Will shooters EVER be supplanted as the favored game type?

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tybert7

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I don't know total numbers but it seems like shooters are, by far, the most popular game type. Is that genre REALLY more fun than everything else to people? Or is it a similar case to the popularity of the mass effect soldier class over options like hybrids or engineers/adepts? Where people just choose the default soldier option, the run and gun grunt and ignore the other more exotic and potentially rewarding classes?


I ask because I don't want there to be a creativity drain from other genres I prefer to dumb shooters. We might FINALLY be getting a homeworld after how many decades now?

big epic rpg releases on the pc have been INCREDIBLY slow this year, and the one game with that did have a larger story arc was still primarily a shooter.



Am I just going to be the oddball forever?
 
simple answer: No...role playing and other types of games require a bigger investment from the gamer which most folks just don't want (or can't give)...the compromise is that there are more shooter/role playing hybrids these days which sort of try and balance things
 
I could see casual time waster games like Angry Birds having a larger user base than FPS, might well have already happened.

The popularity of things like Bioshock and Uncharted are good signs though (even WoW I guess), quality can still trump genre.
 
When I was young everything was a run/jump/shoot platformer and people wondered if we'd ever get past that. Then everything became a psuedo 3D platformer. Then the fighting game era took over.
At one time all of those genres dominated.
The PC has seemingly always latched on to the 3D shooter...probably just because it's the platform best designed for it. Still, I don't think the COD, Doom, Far Cry, etc. type games will dominate forever. I can see 3D games that aren't necessarily focused on shooting everything catching on, too.
 
PC gaming has gone through quite a few phases itself, lots of cross over and feedback loops.

Lots of click on things adventure games (Kings Quest, Myst, Leisure Suit Larry...etc).
Strategy Games (Populus, Civilization, Simcity, Masters of Orion, Heroes of M+M)
RTS Games (Warcraft 2, Command and Conquer, StarCraft)
Shareware Platformers (Commander Keen, Duke Nukem 2)

I love hybrid space sim games.

Descent was basically a space sim built like an early FPS (clear levels with bosses, similar upgrade structure, hidden areas...etc).

Privateer was a space sim plus an open world game.

WC: Armada was a space sim - 4X stategy hybrid... also the first game I ever played multiplayer (over null-modem).
 
I enjoy shooters and RPGs more than any other genre but at the end of the day if I enjoy a game I will buy it regardless of genre. I enjoy some RTS games and some adventure games. I even enjoy some racing games. FPS doesn't have to decrease in popularity for those other genres to get more players or better games. Developers and publishers have to do a better job of figuring out who their audience is and getting them info about their game.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Don't more people play MOBA games than shooters now?
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I think people prefer MOBAs because they aren't..."skill" based like shooters or as tactical as proper RTS (they are essentially ultra dumbed down strategy games)...more time investment based...so everyone can win after a short amount of time investment..

People who claim they are probably consider rock paper scissors a game of skill. :D
 
Shooters have a really good track record recently for sales figures, ultimately the big studios follow the market lead. Same reason we get so many sequels. Ultimately I think most of us put in their shoes would be hard pressed to focus on original IP in a currently unpopular genre if our job depended on it.

I'm just thankful for delivery mechanism like steam that allow small studios who want to take risks on new ideas, or develop games in near abandoned genres to do so and find an audience.
 
Shooters as a genre on the PC actually are much less popular now and have been historically then you would think. It might not seem that way because their appeal to certain demographics is rather high but not in terms of PC gaming as whole. Shooters have often pushed and been the benchmarks for GPU performance and technology, as such there is strong correlation between shooter fans and tech enthusiasts and coverage. This is over represented on a community like hardOCP versus PC gaming as whole. (side comment, this also somewhat relates to this myth that high CPU usage and low GPU usage is due to optimization issues in this demographic).

In terms of sales revenue data on the PC by genre they are actually behind quite a few genres. The only time I would place FPS games on the forefront of PC gaming is the late 90s and early 2000's with Quake/Unreal/Half-life (CS) but this also coincided with a lull in the other genres as much as due to itself. Before that the majority of mega popular games were dominated by RPGs, Strategy, and Adventure games.

The shooter surge in more mainstream gaming is really attributed to the console side with games like CoD (it is known from the console side starting with MW) and Halo as opposed to anything on the PC side.

Maplehamwich said:
It's the silent majority though, so not much is heard about them. The shouty, cocksure, bro man dudes are the ones who make all the noise.
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It isn't a silent majority issue, a large depends on your "social" circle so to speak. If you went by hardOCP for example you'd assume much less people cared about console gaming than the actual overall market. Just like if you only looked at North America/Western demographics you'd also have a distorted view on the overall gaming market.
 
