I wanted to take advantage of this thread to start a halo 2 Xbox 360 Fan scream-out page. I recently heard that Halo 2 Anniversary is going to be an Xbox one exclusive. I THINK THIS IS LUDICROUS! I'm not trying to be mean or judgmental. I just want toe get 343I and Microsoft back to the fans The forum for this can be found here http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:313065.

Story line games isn't a must for most games anymore, it's only kill kill kill mostly.

I don't see what you are talking about; Indie games are currently the big thing.

Agree with you about Rayman 2 lol, but, did you see Rayman Origins? It returned a lot of its lost glory to the franchise.

I was mostly talking about games like halo and need for speed and call of duty. Most of the Big Game titles have been the same thing for years now. I see what you are saying about Indie games being on the more revolutionary side of things. What I've noticed is that if you want a really good game, Go play some underrated title like Warship Gunner. It's just these ridiculous gimmicks like the Xbox One. I mean look how overrated it is. I could buy a brand new game like Slender the Arrival(which is coming to the 360 in this month) or any other gaming title and have a similar experience.

I don't think the gaming industry is declining at all. Bad games have been around since gaming began, and they are always going to be here. The Mainstream titles you named off are all just that, mainstream. Just because they are big titles doesn't mean they are the only games around or that those developers will never make something worth playing.

The only reason that games are becoming so similar is because the publishers want them to sell. The publishers ask a developer to make an FPS Action game, and it becomes so. Eventually the popularity in these games is going to decline, and publishers will realize this and the developers will make something new.

However, there are so many games out there that try new things even when it isn't the mainstream. Steam hosts so many new titles that are unlike anything else.

Omniary: fuck you anglerfish can't smell
Dr. Trialtrex21: how you know bitch
Omniary: it probably could smell you though
could probably smell your fucking dank ass nasty powersuit structure gel trog ass enslaved protein bullshit sloshing in your suit from a mile away

Wall of text incoming:

The key thing to think about here is that the gaming industry is exactly what it describes; it's part of the entertainment industry, the primary goal of the industry as a whole is to develop products that will return a profit. Now, generally speaking, AAA games sell much better than their indie or small firm counterparts (Some may argue that it's several orders of magnitude higher). In order to make these games however, you need an astronomical principal investment averaging anywhere within 15 - 100 million USD[1]. As you might have guessed, most firms don't have this kind of money lying around, so they need to convince investors and publishers to provide them with this principal investment. To convince a 3rd party investor or a publishing company, you need to prove that your project is going to provide them with a decent return on investment, else they aren't going to give you the time of day. The best, if not only, way of doing this is to show them how well the target demographic has responded to games of similar mechanics. You have to remember that these people usually aren't the "Games are art" types. They are not here to "further the industry as an art-form" or "transcend the current notions of gaming," they're here to make a profit and further their brand, plain and simple. They usually aren't going to want to fund your SCP: Containment Breaches or your Slenders[2] because, from a financial point of view, they're extremely risky investments. There aren't many people out there that are willing to risk that kind of money on something that doesn't show much promise for a positive return on investment, let alone crashing.

If you want games with unique gameplay, you're either going to have to stick to the indie crowd, or somehow convince a nation of people that the games that they love and enjoy suck. That being said, the indie gaming field is slowly getting better. Especially with medium-highish power engines being accessible to developers, often cutting the need for a dedicated programmer entirely. But the industry is still very young, it's hard to tell what will come of it.

[1] Somewhat hard to find decent data on this. Best estimation could come up with.
[2] Assuming you put these games on a decent level budget

That is true, I didn't think about considering the whole game industry as mainstream. Although, it is nice to break away from the mainstream and play games that no one has heard of like SCP:CB or Slender. It's kind of interesting the way that it all works; but at the same time it's disappointing to watch good games go to wast because of money.

LORD DEATH wrote:That is true, I didn't think about considering the whole game industry as mainstream. Although, it is nice to break away from the mainstream and play games that no one has heard of like SCP:CB or Slender. It's kind of interesting the way that it all works; but at the same time it's disappointing to watch good games go to wast because of money.

I'm pretty sure alot of people heard about scp:cb and especially slender. Although that probably was because of lets plays by people like Markiplier and... pewdiepie. Still it is not like every "mainstream" game is awful, and if something goes to waste because of money, it is partially the gamers fault for buying that waste. Games like Call of duty exist because people keep buying them, so why change. I'm not defending the practice really, I'm just stating things.