"Good? Bad? Just give me my games"

by Dracos

Original Editorial: Is It Really That Bad? & The Foreboding Change in RPGs

I've recently had both the article "The Foreboding Changes in RPGs" and the answering article "Is it really that bad?" forewarded to me and I found myself perplexed by the relatively narrow viewpoints both writers took on the issue of changes in the gaming industry.

Dragonflame was looking almost unconditionally at Square games, commenting on the ease and simplicity of them in comparison to games of the early Nintendo era. To him, the modern era seems to have provided an end to challenging or plot driven games. The expansion of Players guides, most humorously brought up in context of what is the most simplistic and easy game I have played in years, is an advent of doomsday for difficult games.

Nick Ferriola argues against it, explaining that the advancement of games is not a bad thing. That challenge alone does not make a game that plods about, as Vagrant Story verily did, much good. He shows a far better grasp of the capitalistic system that the gaming market works in then Dragonflame, but I think his viewpoints are narrow on this issue as well.

I, like Nick, am one of the older generations of gamers who look back at their early games of Dragon Warrior and the like. I do so with nostalgia. They were good times. To one who played through the original Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior, many of the more popular games on the Super Nintendo were pretty darn easy. And this, as they say, is life. These easier games sold better, and thus we tend to find more easy games. It's capitalism in action. So does this mean that those of us who liked older styles of games are left out in the cold? I'd say far from it! Dragon Warrior is still out there, barely changed from when it originally was designed. And it's still selling like that. It's a niche game series, fitting more for those who are more into those old styles. There are others, like Xenogears and Xenosaga that Nick brought up that provide plenty of storyline and art simultaneously. All in all, there is not a shortage of new games that are coming out. Nor of good games that are coming out that can pander to different niches. Sure, we see more easy hastily slapped together games that take 20-40 hours to finish and are utterly trite to an older elitist gamer, but we also see plenty of games that are hard or packed with storyline or have stunning musical scores or whatever else you look for in a game. They might not be the mainstream, most advertised game of the second, but they are there to find if you do a little digging around.

I find it amusing that both writers accepted the premise that games are easier today. That the era of games of the difficulty level of Dragon Warrior 1 or Final Fantasy 1 is over. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you want to compare Maniac difficulty mode on Tales of Destiny 2 or Universe difficulty mode on Star Ocean 2 to those, I'd definitely say the newer ones are far more difficult. Plot wise? Dragon Warrior 7 could easily last you three-four hours before your first fight. To a story whore like me, I loved that sort of stuff. Is this for everyone? No. Nor should it be. It would be a damn dull game market if every game was built just for 'me', the random whiny elitist individual who looks nostalgically back at his old games.

Basically, what I'd like to say is buy what you like. The game market for RPGs has been booming for years. I never have trouble expanding my library by ten or so a year. If you like the easier type, fancy graphics, low plot games, then buy them. Your dollars will help ensure those companies make more of them. If you don't care about graphics and want a harder game, dig a bit, find the harder games, and buy those. Spend your dollars there and support the companies that are making those types of games. If you are a real demanding fellow who demands nothing but excellence in everything from plot to graphics to sound to difficulty and so on, then buy the games that manage to meet your standards. The market produces plenty of them. Good? Bad? Who cares? They'll be people who like and dislike every game. There are those of us who sniff at 'innovation' and others who sniff at those 'painful cliches'. There are games for all of us out there. So just go out and have a good time.