can the "Mania" concept save video games ?

[romsromsroms]

shootmania (and the still unknown questmania) have been nadeo's best move in the VG world.
I think every game type should have its mania-like version. not necessarilly by nadeo of course. every editor should get some inspiration there.

and I'm glad the "mania" concept invades the quake-like world with what seems to have a very oldschool and nervous gameplay.

I've been surprised, in a good way, that sony are extending their LBP license to a mariokart clone. a classic gameplay combined with extended creative possibilities can only be good. (unlike LBP 1&2 which had totally crappy base gameplays).
it's especially good for the original they plagiate : it's like saying "hey, that's how your game looks like with infinite creative possibilities". let's then hope the original's author takes it as a lesson and the creativity virus spreads.
(although if sony fails the gameplay part just like in LBP 1&2, everyone will laugh at them).

TM and LBP, despite being totally different on many levels, are IMO in the same familly : games with huge creative potential, with relatively easy to use editors (unlike oldschool quake-likes which require too much skills to design maps, especially nowadays with the detail level it requires to make a good map), all this for no extra charge than buying the game (although sony sells skins for characters, which makes them less cool)
(note that I only like LBP's concept. the game actually sucks IMO, I bought it but I never play it)

the perfect counter-exemple :
activision are going to release a remake of THPS.
first that's an evident sign of lack of idea, and lack of b*lls (recycling = zéro-risk policy) and laziness.

even if it has not been announced, the goal is clearly to release plenty of DLCs (maps, characters, boards, tricks, cloths...). on consoles only (no risk of hacking to add some features to the game). worse : they do this when the current generation of consoles is at its end, which means people will have to pay again for all of this on the next gen.

if they once and for all released a THPS-mania (sorry for the totally blasphemous name association) with some real creation possibilities, it would instantly become a legendary game.

btw if nadeo lacks of idea, which I doubt, extreme sports would be a cool VG type to "-mania"ify (trickmania ???)

[metoxys]

(tl;dr everything after the first short paragraph)

Grand Theft Mania Grand Theft Auto
ManiaCraft Minecraft
World of ManiaCraft World of Warcraft
Second Mania Second life
TrackManiaMania I herd you like TrackMania
Super Mania Bros. Mario series
Phoenix Wright: AceMania Ace Attorney series

[romsromsroms]

(tl;dr everything after the first short paragraph)

Grand Theft Mania Grand Theft Auto
ManiaCraft Minecraft
World of ManiaCraft World of Warcraft
Second Mania Second life
TrackManiaMania I herd you like TrackMania
Super Mania Bros. Mario series
Phoenix Wright: AceMania Ace Attorney series

well, I think you missed the point then.

[metoxys]

If you say that I missed the point, explain me the point of your post. You are just saying that Little Big Planet is a cool game and that Activision does bad things.

[romsromsroms]

nope.
my point : the general tendency is to make short lifespan games with loads of DLCs (activision style) and I hope games such as TM will impose user-friendly editors as a standart.

it is not the case at all now. TM is still an exception.

I cite LBP (which I find being a crappy game btw, but it seems you missed it) and especially the karting opus sony's working on because it could popularise the need of editors in standard games (I mean if LBP karting is a succesful clone of mariokart, with a user-friendly editor permitting an infinite number of tracks, then it will be de facto infinitely better than the original).
then I cite THPS (and its shameless remake) as a perfect exemple of a game that would hugely benefit of a TM-like editor.

[metoxys]

I dont even know what THPS is.

[tcq]

nope.
my point : the general tendency is to make short lifespan games with loads of DLCs (activision style) and I hope games such as TM will impose user-friendly editors as a standart.

This lifespan thing is something which is really bothering me. For example, on the N64 one of the release titles was Super Mario 64. If you compare it's play time (over 100h) with the release title Luigi's Mansion (~40) for the GameCube, you'll be shocked.
But overall, i don't thing that simply adding a "creativity" -Level to some game genres, could save them. But i think it could be really great to design jump'n'runs with the ManiaPlanet-Engine

I dont even know what THPS is.

There is one great thing, invented several years ago to search the web. I think it's called google and you will be very surprised what this brand new thing can do. E.g.if you are curious about several things (let it be a abbreviation for example) you can enter describe this thing (e.g enter the abbreviation "THPS") and give additional information (e.g. enter "activision") and let it search the web. Now in the final step, we need some kind of intelligence to filter the given results and if you aren't dumb, you will find nearly all information you need. So let's assume you aren't dumb, go and try it.

[haenry]

I like super mania bros.
The wordplay fits perfect here

I dont even know what THPS is.

There is one great thing, invented several years ago to search the web. I think it's called google and you will be very surprised what this brand new thing can do. E.g.if you are curious about several things (let it be a abbreviation for example) you can enter describe this thing (e.g enter the abbreviation "THPS") and give additional information (e.g. enter "activision") and let it search the web. Now in the final step, we need some kind of intelligence to filter the given results and if you aren't dumb, you will find nearly all information you need. So let's assume you aren't dumb, go and try it.

haha, most friendly troll I've heard so far, tcq

[Extraneous]

by the way for those of you who can't be bothered it's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

just so you know