Largely the problem with zombie video games is that they don't effectively encompass actual survival and scarcity concepts very well which would mechanically at least be the only reason I'd want to specifically fight zombies in a video game. Then again I have yet to play Day-Z so I probably should stop complaining. Problem is that Day-Z doesn't look like it has good kinesthetics and its 3rd person perspective so it kind of puts me off to buying Arma just to play the mod.
 
Zombies as horror would be nice too but true horror games are few and far between in general so asking specifically for zombie horror is kind of silly. And zombies are only really scary when they are of the screeching fast brand or in dark claustrophobic areas were being lumbering isn't a handicap.
 
Though the Walking Dead Games using zombies as a backdrop largely for story seems interesting. I've yet to play it though.
 
As for devs learning from past mistakes I think you give them too little credit. The problem isn't the devs themselves but the issue of publishers pushing them in other directions. And even perhaps from the stand point that there are lots of developers that don't have time to play many video games in the first place, especially too little to play the fairly 'small time' game you just played, to really have the opportunity to learn in the first place. Some Indie group could potentially learn from it but the resources to make such a game would likely be beyond them.
 
I want to say more but I'm bogged down by work. I have not played KOTOR2 in like 2 weeks it seems like. Yesterday I gamed a little but only played BLR since it doesn't require too much brain power from me at this point. Not that I played well. I got my ass handed to me because I was tired and my reaction time significantly suffered and further couldn't think to stratigize to make up for that due to a fore mentioned tiredness.

i bought SaGa Frontier for the ps1 off ebay like a month ago. im hoping to play through it at some point during the summer. it looks good.

Today was the first time in 2 weeks that I've been able to play KOTOR2. I've put in around 31 hours now. Moving very slowly, but enjoying it. Can't wait to listen to some HK-47 again.
 
To bad he's probably going to hate my character's guts since I'm 100% goody-two-shoes.

I have a habit of enjoying the hell out of certain games that are generally considered pretty bad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOA5hpBURjg]Shadow Madness[/url] remains a guilty pleasure despite being completely shit in every area besides music and atmosphere.

Been trying out the newest Final Fantasy MMO, going through an MMO phase... again.
 
Quests as usual for an mmo are generic and boring but admittedly I'm enjoying dungeon runs because it simply forces team play. Beta is almost over and open beta will be coming up soon, but I doubt ill invest in a monthly subscription when the game is released which is what the payment method will be.

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(various nice things i should have responded to)

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W-what?? w-w-w... WHAT?? 8^O 8=====^O 8^O ... >:^8 ?! what the fuck man!! your posts are good!! what the heck!! please don't delete them!!! please!!! :^_( _
 
EDIT don't hurt yourself!!! also i reaaaaaaaally doubt you dont know ANYTHING about games design... >;^2 ?? they were probably good posts even if you didnt think so...! >;^4 youre hella suspicious...! >;^d dont take a shit on yourself!!! don't decice your worth beforehand... >:^8 Believe In Yourself! :^>

 
i really know nothing!!!! i sort of feel that there is nothing objective to be said about games. like, every time i think of something that could maybe be considered 'true', there are a million ways to disprove it. i sometimes think they're entirely about taste, the niche-iest forms of art? and sometimes i just don't like them at all. and sometimes i read game design articles and think, 'hmm, game design' and i don't agree, but i try to vocalise why and i just think i'm being just as prescriptive and reductionist about it, or something? i really don't know.
 
when talking about these things in 'meatspace', i find myself mid-thesis just going 'and yeah... game design! hurrah!' rather than finish the obviously narrow minded thought i'm probably trying to form. like, i catch myself being all designey-winey and because i mostly hate reading or hearing this stuff, i stop in my tracks?
 
i sometimes wonder if the games i like only exist in my imagination, and that they wouldn't be to my taste if i actually played them. 
 
i loved playing kings field iv very drunkenly the other night. i loaded it up specifically because i wanted to feel the 6s death that you can achieve by starting a new game while holding NE on the stick.  does that go some way to explain what i mean? like, how niche they are? like, i wanted that specific experience that day and time? i don't know. i turned off the game after that.  
 
