BioWare: Too many good computer games out there

[zalbard]

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/

BioWare's co-founder Ray Muzyka has been moaning that there are too many games on the market these days.

Muzyka said that the worst part about growing up is that you inevitably will have less time to play videogames. He said that he had to play everything just to stay current with what the videogame industry is producing.

He said that it was bad that the industry is so good. "There's too many games released today," Muzyka replied. "It's very, very busy, it makes it very hard as a player to keep up."

He has to play Bioware games, competitor's games, play other relevant games, and play the handful of games we just really want to play more of and finish," he continued. "I try and play two-or three hours a night, but that's hard and it's not enough."

It was not as if they were being flooded with mediocre games either. Most of them are really good and that is even before you start looking at them on their online versions.

/facepalm
Which recent games are really so awesome, exactly?..

[Johnny87au]

i only have 3 games i play often, this guy must have a fetish for pc gaming...

[generics_user]

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/


/facepalm
Which recent games are really so awesome, exactly?..

ood doesn't mean great

the amount of extremely crappy POS games is smaller than it was 5 years ago, while there aren't many grea titles almost everything released by big publishers can be called decent...

[randomizer]

Which recent games are really so awesome, exactly?..

Heaps of them. You just need to lower your standards to the level required by a publisher to be considered good (ie. half-baked recycled junk).

[zalbard]

Heaps of them. You just need to lower your standards to the level required by a publisher to be considered good (ie. half-baked recycled junk).

LOL

[massman]

The amount of "bad" games correlates positively with the possibilities for teenagers to give their 'well-founded' opinion to a mass-public. It also correlates positively with the amount of routes to free content through piracy.

This meaning,

The idea that a specific game is bad is fueled by a vast majority of young people giving un-founded criticism. Add this with the fact that negative aspects of something are more likely to be talked about and you have a situation where a bunch of youngsters are cracking down a game based on hardly anything.

Also, with piracy becoming mainstream it's a lot easier to have free content. Research has shown you're more likely to see something as good/positive the more you had to do to reach the goal. Having to work to be able to pay for a game you bought in the store equals effort (work, pay, go to store, etc...). Downloading something from the internet is almost no effort.

Most of the games are good enough to enjoy yourself for a couple of hours.

[Mechromancer]

The console ports ARE NOT GOOD. DX9.0 Black Ops? C'mon people...

[Vardant]

By this point, I'm not really sure I care what Bioware does/says.

Mass Effect 3 is probably going to be a third-person shooter with dialogues. Dragon Age II looks more and more like a hack n' slash version of Mass Effect with swords instead of guns. Good luck with that...

And this just proves, that they are really going crazy.

[SubZero.it]

Well I think all Valve games, and BC2. But doesn't seem so many to me.
And shouldn't be a motivation having good games around to make you be more competitive and create a better one?

[trinibwoy]

The console ports ARE NOT GOOD. DX9.0 Black Ops? C'mon people...

Sales say otherwise and that's all that matters in the end to a publisher. PC snobs saying a game is crap when it's selling hundreds of millions of copies doesn't change that fact.

[Hornet331]

Sales say otherwise and that's all that matters in the end to a publisher. PC snobs saying a game is crap when it's selling hundreds of millions of copies doesn't change that fact.

Just because you sell millions doesn't automatically implies its good...

[Dahmer]

Sales say otherwise and that's all that matters in the end to a publisher. PC snobs saying a game is crap when it's selling hundreds of millions of copies doesn't change that fact.

Sales? Give me a break... you can't judge a game just on those numbers.

To me bringing a game out now with just DX9 has the foul stench of greed.

[resident1509]

Sounds to me that:

1. He is bad at his job
2. He doesn't like his job.

[Levish]

its a good problem to have, some price competitiveness would be even better especially since it seems like bioware (and others) is in the habit of releasing 1/2 to 3/4 of a game and DLC to finish them up

[ryboto]

I agree with the guy. Now that I'm working, completing my thesis, taking care of an apartment and my pets, I have a lot less time than I used to to game. Maybe 2-3 nights a week do I get to play anything, and that amounts to maybe 5 hours a week. With that time I typically play l4d2, since my friends want to play together, and I hardly ever see them so i'd rather play that than a single player when we all have the time. Off hand, the other games I'd like to play but will never have the time for-

BC2
BF2
Batman AA
Riddick Dark Athena
Metro 2033
Dirt 2 or NSF

I know that to some of you guys, that isn't many games, but I literally don't have the time to get into them. I've loved the little experience I've had with each of them, but unless I neglect my girlfriend, apartment, and pets, I wont have time to actually play them.

[gamervivek]

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/


/facepalm
Which recent games are really so awesome, exactly?..

they are awesome for those who start out the first time. Too many good games for newbies compared to older guys.
Though ut99 still favorite game for evahhh.

[hurrdurr]

oh the ut99 vs. quake 3 debates.

[Nightstar]

they are awesome for those who start out the first time. Too many good games for newbies compared to older guys.
Though ut99 still favorite game for evahhh.

