4 ms·

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from co

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from constraints. Early computing platforms certainly were replete with that.

egypturnash 11mo ago
I've never been into Doom clones (to use the term from back in the day) and yet I have enjoyed playing countless video games from about 1984 through to the present. Very few of them are first-person games, whether they're head-clickers or other forms of first-person gaming.
- JKCalhoun 11mo ago
  To be sure, all games are not FPS. But you know, what are the so-called "AAA" game companies constantly grinding out…
  - 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 11mo ago
    It might be that they're targeting the 8 - 18 year old boy demographic, and that's always a huge cash cow, whereas older gamers have refined taste but don't spend that much money on games because they don't spend that many hours on gaming
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - Apocryphon 11mo ago
    AAA companies might pump out a lot of FPS- though it's arguable that they also grind out all sorts of other reliable and less-than-groundbreaking genres, from flavor of the decade trends (MMORPGs/MOBAs/live service battle royales/extraction shooters) to annual sports titles to Assassin's Creed sequels. The Call of Duty machine aside, I'm not sure if FPS is as much of a cash cow as it used to be. And if you look at this best-selling video games list, there's only a single FPS in the top ten (PUBG, which is technically also third-person): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...
Apocryphon 11mo ago
Adventure games became FPS as early as 1992 (only one year before DOOM, so maybe I'm not making much of a point here) with the coming of Ultima Underworld.
- ido 11mo ago
  Wasn't UU an RPG rather than an adventure game?
  - Apocryphon 11mo ago
    That’s a fair point. I suppose if I wanted to focus on the first person perspective I could have mentioned Myst coming out the same year as DOOM, though I doubt it was even the first FP adventure game.
  - rsanheim 11mo ago
    It was really a blending of multiple genres. Was really ground breaking by for its time.
- anthk 11mo ago
  UU was an RPG. What adventure games became were either full hybrid 3D mechanics (Tomb Raider) and niche point and click ones.
  - nottorp 11mo ago
    Tomb Raider isn't an "adventure" game, no matter what the "mainstream gaming press" says. Monkey Island is.
    - anthk 11mo ago
      It was a real time action-adventure game with puzzles. TR made point and click adventures obsolete as they drove a puzzle-event bound game with free exploration. OTOH, text adventures would still be featureful and playable as they achieved incredible things very expensive to do with graphical games.
finaard 11mo ago
Almost none of the FPS shooters try to to something creative, though. Duke Nukem 3D is still unbeaten for fun in multiplayer (and we still get it out now and then for that) with simple gimmicks like the holo duke, pipe bombs and laser mines. Even just looking at "game uses 3D engine" we don't really have many great things. There's portal, and while some of the other stuff have promising ideas (like infinifactory), for all of them the controls tend to get in the way of fun. For ease of use and fun pretty much all simulations - even as far back as the 90s - just using isometric projection are still unbeaten by attempts to go full 3D.
maccard 11mo ago
Here’s the highest rated games on PS5, Xbox and switch this year. There is _one_ first person shooter in the top ten of all three of these lists combined [0] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ps5/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=ps5&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ps5/all/current-year/... [1] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/xbox-series-x/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=xbox-series-x&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/xbox-series-x/all/cur... [2] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&platform=nintendo-switch-2&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/...

egypturnash 11mo ago

I've never been into Doom clones (to use the term from back in the day) and yet I have enjoyed playing countless video games from about 1984 through to the present. Very few of them are first-person games, whether they're head-clickers or other forms of first-person gaming.

JKCalhoun 11mo ago
To be sure, all games are not FPS. But you know, what are the so-called "AAA" game companies constantly grinding out…
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 11mo ago
  It might be that they're targeting the 8 - 18 year old boy demographic, and that's always a huge cash cow, whereas older gamers have refined taste but don't spend that much money on games because they don't spend that many hours on gaming
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- Apocryphon 11mo ago
  AAA companies might pump out a lot of FPS- though it's arguable that they also grind out all sorts of other reliable and less-than-groundbreaking genres, from flavor of the decade trends (MMORPGs/MOBAs/live service battle royales/extraction shooters) to annual sports titles to Assassin's Creed sequels. The Call of Duty machine aside, I'm not sure if FPS is as much of a cash cow as it used to be. And if you look at this best-selling video games list, there's only a single FPS in the top ten (PUBG, which is technically also third-person): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...

Apocryphon 11mo ago

Adventure games became FPS as early as 1992 (only one year before DOOM, so maybe I'm not making much of a point here) with the coming of Ultima Underworld.

ido 11mo ago
Wasn't UU an RPG rather than an adventure game?
- Apocryphon 11mo ago
  That’s a fair point. I suppose if I wanted to focus on the first person perspective I could have mentioned Myst coming out the same year as DOOM, though I doubt it was even the first FP adventure game.
- rsanheim 11mo ago
  It was really a blending of multiple genres. Was really ground breaking by for its time.
anthk 11mo ago
UU was an RPG. What adventure games became were either full hybrid 3D mechanics (Tomb Raider) and niche point and click ones.
- nottorp 11mo ago
  Tomb Raider isn't an "adventure" game, no matter what the "mainstream gaming press" says. Monkey Island is.
  - anthk 11mo ago
    It was a real time action-adventure game with puzzles. TR made point and click adventures obsolete as they drove a puzzle-event bound game with free exploration. OTOH, text adventures would still be featureful and playable as they achieved incredible things very expensive to do with graphical games.

finaard 11mo ago

Almost none of the FPS shooters try to to something creative, though. Duke Nukem 3D is still unbeaten for fun in multiplayer (and we still get it out now and then for that) with simple gimmicks like the holo duke, pipe bombs and laser mines. Even just looking at "game uses 3D engine" we don't really have many great things. There's portal, and while some of the other stuff have promising ideas (like infinifactory), for all of them the controls tend to get in the way of fun. For ease of use and fun pretty much all simulations - even as far back as the 90s - just using isometric projection are still unbeaten by attempts to go full 3D.

maccard 11mo ago

Here’s the highest rated games on PS5, Xbox and switch this year. There is _one_ first person shooter in the top ten of all three of these lists combined [0] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ps5/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=ps5&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ps5/all/current-year/... [1] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/xbox-series-x/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=xbox-series-x&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/xbox-series-x/all/cur... [2] https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&platform=nintendo-switch-2&page=1 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/...