Prejudice against game genres
Wednesday, October 28, 2009I’m the kind of gamer that plays everything, that’s right everything: I play : Action, Action-shooters, action-adventure, adventure, fighting-games, construction and management simulation, life simulations, RPGs, strategy games (real and turn-based), vehicle simulations, puzzle-games etc .You catch my drift.
Lately though I’ve begun to get annoyed by people that is not open enough to play something they never played before.
“No I don’t like RPGs“
Let me break this down for you guys, just because you didn’t like those RPGs you’ve played in the past doesn’t mean that you’ll not like the ones that are coming in the future. Okay? If we take RPGs as an example. RPGs comes in many different forms right? First and foremost we got two main categories of RPGs we got Western RPGs (no not the wild west) and eastern RPGs.
These categories and their similarities and differences can be discussed but there is always some main attributes that separates them from each other. In the past Western RPGs was also known as “Computer RPGs” and it’s only lately that they started coming to consoles.
Here , I’ll give a few examples of western RPGs: Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls.
Eastern RPGs: Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean.
Western RPGs are known for their open-ended style of gameplay, also more masculine-style of characters where female heroines usually wear a bikini of steel. =P Eastern RPGs usually features long and talkative story-sequences with more complex relationships. The women usually portrayed in brighter colors and cuter outfits.
It’s a big difference to gameplay as well as atmosphere and feeling, but I’ll talk about that in another post. The thing is that first we got these two categories of RPG then we have all the sub-categories of each main category (Action-RPGs, Turn-based RPGs etc.). So just because you didn’t like the games you played in the past in “the same main genre” doesn’t mean that you won’t like it now.
“Just because you don’t like a game might be because of the game and not the genre, mmkay?”
In modern times (of course I’m talking about the present) games are a blend of different genres, we only use words like “action or adventure” to talk about the games main-direction. If we look at Brütal Legend a game that almost erases the line between genres: we got action and Hack’n Slash in there, we got real-time strategy, we got racing and we got some RPG-elements as well. So I’m telling you guys, don’t be prejudice against game-genres, be open and willing. The developers of these games have put 2-3 years of their life into a single game, you can at least try the game before you shelf it, and I understand that everybody hasn’t the money to be able to pay for every game that’s released, but hey you got friends right? If you don’t have anything to do and a friend is recommending a game “out of your genre”, try it, you might like it.
I must say I feel directly hit by this. Or rather now I was in the past. I just played RPGs. Nothing else mattered. I didn’t look at anything. Looking back on it, I don’t necessarily regret it since I had a very good time, but there where some games I missed and that’s a shame.
But I’m passed that. With out trying new stuff I would have missed, Uncharted series, Batman AA and other good games. Still I can not find love for WRPG or sport/racing games.
I’ve tried many times but I can’t like them. I do try newer games in the genres I don’t like just to see if I like it, but the result is always the same. But who knows, one day I might find that game that will set everything in motion.
Well there is always some genres that will always stay the same, I mean the sports-genre will probably always be the same, never crossing barriers. I love RPG:s but I also love any other genre. You always miss many great games if you only play a few genres.
Funny thing is, even sports games have changed a great deal over the years.
Lets take the king behemoth over here in the US… Madden.
Back in the day there was no such thing as Franchise(owner mode) or Superstar(play as a single player, and only when the CPU picks a play you might be in)
Those are 2 examples… I personally think that the super star mode is more akin to folks who don’t enjoy sports games in general, as it can open you up american football.
Then again, the biggest appeal of sporting games is that you need to at least be familiar, but more likely a fan, of that sport. That is where sports games are stuck, since you won’t really care you can do (X) to a player or team, if you really dont understand what (X) is…
There is no other genre stuck in that cycle of previous knowledge/enjoyment. Shooting games can appeal on multiple levels… be it a space shooter(”Oh my, aliens look so neat, and crazy scenery”) or a cowboy (”bang bang, reload, bang bang, ha ha, I win the duel”).