brute said:
yeah your right the main character is also a big factor |
The key selling points to shooters hardly have anything to do with the genre. It has to do with the looks of the game. Not graphical, but what's in it. Do you know how many people would have bought Halo if you played as one of the human soldiers and not a spartan. Well I know I wouldn't have bought it haha. Also in the looks has to have a cool look of the gameplay. Gears is an awesome example which further proves the stereotype.
Secondly the game has to have an online setup that says its different from the others, vouching some new gimmicky online component but otherwise the exact same. Do this and with some decent hyping of gameplay elements that are that of the series and you got yourself a seller. Cause in reality all people really want in a shooter, considering how simplistic and repetitive the gameplay is, is just an expansion pack to the ones they already like. Because shooters are just so easy and unchallenging in single player, yet very appealing to a gamer, all they want is something that brings more of a challenge. Thus you'll get games like Goldeneye 007 and Halo that show awesome multiplayer. Then they want the next step so online with Halo 2 and then they want upgrades with new stuff. Thus you get your run of the mill online shooters that give you the exact same things with new weapons, maps, online modes, and characters. And that's it. Your paying $60 for an expansion pack. Got to hand it to the devs its pretty smart. Unfortunately sooner or later the gamer will wise up and want more after repetitiveness gets old and that's when the market becomes oversaturated and the genre goes into a recession and given the popularity of it, possibly hurts the market as a whole. Scary eh.