i tell myself other things are more interesting to me personally than design, (not to belittle those for whom it is important...) like, i can't help but feel there's that craft element which can be learned or chipped away at until it is a smooth thing, and the design aspect is actually just a puzzle with an ideal solution, so why discuss it? but other things, such as theme and atmosphere (THE ART, MAN, THE ART!), are things that i convince myself that i'm personally looking for? i guess i could speak about these aspects of games i'm playing (very few these days, beyond a casual toe in the water etc) but i don't feel qualified to vocalise these things. i'm not an artist any more than i'm a designer!
 
i've played a lot of games for short periods of time lately. nothing's really grabbed me, though.  i quite enjoyed the periphery around Willy's Great Adventure but out of nostalgia alone, probably. i love that it was made 28 years ago, and that its design has no modern concessions. feels like an unearthed relic.
 
i have enjoyed the general 'madness' (that old arcade game thing of the bigger the better, "we're gonna give you the BIGGEST SPRITES EVER! some of them are TALLER THAN THE SCREEN!") of the following games lately: Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising and Shadows Of The Damned.) sometimes i think i like this kind of game at the moment because i want some brain junk to unwind to (like, even having multiple paths or the possibility of secrets is too much for my OCD brain which cannot proceed when it looks as if there is a hidden something somewhere?) these games all go: here you are, a level, a cutscene, a boss, a cutscene, a bigger boss, a cutscene, a bigger boss with two of the other previously biggest bosses on top of it?
 
i like and play far less indie games than i should. i am mean-spirited about them, and i am a whore for 'polish', despite finding most polished games infuriatingly shallow, so that excludes a lot of shorter works where they are high-concept but not very designey-winey. then again, i play larger indie games from time to time, and mostly feel that they're too design focussed, to the detriment of their meaning and atmosphere. make your mind up, jasper!
 
i watch videos of old spectrum / msx / colecovision / etc games a lot, and imagine polished games that look like them. i don't know what that means.
 
i recently bought both a 3ds and a vita, because i am releasing a game on the latter (and possibly the former too) i enjoyed the reductionist survival horror of RE:REVELATIONS. i like that it's dumbed down enough that i can consume it like a tv show, despite craving (and attempting to make) the complete opposite kind of game in the same genre.
 
so i realise as i'm writing this that i mostly play junk.  and yet i tell myself i'm looking for some magical piece of art that will somehow fit my aesthetic perfectly (and this is the theme of my new game), but i'm clearly looking in the wrong places (maybe silent hill 2 is the only example i can think of which has everything on my 'checklist'?) i don't know why i expect to find this work on a ps2/3/gc/saturn/etc/etc instead of, say, the indiesphere?
 
my method of designing stuff is a combo of enough monkeys + typewriters, and endless imposing of my wip games on friends until they give me all the design answers i can't figure out myself. so maybe i don't even do my own design? i'm just not a terry cavanagh / increpare / michael brough who live and breathe it. and yet i find most games infuriatingly designed, even if i can't vocalise why.  in fact, people like the catamites seem far better able to vocalise what it is i'm looking for, the intangible nature of it. my new game is about this yearning for something, the ultimate-thing-within-your-niche-aesthetic, which seems to me ultimately empty and fruitless, partly because i can't put my finger on what it is i'm looking for. i say to myself i love theme above all, and i focus heavily on that, yet the stuff i actually play rarely gives two shits about it.
 
the more i'm writing, the more i realise i don't even know what i'm trying to say and this always happens when i try to talk about these things. i will shut up now.
 
(i fought the urge to delete this, but, well, here it is)

I am very glad you did not delete that. That was one of the more interesting and coherent rants I've read.

Honestly, I wish I had your problem when it comes to game design (if only because you actually released something despite it). My issues preventing me from working on my game are as numerous as they are illogical.
 
I wish I could put more effort into a response but I have to wake up super fucking early tomorrow and drive for 4.5 hours and I am tired now and there is no telling if I'll remember to come back and discuss a bit more or I'll be capable of the self motivation.

u. for a fool.