finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1142]The cemetery for dead (or nearly-dead) game mechanics. [/drupal]
I was thinking of how no one seems to be using health meters in games anymore then I realized that there are a number of dead (or nearly-dead) game mechanics that no one uses anymore. And I felt like writing something so that's how this infernal thing was spawned.
Health Meters:
Out of all games of recent release I could probably count the ones that use health meters on one hand. It would seem that a bar/numbers measuring how much health you have left went out of style along with Pop music and EverQuest. These days a manly FPS hero can just dive under the nearest table and suck his thumb until fully healed if shot to much. But to be honest, I can't decide which I prefer. While I enjoyed playing games like Resistance or Half-Life where you'll be in an intense fire-fight and only survive with one hit point/bar and be thanking the almighty for allowing to live, (and then pretend like it never happened if you're atheist) I found that going around in search of med-packs got tedious and it really sucked if you had low life and no way to heal when all of the sudden a bunch of bad guys made Swiss-cheese out of you. Then on the other hand, the whole auto-heal thing kind of takes away from the action when you have to run to cover so often and also makes the game unrealistic, which is kind of ironic because of how realistic games are trying to be these days.
Lives:
These guys are something that I gladly bid farewell to. Lives are something that should only be reserved for arcades because they are actually a virtual count down to until you have to yank out another fifty-cents to keep playing. When you think about it, it's kind of a dumb idea to put lives into home video games in the first place because it's just annoying when you loose all of your lives and have to start over again. In an arcade if you say "game over" it's saying "you can't play unless you pay, so if you don't the game is over." While in a home game that uses lives it's like saying "game over, only not really because you can keep playing as long as you want just so long as you start again at the beginning of the level."
Ungodly Difficulty:
I never owned a NES, but my cousin did so I played quite a number of NES games and one thing that I've noticed is that they all have an unforgiving difficulty level. Like I recently played some old-school Mega-Man and it felt more like I was punishing myself rather than enjoying myself. Actually this is something that I've wanted to mention after thinking about what djbrowny said about the Water Temple from OOT in my thread about nostalgia. He said that you get a sense of achievement once you've beaten it. And that is what I would call fan-logic. It's a good way to a fan to excuse something thats difficulty was nonadjustable and set all of the way up to "God." Yeah, you could apply that to anything to make it alright. Okay, so the Blue Shell in Mari Kart is the one of the cheapest things I've ever seen in a game but is it a-okay for the guy in last to use one on you and suddenly grab first because it gives him a sense of achievement? I don't think so. Okay, so it's not quite the same but you get the idea. Anyway, back to Mega-Man. I'm glad now you don't have to be either insane or Korean to beat a game.
Turn-Based battles:
I am very well aware that there are still recent games that use this, however, they are a hell of a lot harder to find these days. Once it wouldn't matter if a battle was just you looking at a few sprites waiting for a menu to pop up, but now most gamers aren't satisfied with an RPG battle unless they're furiously mashing the attack button as if they were playing God of War. And before I get jumped for saying that I want to point out that I know that not all recent RPGs are like that, I just had a particular cross-over game in mind when I wrote that. So why is that? I guess people got bored of it and then someone deiced to try and mix real-time combat with RPG battles and thus the action RPG was born. I'm honestly fine with Turn-Based battles and don't mind playing games with them. But while we're on the topic of RPGs...
Random Battles:
I thank God for the disappearance of these. These were just annoying as hell. You'll be on your last limbs, one step until town, then all of the sudden an Ogre pops out of nowhere and tells you with his club "See? This is why you save every other step on the world map!" Ah, these are times that I am more than happy to know to be gone.
Liner Levels:
This is actually far from dead but the amount of open-world games these days is starting to worry me. Referring to any open-world game as a GTA clone holds as much water as calling Team Fortress a Doom clone. Open world games are getting more and more popular as time goes on. There was once a time when I could count the amount of open-world games on one hand. But the good ol' liner world is still around, and this is a style I like. What most developers don't get is that it's okay to have a liner game. I mean look at Starcraft, the story mode is completely liner but it's still one of the best-selling games of all time. I don't quite understand what the point of making an open world is because we all know that most gamers will abuse any and all freedom they are given. Give them a sword and they will go on a rampage in a local village until a guard comes by and kills them. Give them a car and they will use it to run over accountants and old ladies until a cop comes by and kills them. Give them pointy knives hidden in their gloves and they will kill beggars until the entire town comes by and kills them.
I'm willing to bet that in roughly ten or so years quick time events, regenerating health, open worlds and time control will be in here too. Oh well, until then we still have Half-Life and Smash Bros.
