30 Great Seconds Make Perfect FPS Shooters

[Strider-Hiryu_79]

Aside from all the console hate in here. I believe Cliff is talking about a general FPS design concept in that if developers want to make an enjoyable FPS; The repetitive step(s) that the players endure during a given 30 second time-span of playing such game should be "fun" otherwise the player will be turned off from the game whether it be a console FPS or a PC FPS.

At least that's what I got out of the article.

 

[lauxenburg]

[citation][nom]doive1231[/nom]Only in America do people get paid for talking this amount of rubbish.[/citation]

Oh please have you ever seen Europeans (western) play video games....?

 

[badaxe2]

I forgot Half Life 2 as well haha.

 

[badaxe2]

He makes shooters sound so shallow. Oh well maybe for competitive multiplayer that's enough of a hook. I prefer shooters that are more like Goldeneye and Crysis. There can be more to shooters than just.... shooting.

 

[ssddx]

I do believe the 30 seconds in question is the average time it takes to complete an individual "engagement." This is the core of any FPS game; however, do keep in mind that this number can stack and does not take into account the other areas of gameplay.

To simplify it: The game has to make the "conflicts" interesting.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]RipperjackAU[/nom]So, for an FPS (and 99% of all MMO's to be hones) to be successful, all you need to is to reduce the player to a rat pressing a button for a food pellet? Well it sounds like that's what most development teams have been doing for some time now.Most games today are just digital "whack-a-mole" hot button mashers.[/citation]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber

MMOs have used this since day one. One of the Skinner box experiments that emphasizes this most is the repetitive behavior reinforcement experiments. You can reward the rat with a treat for pressing the lever, then gradually increase the number of times the rat must press the lever to get the reward. After a while, you'll end up with a rat that just presses the lever all day long regardless of how long the reward takes to get (great MMO analogue: Lineage 2).

Basically, all this game designer is saying, that lever just needs to be really fun to push and people will push it over and over.

 

[princeofdreams]

Gameplay is not about 30 seconds of shooting, its about how a game draws you in, challenges you, makes you think about your actions

This guy has probably only ever played games like serious sam, fun for a little while but repetitive and boring very quick. At least I know not to try the crap he is designing

The days of games like Doom, serious sam etc are over, the audience has matured, as technology develops, so do our tastes, people want immersion, want to feel the game challenged them but that they were smart enough and good enough to beat it, it gives a sense of achievement, repetitive 30 second game play...NO THANKS

 

[coonday]

[citation][nom]square965[/nom]You can't plant a bomb and wait for it to explode in 30 seconds.You can't rescue the hostages in 30 seconds.You can't build and upgrade your sentry, dispenser, and teleporters in 30 seconds.You can't disguise as an enemy, get behind enemy lines, then take them out with backstabs in 30 seconds.The list goes on, but those are just from the two shooters I play, CS:S and TF2. The point is, the first 30 seconds only shows the most primitive of the gameplay mechanics, the actual "shooter" aspect of it. There are many more factors beyond the core gaemplay that go into an FPS that take much longer than 30 seconds to enjoy/master.[/citation]
The 30 seconds he's talking about are in gameplay scenarions. So in Halo for example, the 30 seconds would be throwing frags at peoples feet and finishing them off with one BR shot, firing a shotgun shot followed by a quick melee, and so on. All these things you listed are part of these games 30 seconds. Don't take the term so literally.

 

[aaron686]

Call of Duty 4 is the best FPS I've ever played, and I've played a lot. The maps are just...fun and the gun sounds are original enough to make me smile everytime I headshot a guy with a Bolt Action, Counter Strike is good too, but cod4 takes the cake IMO. Of course that's just lille 'ol me. 😉

 

[Guest]

Wow, I thought console platform fanboys are bad, PC gamers seem to be just as bad when it comes to wanting to say, "NO, WE'RE THE BEST!" Nice way to hijack a thread into a PC > console thread.

Anyway, he's basically stealing a quote from Bungie when they described Halo and not saying it anywhere near as eloquently, which I think is why he's being misinterpreted. Bungie said it better when they said "30 seconds of fun. Now do it over and over again." They're saying basically every 30 seconds, there should be something totally and completely awesome that just happened. Where Cliff messed up that quote is by adding the word repetitive in there. Bungie meant something different every 30 seconds. Not neccesarily new, that would be impossible to maintain, but different from what you just did the last 30 seconds. Basically, never let the game be boring or repeat itself for more than half a minute.

A lot of shooters nowadays including Call of Duty, Battlefield, Left 4 Dead follow this philosophy now. Older games, even fairly recent ones like Half Life 2 (the original, not episode 2) don't always do the 30 seconds of fun over and over. Granted it's a great game and there's tons of moments of fun in there, but there's also the older legacy design of late nineties shooters where you would walk across a landscape for 30 seconds without much anything interesting going on around you.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

You know what was good shooter? Not first person mind you, Resident evil 5, you did more than just shoot, sure it wasn't really fast, but it got your heart beating in harder difficulties. And cinematics that force you to press buttons at the right time were fun, a lot of enemies had unique ways of fighting and being fought.

Repetition is NOT how you make a good FPS, the second I read "Halo" I did not care what people would think of the game, it's gonna be over hyped junk once again.

 

[liquidsnake718]

You better watch this guy, he sounds intent of throwing and hearing that "grenade sound"!

 

[Tonkyboy]

Oh, come on you guys. How about Serious Sam ? Now that was repetetive, but soooooo much fun. I've completed it so many times just because sometimes running around with a big gun mindlessly blowing away hordes of screaming headless bombers is just so satisfying. Hours and hours of repetetive FPS. Bring it on !!

 

[micky_lund]

[citation][nom]square965[/nom]You can't plant a bomb and wait for it to explode in 30 seconds.You can't rescue the hostages in 30 seconds.You can't build and upgrade your sentry, dispenser, and teleporters in 30 seconds.You can't disguise as an enemy, get behind enemy lines, then take them out with backstabs in 30 seconds.The list goes on, but those are just from the two shooters I play, CS:S and TF2. The point is, the first 30 seconds only shows the most primitive of the gameplay mechanics, the actual "shooter" aspect of it. There are many more factors beyond the core gaemplay that go into an FPS that take much longer than 30 seconds to enjoy/master.[/citation]
yep...thats whats more fun

 

[Quitoman]

This is an old old rule. Nothing new here.

 

[cracklint]

wow, cliffy b's a genius, that's why the multi player in gow 2 was so much superior that gow 1. oh wait, it sucked balls... that's right I must be thinking about someone else.

 

[gurboura]

Jesus, talk about hate.

I'd like to think this guy knows more about the development process then you guys, but I forgot how the internet works, everyone's an expert at everything.