bejeesus out of it.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Nah, I don't buy that. They churn out sequels that are usually not that different from the original. They are often solid games, but they're not innovative - at least after the first.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I'd say Capcom is relatively low on the pointless stuff scale. Sure they recycle/reuse their stuff a ton, but at least most of their game the content is halfway necessary.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Strange how no one has yet mentioned Activision or Electronic Arts, they are worse than Capcom.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Eh, I think Konami pushes that line just as much.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, that's true. I don't really play sports games and Activision is always kinda "blah" so I didn't really think about it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Of course, I think they may <I>have</i> been relying on RE, MM, and SF to keep them afloat for too long and now they're paying for it, but I'm sick of them being characterized as re-hashers with no imagination. It's <I>because</i> they're a company that takes chances on new and interesting game designs that they sometimes have to rely on a few old stand-by's to get them through the low periods. They simply re-hash their own ideas because they refuse to re-hash anybody else's.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Can't argue with you there. Although, Metal Gear arguably remains one of gaming's few (relatively) untarnished franchises.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>In terms of the basic gameplay, but when you get into the hard shit, you REALLY get into the HARD SHIT! I wanted to play DMC in hard mode to get the secret characters, but honestly, I did not like the prospect of fighting shadow cats over and over again.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Hey, I'm looking forward to DMC3.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Okay, I'll agree that I wasn't giving them enough credit. But I still think that releasing sequels with little content changes is how they make most of their money. We're going to see at least five more Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry games with only incremental improvements.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>But what's wrong with that? Viewtiful Joe is a widely likely game by the people who actually tried it. So, having another 3 or 4 with minor improvements or additions (we'll call them refinements) isn't necessarily a bad thing. And Capcom usually adds something small for each iteration or experiments</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>It's not necessarily wrong, but it's not innovation.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It's not just sports games either, EA seems like they have 50 billion version of the Sims, Medal of Honor, Bond, Ultima, Need for Speed, and other games.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>The Shadows are punks anyway :)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Oh, for sure, but they're still great games</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah. VR Missions seemed pretty iffy to me though.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>It's hard mode, not tedious mode.</div>