moot point really.... even if there were a better way, the nature of mass media dictates that it would never be used.
Just like with movies, you really will never no how good or bad a movie is before you go to the theater to see it. Making it really bad when you go to see a moive you heard was good, and turns out to be terrible.
Personally... I don't go to the theater anymore because it costs way too much. I rent.
Even then... I feel anxious about renting a movie... Which is one of the reasons things like netflix really took off.
Because the marketing departments aren't competeing to prove thier products worth, but rather to try to get you to pick up one likely turd over another, they don't see the big picture.
That making it impossible to know which game (or movie) is going to be good. People wait till they hit the bargin bin or rental isle. More and more core gamers are doing this. Which is sad, because this hurts the games that core gamers will like.
Greatness is overshadowed by trash that pretends it is great.
This, in itself, isn't the problem.... the problem is the cost of making the games. And the fact that everytime the graphics need to be better, you need to hire loads more people to do the art.
Think about it. Xbox games cost between 3-6 million.... xbox360 games cost 10... predictions say even 20 million.
Why? What about the games is taking so much more man hours? It isn't the ideas, or the gameplay technology... It isn't the music... not the level layouts, or any of that. It is a little bit, the increase in VO useage... but only minorly... It is the mocap, the extra textures, the engine to handle the graphics, the levels that take longer because of the graphics and the models and hand-done animations. Thats at least 3-15 (i'm giving 1-5 mil for other non-graphics related things just incase I missed something) million dollars EXTRA to have those graphics.
Are we seeing better AI? not really... we are seeing more AI, but to account for all the extra animations it has to deal with.
Are we seeing great leaps in gameplay? No... We are seeing lots of sports titles that are better games on the older system releases... lots of gameplay styles of the past with some graphics driven advances....
What about more content... after all... with more power and storage capacity to play with, there must be more levels to play through, or more things to do... Nope.. we see less... With the only acception being Oblivion... which has fancy, but really ugly when you get down to it, graphics....
Just like with movies, you really will never no how good or bad a movie is before you go to the theater to see it. Making it really bad when you go to see a moive you heard was good, and turns out to be terrible.
Personally... I don't go to the theater anymore because it costs way too much. I rent.
Even then... I feel anxious about renting a movie... Which is one of the reasons things like netflix really took off.
Because the marketing departments aren't competeing to prove thier products worth, but rather to try to get you to pick up one likely turd over another, they don't see the big picture.
That making it impossible to know which game (or movie) is going to be good. People wait till they hit the bargin bin or rental isle. More and more core gamers are doing this. Which is sad, because this hurts the games that core gamers will like.
Greatness is overshadowed by trash that pretends it is great.
This, in itself, isn't the problem.... the problem is the cost of making the games. And the fact that everytime the graphics need to be better, you need to hire loads more people to do the art.
Think about it. Xbox games cost between 3-6 million.... xbox360 games cost 10... predictions say even 20 million.
Why? What about the games is taking so much more man hours? It isn't the ideas, or the gameplay technology... It isn't the music... not the level layouts, or any of that. It is a little bit, the increase in VO useage... but only minorly... It is the mocap, the extra textures, the engine to handle the graphics, the levels that take longer because of the graphics and the models and hand-done animations. Thats at least 3-15 (i'm giving 1-5 mil for other non-graphics related things just incase I missed something) million dollars EXTRA to have those graphics.
Are we seeing better AI? not really... we are seeing more AI, but to account for all the extra animations it has to deal with.
Are we seeing great leaps in gameplay? No... We are seeing lots of sports titles that are better games on the older system releases... lots of gameplay styles of the past with some graphics driven advances....
What about more content... after all... with more power and storage capacity to play with, there must be more levels to play through, or more things to do... Nope.. we see less... With the only acception being Oblivion... which has fancy, but really ugly when you get down to it, graphics....