Starcraft?

Although there is no lack of new games coming out, i find myself coming back to playing the same games. Lately, I've started to play starcraft and counterstrike again. Despite supposedly "better" RTS (real time strategy) and FPS (first person shooter) games out there, I still prefer playing those two. Yes I have tried Warcraft 3 and CS:Source, but for some reason, they aren't as enjoyable. Maybe I'm just experiencing nostalgia?

Then again, most of the games I see coming out seem to be re-hashes of the same type of game. I'm not only talking about the series such as the Final Fantasy games, but almost all games that are coming out today in general. So many games are just a newer, better looking FPS, or a generic RPG with a battle system similar to what has been seen for 15 years. Looking at the games coming out in the near future (IGN), a lot either seem to be sequels, look alikes, or a game based on the lastest movie. There are some new innovative games coming out, such as Spore, but like I touched on in a previous post, many companies don't want to take the risk of trying to do something unsuccessful. But just by looking at the list of games coming out, so many just seem to advertise as being a next flight sim, RPG, RTS, FPS or whatever gets them a secured profit. Maybe that is why I don't have an interest in many new games anymore.

Maybe I'll just have to wait for Duke Nukem Forever to come out. Guess I'll just play starcraft and CS until then. Time to construct some additional pylons.

Stagnation?

More money than ever before is being spent on research. We have more resources to work with to due to better computing speeds and techniques. Yet why is it that the majority of new products coming out are just small improvements on past ideas? We see the fighting over HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray, both of which advertise better resolution, graphics, and data capacity, but not much else... Ever since the iPod made mp3 players popular, many companies have tried to duplicate that success with their own. Yet the iPod itself was not new, as mp3 players had been around for a while. Windows Vista has just come out, but for the most part, it has just improved on many of XP's functions. Of the newest games many are rehashes. So are the game systems. Many of the big companies are fine with just beating the dead horse.


However, there is still ground being made. Quantum Computing is making its debut. Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more prominent (see previous post). Nanotechnology research is definitely progress. The wii shows some originality.


The question is whether our generation is for actual progress, or will the stagnation over come us? Join me in taking a brief outlook at different fields (coming soon).