Avocadoes

So I make a blog, and dissappear for a few days without posting. Why? I bought Final Fantasy XII.

After playing Fire Warrior, I tried another game from my cabinet: 007, Agent Under Fire. It was actually all right, i really like the GTA-style car level thrown in the middle, shown here.



But the controls were sloppy, the guns were silly, and the targetting was horrid, so I was a little down on the PS2's gaming selection (having unfairly associated the PS2 with "things in my closet")

So I went out and bought FFXII. And then played it for 11 hours in the first 24 I owned it (so little, only because I had to go to work).

And the game is really sweet. My dad sat next to me and just watched the cinematics and the gameplay, because the whole game is so artistic and well-produced. He particularly liked Fran and Asche. I'm so swept up with it that I can't articulate any specifics about why it is so awesome, but it is.

I'm reading this article by Dean Takahashi in the San Jose Mercury News. Its about the game developers conference in san francisco a few days ago. It quotes the designer behind TA and Supreme Commander, Chris Taylor as saying "Gamers want new experiences, but it's a struggle to get the game designers and the business people excited about delivering something original."

That gamers want new experiences seems like a truism. But I started thinking about it, and I don't know that it is. For starters, I play chrono trigger every year. And its fun, every year. I keep noticing new things, I keep trying the soda chugging contest, I keep trying to do everything right for the judgment scene. That's not a new experience, but I still want it. And I'd consider myself a gamer.

He's not wrong though. Gamers do want new experiences (I want to play Spore, for instance. Mostly because its new.) But I think the newness is often played up. Halo 1, 2, and 3 were all promoted as something new. "Combat evolved" and so forth. but that wasn't really the case. It was combat we had seen before, done pretty well and supported by pretty good online play. Gamers liked it, but not because it was a new experience. We'd been blowing our buddies' heads off for years before Halo. We liked it because it was done well, easy to pick up, and a vent for our competitive nature.

So, what's it mean that this rather omnipresent mantra of the gaming industry ("gamers demand newness") is really rather false? Nothing: gaming companies seem perfectly willing to ignore it for the benefit of profit. As much as I love Chris Taylor's games, maybe his 'business people' are right to promote proven game styles.

Postscript: WTF Chris Taylor, SC is not original! It's TA, repackaged. You added some nifty "efficiency" things, but you're not exactly inventing a new genre of game. It's an RTS, and like all RTSes, it has its own workings and rules. And it's really good! but it's not "original" per se.