As in this thread. Who takes inspiration from this genre? How would writing apply?

I would venture to say that perhaps most designers would not take a lot of inspiration from the era or genre per se, but millions of game fans (the mass market game crowd, who does not fit the average gamer profile or demographic) would.

In fact, you all know me as somebody who''s not afraid to go out on a limb -- so I''ll just say it. This is the genre the first mass market game will come from. I don''t qualify the sims as a mass market game when I say that. I consider the sims not a game but an virtual and AI dollhouse/erector set.

I''ve been developing along a similar line to this since 1996, and I hope that game will be my design.

Bishop, my respect for your insight grows.

Adventuredesign

I would say the first mass market games already exist, and they are solitaire and tetris. But perhaps you meant mass market story-based game or some particular genre?


Anyway, I was very surprised when I first saw this post, because it suddenly occurred to me - I like westerns, I have lost of favorite western movies, yet I''ve never considered writing one. Why is that?, I wondered. My guess is that anything that would be good done as a western would be better done as a fantasy or a science fiction, mostly because I don''t like the morals and mindset of the pioneers of that time period. Sure I liked _Westward the Women_, but Andre Norton''s _Year of the Unicorn_ is a more interesting take on the mailorder-bride wagon-train. I liked _Wagons East_, _Blazing Saddles_, _The Villain_, _Paint Your Wagon_, _The Hallelujah Trail_, but I don''t write comedy. Anything that romanticizes the bond between a person and a horse can be done better with a fantasy animal like a Companion or a dragon. Basically IMHO the western genre is obsolete. I might consider writing a western/fantasy hybrid, but I''m just not interested in writing a pure western.

OTOH... the western genre would probably make for excellent horror/suspense adventure games, train-empire building strategy sims, comedy adventure games, and MMORPGS.

quote: Original post by adventuredesign
This is the genre the first mass market game will come from. I don''t qualify the sims as a mass market game when I say that. I consider the sims not a game but an virtual and AI dollhouse/erector set.

I''m curious as to what you think what qualifies as a mass market game. What happened to Doom and Myst, for example?

I wrote a story with a half-breed Apache bounty hunter living in 1870 that gets tangled up in a conspiracy by Texan revolutionaries to refight the civil war, cut it up into missions and wrote a design document on it. I had some fun with it but didn''t bother writing more than toplevel story, character descriptions and some cutscenes as professional studios in general don''t bother with outsiders'' game ideas. It''s available if anyone want to do a western game, though.

- Storymage

quote: Original post by sunandshadow
I would say the first mass market games already exist, and they are solitaire and tetris.

mmmm. Solitaire went mass distribution (but not mass market) because it was attached to an OS that comprised most of the desktops in computing history. History is the reason that tetris can''t be qualified as a mass market game. There were not enough computer game players, or arcade game players to qualify as the demographic definition of mass market, back in them ole daze of computer games. Tetris was just massively popular and widespread amongst a demongraphic that was fringe. Mass market by definition is mainstream. When tetris was around, the mainstream wasn''t actively computing as they are today. The mass market game will be a result of mainstream computing.

But perhaps you meant mass market story-based game or some particular genre?

Nope.

quote: Original post by beantas
I''m curious as to what you think what qualifies as a mass market game. What happened to Doom and Myst, for example?

My reply to sunandshadow explains msot of it. The short answer is numbers. Doom and Myst, and gaming when they were first published, were niche markets, albeit significant dollars were involved both incoming and outgoing.

I guess I need to go on the record with definition that IMO, a mass market game is a game where lots and lots and lots of people will play a computer game for the first time that will not contain games that have been around for decades, not contain content or interactivity in any game before it, and will break paradigms left and right with respect to: the level of money, time and learning curve contexts as we expect them currently. The mass market game will be a huge media event, eclipsing traditional and current marketing and advertising approaches by roughly a mile or more.

The mass market game will involve society in spectrumatic numbers, and not a subsection of it''s population.

That''s as close to my intellectual property as I''m willing to go.

I''d be talkin outta my ass if I didn''t say that the Sims kinds meets that definition, except I don''t think it''s really a game, I think it is a simulation with behaviors that occassionally provide entertainment value.

With my neck fully and firmly out, and due respects
Adventuredesign

quote: Original post by adventuredesign
I guess I need to go on the record with definition that IMO, a mass market game is a game where lots and lots and lots of people will play a computer game for the first time that will not contain games that have been around for decades, not contain content or interactivity in any game before it,

I''m a bit confused on what this means. I''m not sure why, by its definition, a mass-market game would need to have never-before-seen gameplay/content. I can understand if you''re saying that is one of the factors that causes a game to become a mass-market game. I guess I agree with Sneftel. I believe Myst was a mass-market game. Myst meets all of your requirements except for this one about never-before-seen-gameplay. In addition to what Sneftel said, Myst had a much lower learning curve than other games. It also became a media event. It made the 10 o''clock news as this new game that everyone was playing, even your dentist or grandson.