I was around 11 or 12 years old when some of the first video games came out like Space Invaders and Asteroids. One of my favorite games was Tempest which came out some years later. I used to spend a lot of my time at pizza shops, bodegas, and little neighborhood arcades when I was a kid. They were so amazing to me back then. I was so into them, even making drawings of them in my school book, and thinking all day about them.. about how to get to the next level..

Games were so creative back then, and even into the Commodore 64 years. (I know you kids are like, "whats this guy talking about"..) There were so many different genres and types of games. They were intriguing (for the mind set of those days), and on some, you had to really think or have some real skills to get to the higher levels. It is hard to relay this experience to the newer generations because they may see these games and think its a joke, but you had to be in the mind set of that time to really appreciate it. Everything is viewed in a different perspective now.

Something happened to gaming with the introduction of 3D rendering game engines - In came the first person shooter..

I think one of the first games was Wolfenstein 3D (a sequel of Castle Wolfenstein, a Commodore 64 game), followed by Doom. I remember my first impressions of playing Doom - after a while, I got dizzy and it was really annoying to try and aim your gun by tweaking the joystick left and right. Apart from that, I thought that it was a really mindless game that involved a really limited skill set. I never go into the first person shooter.

Fast forward 20 years later, playing the now top first person shooter games on the top systems, I still feel the same way - they make me dizzy and this whole aiming with the joystick thing... never got into it. After a short while, I am completely bored. There is nothing intriguing about it. This accounts for the majority of the most popular games today. I don't understand why people like them so much. Do they really?

I have to say, something was lost in the transition from 2D and pseudo-3D games, to real rendered 3D games. It had something to do with A) the creativity and different perspectives/genres which were offered in games, and B) the loss of 'gameplay' and a certain precision and fluidity that came with 2D and pseudo-3D style games. This was due in part to them being less complicated and less processor intensive as 3D rendered games. This is not to say there weren't any good 3D rendered games..

When one of the first popular MMORPG's made itself known - World of Warcraft, I built myself a top notch PC of that time; the best ATI video card, Processor, etc. and jumped into it. I was blown away by the size of the world and some of the details of the world. I was really in awe with the art in the game, like sitting by a lake and fishing while the sky over me transformed with clouds and sun rays, with the sounds of water, birds or whatever. It created a real experience that you felt. I was really impressed by that. Also, I liked the idea of meeting other people in the game and interacting with them, that was also great. However, I thought (like most of these games) that there was much lacking in the gameplay. It was just a mindless - going around killing things. Kill X-number of things get that, and then with that kill more things. Kill more things for more powerful swords, then, kill your friends and bigger bosses. After a while it got tired. (Not to take away from the fun of raids, but raids were hard to organize or reserve time for.)

I thought to a certain extent - 'what a waste of a great game world, and game platform'. What happened to the storytelling and adventure, intriguing puzzles, challenges, etc.? While in many ways corny.. I thought the Longest Journey and Dreamfall was great in that respect. It was an amusing story with different interactive scenes.

Anyway, after playing many of the tops games of today, I am asking myself - Why is every game today about shooting and killing each other? Is everyone so into that? or is it being pushed on us? Is it a type of conditioning? There is such a lack of variety in games today. I don't even like the idea of shooting and killing other people, even if it is not real. I don't get any enjoyment out of it.

And then it dawned on me.. Even in Pac-Man and Space Invaders, you go round killing other things. It's just not as explicit or realistic as the 3D rendered games today. Almost every game has some theme of beings battling, or trying to kill each other in one way or another, Donkey Kong trying to kill Mario or whatever..

I guess that is just the nature of what most people are amused by.

Anyway, I just wish they would create some interesting games that are not just about going around shooting and killing each other or chopping each other up, because it's getting really boring and mind numbing. I stopped playing video games because of that.

C'mon creators.. you can get more creative than that.

There are non violent role playing puzzle games , racing games , sports games

ETA Have you tried rehm series rppg game stupidly hard to figure out

prepping the kids to fight the "evil terrorists" for Big Brother ... start desensitizing and training the next generation of drone pilots ....

Originally posted by freedomSlave
ETA Have you tried rehm series rppg game stupidly hard to figure out

edit on 4/3/13 by freedomSlave because: (no reason given)

Who's Rehm? You mean Delilah Rehm? (found in Google search..)

Firstly, WoW is not really a great example when it comes to pure gameplay perspectives.

Secondly, i think the aspect affecting you is Nostalgia.

