The Beatles changed music, but what game changed the industry for good?

Eshelmen

Eshelmen

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
Messages
6,632
Obviously there is more than just one game that has influenced modern gaming.

Doom, half-life, golden eye, WoW, Zelda etc..

But which game stands out as the most influential to changing how we game today?

Can't decide on one?
Give a few, but give me a reason of why.


BTW , this is a pretty cool picture of 2004 games.
Lot of good titles.

jS0ZiqW.jpg
 
3D Monster Maze - First 3D corridor horror
Donkey Kong - Best early platform
Defender - Best early side scroll shooter
Pacman - Best early top down
Elite - Best early 3D space game
 
I'd say super mario bros along with the nes release changed the industry the most as it pretty much saved the console industry.

Super Mario 64 really ushered in the 3d generation of games. You can 3d racing games and FPS games before this but I see this games as the change over point from most games being 2d to moving into the 3d space in a good way.

For FPS games Wolfenstein 3D really was the start but I think doom has more of an impact. You could make an argument for Catacomb 3-D as well but Doom is really the one where it went huge. It also had network gaming in it which was huge. It caused a good amount of trouble at various organizations for its time wasting and network usage.
 
For FPS, I think Half-Life basically ruined the genre. And I say that while simultaneously believing that it's the best FPS game ever made. It popularized (and perfected IMO) the idea of a highly scripted linear experience, which the modern military genre took to the extreme and ran into the ground.
 
drako said:
For FPS, I think Half-Life basically ruined the genre. And I say that while simultaneously believing that it's the best FPS game ever made. It popularized (and perfected IMO) the idea of a highly scripted linear experience, which the modern military genre took to the extreme and ran into the ground.
Click to expand...

To me, Half Life changed the industry in another very important way, that I honestly don't like, but I'm sure most people will disagree with me.

It was the first major game that ran for a lot of people. Why is this bad though? Because growing up, there were many games which always pushed technology and forced you to upgrade. Practically every game Origin made required getting a top of the line, bleeding edge computer just to run it semi reasonably. How many people upgraded their PC's because of Wing Commander? And even Myst and The 7th Guest (as much as I despise Myst, as I personally consider it the worst game ever) made people want to get CD-ROMs and a sound card just to see the pretty graphics. And games like Doom & Quake had people running out to get network support and 3D cards.

But along comes Half Life and you can run it too! No need to upgrade! The problem is, games of the future now became "unoptimized" if a person couldn't run it on 5 year old hardware with all the max settings. Settings such as Low Medium High use to mean that you could run Medium, and High was for next years hardware. And to compensate, other companies just changed the wording so you no longer had Low Medium High, but something like High, Ultra, and Ultra High. And unfortunately, people didn't care if Ultra High was worse quality than another game's Low, because Ultra High obviously is an apples to apples comparison to a completely different game! So the other game must be unoptimized!
 
drako said:
For FPS, I think Half-Life basically ruined the genre. And I say that while simultaneously believing that it's the best FPS game ever made. It popularized (and perfected IMO) the idea of a highly scripted linear experience, which the modern military genre took to the extreme and ran into the ground.
Click to expand...

I like linear FPS. Not every game needs to be open world with upgrading stuff. In fact, at some point I realized I actually missed the simplicity of linear FPS. As much as I love games like Elder Scroll and STALKER, I wouldn't want all FPS to be like STALKER.

Games like Half Life,Serious Sam, DOOM and Soldier of Fortune were some of my favorite FPS experiences. What I like about them is the simplicity where you can pick up a gun and start shooting stuff. No need to worry about upgrades, character build, doing pointless side quest just because you need its rewards, etc.

There's a certain attraction to adding RPG elements to FPS games, but it loses it's charm for me once too many games do that.
 
System Shock II - The first real first person rpg. Too bad not many followed. And irrational doesn't do anything else since just slaps the same template on all of their games, while decreasing complexity.

Dark Forces - The first story driven fps that I know of.

The Need For Speed - Redefined the genre of racing games with new levels of realism, and enthusiasm. Too bad it all went to shit since. There aren't enough arcade like racers with realistic physics. Either we get the shit that companies like criterion make. Or we get pointless HC simulators.

COD - It took the FPS genre onto a slippery slope and slowly killed it.

World of Warcraft - It made every major studio/publisher want their own moneycow, forcing them to make their own MMOs while neglecting real story driven Single Player gameing all to my dismay.
 
Half life - Pretty much changed the entire FPS genre and gaming as a whole, showing that you can develop a story within a game without resorting to out of engine cutscenes, also showed that fps games can be more then just action, with it's emphasis on npc's, puzzle solving, etc.

GTA III - What is there to say? Brought open world action/driving games to the forefront and made them popular.

