The writer comments on how the RPG genre is becoming less popular and how some publishers are beginning to ignore the genre itself due to lack of popularity and sales.
The question becomes whether the genre was even popular in the first place, or just popular amongst a small group of gamers who made up the majority of the video game players. Now with the popularity of video gaming more gamers are playing video games who prefer higher paced action games (eg: Call of Duty series). Thus making it seem that the RPG genre is dying as its being outsold.
Another reasoning would be that the RPG genre can be played in many formats, even text, as imagination takes a large role in these games. However, action games are better played with near realistic graphics. As graphics cards and physics engines become better adapted to realism, these action games become better, thus more 'playable'.
Something to discuss anyway.
Addition [Nov 23]
Its funny how at this point in the semester I was willing to say that the RPG genre is dead. Not even a month later (why do we use these arbitrary time sections to give an idea of how long its been since a previous event? Its never a firm date. Even when someone knows the date they always say things like 'A couple days ago...' instead of saying '3 days ago...' . is this an act of being unsure of ourselves? Feeling lower in status than someone else? Or just trying to be casual and cool? Its gotten to the point where its more normal to say the vague than the firm. I catch myself saying vague statements a lot and I don't know why. I don't like doing it, I like to be direct and prefer for people to be direct to me. It gets hard to tell if a person is fibbing or not when they use vague terminology. Its also hard to figure out what a person wants when they aren't being direct. A common example is when someone wants you to do something for them. Instead of asking straight up, can you go do this for me, the person drops hints. Hints such as 'I would like it is someone did this' or 'could you maybe do this...'. There's something in our society that has caused the most of us to have a distaste for being direct and upfront, especially when giving orders. I find this is true in women more than men as well, but not by very much. Men are almost as likely to be indirect as well.) anyway, later in the course I started thinking about and even posted about RPG elements in games and how nearly every game released at present has some RPG element inside it. Its kind of funny (or odd in plain english, the language we use is so full of these idioms) how once I thought about this some more that I started noticing that NO, the RPG genre is not dying, its becoming more vast. Its taking on new forms and becoming pretty much the only genre available.
Again to continue the topic of being unsure. I think another consequence of it is trying to be too nice and not wanting to hurt others' feelings. As I was finishing the last paragraph I thought about how often I am vague, and it usually is such that I don't want to hurt someone else's feelings (may it disappoint them, anger them, make them feel sad or unwanted, etc) so I'll often give vague replies or dodge the matter. This seems to almost always upset more then to just be straight up about an issue. Say someone asks me to a party, I don't want to go. I would most likely say 'maybe' or 'we'll see'. Maybe is a word I'd like to take completely out of my vocabulary. Its a terrible word and could almost be synonymous with the word NO in today's language. Granted I may end up going to the party, if I don't have anything else to do, but wouldn't it be best to just say NO and then if plans change I can always say yes I'm coming? This way the person doesn't expect me and I don't hurt their feelings when I do not arrive.
Why is Minecraft so successful... ? -http://www.gameproducer.net/2011/02/11/why-minecraft-is-successful-anyone-thought-markus-might-have-something-to-do-with-it/ ::
Minecraft, without a doubt, is one of the most successful indie games ever. Even without the 'indie' title it is highly successful. For those who don't know, Minecraft is a pixilated sandbox style game with endless possibilities for creating stories, items, and gaming elements. At first glance the £10-15 a digital copy game looks like something from the early 90s. It is no doubt a 'modern game' and relatively cheap for a game these days. It has sold almost 3.5 million copies and doesn't show signs of slowing! This doesn't seem impressive until you know that this is almost £50 million in profit for a small design team of 8 people. it is said to be the most efficient and profitable company in the world, per employee.
With this being said, why is this game so successful and addicting? Some possibilities
-Creating your own content/stories: it is possible that the game is so good because people are able to create their own worlds that tell their own stories to share with the world. They may even re-create the Minecraft version of other games. The possibilities are endless.
-Competition and creation: being able to create a world/item better than that of your friend. The game does have the whole aspect of being able to show off your 'skillz' fairly easily to other people. Server stats and download figure also encourage creators.
-Exploring new worlds: The game allows users to explore a number of interesting new worlds made by others, so many that it would probably take months to explore everything. This gives the game great playability.
-Cheapness coupled with success story: Youtubers would say the game has 'gone viral' and at the price its at who can resist? Every forum I post at on the internet now has its own Minecraft thread or section. Normal videos I search on youtube usually pop up with something Minecraft related in the 'Related videos' panel. With all this, who hasn't heard of Minecraft yet. People are forced to at least know about the game, and after seeing it so many times a person is going to see what all the hype is about. When they do, and see the low price tag for the game, I'm sure most people opt in to simply buy the game.
These are some of my reasons anyway, I have not played the game, yet, but may be off to do that now!
Feel free to add some more opinions, I'd like to hear some more.
Why do we Love Zombies? - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1194749p1.html
Kind of a fun article on the recent explosion of the zombie style games and literature. Gives some reasons why zombie games are so popular and why there seems to be no limit to the style of plot in these games.
On that note, anyone for some Left for Dead? [Xbox GT: Factone]
-Kurt M
