"The 7 Commandments"

Someone posted a link to this on the Chaos Engine (private message board for games industry bods for those who don't know what that is):

http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey.html

I've got a few issues with them:

#7 Thou shalt let us play games with real-life friends.

Yes, playing against people in the same room is a great experience and is really suited to certain types of game - the games that they highlight such as Guitar Hero. However, other types of games that incurr high rendering costs when trying to do split screen, or require shoe horning of elements to provide such features - is it really such a great loss?

There are certain types of game that are designed for single players. There is nothing wrong with this. I personally really enjoy playing single player games - like reading a good book. Not every game suits multiplayer in the same room.

Squeezing four people together in one room to stare at a tiny corner of a TV to play Halo 3 isn't the same as sitting your fat ass in your lazyboy with plenty of space around you, a big HDTV with all the screen real estate to yourself, and a bluetooth headset to communicate with your pals. Horses for courses.

#6 Thou shalt not pad the length of your game.

Well I kinda agree with this and their quote "See, here's the thing. We don't mind short games." Ah I wish the gaming population at large shared this sentiment, as Heavenly Sword's main reason for getting a bit of a kicking in certain press circles was "it's too short".

Simple fact is that generating content for the next generation is a herculean task. So you get as much quality as you can into the game. Now to make it longer you either sacrafice a little quality or you put in padding. When you don't do this people seem to go for the juggular (they didn't with portal, but that was part of a much larger package - standalone would it have had a different reaction?).

#5 Thou shalt not force repetition on the player.

A good and valid point. Except with certain game mechanics. If that repetition is fun and balanced perfectly it can be the whole game itself. What is Tetris? The same mechanic repeated ad infinitum.

But yes, their points on limited save points, watching cutscenes and instant death QTEs are perfectly valid.

#4 Thou shalt make killing fun.

Well first of all this got my back up by trying to take on my favorite game Half-Life 2, but seriously - there needs to be progression. A "bullshit" weapon can actually be a lot of fun when the scenario is designed to suit. I personally dont hate handguns if they are implemented with thought. Having limited ammo also increases the tension.

But then they do have good points - particularly little rodent enemies - I'm pretty sick of these myself.

As for killing identikit enemies, well creating randomised enemies is not as easy as it sounds. There is quite an investment required in specific technology to be able to do this well. Is it really that much of an issue?

#3 Thou shalt admit when enough is enough

Escort missions. Hmmm. No one has ever liked them? I can think of one or two - I quite liked the Resident Evil 4 ones, even if they didn't. Admittedly it's very easy to do them badly, but that's not a reason for not trying.

CPU squad mates again falls under the above. But I've seen quite a few games with well controlled squad mates - Beyond Good and Evil and Half-Life2 Ep1 & 2. Think this point is moot as AI improves - again it's just one of those things that is easy to do badly.

First person jumping - someone had better tell DICE that, otherwise Mirror's Edge is going to be a disaster...

World War II games - yes they are running out of source material on that one...

The grizzled space marine - yes... can't really argue against that one!

#2 Thou shalt make sure your game actually works.

I could say how complex games are these days, but really they are right - there is no excuse for this - and the problem is likely to get worse now that patches are acceptable on consoles...

#1 Better graphics do not equal innovation and / or creativity.

Yup - again I can't argue against this one. Only I will say that great graphics can make brilliant mechanics even better. They increase the level of verisimillitude - believability in the world.