When they launch, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 launch are going to be huge events for the industry. New video game consoles always bring with them the promise of more power and better graphics, but this generation could see the Microsoft and Sony machines offer something even better.
Game developer Adrian Chmielarz, who helped create the game developer People Can Fly, says that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 might actually usher in "the next generation of game design" for the first time ever.
According to Chmielarz, who spoke with Eurogamer about next-gen development on systems like the PS4 and Xbox 720, the increase in graphics power every generation has yet to really push developers to question their design tendencies. Graphics got better, but games remained very much the same. Power fantasies were the norm, and heroes were often responsible for the deaths of hundreds of enemy combatants.
"Things are aligning in a way that, by the end of this generation, people started asking, 'Hey you know what, why is Nathan Drake a mass murderer?'" he said. "And they didn't ask that with the first Uncharted. They didn't ask that previously.
"Something happened and it was probably indie games and the fight of indie developers to show a different side of gaming. Some people tasted a little bit of that indie gaming, started thinking about games and then they go back to the old ways and go, 'OK there's something wrong here.'"
With the recent releases of Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite, gamers have started asking tougher questions about some of their favorite franchises. The games' protagonists both murder countless people throughout the course of their adventures while allegedly telling mature narratives. But as video games become more ambitious, the actions they make players perform will naturally come under more scrutiny.
"I could not imagine a situation where the lead writer for Tomb Raider has to explain herself in, let's say, 2005, about the ludonarrative dissonance that's in Tomb Raider, where she's [Lara Croft] like, 'Oh I'm a scared little girl,' and then she's like, 'Dff dff dff dff dff [a machine gun noise, obviously],' killing like a mass murderer five minutes later," said Chmielarz. "But she's [writer Rhianna Pratchett] explaining herself and acknowledging the fact that, yeah, we need to do something about this - maybe we'll fail but, yeah, there's something there."
Chmielarz has a lot more thoughts on the subject, and you can check out the rest in Eurogamer's piece. It's certainly a thought-provoking take on how gaming needs to evolve in the PS4 / Xbox 720 generation, and it'll be interesting to see how developers adjust over the coming years.
