First-person shooters are the result of a design choice that studios make when they begin crafting the experience and story they want to tell. They make the choice for their own reasons. We reap the rewards when they succeed.
You have first-person shooters you adore and ones you hate but one thing remains true above all: they are here to stay. The FPS genre has come too far and lived too long of a lifespan to be a simple fad. However, at the moment they are over hyped.
Their recent rise in fame and shame is due to nothing more than the guys in suits jumping on a trend like they did with the Guitar Heros and Rock Bands. You know the guys – they’re the ones throwing around buzzwords like “progression-based multiplayer” in the same excited tone California beach girls use when gabbing about the latest diet. The worst part? En masse consumers are buying it.
These suits have found a testosterone-charged demographic and they’re sticking to it until these jocks eventually get bored and go back to playing sports.
When the dollar signs finally fade as a result of market oversaturation, we’ll see a return to pushing the FPS envelope. In the meantime, prepare to be served the same formula in different packaging.
Twenty years ago, first-person shooter was a fair term to attribute to a game. Today, it’s just one piece of a larger puzzle.To be fixated on a game’s perspective is missing the point. Games like Mirror’s Edge, Portal, and Borderlands have proven first-person shooters can blend elements of other games and produce something amazingly experimental and fun. Metro 2033 has proven you don’t need great shooter gameplay and American soldiers to produce something of quality. Gears of War has proven shooting in the third-person can be a blockbuster thrill ride.
Innovation and immersion in shooters are not limited to one perspective. There are, and will be, countless other successful shooters that will not use a first-person perspective. Just as we’ll see other non-shooters make the most of a first-person perspective.
Each standout will be successful in their own right because it’s not the perspective in which you fire a gun that matters. It’s the experience.
Rick Knight is a professional online copywriter, designer, and blogger in need of a new beach diet. Follow him on Twitter @knightrick or visit his portfolio website, gamerwords.com.