Games were so creative back then, and even into the Commodore 64 years. (I know you kids are like, "whats this guy talking about"..) There were so many different genres and types of games. They were intriguing (for the mind set of those days), and on some, you had to really think or have some real skills to get to the higher levels. It is hard to relay this experience to the newer generations because they may see these games and think its a joke, but you had to be in the mind set of that time to really appreciate it. Everything is viewed in a different perspective now.

The creativity has changed since those days, yes. But for the better. Sorry to be so upfront, but you are viewing this through rose tinted glasses. Over the years, with the introduction of new technology and further mediums, the games industry has had the ability to experiment more freely.

The modern games of which you are talking about are AAA products; products designed purely to make money off the consumer base. THAT is why those games seem boring or stale to some. If you look past the bland and often repetitive AAA titles of Call of Duty and Battlefield, you will find other FPS titles pushing the boundaries. Far Cry 3 is full of creativity for example.

Also, there are more genres today than what there was back then, even to the point that they are now blurred wit one another. FPS, 3PS, RTS, RPS RPG, MMO-RPG, Puzzle, Platforming, Sport, Stealth, Action, Action-Adventure, Strategy and so, so much more exist today.

If you really do want to see "creative games," then i suggest you look past the AAA developers and toward the independent ones. That is usually where you will find the breeding grounds of talent and creativity in today's world. That isn't to say you should completely give the AAA titles a miss, but you are more likely to find what you are looking for in indie games.

With all this being said, there are still AAA games pushing the boundaries from creativity to story-telling. I suggest you look up the following:

Shadow of the Colossus.

Ico.

Metal Gear (Solid) - from the very first one to the latest one. They are all great.

Far Cry 3.

The Elder Scrolls - all of them push the boundaries in regards to RPG and world mechanics.

Grand Theft Auto.

Assassin's Creed.

Dishonored.

Deus Ex.

Suck in everything, from their mechanics, to their stories, creativity and themes. You will be surprised once you look past the surface.

Originally posted by Expat888
prepping the kids to fight the "evil terrorists" for Big Brother ... start desensitizing and training the next generation of drone pilots ....

Really think there is some truth to that, but like one poster here already says.. he really likes those first person shooters and enjoys killing people (in the virtual).

Did the games create that desire, or did the desire create the game?

Originally posted by nOraKat

Originally posted by Expat888
prepping the kids to fight the "evil terrorists" for Big Brother ... start desensitizing and training the next generation of drone pilots ....

Really think there is some truth to that, but like one poster here already says.. he really likes those first person shooters and enjoys killing people (in the virtual).

Did the games create that desire, or did the desire create the game?

Two words:

Player Psychology.

AAA games are created for the sole purpose of attaining money. How do they achieve this? Through psychological methods. Violence is ingrained in every male. This is abused by the AAA companies in the hopes that people will buy their games and play them.

There are a lot of games that don't involve killing out there. I hardly ever play first person shooters, but I have noticed that they are very popular. One reason "killing" is popular in video games is because a video game's purpose is to be challenging and build skill sets and, sometimes, be competitive.

I play a lot of Starcraft 2 and it isn't the "killing" I am interested in - it is the complicated strategical aspects and mental challenge.

Chess could be about killing too, if you think about it, as well as Go and Checkers.

But I think your question has to do with FPS games. They seem to be the most popular, even though there are a *lot* of alternatives out there - if you want to spend the rest of your gaming life not playing killing games, go for it.

I've been playing Dungeon Defenders a lot lately - it is a Tower Defense game.

Although my favorite game genre, the Adventure Game (Myst, King's Quest, Space Quest, Escape from Monkey Island etc.) became virtually non-existent!

Originally posted by daaskapitalThe creativity has changed since those days, yes. But for the better. ...
The modern games of which you are talking about are AAA products; products designed purely to make money off the consumer base. THAT is why those games seem boring or stale to some... Far Cry 3 is full of creativity for example. (Also suggested The Elder Scrolls)

I think what has improved are the 3D engines, physics, 'realistic-ness' of the graphics but not the creativity of the game. By creativity, I mean it's theme (and by theme I don't mean just the story behind the game).

You mentioned Far Cry 3 and Elder Scrolls, but this is precisely what I was talking about..

Apart from the annoyance of the first person perspective, what is occurring in the game is disturbing to me especially when it's realistic. Shooting and killing other people, or chopping other beings up and incessantly. It is disturbing. (It is also boring from a game perspective and not creative.)

