Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com From: Joshua Meeds Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: Next Generation Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 22:01:38 -0700 Organization: SCEA News Server Lines: 84 Message-ID: <353ECB32.91BF9851@sinclair.net> References: <35363517.A88BA96D@creatron.de> <6h8k7h$shn7@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <6hi2q8$3li10@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <353DD25A.2FAC@writeme.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dreamer.sincom.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) James Rutherford wrote: > > > Does anyone have any ideas how the next leap in 'game-experience' might > happen. Home VR? DVD? 3D Video displays? Mmmm... > > James (~mrfrosty) > Technology definitely is not levelling off - as new technology develops, it creates new ideas in the gaming industry. TV's still have to get higher resolutions, and with higher resolution comes a need for faster graphics blitters and processors. Also, true 3d technology has still to develop. Virtual reality glasses are only the tip of the iceburg - a true 3d monitor was recently shown at a big European electronics show (don't ask me how it works, the site that talked about it was in German, and I only heard about it from my company's german translator). It was very small, but brand new technology. Audio also has more room to grow - 3d sound hasn't been touched much at all by home game systems, though it is starting to grow big in the PC market (with sound cards like the Diamond Monster 3d Sound and Creative Lab's upcoming PCI cards). And if you've ever heard midi on an expensive sound card with 8 MB RAM or more, you know how limited Psx audio is (with 512K RAM). Nintendo finally started a controller revolution, by bringing analog controllers to the home console world - I think controllers still have a long ways to go (as well as force/feedback - I much prefer a Sidewinder Forcefeedback Pro to those vibrators we have in the home gaming industry). Games design, however, is in a regression. Remember the old days where everything was new, and game companies were creative and tried out any type of game they could think of, crazy or not? Those days are over, as modern game companies won't publish a game that is "risky", that doesn't fit the model of what is popular and what is not. The problem is, they create their own reality. If all anyone comes out with are fighting games, you know what's going to sell a lot? Fighting games. This is how RPG's died in the US - they were popular on 8 bit systems, but many companies waited a long time before releasing any 16-bit RPG's. And then, many of those were low quality (anyone notice Enix brought over every RPG they had *except* Dragon Warrior?) So all we had were lots of fighting games, driving games, and platform games, with a few low quality RPG's (and a very few high quality ones which were hard to pick out among the bad ones). So of course RPG's weren't popular in the US. Lo and behold, Sony gets a few good, high quality RPG's, and they sell tons! But that isn't really my point. Even RPG's are old standards - as great as FFVII is (it is my favorite video game right now), the gameplay is right out of the old 8-bit RPG's. Take away the FMV, the cool 3d graphics, 16-bit color, the digital midi music, and what do you have? A traditional RPG, that, while standing out as a great game, would have still had a decent fight with Dragon Warrior 4 (which actually was more innovative, with its multiple characters with their own storylines, all merging into one story in the 5th chapter). This isn't to say that no new game genres show up - recently, a new one arrived, starting with Parappa the Rapper and continuing with Bust a Move. The companies that made those games sure took a leap of faith making the games, and did us all a favor. Also, new technologies tend to allow new genres to show up, such as the 3d action platformer (started by Mario 64). But look at the storeshelves, read the magazines, and you'll find that new innovations in gameplay are few and far between, while the old standards reign supreme. What games are the big companies currently pushing? The Playstation has Tekken 3, Nintendo has Zelda 64, the Saturn has...well... OK, not much :) We, as members of the Yaroze program, need to push the envelope, not only in technology, but in gameplay as well. We have the chance to be as innovative as we want, we have no guidelines or rules. And the companies out there will have a much higher chance of going for something completely different if it is already complete and playable than if it was just a design document arriving on their desk showing some crazy idea a programmer thought up. OK, so I've kinda strayed from the subject and ranted for a while. But it had to be said. Let's stop thinking about future technologies and start concentrating on great, innovative, games for the technology we have right now. -- - Dreamwriter Dragon dreamer@sinclair.net -==UDIC==-