DemonHunter

I think I posted something like this before, which pretty much ended up with the title 'F-Zero Effect', which was a cross between a Mass Effect style RPG mixed with F-Zero's racing elements as the main story mode. I would love to see something like that. did anyone ever play Road Rash on the Saturn/PS1/3DO? You would go into a bar before races and chat to the other characters to built up relationships etc, you could also visit the bike shop next door in order to buy a new vehicle. This could be used in a F-Zero game as part of your ships customisation etc...meh food for thought.

Aye, things are different now. Limited editions are mass market. People as always will instead search for the item that's in mint condition. I think the 360 and the PS3 will be like the Dreamcast; finding a console won't be a problem, but finding one in mint condition that also works will be. In five years time, try finding a mint condition original Nintendo Wii console and box, packed with Wii Sports, not in the CD slip case but in the DVD case. Things will become rare but not as much for their legendary status but more for their condition.

lol I love it Burny. One thing I've learnt from creating this topic is that people actually don't like to be put into categories, it was one of the main reason I created this topic to see people's responses by giving them options and titles. I think we can all agree that whether you play games constantly, casually or moderately, we all simply like games. Perhaps this has also taught us not to class some games into their own categories. People complain that there are not enough "core" titles on the Wii, but what does that mean exactly? Is Mario and Sonic at the Olympics a core title? What about Kirby's Epic Yarn or Endless ocean? There has been some good replies on this topic and certainly some that I didn't expect like people's gaming life stories lol but all interesting none the less.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Fused King; what type of gamer are you; there is a famous quote from Ghost in the Shell, which pretty much defines everyone. "There are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure, I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of my own destiny. Each of those things are just a small part of it. I collect information to use in my own way. All of that blends to create a mixture that forms me and gives rise to my conscience" What type of gamer are you? No title is needed, you just simply are.

That's one thing I forgot to mention, good point Coolness Bears. In some ways i'm contradicting myself. I mention I hate being classed as a "Hardcore gamer" as it's a form of sterotyping yet i've still created a list designed to be put people in a certain catagory. So you make a valid point Coolness Bears, you don't have to be classed under any of these tiltles, you could just purely like playing games without affiliating yourself with such common used titles.

I’ve played games for a very long time now. My earliest memories go back to something like ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ on the Atari, which was released in 1982. I’ve played games nearly every day of my life and even now as an adult nothing has changed. It wasn’t until my late teens that I began understanding games a lot more in terms of design etc. I’ve owned all major consoles and handhelds and have played every type of genre available, but to this day there has been one thing that has always bugged me. No matter how many websites you go on or how many forums you scan, the term “Hardcore†is generally used to describe someone who plays games a lot. But what does “Hardcore†actually mean? Not once in my twenty six years of gaming (give or take a year or two ;P) have I described myself as a Hardcore gamer. So what type of gamer am I? Am I just simply a gamer? But what does that imply? Am I a casual gamer? What does that imply? Below I’ve listed what I believe are the categories people fall into when trying to decide what type of gamer you are and as you can see, I’ve added a new category, one that I place myself in. None Gamer Someone who has heard about videogames but doesn’t really play them or has played one or two games a long time ago. Casual Gamer Someone who knows little if anything about the industry. Someone who plays games occasionally but only as a momentary past time. Someone who has no real opinion about games apart from uneducated reviews about the games that they have played. Gamer Someone who plays videogames as a hobby and past time. Someone who knows about the industry in general sense. Someone who has played many genres. Someone who reads and/or watches the occasional magazine, website or videogame related media. Hardcore Gamer Someone who plays videogames constantly. Someone who sticks to certain genres and IP’s. Someone who constantly reads and/or watches videogame related media. Someone who op’s for a certain design choice over others i.e. graphics, sound, controls etc. Someone whose opinion can be one minded and sometimes ignorant. Truecore Gamer Someone who knows about the games industry whether it’s generally or excessively. Someone who appreciates all genres and designs even if they don’t appeal to themselves. Someone who plays games whether it’s casually or excessively. Someone whose opinion is open minded and informed. Someone who reads and/or watches videogame related media whether it’s casually or excessively. Someone who’s open to change and gives constructive criticism and/or opinions. Now, like with all things these are only my opinions and views. They are neither correct nor incorrect, they are just opinions. You don’t even have to fit into every category listed underneath the main titles. So what type of gamer would you class yourself as? Please by all means give your own opinions on my choices and thoughts in each category. Argue about some, agree about some or just go meh lol. Since my late teens I’ve classed myself as a Truecore gamer. I dislike football games like FIFA and Pro Evo, but I appreciate and understand as football games go they are great for people who like football, so as football games they are the Zelda’s of that genre. I have no favourite genre as all of them and even those that can’t technically be classed in any genre, have great games within them. I loved Halo 1 but disliked the rest, but can understand why people continued to like them. When people say Nintendo games are just for kids, they are simply being ignorant to the games design. Donkey Kong Country Returns is for all ages but trust me, I struggled to complete that bad boy and I love to see a kid fully complete that game. When I saw the Wii-U for the first time I didn’t get upset or excited, I was merely like ‘ok Nintendo now have a HD machine with a controller that can pretty much everything, let’s wait and see what they do with this machine’, then my mind starting creating potential new designs and evolutions of current designs; that’s when I started to get excited. I could go on forever about many games, genres etc etc but I’d love to hear your opinion. Are you fed up of being stereotyped as a Hardcore gamer who do you simply just not care lol let me know people.

lol we're all teachers in our own way Diageo, we listen, talk and communicate our thoughts to each other in the hope of learning and understanding each others likes and dislikes. This is why forums can be so good; we have our own opinions and like to express them, but even our opinions on something can change by listening to others and seeing things in a different light. Why do you ask anyway if you don't mind me asking? I learnt from the strong replies on this thread that we as gamers are happy to see our loved franchises expand just as long as that initial love for them isn't destroyed along the way. Unfortunately this is out of our hands and our fears of said franchises being ruined are more based on past experiences where some IP's have been poorly developed or unrealised. It's always hard to try and look outisde the box on something that has remained relatively unchanged, but if we keep our minds and hearts inside the box unwilling to face change then we ourselves as gamers our destroy this great industry.

