Rougelike magazine (+ rant about gaming industry)

I just thought this would be interesting for Nahjor:

http://magazine.roguelike.us/

Quote from the first issue:

Quote :

Most of today’s gamers, when presented with the ASCII-interface of a typical roguelike, immediately dismiss it as old, graphically unappealing, and boring. These sceptics refuse to have a deeper look into the game’s mechanics and its »inner values« and it takes time and effort to convince them to just try to discover the fun roguelikes have to offer. The outward appearance of the game is not as important for a roguelike as it is for a more modern, commercial game.

I find this quite true, as the key issue that plaques the game industry is graphics. More graphics demand more money, more time and more manpower.

I'm not talking about actual artwork that goes into a game, but technical details. Twice or thrice the texture detail that before, more special effects, more polygons than ever before.

It all goes to waste. The potential is never utilised.

The next step is physics. Very few games, big-budget games in particular, utilise their physics engine to any extent. Most games just allow you to make ragdolls, some objects flung across the room for no effect but that's it. You are not given tools to fully utilise any physic-based weapons, even grenades are fairly predictable. Even Half-Life 2's gravity gun is under-utilised and stands more as a gimmick than a core element of the gameplay yet it is mimicked with little change whenever possible.

Of course, the worst part, is the players. Sure, most players will moan about flashy graphics, but they'll buy Call of Duty 342, now with 50% more normal map without any sense of hypocrisy. After all, you won't see any game made with a Quake 3 engine developed nowadays, now do you?

Of course, the industry is geared to this direction. People market games that are like previous ones. Hardware manufacturers profit well from making newer and newer hardware, so they encourage (with money) developers to use newer game engines with newer effects.

The result is that small-time developers make better games than developers that have access to superior technology and resources.

That's the sad state of the gaming industry.

Preaching to the choir, Zixinus.