Let me start off with, if you are anything like me you have been struggling to find a game lately that brings you in and keeps you there.  A ton of games these days are being pushed out the doors, complete or not, and it is really starting to show.  Granted, there are certain elements in video games that we have grown up with and accept, however lately it seems that many video game trends are doing more harm than good by adding to the bland and totally non-innovative game play that the whole industry is currently suffering from.

  Before the video game industry can think about moving forward and making the final step to take over our lives (...I am in full support of their World Domination by the way, as long as I can still watch movies from time to time), there are a whole list of things that need to be addressed.  The industry has been getting lazy in their development and while new creativity is always welcome, there are a few nasty developer habits that we first need to take care of that are literally sucking the life from us:

Un-lockable Content
My number one example: Zombie Mode in Call of Duty: World at War.  My friends and I were so excited about picking up the game for Zombie Mode, that we all rushed through the game to unlock it, thus leaving no possibility for us to go back and play the single player mode as, I would assume, it was meant to be played.  This tactic voided what would have otherwise been a wonderfully immersive single player experience.  On a smaller level, what benefit does un-lockable vehicles and clothing for your character serve in games?  It is essentially the developer saying, “We delivered a weak product that is not re-playable, so let’s toss in some quick code to create options that a player can’t experience until their adventure is already over.”  Developers should have the mentality of “wowing” us with capability the first time through.

Downloadable Content
When you pay $60 for the full price of a new game, it should be for the whole game.  If developers deliberately leave out intended parts from the initial release, they should lower the price.  Again this is the developers saying, ““We are not going to give you the whole experience at once but rather break pieces off in an attempt to milk you for money.”  This is about as cool as you buying a new pc, and having it delivered to your home.  Upon opening it up you find that there is an offer to add on a sound card for an additional $100 and a notice that the wireless network card will be available for $50…but not until next spring.
 

Un-lockable Difficulties
Why?  Why force a player that wants to experience the game the way they think it is meant to be played, into running through the game quick on 5 year old mode?  All that does is ruin the “first time through” experience and discourage the player from playing again.  These difficulty locks are terrible attempts at making a game more re-playable.  And while we are on the subject of difficulties…

Non-Damage Based Difficulties
Wouldn’t it be nice and refreshing if you played a game on easy or medium and a certain plot element played out one way, and in playing it on hard would present the plot element in an extended or alternate way?  Why do most games base their difficulties solely on the basis of how many bullets you can take?  In First Person Shooters and Third Person games alike, it is always about how many baddies are thrown at you and how much of a beating you can take.  Developers need to start introducing different methods of making a game more complicated, which would in turn help solve their re-playability issues as well.  Before Duke Nukem Forever was cancelled it was rumored that it had seven (yes, seven) difficulty levels, with the hardest being “Extreme Apocalypse Friends Forever” mode.  In this mode all regular enemies were to be replaced by boss creatures, and the bosses were to be replaced by creatures that were even stronger that don’t even make an appearance in the regular game.  These are the kind of games we need to fund, not bankrupt.
 

Auto-Restoring Health
This totally takes the pressure off of gamers to think more before acting in games.  Remember the great old days in Doom or Quake when you escaped from a battle with less than 10% health remaining and you thought to yourself, “Oh God! I gotta be careful!”?  Remember when that happened and how you didn’t just run down the hallways and jet around corners, but instead you were crawling slowly along and peering around corners (complete with your actual head moving a little trying to get a better view)?  This is what is known as “creating tension”, guys.  We are teaching our little video gamers that it’s ok to get shot in real life because you can just hide in your locker for 10 seconds and you will be all better.  You can leave in the reviving of fallen characters, that is a cool co-op espect, just dont make it so "rinse and repeat".  Create tension in your games that you never even planned for.
 

Highlighted Items and On-Screen Aids
While playing Video Games, did you ever think to yourself, “Why the hell is that ammo clip a total of 342 shades lighter than the rest of the environment; is it radioactive?” or “Why does that weapon hover above the ground or spin around in a circle?”  It is a total removal from immersion in the game.  Have the items blend in with the rest of the environment.  It would give games a little bit harder difficulty if a player has to find an item.  Heaven forbid an in-game character should have to go through the trouble of lifting a box in order to get to some food or some ammo, or even accidentally come across a rocket launcher in the corner of a dark room.  In addition, radar and maps is one thing, but any on-screen graphical enhancements that help you get to your next objective is just making our generation all the dumber.  Take for instance in Fable 2; There is a pretty glowing line that takes you from mission to mission without you ever having to think about where you are going.  Do gamers not value the art of exploration anymore, or are developers too worried that a couple people might call their game too hard?
 

Tacked on Co-op Modes or No Co-op Modes
What will it take for developers to realize that the best way to treat your players is to give them the ability to have full-fledged experiences with each other?  This doesn’t mean tack on some lame attempt at co-op play or even worse, disregard it altogether.  Give players the opportunity to choose whether or not they can run through the story by themselves or with a friend.  Nothing is worse than just joining in a friend’s game only to learn that you cannot take anything you earn, whether it is gold or XP or loot, with you when you go.  Adventures (read: main story lines) should be accessible to multiple players at any time.  Games should be able to handle the transitions seamlessly adjusting the loot tables and difficulty levels on the fly.  We shouldn’t have to try and force ourselves to go out and buy Army of Two 2 just so a friend and I can play a storyline together.  For a wonderful example of what we take issue with – Read Here
 

Repetitive Quests
How many times have you played an MMORPG and thought to yourself: “GOD, not another Fetch quest!”  Fetch quests or Kill X # of bad guy quests need to die most of all.  It shows a lack of creativity on the part of any developer.  I wouldn’t even mind a few scattered here and there but only if they actually pertain to the storyline.  For instance it makes sense that a group of bad guys came into my town and killed all the woman and children.  As the hero I would naturally go out and kill as many of them as I could.  Or perhaps I need to go fetch some medical supplies for one of the woman that did not die and was just badly injured.  However, having a whole game based around helpless individuals that are just looking for hand me outs, makes for a boring adventure and translates into a boring game for us.  MMORPG’s aside, let’s look at Assassin’s Creed.  The game is literally made up of nine different instances of the same mission.  Investigate a guy, climb some towers and pick a few pockets.  I was bored to tears 3 missions into it.  Give the players something to immerse themselves in.  If you don’t have the creative prowess in-house as a developer…there are plenty of us that have great ideas for games…utilize us.
 

Lack of Game Demos
Developers...listen. If you want people to buy your game, for the love of all that is digital, please release a demo for the darn thing.  We are collectively smarter than you and if you don't, it rasies red flags with us and there had better be a good reason.  It is along the same lines as a production company not giving their movie to critics ahead of time for a preview.  We know something is up.  You are telling us that your product is not worth the money you will be asking for in return.  In addition, in this day and age, you cannot use "piracy" as a shield to hide behind (even for Hollywood).  The internet has been around forever and you guys have had plenty of time to take advantage of it.  It is not that hard, and you don't have to show us a lot, but just trust in the fact that every game has a demographic and play towards them, not away from everyone.

  A message to developers: Not all of you are guilty of course.  We understand that not only coming up with breakthrough trends is hard, but implementing them is even harder.  However, for the sake of us.  Your longtime loyal fans, please please make it fun for us again.  Don't dumb the games down.  Don't try to cater to all demographics.  We are your lifeblood.  Breathe some life back into us.  Pushing us away doesn't do any of us any good. 

Please stay tuned for part two.