Gamertell

Taking a cue from David Letterman and PCMagazine’s weekly Best/Worst lists, GamePro has post a 2007 list of what it has determined are the 11 worst trends in video game.

A few are the usual complaints - being too powerful is overdone and sequels suck - but after you get through the original list, see if you think these guys enjoy any video games. It might either be time for these guys to take a game-free sabbatical or figure out what a trend really is.

Here’s their basic list list followed by a few of my comments:

11. The Perfect Woman - Yes, they are everywhere, but as Kevin Costner said in a recent NPR interview, people negatively react to people in media who are either too good looking or not good looking enough

10. Bloom Effects - I’ll agree here, though I think this was also on XPlay’s list of outdated game effects. Those damn burst of light are blinding and unnecessary regardless of the processor making it look amazing. Sure, they might be somewhat realistic, but gamers need to see what they are doing.

9. Supersoldiers - Without a supersoldier or supersomeone, most games would just be some guy meandering around, doing very little. even if they seem to start out as a regualr guy, by the end of the game they’ve likely saved the world.

8. Regular soldiers, for that matter - OK, now that’s just a cop out. You cannot have both. Do you want to play as a crappy soldier? “You have tripped over a rock, you are seriously injured and in a hospital bed for months. Enjoy playing as an avatar who simply lays in once place, staring at the ceiling.”

7. Using every button on the controller - If it’s done right, why not?

6. Licensed soundtracks - Sorry, wrong there, too. I hate cheesy knockoff tunes by pseudo sound-alike artists. Grand Theft Auto III and its follow ups would not be nearly as enjoyable without the funky, era-specific tuneage. Overusing licensed music a la TV commercials, however, might be a bad trend.

5. Sequels - I call “copout” here. Like college newspapers, everyone claims to hate them but still gets them. Of course, without sequels, we’d miss out on great games like Final Fantasy XII.

4. Rising game prices - Inflation sucks. Not a trend but a fiscal reality.

3. Microtransactions - Amen. If you’ve read some of my earlier writings, you’d know that this is still my biggest complaint with modern gaming. Unfortunately, it’s not going away any time soon and will likely become much, much worse.

2. Gangsta themes - Amen m’borthas. Gangsta themes are, like, so 1985… except, maybe, in Japan. I didn’t realize there were enough games with this theme to warrant a trend, thoguh.

1. World War II themes - As much as I’d like to agree, if no one bought ‘em, game companies would stop making ‘em. I’d argue this is no longer a trend and has, instead, become it’s own genre.

Please chime in - or shoot down - any point of mine or theirs.

Read [GamePro] via [Gaming Today]