It seems every day upon booting up Steam I am greeted by a new “horror” release. They are the products of developers with no sense of ethics releasing complete drivel.īesides being morally questionable, this bunk is ruining horror gaming. They are the products of developers with no sense of ethics releasing complete drivel. (The fact these are even releasing on Steam and in general is a rant for another day.) These are not games. What is YouTube fodder you ask? Simply put, it is a greedy team cobbling together the barest minimum of what can be considered a game and releasing it through Steam with the intent of gaining sales through YouTube videos. While the popularity of Goat Simulator and Surgeon Simulator videos contributed to this as well, most of this fodder is in the horror genre. As a result, we have a new blight upon the gaming world, “ YouTube fodder.”Ĭoined by Jim Sterling, this affectionate term is spot on in describing this new wave of greedy cynicism which has swept gaming. Just look at the views on these things, millions of people watched others be scared witless or act terrified as a result of this game. YouTube Fodder Attacks!Īnother outcome of Amnesia’s success was the rise in popularity of YouTubers and horror games, specifically reaction videos and let’s plays.
Instead of trying to make new games and explore new ideas, people are still trying to mimic a game which they do not even understand. Five years later, we are still seeing developers trying to copy the success of Amnesia and still failing to grasp why players gravitated towards the game. Many of the imitations simply removed combat from their game because that was all they saw in Amnesia: a game where players could not defend themselves.īut they missed the carefully cultivated atmosphere, the terrifying monsters, and the subtle things the game had which set it apart from others. In Amnesia, the mechanic fit with the world and the game was made with this design in mind. Many of the imitations simply removed combat from their game because that was all they saw in Amnesia: A game where players could not defend themselves. Like most facsimiles, the games trying to ape Amnesia missed what made the game work in the first place hence why we now have a glut of horror games where we are unable to defend ourselves. Whenever something is as remotely successful as Amnesia has been, imitators are drawn to the success like sharks to blood in the water. With the success of Amnesia, imitators were inevitable. Hailed as one of the scariest games of all time, Amnesia soon led to a deluge of reaction videos, live streams, and Lets-Players screaming their heads off for the enjoyment of their viewers. Amnesia: The Dark Descent was unleashed on an unsuspecting gaming population and proceeded to take the world and YouTube by storm. While some of us were enjoying their Penumbra series, many people still had no idea about this great studio. Up until 2010, most gamers had not heard of Frictional Games. So what happened to our once-great genre? I am so glad you asked! Granted, there are exceptions, but it seems most games released nowadays labeled as “horror” are anything but and deserve those quotation marks. Worse yet, some are blatant cash grabs made by cynical developers seeking a quick buck. However, when I look at the state of modern horror games, I see a troubling trend: most of these games are not scary or even horror.
Evil goat simulator game series#
Looking at a game like Haunted House on the Atari 2600, one would never imagine games such as The Evil Within and the Silent Hill series would be birthed from this type of game. Horror in gaming has been subject to one of the most interesting and unique evolutions from its roots to its present state. Nowhere is this truer than the state of horror games. You hear this a lot when you spend time with an older generation reminiscing about the past and the “good old days.” While the phrase is not always accurate, sometimes it has a fair amount of substance behind it.
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