The lights are on
I avidly follow videogames whether they be Blockbusters like Halo Reach, or A smaller release such as Enslaved Odyssey to the West. Whether it be through youtube or multiple websites or the gameinformer site/magazine, I consider myself very active in following games. Now everywhere I go there is always a few things in common but the one thing I always see no matter what is " This game looks like Halo Reach and Gears" or " Wow this looks like a mash up of Gears and Cod" or anything in between. These comments always just really push my buttons, Alright Gears, Cod, Halo and any other major series are all fun and solid games, but we have to realize they aren't the first freaking videogames to be created, or to have done anything new. People seem to forget that videogames were even in existence until the mid to late 90's. Fact of the matter is gaming is now nearing it's thirty year mark. With the old games we used to love like Super Mario, Zelda, Tetris, and Metroid having been the path finders for games today. the purpose to writing this blog was to describe that while blockbuster games such as the ones listed above there have been Thousands upon thousands of videogames created. And while most casual gamers only play main stream games I just seem it unfair to compare new games that have not had any previous sequels to blockbusters that are on there 3 or so sequels. My point is I could just compare those games to Counterstrike, or Doom, or Half Life. So please next time you watch a video or read something about a new game refrain from comparing it to other games that are completely new in there own way, even if that means only putting a new spin on a previous idea.The fact is that most of the time the game is not like anything you will compare it to, since every game is its own in some unique way.
I'm not quite sure what you are ranting about, but if it is about new releases getting compared to the juggernauts of their genres (like a new shooter being compared to Halo or Call of Duty) then I think you are going to be upset for a long time.
The reason people make these comparisons is because they are easily identifiable benchmarks of quality. Despite how you may feel, if I am describing a new FPS to a friend, and I tell them that the game is a lot like Call of Duty, they have an almost instantaneous connection to what that name means, and can draw a reasonable conclusion that it is a quality product. This works with features inside of a game as well. If the skill progression in an RPG is intuitive, it will be emulated by it's successors. If a game emulates this feature poorly, saying that it is a crappy version of "game X's" level system is something people can identify with.
In your last few lines you say, and I quote....
"So please next time you watch a video or read something about a new game refrain from comparing it to other games that didn't think of the idea first..."
The problem with that statement is that you don't always need to think of an idea first, to be the best at it. Half Life, Halo and CoD were not the first shooters, but they are some of the best. Final Fantasy was not the first RPG, but it continually ranks among the best. God of War wasn't the first action game, but it is one of the best. Can you see a trend here? None of those previous games were firsts in the genres (although some of their game play elements may have been), but all of them will sell millions of copies with every release, and will inspire a ton of imitations.
Yea God of War, Halo, CoD, Half Life,Shadow of the Colossus,WoW are benchmarks of quality in their genre they are what you use to describe games to people who maybe aren't big gamers or wouldn't recognize obscure great games. We do the same thing with music,movies,television,books,ect and personally I wouldn't be offended if a game I made was compared to Bioshock,Dead Space,Halo, or God of War how well made it is.
Funny thing, really. God of War is often the big comparison made for stylized hack and slash titles. However, according to Metacritic, it doesn't even manage to beat out the game that it mimicked, Devil May Cry (granted, by tenths of a point). The irony is not lost on me.
Haha, you are sick of "it"....
I thought the title meant you were sick of I T. Like Information Technology...
My bad lol.
This article was like a combo of Reiner's and Meagan's articles.
Even though it's a bit rant-ish in presentation, I agree with what you say here.
For example, I have to face-palm every time I see something called a God of War clone, when in fact, that series is just the best elements derived from many other similar titles, which all came first (Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, before that Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Tekken, Street Fighter, etc). God of War created/originated very little and perfected much, still I don't give a *** about it and my memory goes back at least as far as DMC and Ninja Gaiden which were much the same, earlier.
But that's not nearly as annoying as people who think that Coldplay is music and aren't familiar with Radiohead.
I appreciate the comments and To be Clear It is meant to be a Rant...as funny as that Sounds, And I get what you mean Drubacca, But I was remarking on people who follow games online, on forums or youtube, or anything else, not amongst friends.
What he is saying isn't that it's bad to say, "This game kinda reminds me of Call of Duty, so it ought to be good." What Joe is getting at is that he is annoyed when people dismiss a game because it is similiar to another game.