How Much Is Too Much?
When did we become so hungry for new armor, new guns, new missions, and new content in general? Today we have games like Titanfall, Star Wars Battlefront, and most recently Destiny 2 that suffer from an audience that craves more. All of these games shine in their gameplay, but they just don't have enough to keep today's audience's attention. Why is that though, has something changed?
Well, yes, many things have changed over the years. For starters the video game market place has become saturated with games of all genres, some of which are released annually. This has made it common for 2, 3, or even 4 games from separate developers to release within the same month. This can create a hostile market place where good games don't sell because they're not great. It may also lead to reviews being skewed as they can't help but compare the game they're reviewing to what's currently available.
Also, the bar has significantly been raised in recent years. People now expect to have constant stimulation through quests, new gear, new non-playable-characters, and/or new experiences. I'm going to call this Skyrim-syndrome, since that is the game people seem to still use as a comparison no matter what type of game it may be.
Unfortunately this is another issue Destiny 2 runs into. Because when a game like Call of Duty comes out you can argue that you shouldn't compare it to a game like Skyrim since it's a completely different genre. But Destiny 2 wants to bridge the gap between a MMO, RPG, and shooter game, so they suffer from comparisons on all fronts. People compare it to WoW, Halo, and even Skyrim, but can a single game fulfill so many categories? Of coarse not, but should a game be punished for attenpting to break the mold of the typical video game criteria? Once again no, but something clearly has to give. We can't stop games from progressing past the typical genre, and we shouldn't cap our expectations. Instead maybe we should do our best to cure ourselves of Skyrim-syndrom, and stop comparing great games to the best of the genre, because they can't all be the best.
What do you think? Am I wrong, and should we continue to let the bar raise?
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