Re: Games, games and games

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Dennis Payne wrote:
> 
> > Depth.
> >
> > I want games where there is instant appeal when you open the box...then
> > after a couple of hours you realise that what you've been playing is only
> > the surface layer of a much deeper and more complex experience - and so on
> > in layers like an onion.
> 
> I agree but also disagree.  The reason is that for the most part I
> prefer games with a lot to them.  But when I get home from work it is
> nice to play a quick diversion game for 1/2-1 hour.

But a game like RailRoadTycoon is also like that - even after you've
gotten into the depth of the game, it's still kinda fun to just do
the superficial thing that you enjoyed on first opening the box.

>  Granted I think the
> playstation is probably a better vehicle for those types of games
> (controller vs. keyboard & mouse).

Yes - and there is certainly an argument that says "games belong on
consoles - computers are for real work".  As a family, we own PS,PS2
N64 *and* Dreamcast - but their nature (keyboardless and poor screen
resolution) means that deep games are hard to write for them.  Instead
we get massively *WIDE* games with hundreds of very similar levels
(Banjo Kazooie and DonkeyKong 64 are classic examples of this where the
sheer AMOUNT of game is staggering - but it's all the same depth of play).

> Crazy Taxi was designed for the arcade where depth isn't really an option.
> When porting to console systems the publics perfers faithful translations
> or at least provide that as an option.

That's true I guess. Crazy Taxi has two modes though - Arcade Classic - where
they use the original database and the original "extend your time of
play by winning points" that an arcade game has to have....but it
also has an entirely new database and fixed time limit rules for the
console...so they did go to some trouble to make the Dreamcast version
"better" - which would have been the opportunity to add more depth.

Personally, I'd have spent the porting funds on adding depth rather than
building that massive second model...but this must seem like a smart
move to them because Crazy Taxi II is now out - and according to the
reviewers they have done *very* little to it other than to add another
new model (New York this time).

Well, anyway - getting back to the original topic of this thread - do
we believe that a majority of Linux games players take the view that
shallow games belong on consoles and there is a market for deeper games
under Linux?

Certainly the reason we have so many console games in my house is
that we don't run Windoze and hence own hardly any computer games
(well, we have the entire Loki range - but that's only a handful
of titles).

That suggests to me that if other Linux users have gone the same
route then trying to sell a console-like game for Linux may well
be a bad idea - but a deep game that wouldn't suit a console
platform would be something people might very well go for.
 
----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
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