After 30 some odd years of gaming I for one am board of fps. I love different games now like Heavy Rain and walking dead episodes. I still play the occasional block buster fps I just don't get the same thrill anymore
 
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limitedaccess said:
Shooters as a genre on the PC actually are much less popular now and have been historically then you would think. It might not seem that way because their appeal to certain demographics is rather high but not in terms of PC gaming as whole. Shooters have often pushed and been the benchmarks for GPU performance and technology, as such there is strong correlation between shooter fans and tech enthusiasts and coverage. This is over represented on a community like hardOCP versus PC gaming as whole. (side comment, this also somewhat relates to this myth that high CPU usage and low GPU usage is due to optimization issues in this demographic).

In terms of sales revenue data on the PC by genre they are actually behind quite a few genres. The only time I would place FPS games on the forefront of PC gaming is the late 90s and early 2000's with Quake/Unreal/Half-life (CS) but this also coincided with a lull in the other genres as much as due to itself. Before that the majority of mega popular games were dominated by RPGs, Strategy, and Adventure games.

The shooter surge in more mainstream gaming is really attributed to the console side with games like CoD (it is known from the console side starting with MW) and Halo as opposed to anything on the PC side.



It isn't a silent majority issue, a large depends on your "social" circle so to speak. If you went by hardOCP for example you'd assume much less people cared about console gaming than the actual overall market. Just like if you only looked at North America/Western demographics you'd also have a distorted view on the overall gaming market.
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Quoted for emphasis and excellency.
 
I don't think shooters are the dominant game type, I think that they just get the most attention for 2 reasons. 1 most of the shooters as in FPS games have ported to consoles, and many of them have turned into huge block buster games with very large budgets. As such the companies must advertise like crazy to get the sales they want to recover. This puts the games in the limelight but doesn't mean it represents all gamers. Shooters inherently because they are often FPS games push graphics boundries which also drives up interest and costs. RTS games have tons of players too, MMORPG games and MOBA. No shooter ever has gathered as large an audience for pro tournaments as LoL has, I believe their was a match with over 1.5 million spectators and Dota is one of the most popular games on steam. But there are tons of other games being made and played and I think currently there is just a lot to choose from. At some point I expect we will see more consolidation in the industry. Also in asia etc... they be wondering the opposite, will shooters ever become popular lol.
 
I think people prefer MOBAs because they aren't..."skill" based like shooters or as tactical as proper RTS (they are essentially ultra dumbed down strategy games)...more time investment based...so everyone can win after a short amount of time investment..
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You obviously have NEVER played LoL, Dota, Dota 2, or HoN. They are extrememly skill based and are not some "dumbed" down game.

In fact I would put Dota 2 only behind SC2 in terms of skill base. Lastly you don't get prize pools for $2.5 MILLION (the dota 2 international) by being a dumbed down game.
 
XvMMvX said:
In fact I would put Dota 2 only behind SC2 in terms of skill base. Lastly you don't get prize pools for $2.5 MILLION (the dota 2 international) by being a dumbed down game.
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So you don't think you get more money and make a game more popular by making a game you know ACCESIBLE? AKA dumbed the fuck down? :confused: The prize money is there to make people play it, no other reason, it's tedious to watch. Compare it to any RTS and you'll see it has no base building (so buying/build order is ultra simplified for simpletons), one unit to control only (no large scale maneuvers or flanking actions/feints/anything just battles of attrition...), no unit or resource management (you just grind the shitty people over and over), where you play on a single map ever (no working out the best tactical spots, and no mechanics like cover/height accesing the lay of the land, or exploration/scouting/ambushing) and where it's 3 corridors and tactics involve which stuff I buy in what order and who stands in which corridor and which character was buffed that week.

Isn't really the same level as any RTS. StarCraft isn't a pretty low level tactic RTS too, having only a few units and a few factions, meaning you don't have to learn many counters. Again it's big accessible-ness is why it's popular, and moron can play it and win at it. If a game was actually tactically difficult or required large amounts of skill, fewer people would play it. then the whole "famous" people crap/streamers starts and everyone chases the fame while playing some title thinking their all leet pro because they memorize build orders. The prize fund is to further this, so people follow on some concept they can make money from the game. People will do all kinds of stupid dull shit for money.