I was thinking of how no one seems to be using health meters in games anymore then I realized that there are a number of dead (or nearly-dead) game mechanics that no one uses anymore. And I felt like writing something so that's how this infernal thing was spawned.
Health Meters:
Out of all games of recent release I could probably count the ones that use health meters on one hand. It would seem that a bar/numbers measuring how much health you have left went out of style along with Pop music and EverQuest. These days a manly FPS hero can just dive under the nearest table and suck his thumb until fully healed if shot to much. But to be honest, I can't decide which I prefer. While I enjoyed playing games like Resistance or Half-Life where you'll be in an intense fire-fight and only survive with one hit point/bar and be thanking the almighty for allowing to live, (and then pretend like it never happened if you're atheist) I found that going around in search of med-packs got tedious and it really sucked if you had low life and no way to heal when all of the sudden a bunch of bad guys made Swiss-cheese out of you. Then on the other hand, the whole auto-heal thing kind of takes away from the action when you have to run to cover so often and also makes the game unrealistic, which is kind of ironic because of how realistic games are trying to be these days.
Lives:
These guys are something that I gladly bid farewell to. Lives are something that should only be reserved for arcades because they are actually a virtual count down to until you have to yank out another fifty-cents to keep playing. When you think about it, it's kind of a dumb idea to put lives into home video games in the first place because it's just annoying when you loose all of your lives and have to start over again. In an arcade if you say "game over" it's saying "you can't play unless you pay, so if you don't the game is over." While in a home game that uses lives it's like saying "game over, only not really because you can keep playing as long as you want just so long as you start again at the beginning of the level."
Ungodly Difficulty:
I never owned a NES, but my cousin did so I played quite a number of NES games and one thing that I've noticed is that they all have an unforgiving difficulty level. Like I recently played some old-school Mega-Man and it felt more like I was punishing myself rather than enjoying myself. Actually this is something that I've wanted to mention after thinking about what djbrowny said about the Water Temple from OOT in my thread about nostalgia. He said that you get a sense of achievement once you've beaten it. And that is what I would call fan-logic. It's a good way to a fan to excuse something thats difficulty was nonadjustable and set all of the way up to "God." Yeah, you could apply that to anything to make it alright. Okay, so the Blue Shell in Mari Kart is the one of the cheapest things I've ever seen in a game but is it a-okay for the guy in last to use one on you and suddenly grab first because it gives him a sense of achievement? I don't think so. Okay, so it's not quite the same but you get the idea. Anyway, back to Mega-Man. I'm glad now you don't have to be either insane or Korean to beat a game.
Turn-Based battles:
I am very well aware that there are still recent games that use this, however, they are a hell of a lot harder to find these days. Once it wouldn't matter if a battle was just you looking at a few sprites waiting for a menu to pop up, but now most gamers aren't satisfied with an RPG battle unless they're furiously mashing the attack button as if they were playing God of War. And before I get jumped for saying that I want to point out that I know that not all recent RPGs are like that, I just had a particular cross-over game in mind when I wrote that. So why is that? I guess people got bored of it and then someone deiced to try and mix real-time combat with RPG battles and thus the action RPG was born. I'm honestly fine with Turn-Based battles and don't mind playing games with them. But while we're on the topic of RPGs...
Random Battles:
I thank God for the disappearance of these. These were just annoying as hell. You'll be on your last limbs, one step until town, then all of the sudden an Ogre pops out of nowhere and tells you with his club "See? This is why you save every other step on the world map!" Ah, these are times that I am more than happy to know to be gone.
Liner Levels:
This is actually far from dead but the amount of open-world games these days is starting to worry me. Referring to any open-world game as a GTA clone holds as much water as calling Team Fortress a Doom clone. Open world games are getting more and more popular as time goes on. There was once a time when I could count the amount of open-world games on one hand. But the good ol' liner world is still around, and this is a style I like. What most developers don't get is that it's okay to have a liner game. I mean look at Starcraft, the story mode is completely liner but it's still one of the best-selling games of all time. I don't quite understand what the point of making an open world is because we all know that most gamers will abuse any and all freedom they are given. Give them a sword and they will go on a rampage in a local village until a guard comes by and kills them. Give them a car and they will use it to run over accountants and old ladies until a cop comes by and kills them. Give them pointy knives hidden in their gloves and they will kill beggars until the entire town comes by and kills them.
I'm willing to bet that in roughly ten or so years quick time events, regenerating health, open worlds and time control will be in here too. Oh well, until then we still have Half-Life and Smash Bros.
