One of the fathers of the shooter genre has now commented on Destiny and called it an FPS-MMO. He also believes in games as the ultimate art form.
John Romero, one of the fathers of the shooter genre with Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein, is likely a fan of Destiny. Together with John D. Carmack, Romero popularized and shaped the first-person shooter genre in the 90s at id Software.
Romero held a kind of “Q&A” on Quora. Many questions were directed at his career, his time in the 90s, or his ideas on game development. Some of the questioners dream of a career as a game designer and hoped for tips from Romero. He provided plenty. Additionally, Romero defended the idea that video games are the ultimate art form because video games combine design, animations, models, and writing, uniting other art forms.
Whether games are even art is an important topic for some cultural journalists on an abstract level. The famous film critic Roger Ebert sparked a discussion about this 10 years ago. He was completely unable to connect with video games. Well, most players will only be peripherally affected by whether they are playing art or a product.
Little innovation due to high budgets – Destiny an exception
As one of the fathers of the shooter genre, Romero was also asked for his thoughts on the current shooter market. According to Romero, shooters are not at risk of disappearing. At the moment, several have been completed or are currently in production. Since the 90s he has seen few crazy innovations. With the rise in budgets, the willingness to take risks has decreased. But it is great to see an FPS-MMO like Destiny on the market. We have been waiting a long time for it.
The question of whether Destiny is an MMO or not is hotly debated among fans and non-fans alike. Purists complain that the first “M” in MMO, which stands for “Massive”, is too weak. This is a criticism not only directed at Destiny; almost every new game labeled an MMO comes under fire, as the games often only allow 16-32 players simultaneously in an instance of the world instead of “huge worlds”.
Romero also seems to hold Blizzard and World of Warcraft in high regard. He names WoW among his favorite games – alongside Chrono Trigger and Ghost Recon – and places it on a list of 10 games that an aspiring game designer should check out, alongside titles like Super Mario World, Minecraft, or Half Life 2.