If you think DOTA2 or any MOBA is tactical or skill based, you have an extremely low barrier to entry to "skill based". There's nothing wrong with liking simple easy to play games. Plants vs. zombies is great. But don't try to pretend it's an intellectual affair. :p (actually PvZ probably has more tactics as it has 5/6 lanes)
 
:rolleyes:

Have you even played a MOBA? There is a very HIGH barrier to entry on those games, especially Dota. What counters what, builds, situtational decsions, positioning, last hitting, etc etc etc.

Your post reaks of someone who is il-informed about the genre.
 
XvMMvX said:
:rolleyes:

Have you even played a MOBA? There is a very HIGH barrier to entry on those games, especially Dota. What counters what, builds, situtational decsions, positioning, last hitting, etc etc etc.

Your post reaks of someone who is il-informed about the genre.
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:rolleyes:

Yes I have played a MOBA. Have you? Are you seriously saying you find it in any way challenging or find the learning curve...steep? :confused:

Your post reeks of someone who thinks it's skill based because you play it and want it to believe you pour your time into a 1337 pro skillz event. Not some dumbed down distilled RTS mod made for the masses. It's the CoD of RTS. Seriously.
 
Third person shooters are pretty big. Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, uncharted, gears of wars, and last of us type games. I think that the action genre As a whole will always remain the most popular
 
DeathPrincess said:
:rolleyes:

Yes I have played a MOBA. Have you? Are you seriously saying you find it in any way challenging or find the learning curve...steep? :confused:

Your post reeks of someone who thinks it's skill based because you play it and want it to believe you pour your time into a 1337 pro skillz event. Not some dumbed down distilled RTS mod made for the masses. It's the CoD of RTS. Seriously.
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This is more or less accurate... they're big games of Rock Paper Scissors with some skill thrown in for movement/bluffing, but that's about it. It has huge tournaments because the publishers push them and pay for them ;). I remember playing the game as Aeon of Strife way back when it was a Starcraft 1 custom map :p.
 
Yes I have played a MOBA. Have you? Are you seriously saying you find it in any way challenging or find the learning curve...steep?

Your post reeks of someone who thinks it's skill based because you play it and want it to believe you pour your time into a 1337 pro skillz event. Not some dumbed down distilled RTS mod made for the masses. It's the CoD of RTS. Seriously.
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I don't play shit to think i'm 733t. You obviously do play games on your PC with 8 video cards and faster GBs so you can think you are 733t.

You obviously tried to play one of these and got your shit owned. Then to make yourself feel better you have to belittle the genre.

Like it is so hard to memorize the maps in Quake either.
 
MetalX said:
r.i.p. platformer
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There has been a huge retro and platformer resurgence IMO its nothing close to dead, its just not where the big multimillion dollar budgets go, but it doesn't need to be.
 
As other people have mentioned already, we've already seen genres come and go. It's really only a matter of time before the FPS disappears.
 
As far as I know, third-person-cover-shooters are tge most popular right now...
 
XvMMvX said:
I don't play shit to think i'm 733t. You obviously do play games on your PC with 8 video cards and faster GBs so you can think you are 733t.

You obviously tried to play one of these and got your shit owned. Then to make yourself feel better you have to belittle the genre.

Like it is so hard to memorize the maps in Quake either.
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Uh... right, ignoring the (EDIT: first) part of the post and moving on... as one of the top players in DAOC and WAR, plus a top-10 world guild in Rift for raiding, and one of the top handful of players in TSW... I'm going to go ahead and let you know that no, MOBA games from what I have tried of them are nowhere near as demanding reflex-wise, planning-wise, skill-wise, or knowledge-wise, let alone organization-wise or prediction-wise or even APM-wise, as MMORPG pvp. They just aren't very demanding as a player compared to some other genres, titles, and game types. That's not to say they can't be fun or anything, but I would not say the skill cap is very high on them with what I know of them so far.
 
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XvMMvX said:
I don't play shit to think i'm 733t. You obviously do play games on your PC with 8 video cards and faster GBs so you can think you are 733t.

You obviously tried to play one of these and got your shit owned. Then to make yourself feel better you have to belittle the genre.

Like it is so hard to memorize the maps in Quake either.
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So according to you there are two types of games; ones which you can play, thus good games, then poor games you can't really play and are thus bad. Guess that explains why you see MOBAs are being good (they are easy, so everyone should think they are amazing).

Or perhaps they are dull, lowest common denominator focused dull ass dull crap. My biggest issue I have playing them is trying to find the game. There's no story, or different modes, there's no character progression or unlocks or anything. You are just there grinding low level bots and then buying items...for way too long. That is dull. Seriously dull. nor is it some intellectual pursuit (nor have you explained how it is...)... You just seem to be getting angry about something or other.