Baldur's Gate - Classic CRPG Goodness. When most people think of classic crpgs this is the series most remember for setting the bar. It pretty much saved the D&D license for crpgs and also Interplay itself. Even though Fallout 1 came before it BG is the one that set the bar for crpgs of that era and brought them back to the forefront to pave way for BG2/Icewind Dale/Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment, etc.
 
Quite a few games helped to shape the industry. But definitely SMB's with the NES was a major turn around. I'm not even sure if Doom was any kind of real turning point for 3D gaming since most gamers didn't have PC's capable of running it. For that it was probably Tomb Raider or something.
 
Predaking said:
Quite a few games helped to shape the industry. But definitely SMB's with the NES was a major turn around. I'm not even sure if Doom was any kind of real turning point for 3D gaming since most gamers didn't have PC's capable of running it. For that it was probably Tomb Raider or something.
Click to expand...

Considering that Doom is considered one of the most important video games ever made and Shareware Doom was installed on over 10 million computers in it's time I'd have to disagree. Doom was a title that was so amazing, so game changing that it pushed people to upgrade to see what the game was like when running on better hardware. It was the first game to use Ethernet connections. It was not the first game to feature Deathmatch but it brought that name to gamers and it was the title that popularized the mode. Many FPS games after Doom weren't called FPG titles, instead they were commonly known as "Doom clones". Doom and Quake were definitely games that revolutionized the industry and 3D gaming.
 
Derangel said:
Considering that Doom is considered one of the most important video games ever made and Shareware Doom was installed on over 10 million computers in it's time I'd have to disagree. Doom was a title that was so amazing, so game changing that it pushed people to upgrade to see what the game was like when running on better hardware. It was the first game to use Ethernet connections. It was not the first game to feature Deathmatch but it brought that name to gamers and it was the title that popularized the mode. Many FPS games after Doom weren't called FPG titles, instead they were commonly known as "Doom clones". Doom and Quake were definitely games that revolutionized the industry and 3D gaming.
Click to expand...

Not sure I'd agree completely with this. Doom was amazing at the time because it brought network functionality (which was new for many people). But as far as the graphics, while it was a fake 3D, it didn't really push computers at the time to have people upgrade. It was those stupid FMV games which were driving graphics. Quake was really the first game from Id which had people run out to get better hardware (and I would also say revolutionized 3D gaming more than Doom or Wolfenstein 3D).
 
I'm going to add this:

Quake 3 Arena, and UT99: Both ground breaking FPS's to ship without a real single player campaign (just training bots), and firmly defining the arena shooter formula. Also while mods were already around for previous games of the series, both id and epic really opened up the tool box to the masses and allowed the community to show just how creative they can be.


Also in terms of forcing computer upgrades, I'd say it was more quake 2 than the original quake, that colored lighting that the software renderer couldn't support was a game changer and really allowed 3dfx to move some hardware. I think I still have my old voodoo around somewhere.
 
The sad thing is I waited in line to pick up Doom 3 at 12:00 am in 2004 only one other person wanted the game besides me =)
 
Comixbooks said:
The sad thing is I waited in line to pick up Doom 3 at 12:00 am in 2004 only one other person wanted the game besides me =)
Click to expand...

No the sad thing is, that it didn't even warrant more attention. After Quake II ID software stopped making good games. Ok, Q3 was good, but it isn't a real game to me.
 
AirWarrior - First MMO sim of any kind, and AFAIK, the first game that allowed multi-player crewed vehicles.

Wolfenstein 3D - Pretty much inspired the entire FPS genre.

Sim City - Created a new genre

Rainbow Six - Squad-based combat using stealth, combined arms, etc.

Operation Flashpoint - Took FPS to a whole new level of reaslism

iRacing - Laser scanned tracks and a game mechanice designed to encourage safe driving

BTW, that was off the top of my head. I may be wrong on some of those.
Gran Prix Legends - Sim racing realism that was unheard of when it was released.

Grand Theft Auto - Created a new genre
 
HL2 / CS Source changed my life forever. A long time ago now and I'd do anything to go back and do it all again.
 
Going to try to not include several others I've seen already listed but here's a few I just thought of that really changed things.

Legend of Zelda because of its real-time game play for an adventure RPG.
Civilization for its 4x gameplay and how successful the series has been over time.
Ultima Online really showed how successful MMOs could be. Unfortunately the grind model of Everquest won in terms of gameplay, but also an important game for how MMOs would be designed.
Diablo because of the inclusion of Battle.net as an integrated, in-game, easy to use system for chat and game browsing/creation.
 
GoldenEye brought us the true FPS desire on consoles, then probably Halo furthered on this. Those are in a lot of ways the basis for current FPS multiplayers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top