Every generation of games has it’s hallmark. The second generation of games systems were characterised by platformers such as Donkey Kong and the Mario games, the fifth generation, which included the PS1, Dreamcast, N64 and Windows 95 PCs saw the rise of first-person shooters, changing the face of gaming. The sixth generation, that is the PS2 and original Xbox, saw experiments aimed at bringing a new form of gaming to the mainstream, the open world games. Key amongst these were Grand Theft Auto 3 and it’s two follow-ups.
Open world games aren’t that new. The Final Fantasy series use open worlds with random encounters, but with very little detail. Likewise with the Legend of Zelda to a degree. However, these early games often involve railroading of a kind, intended to keep a player out of a certain area until a plot point is uncovered, power gained or some other condition is met. On the PC, the Elder Scrolls games set a pretty good precedent, with one featuring a virtual world the size of mainland Britain, but they were highly criticised for reusing textures and other short cuts to create large game worlds.
What is new, however, is the detail, quality and movement to creating replicas of the real world. This has been approached in various way – Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is very much the first seventh generation open world game, featuring a massive landmass, a world which reacts to the action of the player and a reasonably realistic environment (barring the whole swords & sorcery thing of course). It was, and remains, one of the most graphically stunning games ever released. On the other hand, Grand Theft Auto 3 presents us with a small, but detailed world, albeit with parts of the map initially sealed off.
Since Oblivion and the GTA3 series games, open world games have become more and more common. Crackdown, Far Cry 2, Assassin’s Creed, Red Faction: Guerilla, [Prototype], Fallout 3 and InFamous have all met with critical acclaim in the past two years, with many of them to see sequels during the lifetime of the PS3 and Xbox 360. There are also a number of other semi-open world and open world games in development.
This sudden jump in games which give the player an unprecedented scope for fun, carnage and improved gameplay seems to be indicative of a future trend. I believe that the proportion of open world games is going to increase drastically in 2010 and 2011. By the time that the next generation of consoles reaches the market, I’d expect franchises which traditionally rely on railroad gameplay, such as Call of Duty, to make the move to an open world format.
At the same time, I think we’re likely to see a merging between MMOs, traditional online multiplayer and single player games. We’ve already seen first hints of this – Sony is working on a FPS which supports several hundred players per map, Tom Clancy’s Endwar features a meta-game in which a global game is affected by the behavior of players in multi-player. Effectively, the gaming industry needs to move away from the model of Ultima and World of Warcraft to a model which requires less time investment, more casual gameplay and is free or nearly free to play.
Of course, this is all speculation ad opinion. I can’t recall seeing any experts or analysts who actually agree with me. But it’s an interesting question nonetheless. What do you think holds for the future of video-gaming?
I can only hope that the gaming industry does move away from the more time consuming aspect of MMO’s to allow greater achievement bases for the more casual player. I’m not sure that I see a completely free option being viable considering the investment that is required to produce top quality games and the return on investment demands of stakeholders. However i do see the future holding a greater amount of consolidation of game styles. To illustrate, years ago you would be playing an FPS and all you could do is run through the maps and complete the objectives, or you could play a flight sim but again that’s all you would be doing is flying a plane or chopper, or a racing game where all you do is race your car, you get the idea. As time progressed games (in particular war sims) allow you to do all of these in the one game so i see the future of breakthrough games to be the ones who will start to meld different styles of games into the one.
No, I don’t think completely free option will ever be viable, but I think that something like Microsoft’s Xbox Live subscription or the Sony Online Entertainment Passport, which allows you to player several MMOs have a lot more potential for funding open world multi-player games.
I’d agree that game styles are merging. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. I certainly got far more enjoyment from the GTA 3 era games then I did from the two previous games, which only allowed you to drive.
Of course, the downside is if all games start to become too similar.
Open world games are indeed quite old. You may be too young to remember Elite or Exile.