Topic: Good ideas for the current gaming industry

[KaZudra]

Many people come up with golden ideas for gaming, most never see fruition. It usually goes with "You know what would be cool...", the topic is devoted to some good ideas that will perhaps one day see the marketplace or just simply float in limbo, nethertheless these opinions or ideas still needs to be voiced, I'll kick this one off with a few of my own.

A Windows based PSvita-like handheld. Windows 10 works great on even the toastiest of toasters, why not get a kick-off on mobile gaming this way? there are plenty of Steam games perfect for handhelds and a great line-up of Windows Store games also great for handhelds, not to mention the remote play for Xbox One, this could be a perfect candidate for a dying handheld market offering not only some new games but an already prominent library of games just ready to go.

Next gen consoles with upgradable hardware, This gen is a bit disappointing as expected to master 1080p gaming, but what we got was 900p 30fps average. Why not simply use some foresight and have hardware tiers suited for resolutions appropriately? where 4k and 1440p are possible but entirely optional to people comfortable with 1080p, but with that foresight a simple $200 upgrade will look good with that new HDTV you just got.

Games with a secret educational goal, simply put you can cleverly educate a young mind with a really fun game, the secret is making the educational part subtle but necessary, games are engaging but this is a challenge that if done successfully it could revolutionize education especially for those who would rather play video games instead of homework.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Games with a secret educational goal, simply put you can cleverly educate a young mind with a really fun game, the secret is making the educational part subtle but necessary, games are engaging but this is a challenge that if done successfully it could revolutionize education especially for those who would rather play video games instead of homework.

I think this was done by Age of Empires (of the past) and Assassin's Creed (today) for history.

[Donvermicelli]

Games with a secret educational goal, simply put you can cleverly educate a young mind with a really fun game, the secret is making the educational part subtle but necessary, games are engaging but this is a challenge that if done successfully it could revolutionize education especially for those who would rather play video games instead of homework.

An awesome example of this is www.fold.it It uses game mechanics to have players solve science puzzles.
It's been great at helping cure research advance by leaps and bounds.

[Crying Freeman]

Many people come up with golden ideas for gaming, most never see fruition. It usually goes with "You know what would be cool...", the topic is devoted to some good ideas that will perhaps one day see the marketplace or just simply float in limbo, nethertheless these opinions or ideas still needs to be voiced, I'll kick this one off with a few of my own.

A Windows based PSvita-like handheld. Windows 10 works great on even the toastiest of toasters, why not get a kick-off on mobile gaming this way? there are plenty of Steam games perfect for handhelds and a great line-up of Windows Store games also great for handhelds, not to mention the remote play for Xbox One, this could be a perfect candidate for a dying handheld market offering not only some new games but an already prominent library of games just ready to go.

Next gen consoles with upgradable hardware, This gen is a bit disappointing as expected to master 1080p gaming, but what we got was 900p 30fps average. Why not simply use some foresight and have hardware tiers suited for resolutions appropriately? where 4k and 1440p are possible but entirely optional to people comfortable with 1080p, but with that foresight a simple $200 upgrade will look good with that new HDTV you just got.

Games with a secret educational goal, simply put you can cleverly educate a young mind with a really fun game, the secret is making the educational part subtle but necessary, games are engaging but this is a challenge that if done successfully it could revolutionize education especially for those who would rather play video games instead of homework.

Both amazing ideas, man! Strictly speaking about your hardware ideas, I heard of the SteamBoy handheld, but that's gonna run SteamOS, and I doubt it'll even come out after how SteamOS bombed. Companies now don't find it a worthy investment with all the phones and Nintendo dominating the market, but if someone could come by and release a decently powerful handheld with intuitive controls running Windows, it'd make way for a handheld A TON of gamers would like. Razed Switchblade was a concept from 2011 I think and it was basically a DS sized laptop handheld... WE NEED IT TO COME OUT!

Upgradable consoles should've happened for this gen I beleive. It would've been better to compete with PC, plus it would keep hardware costs down; instead of manufacturing, concetualizing, R&Ding  a completely different console, they just make a console with upgradability in mundane manufacture a new module that would pack new power while keeping the core components! It would fit people of different budgets too, and bundles for different modules+console would make way for some amazing stuff, or buy one barebones and buy the modules you want!

