The development of the First Person Shooter in gaming history.

It has always been a dream of every gamer to "play" another person in a simulated environment. When asking just about any person what kind of game their "dream-game" would be, the answer would be "A game where you can play someone who can do anything, anywhere". From this basic ideology, the RPG ideal came into existence. From masked balls in the early 1800s to board games, it has always been a hidden fantasy to "play" outside the boundaries of everyday life.

From these board games, Dungeon and Dragons being the most popular, the "PC RPG" came into existence. Indirectly causing the creation of it's sub genre the FPS, developers considered a first person view the most direct way to involve the player in the action.

Dungeon Master, the true predecessor of the FPS genre.

(1987)

Dungeon Master was not the first PC RPG ever created, it was however a major hallmark in it's history. In the same vein as Ultima, Wizardry and The Bard's Tale, Dungeon Master was a first person dungeon crawler. You had the option to create your own party, equip it at your leisure and defeat monster for loot in simple dungeons.

The major difference however, was the fact that Dungeon Master was not turn based.

Although movement was still restricted, the player was capable of attacking in real time. Not only that, it was possible for him to manipulate objects and the environment in real time. A very first in the genre, complete with a mouse driven interface. One step forward in realizing the full 3D experience, players were exhilarated by the prospect.

Catacomb 3D, iD software's first FPS.

(1991)

A follow-up to "Catacomb", created by John Carmack. Catacomb 3D was the very first FPS ever made. Players were capable of moving in all directions and fire weapons in real time, without any necessity for the player to wait until the computer "calculated" his moves. The graphics were rather simple, even for it's time, and the lack of weapons kept the game's popularity rather low.

Although Catacomb 3D's success was not the big breakthrough it should've been, it paved the way for it's far more successful spiritual sequel, Wolfenstein 3D. These early years of gaming between 1990 and 1998 proved to be the most experimental in terms of overall game developments. For the FPS genre, it also proved to be the most diverse one.

Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, iD software's big hits.

(1992 - 1994)

Wolfenstein 3D is generally considered to be the game that popularized the FPS genre. Although it did not do much more than it's predecessor Catacomb 3D, it was a more polished version of the original 3D engine, with smoother gameplay, better graphics and a more interesting setting with better weapons and enemies.

Doom was much the same story, although it generally perfected the basic formula of the FPS. Moving more into the dark fantasy of the Doom universe, weapons, monsters and levels were much more diverse and surreal than in it's predecessor. It's level designs were also complexer, allowing vertical movement (elevators, stairs and slopes) to be Incorporated into the engine.

An even bigger pioneering feature of Doom was the genre's introduction to multiplayer. Not anymore limited to being a single player experience. Gamers were capable of playing with or against each other over a network interface or even a nul-modem or parallel interface (those big fat cables you can connect your printer with). Doom broke the barrier that games like Halo 3, Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament 3 and Counter Strike are based on today.

It also marked iD software and it's developers, John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack and Tom Hall (undermore) as high profile within the game industry. Today their names are considered to be a major influence in gaming development, especially with the creation of FPS engines.

Quake, the first 3D FPS.

(1996)

Quake was the game that permanently laid the final block on what we call today, the basic FPS formula. Not only did it have all the great features that Doom pioneered, it also introduced the use of a 3D engine allowing for greater detail in the environments and having a more direct feel into the gameplay. Quake also was the first game that really pioneered the mouse/keyboard driven control scheme. Although not configured as default, players quickly found out about this after the multiplayer aspect broke out competitively.

Another thing that Quake revolutionized was the development of mods or modifications. A 3D racing mod, the original Team fortress and more mods were developed on the Quake engine.

Having developed 4 of the most influential games ever created, it's obvious why iD software is so highly regarded as one of the pioneering companies in FPS development. iD software did not continue this trend after Quake with the possible exception of Quake 3, and has not strayed too far from the basic formula ever-since. You still have to admire the accomplishments of the company, that originally set out to port Super Mario from the NES to PC.

Conclusing part 1 of the History of FPS games. Please look forward to part 2, where I will be exploring the hybrid FPS titles and their developments.

images from www.connectedinternet.co.uk and www.wikipedia.org

The problem with JRPG development on the PS3

And to a lesser extent, the Xbox 360.

JRPGs have always been sort of a "super-mix" genre, it grabs and takes from a multitude of other genres to create a mishmash of a game. I don't think it'll be the first time when I play a JRPG and say "Okay, I have no clue what kind of game this is."

Why is this? JRPGs try to do alot of things at the same time, trying to reach a broad public. A JRPG has to be accessible, streamlined, complex, lengthy, aesthetically pleasing, needs to have live performed music tracks and good voice actors, action packed, rife with high-budget pixar comparable FMVs, unlinear, needs to have a strong storyline and last but not least, it has to be fun. Saying a game is a sum of it's part is definitely not a joke when speaking about JRPGs. Many a company has tried and failed trying to reach the absurdly high standards that JRPG fans have. Even when the entire list of must-have features for an JRPG are filled, the next best fan might still think it's "not his thing".

Persona 3's main character looks funny doesn't he? I don't like his face.

Now, before I get a word of bashing from all the JRPG fans in the world, I don't think you're the problem. In fact, if you were such a big problem, PS2 RPG development would've never reached the level it's reached now.

No, the problem is more that the jump from last to current generation console hardware was much harsher for JRPGs than it was for other genres. Imagine a GTA4 if you will, rife with little minigames, dialogue systems, combat options, WTFPWN specials or summons, different staging areas, etc. All of this, on a graphical engine that should look AT LEAST as good as MGS4... on a 7 core CPU machine running 512meg RAM.

JRPG projects are massive. And I really mean massive.

So what's the problem? Simple, the more features, the more coding time. The more coding time, the higher the costs. The higher the costs, the more cuts in features. A circle that turns an interesting project into something everyone has already seen before.

This is normal development proceeding, it's even worse for the PS3.

How something so small can lead to maddening decisions

In other words, development for the PS3 is so complex that developers don't even know how much coding time any given feature would take. There's not even a standard yet, turning an interesting project into codename longhorn (Inevitable complete redesigns for any given project).

"Insert MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS", perhaps after rewriting the code 5 times we 'could use it' on a playable framerate"

You can only hide things from the financial departement for so long.

The amount of features that a JRPG needs to get right is just too large to plan any such kind of failure in the development cycle. Resulting in flat games that are basic run-of-the-mill titles with no depth or even fun. There's a too wide margin of error on a platform that is so difficult to code for. Companies do not like to make risks. And this is exactly why the Xbox360 is recieving more JRPG titles. The Xbox360 has a much more acceptable margin of error to allow normal development, a sad state of affairs that should push Sony to finally release some acceptable tools to the developers so work can continue as we were used to on the PS2.

Not to say that the Xbox360 is a bad platform, not at all. But projects as big as these really need to be multi-platform, or interest from JRPG developing studios will dwindle into nothingness. If there's no profit, why should they bother making them?

So what does this come down to?

Sony, if you're reading this, get your act together and go help those devs. And to all gamers, it's understandable you prefer Sony for giving you many years of joy with the PS2. But as things are running now, this happy period for Sony is coming to an end, unless every single one of you stand up to them and finally bombard them with spam mail :).

Please leave some criticism or comments before you go.

Cheers and thanks for reading