A Gamer's Manifesto
A Pointless Waste of time has postedA Gamer's Manifesto written by David Wong and Haimoioi that is pure gold. These are two gamers that refuse to sit back and be spoon-fed whatever happens to trickle down from the publishers. They make some great points here like:
Crates containing power-ups -- "The crate has long been held up as an example of lazy game art design, a crutch that game level decorators have been falling back on for fifteen damned years. Come to think of it, have you ever actually seen one of those wooden crates in real life? And did you smash it to see if there were bullets and medicine inside?"
Repetitive games every few months and sequel-itis -- "Where's the game where we're a castaway on a deserted island and the object of the game is to find food and clean water and build a shelter, a game where we can play for one month or six months, because whether or not we get rescued is randomized? Where every time we restart we get a different island with different wildlife and vegetation and water sources?"
AI in games, what happened? -- "We get so overjoyed every time an enemy actually shoots from cover in a game that we forgive the fact that real, advanced A.I. is as much an unfulfilled promise as the flying car. Where are the FPS bad guys who can adapt their strategy on the fly? Enemies who themselves have six different guns and switch up according to what the situation calls for? Bad guys who work in teams, who strategize, who create diversions to distract you? Where's the enemy Solid Snake who sneaks up on you with the silence of a ninja's church fart?"
We love it when people get fired up enough about the lack of creativity in games that they write an entire manifesto about it, we just wish they were in a position to actually do something about it. Every game developer and publisher should read this list and keep it in mind. We're here at the gates of next-gen, and now we want to see everything that was promised, or else.
[Thanks, Dude]