[Donvermicelli]

Upgradable consoles should've happened for this gen I beleive. It would've been better to compete with PC, plus it would keep hardware costs down; instead of manufacturing, concetualizing, R&Ding  a completely different console, they just make a console with upgradability in mundane manufacture a new module that would pack new power while keeping the core components! It would fit people of different budgets too, and bundles for different modules+console would make way for some amazing stuff, or buy one barebones and buy the modules you want!

This has been done before, a notable example: was with the SNES
Doing similar stuff with today's consoles feels pointless, you get the same as a compact desktop PC.
The main appeal for developers (and in most cases users) to get a video game console over a desktop PC is that the console has some sort of guarantee about it's specifications.
The developers will know exactly what to develop for (cheaper, less bug prone) and the users know for a fact that they can run the game with the same performance as everyone else.

I am really curious as to why you would still pick a console over a desktop pc at that point?

[uzo]

A Windows based PSvita-like handheld. Windows 10 works great on even the toastiest of toasters, why not get a kick-off on mobile gaming this way? there are plenty of Steam games perfect for handhelds and a great line-up of Windows Store games also great for handhelds, not to mention the remote play for Xbox One, this could be a perfect candidate for a dying handheld market offering not only some new games but an already prominent library of games just ready to go.

Wouldn't be a good move. Mobile games are killing dedicated handhelds. Even the 3DS is lagging way behind the original DS. Mobile games are to blame.

Next gen consoles with upgradable hardware, This gen is a bit disappointing as expected to master 1080p gaming, but what we got was 900p 30fps average. Why not simply use some foresight and have hardware tiers suited for resolutions appropriately? where 4k and 1440p are possible but entirely optional to people comfortable with 1080p, but with that foresight a simple $200 upgrade will look good with that new HDTV you just got.

Been there, done that. N64 expansion pack? N64DD? Half the SEGA consoles? It doesn't work. It fragments the player base too much. It causes developers to have to decide between using the newest and greatest tech and having their game viable for purchase by more people. Cutting out a large chunk of your potential audience it a huge gamble for most developers. Not to mention the consumer base being confused.

Games with a secret educational goal, simply put you can cleverly educate a young mind with a really fun game, the secret is making the educational part subtle but necessary, games are engaging but this is a challenge that if done successfully it could revolutionize education especially for those who would rather play video games instead of homework.

Not many games have the GOAL of this, but it happens anyway. Simple things like having shops and currency teach about financial management. Equipment in RPGs teaches math and sometimes complex formulas you have to figure out and use to maximize your stats. Just a couple of examples from many.

[zangetsu468]

Here's an idea, make some decent games 

[Crying Freeman]

This has been done before, a notable example: was with the SNES
Doing similar stuff with today's consoles feels pointless, you get the same as a compact desktop PC.
The main appeal for developers (and in most cases users) to get a video game console over a desktop PC is that the console has some sort of guarantee about it's specifications.
The developers will know exactly what to develop for (cheaper, less bug prone) and the users know for a fact that they can run the game with the same performance as everyone else.

I am really curious as to why you would still pick a console over a desktop pc at that point?

I glanced over the thought of compatibility and console assurance. I guess I was thinking of something like the steam machines, but yeah, we're watching those quietly die. I think if Valve released a revised version of that demo version a few years back, and it was the exclusive steam machine, I think they'd have found some success. Some poeple love the newcomers and niche products, but think about this: Valve makes their steambox the only current console to play Valve titles if you don't want a straight up PC for some reason. Sure, you can play half-lifes and l4ds and cs and portals on previous gens, but Valve has the mod community and steam sales etc. making it a better buy on their system, plus new titles exclusive to new platforms and PC.

Sure, getting a PC would be the better choice at that point, but if Valve made a cheap PC that could be upgraded, has a nice case, running SteamOS or Windows, I'm sure it would find some footing

[Crying Freeman]

Here's an idea, make some decent games 

Lol true

[Donvermicelli]

Sure, getting a PC would be the better choice at that point, but if Valve made a cheap PC that could be upgraded, has a nice case, running SteamOS or Windows, I'm sure it would find some footing

But then you don't have a console. You just have a cheap small PC, those already exist.

[Crying Freeman]

But then you don't have a console. You just have a cheap small PC, those already exist.

True. Some people do call the Alpha a console when it really isn't.

[KaZudra]

Been there, done that. N64 expansion pack? N64DD? Half the SEGA consoles? It doesn't work. It fragments the player base too much. It causes developers to have to decide between using the newest and greatest tech and having their game viable for purchase by more people. Cutting out a large chunk of your potential audience it a huge gamble for most developers. Not to mention the consumer base being confused.