Excellent post Grazza, I think were all starting to get onto the same wave length and are narrowing down what we would like or find acceptable. Breaking down the key elements of spins offs like you did has shown us what is possible and what could go wrong, especially your Star Fox Adventure comment. The mention of Strangers Wrath (which I have played ) is a prime example of how an established IP can take a dramatic change in genre and still capture the essence of the established world and characters. Another one of our biggest hurdles is trying to break our minds away from what we perceive as the norm for a franchise. Let us go back to the core essence of this subject and try to break down everything that we can think of in terms of spin offs, fresh approaches and humble spin offs as you so aptly named it. What other titles like Star Fox Adventures fit the same bill? And let us try to think of other titles like Strangers Wrath that have made such a good transition. Remember, Imagination is the key, we must look past the established norm and think outside the box

Now people are using their imaginations I like it. A Zelda title like Harvest Moon is appealing and could definately work. Or maybe even an Animal Crossing style title called Hyrule Crossing lol Spend the day sorting out Kakariko village whilst visting Hyrule Town by horse and coach in order to meet friends and buy new items. Fused King made the point that he more and welcomes change as long as the effort is put in, which is understandable. If you knew that F-Zero Effect (play of Mass Effect) would be a good game, would you still shun it because it's no longer a racer? Are we just scared that a developer would ruin a franchise by trying something new with it? We've all been stung in the past (Let's not mention Sonic) maybe that's a lingering factor. Also the thought of a Kirby RPG brings a smile to my face (we'll forget about Kirby's air ride, which wasnt great let's be honest).

I look at a lot of spin off titles that have come out over the years and the reception that they get. In reality you have to take in consideration the developer creating said title I guess, even a good developer can fail to bring something new to the table from an existing franchise. Look at Star Fox Adventures like you mentioned, Front Mission Evolved even House of the Dead (Thinking of Typing of the Dead). All took those core franchises and went down a different route. Whether that was a good thing or not is down to the individual to decide, but should these type of games ever exist? Would Star Fox have been better in a different genre instead of an adventure game? I remember screaming at my monitor when Dinosaur Planet had been replaced with the Star Fox brand, why did I get angry? I guess we all love and hold dear to us such franchises and as I'm learning here on this thread, we don't like to see said franchises milked or changed to much. Yet imagination and change is good, let us hope new IP's still come out taking risks and even old IP's continue to take risks instead of worrying about money.

I see, so you feel quite strongly against established franchises being milked or exploited due to the idea that you feel a company is just trying to cash in. Interesting; If you don't mind me asking Zechs, is this down to your love for the franchise or a personal hatred towards said franchises being milk just for profit?

lol not quite Beverage, I'm merely interested in peoples opinions and trying to get some grasp on how gamers think when it comes to long established franchises. Imagination is important when it comes to the videogame industry and it's interesting to see how gamers react to change.

Thanks for the reply Zechs Merquise; so why would you prefer a new IP over an existing one? What if the F-Zero universe was used to create something similar to Mass Effect? Would you feel joy in that fact that you could visit somewhere like Mute City yourself? Or would you just not like the idea of an F-Zero RPG Adventure because of its racing roots?

Forgive me, I was merely using Zelda as an example as I said. Feel free to post your thoughts on other franchises. What if the Metroid universe got turned into a futuristic football game? Or the cast of F-Zero characters got turned into a 3rd person shooter similar to Gears of War or something? All I am trying to see is how people would feel if their favorite franchises took a drastic side step from the norm. We all remember Wind Wakers reaction and that was just a graphical change from a tech demo.

Why is it that with some franchises we immediately shy away from change? Take the Legend of Zelda for example. Would we cry if Nintendo used the Zelda universe to create a racing game, an FPS, a puzzle game etc? Would the idea of a new game called Hyrule Lon Lon horse racing sound like blasphemy in the world of Zelda? Or an FPS called Call of Ganon where Link or another character picks up his duel wielding crossbow and sets out shooting every moblin in Hyrule, whilst calling down rays of the goddess to pummel his enemies from above or taking cover whilst lobbing bombs through a village window? Surely if the game was kept in context with the already established world then visiting familiar settings or characters would be a joy? No one complained when Mario left his platforming roots and became a doctor or a kart racing champion so what makes Link (Using the Zelda franchise as an example) any different? Is he a prisoner to the fans who demand that he stays in his current position? Link’s crossbow training actually turned out to be a fun title (short admittedly, but still fun). There are so many mini games and features in the Zelda universe it makes me wonder why you couldn’t have something like Hyrule festival Championship, which would involve Zora racing, Goron Bowling, Hylian archery, Lon Lon horse racing, Zelda bass fishing etc. All these games fleshed out a bit could be fantastic and fun to play, just as the mini games are. I’m not talking about ditching the whole epic Zelda adventure, no one wants that. All I’m trying to say is, it would be nice to see people let down their gaming guards for a while and let some franchises breath and to try something new without complaining that it would ruin the franchises name or milking it. Franchises get milked no matter how you look at them, that’s why they are franchises. What do you all think? Would you like the idea of a Zelda FPS or another genre? Do you think that Zelda games should always be adventure titles? Speak up people