So this is more about the hypothetical realm of gaming than the real, but it’s important nonetheless. Why? Because what gamer hasn’t finished watching a movie, playing a board game, or eating Ritz with fancy ketchup and thought to themselves, "Self, only one thing could go better with these crackers than ketchup, and that’s…"? If this sounds like your Friday night, then this post is for you.There are just so many things that could possibly inspire a game, and almost none of them have to be mutually exclusive. Personally, I’ve always loved the idea of an underwater city, but never did I think to take that idea, twist it with an early 20th century utopian, gene manipulating society, and pop out Bioshock. However, there are a few things that I have thought of along the way that are just too good for game developers to pass up on. These are the top five most untapped ideas for a videogame.
5. Wii Retirement Resort
The Wii and Nintendo in general has been notorious in the gaming industry for tapping the market that companies like Microsoft and Sony can’t reach because of their focus on the older, more hardcore gamer market. Nintendo usually grabs the child share of the market, which, as it turns out, is a huge one. But what group have none of these companies even considered targeting? That’s right, the elderly. Sure, they don’t have all the money or time left in the world, but I’m sure they would all be up for an easy living room escape, and my answer is the Wii Retirement Resort. Play some Wii Bocce Ball, some Wii Shuffleboard, and do it all with the ease of the Wii Remote and WiiMotion Plus. You could even throw in a bonus stage like "Wii Don’t Forget to Take Your Pills" or "Wii Hug Someone Else’s Grandchildren." I mean, it’s hours of fun and maybe some intermittent sleep and then some more fun just waiting to happen. C’mon, Nintendo, isn’t it time you had a heart, or at least a pacemaker?
4. Jurassic Park: Human Huntin’
Take what gamers know to be one of the coolest innovations in zombie games (the ability to play as a zombie in Left 4 Dead’s multiplayer) and re-imagine that on the island of Isla Sorna or Isla Nublar. Sure, it’s not exactly what Michael Crichton had intended, but it’s exactly what gamers want: fast paced, brutal action, large open-world gameplay, and the oh-so-killer ability to chomp down on Samuel L. Jackson’s arm while your friend enjoys some filet de Wayne Knight (aka Newman). I mean think about the possibilities! You can start out, Spore-style, as a compsognathus, and build your dinosaur up, giving him spitter abilities like a dilophosaurus, a rear toe claw like a velociraptor, and eventually eat enough humans to get into giant turf wars with a T-rex or the elusive "spinosaurus." The last videogame I remember offering anything close to this was Turok: Evolution, where a cheat code allowed you to play as an ultra-fast raptor in deathmatch mode, essentially winning the game for you. And why? Because dinosaurs RULE. Now, shouldn’t you?
3. A Zero-Fee, Console-Based MMORPG
Well, I’m sorry Blizzard, this may be offensive to you, but I just never got into WoW, or any other MMORPG for that matter. How, you may ask, can I be so uncultured and naïve? The answer is two things: 1. MONAYS, and 2. PCs. First, many mainstream MMORPGs out there cost some sort of monthly or yearly or daily fee to play. Frankly, I’m definitely willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for videogames, but I can’t keep losing money every month by playing ’em. It’s too much money for a poor college kid like me. And secondly, I have a crappy laptop, like a lot of readers out there also do I’m sure, and the crappiness of said laptop inhibits me from playing basically any computer game made after Starcraft. Ultimately, this is really a money issue as well, since I could hypothetically just buy a gaming computer if I had the bank for it, but I think this just comes down to principal. Share the wealth, MMORPG developers! And by wealth, I mean the goodness of playing what I’m guessing are some awesome games without having to lose a financial arm and a leg to do it. C’mon, eh?
2. Half Life 3
WHEN IS IT COMING OUT?! COME ON VALVE!
1. Band of Brothers: The Game
Obviously this is just born out of an extreme love for the HBO series "Band of Brothers," directed by Tom Hanks, but if you have ever seen a single episode of the series, and you get excited about videogames with good stories, then we’re definitely on the same page. But let me take a step back and start with just the flat-out action of the potential game. There’s a reason that there exist so many World War II FPS game franchises, and that’s because despite the horrors of the war, it produced some incredible combat, a lot of which is very well captured in games like the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor series. So, if the right kind of engine were given to it, and the right developers were put on the case, the action would be just as good as, if not better than, what we’ve already seen. But this is where the Band of Brothers game splits off and becomes the greatest idea for a game that has yet to be capitalized on. The characters, which are the story, will make this game great. WWII by itself is a very well known story, and one that doesn’t need retelling. But what continually amazes me every time I see the "Band of Brothers" series (like the fifth time right now) is the unbelievable stories of each character, and the way the show makes you care about each and every one of them. And who is to say a videogame can’t accomplish the same thing? Under the right direction, it could be just as powerful, if not more so, than the show, because as the player you are actually picking up the M1 and hurling your body carelessly through Nazi-occupied France. Phew, yes. Mr. Hanks, I’ll be expecting my check in the mail.