Even Quake, you can memorize the maps, but that isn't the end of it, and there's more than 1 shitty map, there's more then 3 corridors, and some element of...I don't know, skill and player ability even if you know ehre the player is. Not just rock paper scissors. Also I never said you did stuff to think you were teet. That's udderly ridiculous (7s are ts).
 
MOBAs have a high skill ceiling. As high as just about any genre. There is literally over $1,000,000 up for grabs every 6 months and that is for just Dota 2, a game still in Beta. Many players have tried to make the switch to get this "easy" money from other MOBAs and other genres, including RTS such as Starcraft. They quickly find out that, although on the surface it might look simple, the individual skill and team skill required and the time investment required is daunting.
 
I used to play Dota a lot with friends. All it takes is time to get good. Games like SC you need to put in the time, but it only gets you so far. It is definitely harder to play a real RTS than a MOBA. Also an fps like quake, ut, or cs is infinitely harder than a moba. My 2 cents.
 
Shooters get my heart racing more than any other game genre. Well Bubble bobble and Dr. Mario did too!
 
I think MOBA's are like SC2 in that its largely about APM than actual strategy/tactics.

MOBA's never interested me, The most I got into was HON. Played LOL up to level 20 only because friends were so into MOBA's, then I quit because its 40 minutes + to settle 5 minutes worth of gameplay. It always seemed like 35 minutes of kiting, baiting, and last hits for the final 5 minutes of sometimes competitive combat. It does require teamwork which I like but rather play COH2 or CSGO any day.

to much grind in MOBA
 
On Topic: Shooters aren't really the favored game type anymore - MMO's and MOBA's beat them pretty handily in terms of players and tournaments. Plus single player RPG's are pretty big too, Skyrim had an estimated 10 million units sold, which rivals most CoD releases.

Also....

Sorry Golden and Death,

But you guys have got it wrong about MOBA's, and those of us that do play them, can tell, just by your arguments alone, that you've played them fairly scarcely.

Death: That you think there's no feints, flanking, scouting, and the greatest tactics involves what to buy in what order shows you really you don't know what your talking about.

Golden: Really? MMO's take more skill? The most rock papery scissory games ever?Where the greatest skill the player has is their time invested?
 
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DeathPrincess said:
:rolleyes:

Yes I have played a MOBA. Have you? Are you seriously saying you find it in any way challenging or find the learning curve...steep? :confused:

Your post reeks of someone who thinks it's skill based because you play it and want it to believe you pour your time into a 1337 pro skillz event. Not some dumbed down distilled RTS mod made for the masses. It's the CoD of RTS. Seriously.
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There is nothing remotely RTS about a MOBA other than the top-down view. The rest of the things you say are of equally asinine reasoning. You are either trolling or really, really dumb.
 
TheFlosser said:
There is nothing remotely RTS about a MOBA other than the top-down view. The rest of the things you say are of equally asinine reasoning. You are either trolling or really, really dumb.
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Map awareness, scouting, resource management, time as a resource, and unit positioning are all there.

Being inefficient gathering resources (last hits on creeps) seriously hampers your chances of success.

Scouting is extremely important (and wards are the best scouts) and not having them can be extremely dangerous, just as in an RTS going in blind is extremely dangerous.

Hoard gold for big item or buy cheap utility items can be, and often are, critical decisions. Similar to pumping out a bunch of cheap units, or getting a few high quality ones.

Positioning is extremely important, and good positioning can overcome an apparent disadvantage just like in an RTS.

The elements are there.
 
Starting down the path of name calling and insults rather than addressing game play. Do not address the person, address the topic.This is your only warning.
 
Casus said:
Golden: Really? MMO's take more skill? The most rock papery scissory games ever?Where the greatest skill the player has is their time invested?
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Not all MMO's are WOW :)... DAOC was far from rock-paper-scissors, and you didn't have a huge, vertical progression there, for example. Time invested wasn't the primary factor, and things leveled out very quickly at "endgame". Now, I would still say a game like Starcraft or whatnot is more demanding of course, but in different ways.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Not all MMO's are WOW :)... DAOC was far from rock-paper-scissors, and you didn't have a huge, vertical progression there, for example. Time invested wasn't the primary factor, and things leveled out very quickly at "endgame". Now, I would still say a game like Starcraft or whatnot is more demanding of course, but in different ways.
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Never played DAOC, but did play EQ, Aion, and WAR which suffered badly from those.
 
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