Hey, you forgot Marathon! Bungie once made quality games too.

[s1nykuL]

The amount of "bad" games correlates positively with the possibilities for teenagers to give their 'well-founded' opinion to a mass-public. It also correlates positively with the amount of routes to free content through piracy.

This meaning,

The idea that a specific game is bad is fueled by a vast majority of young people giving un-founded criticism. Add this with the fact that negative aspects of something are more likely to be talked about and you have a situation where a bunch of youngsters are cracking down a game based on hardly anything.

Also, with piracy becoming mainstream it's a lot easier to have free content. Research has shown you're more likely to see something as good/positive the more you had to do to reach the goal. Having to work to be able to pay for a game you bought in the store equals effort (work, pay, go to store, etc...). Downloading something from the internet is almost no effort.

Most of the games are good enough to enjoy yourself for a couple of hours.

Whilst I agree with you regarding the ease at which a game is procured correlates with the perceived value or lack of for any particular game. A game being good enough for a couple of hours enjoyment shouldn't cost $60/£35. Most games these day are direct console ports with little more than a few hours game play and almost no depth to them. At those prices I don't feel that they are value for money at all.

[Particle]

Also, with piracy becoming mainstream it's a lot easier to have free content. Research has shown you're more likely to see something as good/positive the more you had to do to reach the goal. Having to work to be able to pay for a game you bought in the store equals effort (work, pay, go to store, etc...). Downloading something from the internet is almost no effort.

Most of the games are good enough to enjoy yourself for a couple of hours.

I don't think that's a universal feeling. I know that I enjoy games less when I buy them versus playing someone else's copy. I used to do a lot of the latter when I was a penniless kid. Now that I work I just buy my own outright. I feel like there's a lot more pressure when there's $50 at stake, that if I don't enjoy the game then I've made a terrible mistake. Back in the old days, it was instead just a matter of if I didn't enjoy it I'd go play something else. The worry of having wasted so much money is a serious damper I have to contend with. I've got a whole stack of games I've bought and never really played. Many of those are even A-list titles.

[RejZoR]

There are good games but there aren't many trully awesome games. I mean the ones where you say wow to every aspect of the game.

[[XC] hipno650]

Hmmmm well to be honest the only games I have been enjoying recently have been Bioware games haha. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are truly great games and I have been playing lots of them recently, next on the list is to dive more into dragon age at it seems to have some promise. there is a decent amount of good games for RPG, racing and an ok amount of RTS ( would love to see another supreme commander that would be a worthy successor not SupCom 2 garbage)

what most people are seeing as crappy games however is in the FPS market which gets the most releases and has had garbage games of late. like really when was the last good and fresh FPS to come out? TBH the last time we had good FPS games come out was when CPD4 and Crysis came out. they were something new made on new engines and offered different feels. now FPS games are still made using the same engines and same feel, kinda old after 3 years. look at COD for example, I could go out and spend $60 on Black Ops or I could boot up COD4 and play the SAME GAME that I already own 3 copy's of (COD4 CODWAW MW2) the rest of gaming seems to be moving along normally, the rest of FPS has COD syndrome, every FPS is trying to be or beat COD and COD is trying to stay the same as COD...

[K404]

Sales? Give me a break... you can't judge a game just on those numbers.

In the cold harsh light of reality, yes you can. If a game sells millions of copies, it's clearly catering to what people want in a game. The developers are tapping the "right" market and doing their jobs well.

Same in pop music. If you tick the boxes of the majority, it is a success. Both in demographic and financial terms.

For anything to change, tell millions of people to expect more & better.

Doesn't mean I think it's *right*... but it is *true*

[Manicdan]

i believe the exact opposite is true.
i have no problem not playing many games out there today, and if i do, chances are they only last 5-10 hours (or are online play which is a category im not referring too)

back in the days of PS1 there were a slew of great RPGs and most people only touched 10% of them.

[massman]

I don't think that's a universal feeling. I know that I enjoy games less when I buy them versus playing someone else's copy. I used to do a lot of the latter when I was a penniless kid. Now that I work I just buy my own outright. I feel like there's a lot more pressure when there's $50 at stake, that if I don't enjoy the game then I've made a terrible mistake. Back in the old days, it was instead just a matter of if I didn't enjoy it I'd go play something else. The worry of having wasted so much money is a serious damper I have to contend with. I've got a whole stack of games I've bought and never really played. Many of those are even A-list titles.

It's not entirely what I meant to say.

The idea is that if you pay money for a bad game there's a congitive dissonance: 'I spend money' and 'this game is bad'. To reduce the dissonance, you force yourself to believe the game wasn't that bad after all (!= "it was great"). In order to do that, you try to find the positive aspects of the game and are more balanced in your discussions about the game. It doesn't mean you liked the game more.

It's the same with people who will try to defend the hardware they bought as being the best choice simply because they don't want to face the fact that there was a better choice.

Because there's an easy access to games to be downloaded, there is no cognitive dissonance. As there's no justification required, they can just be as negative as possible about it.