It’s hard to define progress, but there’s no doubt the things we leave behind are an integral part. Where many industries and enterprises are unfortunately equating dying trends with dying times, gaming still carries itself with that classic escapist optimism – the sense that, though never perfect, the best is just an insight or innovation away.
Our list isn’t always pretty – much needed remedies go hand-in-hand with unfortunate casualties – but from World War II to escort missions to memory cards, the trends that fizzled in this generation are a veritable record of how far we’ve come. They also warn that what we think we know at the dawn of a new generation could be out-of-style, 3D-style, by dusk.
Ranters, what’s your take on our 13-fold list? Is there anything to add or take away? What trends do you think we’ll see disappear in the next generation?
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Yeah….that’s why main stream gaming is dying (the future lies with the Indie developers at this point). A slow gradual decline to brain death via homogenization into cookie cutter games to appeal to the masses….rather then more focused titles filling a niche and focusing more on their gameplay and character rather then shiny new bells and whistles or requiring levels of internet support that less then 20% of America has access to, or paying off that blossoming over-kill budget that requires reaching the most people possible to turn a profit.
What you describe is impossible. Mainstreaming gaming has millions upon millions of customers. They aren’t abandoning that for Indie titles.
But niche things themselves are becoming mainstream due to the strength of the gaming industry. Consider Skyrim, love it or hate it. If ten years ago, someone had told you that a lore-based open-world sand-box RPG was going to be one of the biggest successes of all time, most gamers wouldn’t have believed it. That’s extremely niche. There are a lot of games that once would have been niche that are huge hits that receive big budgets now.
This is the golden era of gaming.
i f#$%ing hate escort missions. The. Worst. Thing. just awful…
Want to talk about disappeared trends? Think about Tycoon games and Formula 1 management simulators.
This is a terrible article and should be unpublished or have a tag at the top with an apology for being un-researched and almost completely wrong.
These people commenting obviously don’t know what a trend is vs something that is still alive lol
You forgot silent protagonist.
Indeed. Ever since Skyrim failed horribly, we know we’ll won’t be seeing any games with a silent protagonist.
*we won’t
XCOM Isn’t real time strategy, guys. It’s turn-based.
Survival Horror is still alive. Metro.
And The Last of Us. Although nobody’s ever heard of that. And to hear it, Resident Evil Revelations.
Surprised you didn’t mention Band Games that require music peripherals. They kinda vanished midway through this generation.