Games that use the notion of nostalgia in their design are becoming more and more popular, but are all these retro remakes and HD collections hurting innovation?
Check out the article here:
http://gamingirresponsibly.com/nostalgia-is-it-really-good-for-gaming
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
it's a difficult situation, these games are a business, games these days cost a lot of money to produce so for innovation to stand tall with say, a new ip offering something new then it has to be really special or marketed very well. taking the risk could see a big loss in profits and jobs lossed.
while i like hd remakes as i like visiting great games from the past (still play some SNES games from time to time) it is a frustrating situation at the moment. maybe the next generation with better tools to help create really improved a.i, animations, physics and things like that could be the jumpstart for it.
There's a massive difference between nostalgia, and cashing in on recycled IPs. One is meant as a tribute to truly great games in the history of the medium, and the other is simply meant to manipulate people, by showing them an apple and labeling it a pear.
Tribute as opposed to exploitation.
It's the difference between a genuine tribute like Xenonauts honoring X-Com (well, it seems like it will) and a game like Syndicate being nothing like the original, but simply getting the name slapped onto it because it's deemed more profitable than launching a new IP.
Ultimately the problem isn't nostalgia, perhaps it's really the lack of nostalgia. There's no respect for what those games represent. Instead they're left to publishers who get cheaper and more aggressive by the day, entirely proportional to how much less they care about the crap they push out the door.
I enjoy alot of the remakes that have been coming out. Read into that what you will.Not only do new IPs and AAA games cost a lot to make, but they cost a lot to buy. I enjoy alot of the cheaper focused games that have been remade, I think Gaurdian Heros, for example is one of the best games ever made. I can't wait for daytona USA next week.
I don't think remakes hurt inovation, I think risking multi million dollers on new new ips stifles inovation. Why develop a BulletStorm when you can just crank out another Gears, for example. The bigger a games budegt becomes, the less inovation your going to get. And besides games are like stories, after awhile your not going to see one that hasn't already been told, and retold. Almost anything that can work, has been done at this point. Thats why we have so many Franchises.
IMO, inovation has been a dying animal for a long time now.
There's nothing wrong in reissueing old games. That's fanservice. It's when they make entirely unrelated games, and slap an old title onto them, simply in order to sell them easier.
I strongly disagree on the negative view that "all games have already been made". Of course they haven't, just as all paintings haven't been painted, and all books haven't been written. I reckon that's a notion that publishers would love to try and pass off, but it's simply an excuse for not trying hard enough.
Nostalgia is great... except most of the time. For example, I have no problem with games like 3D Dot Heroes, which copy the mechanics and graphical style of the games of yesteryear. However, when Namco releases the next Pac Man rehash on XBLA... and the next one after that... and the one after that; etc. then we have a problem.
I'm with DSB on this. What is a Syndicate game if the factors that made the old title so popular are no longer exist? A name? Was Syndicate a Name to you or it was a Experience? Was Dues Ex a name to you or was an Experience? I don't want to play Syndicate to feel nostalgic and old, I want that experience that when I played the Syndicate captivated me and making me want to have that experience again, so it goes for every other titles that are poping out of the closets they've been hiding in for decades.
So Nostalgia ain't the case, goating in people and teasing them with what they want in those old titles and shoving things entirely different down their throat for gain and profit is the issue here. Publisher don't care about what we want, they're just looking for cheap ways to create more cash, what appealed to us back in those days certainly wont satisfy everyone, something more mainstream that appeals to most of the current market's consumers is what they want. Where have all the minus 18 year olds been when syndicate (I say Syndicate as an example this can go for a number of titles) was released? Most of the weren't even born yet, those who were was looking for their mommy's breast nipples to get some milk so they grow up faster, stronger and wittier, but instead they received a pacifier shoved deep in the throat so they shut up about it.
Guys like us wont matter to the likes of EA, they do. So, they will get what they want and the media helps the publishers by gloating about how great those titles were and hyping the shit out of it while the new revivification of old titles is entirely bogus.
I guess if we're being cynical, it does provide EA with a reason to rerelease the old Syndicate games on places like GOG.
They haven't been in much of a hurry to sell the better titles of their old catalog so far.
Actually, quite a few of the games EA inherited from Bullfrog, Origin and others are on GoG: http://tinyurl.com/3u2uhhc Pretty much all of them on that list are excellent classics.
Perhaps they should get them from GoG themselves. They might learn a thing or two.
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