I think the culture and perspective that is developing is one that is casual to the idea of killing, and takes their attention away from the tragedies that are experienced in reality (if it were a reality), such as the suffering that is experienced (but this is beside the point). The point is that I find these games disturbing and not fun. I wish they created games that were different and fun to play. Ones that made use of all the new graphic engines but was just not based on incessant graphic killing and mutilation. (..but also not cute kiddie games, that are so cute that they make you want to throw up.)

Originally posted by nOraKat
I think what has improved are the 3D engines, physics, 'realistic-ness' of the graphics but not the creativity of the game. By creativity, I mean it's theme (and by theme I don't mean just the story behind the game).

You mentioned Far Cry 3 and Elder Scrolls, but this is precisely what I was talking about..

Apart from the annoyance of the first person perspective, what is occurring in the game is disturbing to me especially when it's realistic. Shooting and killing other people, or chopping other beings up and incessantly. It is disturbing. (It is also boring from a game perspective and not creative.)

I think the culture and perspective that is developing is one that is casual to the idea of killing, and takes their attention away from the tragedies that are experienced in reality (if it were a reality), such as the suffering that is experienced (but this is beside the point). The point is that I find these games disturbing and not fun. I wish they created games that were different and fun to play. Ones that made use of all the new graphic engines but was just not based on incessant graphic killing and mutilation. (..but also not cute kiddie games, that are so cute that they make you want to throw up.)

You are correct that the 3D engines, physics and the 'realistic-ness' of the graphics have improved. But with it, the creativity has improved also.

You have to look past what is presented initially. Not all First Person games are about killing. If you are going to buy a war game, then yes, you can expect it to revolve around the killing of other AI. The Elder Scrolls for example can be played in both First and Third person perspectives. While you can, and do occasionally kill NPC's, it is an RPG . An RPG (Role Playing Game) allows one to pursue any role they choose. One does not have to mindlessly kill others. This is in contrast to a lot of FPS games.

Far Cry 3. Yes you kill...a lot. But you have to look past that. The creativity found within the game, not only in the story, but elsewhere is astounding.

I agree that modern games do desensitise people somewhat. But you can't let that scare you. If you don't like violent video games, fine. There are a lot of other genres out there (of both AA and Indie) which you can tackle.

Is it really evolution of the games or evolution of the audience using these games?

When we think of what media provides today is violence and even kids gets used to it in early age, take a look at animated tv series for kids specially for boys that involve shooting, blowing things up like biker mice from Mars, Lego hero factory etc etc, what these are teaching to our kids is shooting without any second thoughts. So Kids are brainwashed to be consumers this genre of mindless shooting. Game houses provides the audience what audience likes and are used to consume, cos it is all about profits.

There is also good games which requires some brainwork too, they might not be the top of the whats hot list tho. Bulding games and role playing games with a good theme. If anyone remembers when role playing games came they were "doomed" by the media because people thought they are bad for kids and teens mental healths and nowadays there is not that much fuzz about these mindless shooting games at all.. what happened? We have been brainwashed.. happened

What really bugs me about games today is not only the mindless shooting but games teaches our kids to be irresponsible with money for example. Lets take a new genre of games Iphone/android games, you can download game for free, game has nice graphics but gaming has been made quite difficult without spending real money in it and with very few purchases of game"money" you have spent a lot more than buying a whole real game that you can own. This new evolution is a endless moneyspinner for game companies today.

Dishonored is a neat game, in that you may choose to play through the game, killing any or all adversaries that stand in your way, or you may stealthily go around them. The storyline, set in sort of a graphic novel steampunk city, adapts according to the level of violence the player exhibits. One way to play through is trying to kill nobody, harder than it sounds.

I played through violently, and the ending of my character's story was not pleasing to one's soul, but seemingly apt.

Playing an alcoholic bum that meanders through life gaining experience points by brewing his own beer and evading internet demons that remove his posts, sounds like a pretty boring game to me.

I like fps games, if they're good with multiplayer.. other than this they tend to bore me quickly.

I prefer god games. Black & White, From Dust, etc. but there is little killing in them so..

yeah I guess I should be an elite soldier for the highest paid secret military groups, since I like first person shooters, I mean they're only made to desensitise the kids to be mindless killers. Right, guy up the thread?? Yeah..

What they should do is combine the alcoholic bum game with need for speed, and have that multiplayer online, so that way you can drive around killing people.

No weapons.. just a fat torana. Ommagod fully sick bro!!!