Sort of, but not quite.
My version of the concept isn't upgrading the console to play new games, it's updating the console to play those games at higher resolutions and HDD upgrades, All the games from that gen can play perfectly well on the base hardware, but just at the standard resolution of that time (most likely 1080p). So If you only have a 1080p when you bought the console, but somewhere mid-gen 4k became affordable, you're covered.

[uzo]

You still run into problems where development lengthens because testing has to be doubled for all available hardware configurations.

Usually this kind of thing makes the "normal" configuration barely playable, and the expanded/upgraded becomes the norm.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

You still run into problems where development lengthens because testing has to be doubled for all available hardware configurations.

Usually this kind of thing makes the "normal" configuration barely playable, and the expanded/upgraded becomes the norm.

Yeah, this hits PC-exclusive devs all the time because PC hardware is so snowflake-like and each machine often winds up unique to its user. There's simply no possible way to test your game for all of that, but devs are often expected to test for as many as they can anyway, and more than one studio has verbosely lamented the time costs associated with it. Making a game for console AND PC is generally easier because consoles give a flat, even starting point and minimum standard of quality for the PC version. Hence why several series that used to be considered "PC first" like Crysis have shifted to using consoles as the defining standard for development; it's just a simpler way of doing things for the development staff, and it can shave weeks or even months off of testing.

That being said, I'm about at the point where I'm ready to see consoles as a concept go away. Handhelds can stay because they're just plain awesome, but I'm ready to see Xbox and Playstation in particular go away in the living room. Over time, I've come to realize that consoles have become a crutch for developers that tends to encourage lazy gamemaking.

On topic though, I would suggest that patch-culture needs to be done away with entirely. Patches have done more to encourage lazy game development than anything else today, and a good example is Assassin's Creed: Unity. When that game shipped, it was so buggy that it was almost unplayable -- they sold the game when it wasn't even ready to be in alpha. Because why shouldn't they? People will buy it, and then we can just patch it later. Aliens: Colonial Marines suffered from the same, being released well before it was ready and then actually finishing development after millions had already bought and beaten it. While it's true that these games are essentially fixed now and perfectly enjoyable, that wasn't true at launch, or for almost a year after. The combined patch files had a megabyte count that rivaled the weight of the original games. This is also (frighteningly) the WHOLE POINT of Steam Early Access, which I really wish wasn't a thing to begin with for these same reasons.

DLC, by the same token, has essentially become microtransactions, and many triple A games can essentially charge double the game's price in DLC alone when much of that content amounts to cosmetics and maybe a new weapon here or there (Borderlands 2 is a prime example of this). DLC at its best serves as a full expansion (Skyrim's Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLCs are a good example) that legitimately improve the base game in hugely quantifiable ways, and then, at the opposite end of the scale, DLC does more or less the opposite, making you question why it even has a price tag.

Adding pre-orders and "Season Passes" (i.e; pre-orders for DLC) on makes it even more insulting to the consumer, essentially asking us to buy content that hasn't even been released yet and may or may not even be ANNOUNCED YET, which is actually a pretty sizable gamble for most gamers who don't have Donald Trump's budget.

I miss proper expansions that effectively doubled the in game content, like Blizzard's "Warcraft III: Frozen Throne" or "StarCraft: Brood War".

This is yet another reason why I love CD Projekt Red and The Witcher III -- it is a shining example of how amazing games can be even when they defy many of the conventions of patch culture that big publishers try to convince us are necessary for a quality gaming experience today. While the Witcher III has seen its share of patches and DLC, the patches tweak and enhance the product (rather than "fix" issues because the vast majority of those got nabbed during beta testing), the DLCs are by and large free, they add to the experience in very noticeable and positive ways, and the two major expansions basically add a whole second game to the one you were already playing. It's patches and DLCs finally done correctly once again.

So if the industry can't get rid of patch culture, they should at least strive to emulate CD Projekt Red in all things.

[Shiroi Koumori]

If i recall correctly, Ubisoft shipped out AC Unity even if it was still buggy because the company cared more about its stock price than the gamers. If it delayed the shipping of the game, they would suffer from a huge fall in stock prices and lose their investors confidence in them. In other words, it's all about the money and it seems that modern gaming culture tolerates such acts.