I find this discussion very interesting, so I figured I would add my thoughts
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Regarding EA... They have been making serious forays into other sectors of the gaming industry. First they bought the NFL license and such, which made a lot of people unhappy. And then they started to acquire other game companies. I don't recall if it ever went through, but there was a possibility that they would buy UBI Soft as well, which is a substantial company with substantially profitable franchises as well (i.e. all the Tom Clancy games). Regardless of the fact there, one thing is obvious: EA is getting bigger every year. With a bigger company controlling more of the market (are they a monopoly yet?
), chances for innovation and originality in games get lower.
Somone brought up the fact to me that Hollywood went through the same changes in its earlier days. Big studios bought out all the small ones and produced crappy mass market movies. Until small studios were established again and were able to produce indie films etc. So, supposedly the same is likely to happen in the gaming industry.
In the last few years, I have been most attracted by new games that are not of US origin. I have found that there are a number of companies putting out some great games in Germany and other parts of Europe (i.e. Sacred, Gothic, Spellforce, Etherlords, etc.). The makers of Sacred (Ascaron) are working on a WC style space sim now. Not to mention that if we want really original content (and weird content) then we just need to learn Japanese and play games from Japan
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Regarding Space Sims... They are indeed down to being a niche genre at this point. That is sad and unfortunate, but it seems true nevertheless. As much as I love them, very few new people seem interested in this genre. I think the last few new space sims to have been released were X2 and Universal Combat, both of which didn't really make big headlines anywhere, and most have never heard of them. Oh and there was Battlestar Galactica for the XBOX, which also fell by the wayside even with its more mass-market approach to make it more "action" focues (though still a good game).
I'm not sure why the genre has faded, but I suspect it has something to do with imagination. The mass market approach tends to present you with all that you need, and great graphics, seamless gameplay and control. So that you have to work as little as possible, both physically and mentally. The older breed of games took a little more dedication in both of these areas. You needed to learn how to play the game more, and yes I think you needed to have an imagination, and that would allow you to immerse yourself in that universe.
Take Universal Combat (or any Battlecruiser game) for instance. It took me at least a month before I was able to sort of get around and be able to do things in my spaceship. Even after six months of playing, I was still learning new things. UC has by far the biggest learning curve of any game I've tried. But dang, when you know how to do it, you have a real sense of accomplishment, and then the rewards of playing the game (with it's infinite complexity) are that much greater. But how many people are going to sit around for a month learning how to fly a spaceship? Most seasoned gaming veterans I know aren't willing to do this.
Regarding controls... I will agree that using a joystick for WC is a lot of fun. Using the mouse, though not great, is still better than using keyboard IMO. But I don't think you need a super expensive programmable joystick for it. It's nice, but using the keyboard for other ship functions adds to the realism for me. I've been using a Saitek Cyborg 2000 for years now, and I find it more than sufficient for my needs.
Other games, such as racing games, give you more control with an analog controller. The steering wheels are just there to make it more fun, but actually take away from the control. This has been my experience, as well as the experience of some pretty dedicated racing game players I know. So, it's not really necessary to purchas additional peripherals for console games. And as far as flight sims go, some of them have pulled off mouse control quite well. Aside from StarLancer that was mentioned earlier, there were also the Descent Freespace games which did work quite well with the mouse (and in some cases provided an advantage in control IMO).
So, if the genre is to be revived, I think that perhaps what is truly necessary is to streamline the controls a little. But not too much, and then provide gradual additions to the controls via a good in game and hands on tutorial. There are still those of us who are willing to learn advanced gaming controls and want an immersive story and universe over the mass-market junk put out by EA
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...sorry for the long post, by the way. I guess I got a little carried away
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