Gears of War Designer: "The Future of Shooters is RPGs" (2024)

Gears of War Designer: "The Future of Shooters is RPGs"

Gears of War [http://www.epicgames.com/] franchise could be in for a healthy dose of dialog and character development.

The Gears of War games seem to be doing well enough as is, garnering both critical and commercial acclaim, but Bleszinski apparently envisions even greater things for the future. Looking to the success of Deus Ex [http://www.bioshockgame.com/] - and said to him the future of shooters is RPGs. He said he completely agreed."

He was somewhat more circumspect about how the Gears of War franchise fits into that belief, however, saying, "One could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us." He also dismissed suggestions that criticism of the Gears of War 2 narrative would dissuade Epic from further "innovation" in the future.

"We never said we were making Shakespeare; this is a Michael Bay [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/] film, go with it," he continued. "I would much rather be the guy who makes a game that sells millions of copies that people love to make fun of - because that's what people do on the internet - than the guy who makes a critical darling that no one really knows about."

Permalink

It doesn't have to be Shakespeare, but one should be aiming to be like Stephen Spielberg, Micheal Mann or Luc Besson rather than Micheal Bay... they're critical darlings AND make financially successful action flicks.

I think Cliffy B is just covering up the fact that he tells a craptastic story and isn't willing to hire decent writers for his games.

While I agree that RPG elements in FPS games are the future, I don't agree that filling FPS games up with dialog and story is.

Bioshock was successful because it used the formula of choice. Remove that choice and it sucks.

RPG's are about choice.

Why is it that most people in the gaming industry that make good points in terms of the progress that is needed to bring their own genre and franchise further never seem to be the same ones that are actually doing it?

It's like they're all drawing circles on a piece of paper, looking over to the few people drawing triangles saying that everyone should make a triangle if they really want to improve their art... and then proceed to draw an even bigger circle.

CliffyB said:

"We never said we were making Shakespeare; this is a Michael Bay film, go with it," he continued. "I would much rather be the guy who makes a game that sells millions of copies that people love to make fun of - because that's what people do on the internet - than the guy who makes a critical darling that no one really knows about."

Click to expand...

Well then, Mister B, you and Tim Schafer are on two separate wavelengths. And while Gears of War IS pretty good, I'll stick to Psychonauts, if only to set squirrels and girl scouts on fire.

That said, I think he may be on to something with FPS games quasi-evolving into RPGs as a form of gaming evolution.

Pendragon9 said:

Imagine if they decided to make this into a JRPG style. Yahtzee would flip.

Click to expand...

But he already hates Cliffy B... he'd probably just make some derrisive comment about it being about expected.

Credge said:

While I agree that RPG elements in FPS games are the future, I don't agree that filling FPS games up with dialog and story is.

Bioshock was successful because it used the formula of choice. Remove that choice and it sucks.

RPG's are about choice.

Click to expand...

you actually enjoyed the choice in that game??

it was soo sketchy i didnt enjoyed it, i actually didn´t cared about the "choice" i just wanted to kill people

the "search" and "development" of a character by "training" is more in tune with what an RPG is (IMHO)

Malygris said:

"We never said we were making Shakespeare; this is a Michael Bay [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/] film, go with it,"

Click to expand...

Pointless hyperactive action with cliches dug from the barrel, got it.

he continued. "I would much rather be the guy who makes a game that sells millions of copies that people love to make fun of - because that's what people do on the internet - than the guy who makes a critical darling that no one really knows about."

Click to expand...

Yeah, because when I think heroes, I think of Vanguard rather than Tim Schafer. Why make original stuff when you can jump on the latest bandwagon?

PedroSteckecilo said:

Pendragon9 said:

Imagine if they decided to make this into a JRPG style. Yahtzee would flip.

Click to expand...

But he already hates Cliffy B... he'd probably just make some derrisive comment about it being about expected.

Click to expand...

I was more thinking along the line of if this guy was right for a change and all shooters took this course to become outsourced JRPGs.

Then again, I'd probably flip out too.

Malygris said:

"I would much rather be the guy who makes a game that sells millions of copies that people love to make fun of - because that's what people do on the internet - than the guy who makes a critical darling that no one really knows about."

Click to expand...

Cliffy B may be a bit of a dink sometimes, but this quote is actually really excellent, and I completely agree with him.

Say what you will about the Halo, Gears of War, and similar game franchises...but numbers don't lie. And I'm not talking the ratings score numbers. I'm talking the millions of games sold. Halo, in particular, seems to receive a healthy dose of bashing on the internet, but the game sold (And still sells) very very well. Which means that millions of people are enjoying the game.

Then you get people like Tim Schafer who makes great games (Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, as examples for those who don't know) and are critically acclaimed...and sell like crap. Everyone says it's awesome, so why isn't it selling? I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why they flop at the register, but the bottom line is the bottom line: How much did it sell?

And Cliffy B is that guy that he describes. People ridicule him and the Gears narrative and the like for being so brutish and childish and cliche...but in the end, he's selling millions of copies of his game and falling ass-backwards into money. So who is really laughing here?