Episode 32 – Have We Run Out Of Genres?

So last night I started playing Gears of War… Finally. I’ve had it for like 3 weeks and just haven’t been able to get me and my roommate together to start the campaign. Well it has begun and after a few hours of playing I am extremely impressed. The thing looks gorgeous even on my slightly damaged television. It’s a great game for Co-op, but I don’t want to talk about the game itself. Just this:

Have we run out of genres?

I don’t want to sound cynical… playing Gears of War was fun, but it was nothing new. It has some new elements, but that’s really it. It’s a pretty standard shooter. I haven’t actually played a new genre in a really long time. As I look around at my stack of games I see much of the same. Sports, Survival Horror, First Person Shooter, Third Person Strategy Shooter, Racing, Puzzle, Action RPG, Real Time Strategy, Platformers … Thinking back to other games I have owned in the past, they all pretty much fit into those categories. There are other games, like Turn Based RPG, Space Shooters, and Creation games like, Sims, Sim City, and Rollercoaster Tycoon, (and probably Spore when it comes out) but all of these genres have been out for a long time.

I’m not quite sure how long we, the gamers, are going to be able to deal. It’s a large amount of genres, yes. I wont argue with that. But the last first person shooter I played was exactly like every other previous first person shooter I’ve played… only it had better graphics. That’s only going to sustain me for so long. Actually, it’s already starting to wear on me. That’s why I wont get Call of Duty 3. Because graphics don’t make a game for me. The team thing is nice, because it’s a new aspect. I liked GRAW, because you have to rely on the computers characters for certain things. Same with Gears. But how long with last?

Maybe that’s it… we wont get new genres just new aspects of the same genre. It hasn’t actually failed me yet. Just as I’m getting sick of the standard shooter, the team aspect drops in. I like that now, and in a few years, who knows, maybe something else will drop into the game.

This is a really shitty post. I feel like there is so much more to say, but I can’t vocalize it, and I don’t want to rant.

So I’ll just leave it as a question to you dear readers. Do you think games are getting to repetitive?