EA’s John Riccitiello wants more from the RTS genre than just cooler graphics. That’s about the best news you could give me with regard to the genre. Sure, it’s cool to see every detail of every unit dying, but at some point I want a little more than the usual rush strats and gold hoarders.
“We’ve gotten to the point where you can see the particles around individual grenade explosions inside rooms where windows fall apart. That was never what made RTS good. That was just sort of eye candy on top of a very traditional game mechanic. From when Red Alert and Starcraft sort of defined the genre, it hasn’t moved,” Riccitiello told Kotaku.
Preach on, brother.
“I’m a believer that the RTS sector is more open to fundamental innovation at a metagame level than almost any genre. I actually think that some of what Playfish does, in terms of iterating games on a weekly basis, Some of what Facebook does, in terms of letting you collectively experience things, have not been stitched together by the game industry in terms of lessons learned there.
You start applying that thinking to a C&C franchise you get something pretty special.”
Mhmm. Mhmm. I like what he’s saying, but as with all developmental shifts for any genre, I’ll wait to see the success before I pass any judgement. Riccitiello head is in the right place. I just hope he can execute.
Read the full interview over at Kotaku.
