Is the FPS's genre reign going to end?

I have nothing against FPS's as a whole but it's a certain type of gamer that comes with the whole thing, it's the kind of person who feels that you "need" to buy this new COD game now simply because he has it and are the ones who only care about the online play and would even buy a new console just for said game just for a chance to play with a bigger amount of people (yes I actually know someone like that).

At one point he bragged that he had gotten a certain amount of points or was it hours, I can't remember, I make an off hand joke and he got very offended by it but there you go.

So I don't give a damn about FPS's (although it would be nice if people would stop considering them the Gods of genre's) I just get annoyed by certain fans of them.

Disclaimer: If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared to not only retract it, but also to deny under oath I ever said it.

I'm mostly indifferent, but my roomate at University was convinced that the jRPG's I play meant that not as many FPS's would be made. Really? I do not want to see what would happen if someone like Square Enix tried to make an FPS. Dirge of Cerberus was bad enough.

Not Three Laws compliant.

Ironically, many years ago, around the time Battlefield 2 came out, I thought there were too few modern military shooters. Now there seem to be too many.

Probably why there isn't a better time for Duke Nukem Forever to be released now.

edited 6th Jun '11 8:34:50 AM by Exploder

I don't really care, if just because I'm that rare gamer that can enjoy the semi-realistic and the fantastical.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

To answer the title question, it will probably eventually happen, and I certainly want it to be sooner rather than later. But I'm guessing that the current trend of "realistic military shooters" will probably start to die out once Call Of Duty's sales start to dwindle. As in, start selling less than previous installments rather than more. Since a lot of modern FP Ses played Follow the Leader to Call Of Duty 4, if the top-selling franchise of the last 4-5 years loses in popularity, there will no doubt be a decrease in popularity of similar games as well.

The only question I have then is which genre will replace it as the sales juggernaut.

The FPS genre has never actually been very strong in terms of the total amount of time spent by all people throughout the whole world playing games.

But it's the genre for which it's the easiest to milk people of their money without providing very substantive content.

Well with the rise in 3D gaming, I wouldn't mind seeing some virtual reality style games and I'm sure we could find something easier to use then a huge helmet thing to play the VR games.

Disclaimer: If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared to not only retract it, but also to deny under oath I ever said it.

@Zendervai

Regarding Square Enix making (or publishing rather) a shooter...

From the leaked beta, alot of people like it, including this troper.

edited 6th Jun '11 10:37:02 AM by ayjazz

@Medinoc: Technology has always favored the FPS genre. Id Software wrote engines that they licensed out to other developers, creating classic FPS games to show them off. Epic Games wrote the Unreal Engine as a competitor to Id Tech 2 and created another classic FPS game to show it off. Valve Software took the Quake I engine, modified it heavily, and created a new engine that stunned people who played Half Life.

These days, it still continues: Id is preparing to unveil the Id Tech 5 engine with Rage, Epic is promoting the Unreal Engine III with the UDK and Valve continues to improve the Source Engine with each new game that they release.

Anyways, I wouldn't mind it if we made a return to Doom clones where we have fantastic settings, ludicrous amounts of guns and plots that don't matter much.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:07:48 AM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

fantastic settings, ludicrous amounts of guns and plots that don't matter much.

So pretty much what 2K Games tends to put out?

^Well, yeah, but more Doom-like, you know what I mean?

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

When is the FPS reign of terror going to end? Hopefully this afternoon.

I liked perfectly well when video games took advantage of their medium's versatility to get away with plots, mechanics, conventions and characters that wouldn't fly in any other medium, and reveled in it. First-person shooters are (for the most part, for the most part!) like poison to originality, imagination, and creativity. Let's go ahead and put the genre to bed for a handful of decades and focus on creating new characters and mechanics that'll stand the test of time, is what I think we should do.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:18:53 AM by EddieValiantJr

"Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse." —Mycroft Next

I like the cinematic FPS that can tell a story and feel like a movie. I don't like the dull repetitive cover based regen health fragfests that all end with some whiny teen noob tubing you.

The Blood God's design consultant.

Yeah, certainly not games like New Super Mario Bros., Star Fox 64 3D, Megaman 10, etc.

Decades? You mean like we did with other genres that were big at one time or another? Like how we put Zelda to rest when it became apparent that those games weren't changing much from title to title? Yeah, let's completely get rid of a genre people like since it never offers anything original, even though it hasn't stopped games in genres you like from being made. Sounds perfectly logical.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:33:43 AM by NULLcHiLD27

I don't mean to pick a fight here, but that's exactly what I hate about FPS games.

If I want a movie, I'll watch a damn movie. Video game, please be a video game. There's no shame in what you are. Really.

@ Ultraman: Amazing... even though you quoted the "for the most part" bit, you still seem to not have read it.

You also seem to have no idea what I'm talking about anyway, and I have a feeling you wouldn't be interested in listening if you did.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:32:20 AM by EddieValiantJr

"Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse." —Mycroft Next

I think the fad phase of the FPS will burn out due to oversaturation, but the games are cheap and easy to make and there's always going to be a fanbase for them. They're never going to die.

Then you'll have to explain to me how I've misunderstood "poison to originality, imagination, and creativity" and "put the genre to bed for a handful of decades".

I don't want to argue with anyone, but it really irritates me when when someone basically says what sounds like I don't like this, let's get rid of it.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:42:07 AM by NULLcHiLD27

Haven't first-person shooter games... kinda always been one of the dominating genres? Like, ever since the original Doom?

Fanfiction I hate.

^^ 100% agreed. Plenty of shooters have content that is incredibly hard to convert into a movie. I call Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch.

Sure, "for the most part", but I question the implication that other genres are somehow always more original and creative.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:53:03 AM by Exploder

Shooters can be plenty creative. Look at the level design in Painkiller, the narrative style in Half-Life, the art direction in Team Fortress 2...

Fanfiction I hate.

Doom was a popular game. But FPS has certainly made gains in popularity since then.

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

Hopefully soon.

@ Ultraman (because I don't know if there'll be another comment above me by the time I'm done):

I like things that take advantage of the video game medium's versatility. I don't like things that don't, and / or try to ape other media. I like Portal and TF2. Well, I don't like to play them because FPS aren't my thing, but I appreciate them, I understand why they're popular and I can absolutely get behind them. Make a million more; I don't got no beef with that. I don't like Halo, Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, and that kind of thing, because all they do is take movies full of movie tropes and slap a superfluous interactivity on them. The medium's possibilities aren't being taken advantage of. It's almost like they're ashamed of being video games, so they're wearing movie masks.

If I'm still not being clear, let me take an obvious example: Mario. I'm not claiming that Mario is something deep or complex or the apex of what a game can be, but he is, first and foremost, a video game operating under video game rules. We know for a fact he doesn't really work in other media, just as something like, say, The Catcher in the Rye or The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy more or less dies when you try to convert it to a visual medium. It's an idea that uses original game tropes to convey itself, not retrofitted movie tropes. Y'dig?

And, no, I don't like sports sims or visual novels, either.

I'm not saying, let's all kill COD forever. I'm just saying, let's focus less on it and work on helping make games their own thing, independent from older media.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:58:29 AM by EddieValiantJr

"Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse." —Mycroft Next

I'd be fine with it losing popularity and being replaced by genres I like in terms of what oversaturates the market, but eh...I still get what I want so meh.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

All these military FPS's where you get missions from your superior officer then go off and fight soldiers are seriously boring. There need to be more FPS's where you receive missions from the voices in your head and open fire on unarmed civilians.

Except [condescending response follows]. Because [sarcasm here]. You do understand [snark], right? POTHOLE TO SARCASM MODE