The problem with modern games like Overwatch...

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AleximusPrime's avatar
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The other day someone made a poll about Overwatch asking us if we played it or not.  I made an answer saying I wasn't that interested citing my slight disdain for modern games being too oversaturated with online multiplayer and not focusing enough on story.  It wasn't Overwatch that did this for me, I've had these feelings for the past few years.

Now I want to start off letting you all know, I do in fact LOVE video games.  I love playing games and getting inspiration from them which is how I got started with my own idea for a novel series I am actually currently getting started on.  It would stand to reason I do a lot of the things I do and get my ideas from video games despite doing fanart mainly from media that is a cartoon show.  I think video games are what really started my passion for wanting to be a content-creator by trade.  I've always wanted to do something art-related since I was a kid but being immersed in video games helped me realize this more.

Thing is, only certain types of games make me feel this good.  My favorite games are action/adventure games, mostly side-scroller platformers, you know, Mario, Sonic, Kirby, Metroid, Castlevania, and most recently for me, Shantae.  Love 'em to death.  I am, however, turned off by games that are heavily-focused on multiplayer.  About the only one I can really stand at all is the Super Smash Bros series but those games are hard to ignore when tons of your favorite video game characters are playable and have more fighting moves than they normally do in their own games.

Now what does Overwatch have to do with this?  Well because a while ago I was really interested in playing the game since the characters looked interesting and all my friends were talking about it and such but once my brother told me it was an online multiplayer-ONLY game, my heart sank.  I was really getting my hopes up for a campaign mode.  And before anyone says so, yes, I am aware of the fact that there is a tie-in comic but I am not interested in reading comics anymore what with the comic industry being subverted by SJW lefties with little to no writing talent and an obvious political agenda but that's a topic for another journal entry.

It disappoints me when I see a game that has such good potential be reduced to just another generic shoot-em-up game.  Call me picky but it just seems like senseless fun to me.  At least Halo had a good story in it's campaign mode that allows the player to know what the hell this is all about.  With Overwatch you can only know by watching videos or reading the comics.  I don't like that.  I'd rather see a game have an actual story.  Now it is true that some of those games I mentioned above like Mario have a rather simple story.  While Mario is mostly good for it's nostalgia and marketability, a game that has both good gameplay AND a good story is the best game.  This is why Metroid is by far my favorite game franchise even to this day.  With Overwatch, I feel like they missed a huge opportunity to make an amazing plot-focused piece of art and instead just created another run-of-the-mill shoot-em-up game for nerds to enjoy on their high-powered computers like we all expected.

That's the other thing that is bothering me:  these games are PC-only half the time which can be uber irritating for a person who has a really old and slow-running PC that will not take games anymore and cannot afford to get a gaming computer.  Of course, I don't have any of the new-gen consoles either, but good internet speed is also a factor and my home does not have that either.  Then again this complaint can be more easily overlooked and solved so I digress.

I saw a post on Facebook a while ago that said something along the lines of "we don't need more multiplayer/better graphics, we need good stories" and I totally agree.  Some of the best games do in fact have good stories, but I think we could do a bit better with games in that department.  We need to stop making games so gimmicky with new DLC that is gonna get people all giddy or more options for multiplayer.  I feel like game companies are just trying to make profit rather than try hard with the creative side of things.

This of course is the reason why I am going to be making a novel before a game for my big series I spoke of earlier.  I want the game (if it gets made) to be enjoyable and definitely be a recognizable game, but the story is what comes first.  That's my philosophy.  Movies, books, and shows only sell if the story is good enough, why can't we do the same with games?

So yeah, that's just my mini-rant on Overwatch and modern gaming in general.  Games do still deserve cool actiony multiplayer goodness, yes, that can sell, but a really good story will get the attention of a more sophisticated audience, something that the gaming community could really use.
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AzureTornadoKick93's avatar
Yeah, I love the game...but for the time being I have one main...and I think that the limited event are fun...but I think there should DLC for the Event that occurred so that we could get Skins and Misc stuff that we want. And when the event occurs again...that's easy Duplicate Currency. Plus, I am really good with friends, on my own is a pure Rarity. The current event has a story, and I have totally missed out on it because I haven't been playing it much. I feel like the game the event is associated with should stay for the time being.