I wonder if the fact that bows are showing up in some higher profile upcoming games has anything to do with developers/designers also wanting to break out a little bit from the process of animating nothing but guns and knives.

Must we call it that? And bows are awesome.

i think maybe the bow in skyrim reminded people how cool a bow can be. also i think as everyone is going on about bow then maybe they have been noticed more.

It fully has to do with trying to create a shooting mechanic that is visually dissimilar to other games. The basic shooting mechanic (move reticule to target press trigger) is still super rewarding, but trying to build original narratives that give you the opportunity to do this for multiple hours is difficult.

The staff's constant use of 'feedback loop' when talking about Diablo combined with Jaffe's talk about pure mechanics really draws light to it. The reason why games that involve shooting are popular is not because guns are cool, or soldiers are cool... it's because in microcosm the act of placing a cursor on something timed with a button press is involving, and allows variety and depth to be built around it (Brad's constant 'combat puzzle' description of Halo).

YOTB

What I find interesting about it is it doesn't seem to have any obvious genesis, unless I'm forgetting something.  If there had been some massive hit which prominently featured a bow and everybody else was just copying it (as they are wont to do) then I could understand it, but it's like somebody simultaneously inceptioned the idea into the minds of the whole industry apropos of nothing. With a MindBow™.
 
I guess it could be Skyrim's influence, maybe? Seems tenuous.

@Jimbo said:

What I find interesting about it is it doesn't seem to have any obvious genesis, unless I'm forgetting something. If there had been some massive hit which prominently featured a bow and everybody else was just copying it (as they are wont to do) then I could understand it, but it's like somebody simultaneously inceptioned the idea into the minds of the whole industry apropos of nothing. With a MindBow™. I guess it could be Skyrim's influence, maybe? Seems tenuous.

Hunger Games? Not a game but a major property with heavy use of a bow, at least from my understanding. Never read or saw it, but in posters and trailers that girl always had a bow.

@Jimbo said:

What I find interesting about it is it doesn't seem to have any obvious genesis, unless I'm forgetting something. If there had been some massive hit which prominently featured a bow and everybody else was just copying it (as they are wont to do) then I could understand it, but it's like somebody simultaneously inceptioned the idea into the minds of the whole industry apropos of nothing. With a MindBow™. I guess it could be Skyrim's influence, maybe? Seems tenuous.

Hunger Games? Not a game but a major property with heavy use of a bow, at least from my understanding. Never read or saw it, but in posters and trailers that girl always had a bow.

The Year of the Bow, is one of those wonderful things the internet comes up with. And in this case, it has been great to have a laugh at the whole thing, when so many people are only watching E3 coverage to crack wise with snarky and/or cynical comments.

When the bow appeared in Crysis 3? We all realized it really is #yearofthebow.

I move to hold Year of the Big Bo instead.

I can't wait for the discussion on "Bow of the Year".

Shouldn't it just, bow out?...

Haven't there been bows in a lot of video games? Even last year?

@Nottle Clearly their marketing research shows the audience wants bows.

Needs more Bo

No Big Beau = no year of the bow.

Would not call this the year of the bow just because a few games are using them. So many games before have used them

I am just finding it funny that so many games appear to have bows in them this year. Just something for us to have fun with and make fun of.

YOBO

You Only Bow Once

Shoot a bow in real life and you will know the reason for YOTB.

Well alot of the games that have bows, wont be coming out this year, so it would probably be better to call it "Time of the Bow".

Being the son of an avid hunter, who's in the business of selling bows and archery supplies I am confused as to why anybody when given the choice between a gun and a bow (Far Cry, Crysis, Tomb Raider, ect.) in a situation where their life is on the line would think using a bow would be the smarter choice than a pump action shotgun or an assault rifle. I realize that these are video games but, seriously? Your going to grab a weapon that you need to reload after every shot, is difficult to transport and bring any amount of ammo along and is all around useless when facing multiple attackers. I just think Lara Croft wouldn't be getting the shit kicked out of her as much if she just held onto the guns the all of the bad guys are carrying around.

@david3cm said:

Being the son of an avid hunter, who's in the business of selling bows and archery supplies I am confused as to why anybody when given the choice between a gun and a bow (Far Cry, Crysis, Tomb Raider, ect.) in a situation where their life is on the line would think using a bow would be the smarter choice than a pump action shotgun or an assault rifle. I realize that these are video games but, seriously? Your going to grab a weapon that you need to reload after every shot, is difficult to transport and bring any amount of ammo along and is all around useless when facing multiple attackers. I just think Lara Croft wouldn't be getting the shit kicked out of her as much if she just held onto the guns the all of the bad guys are carrying around.

I think in most of these games the bow is the 'silent' option. Which compared to small arms even with a suppressor is still technically true.

I'm truly hoping that at the end of the year there is an award going to Bow of the Year

Where is @H2Oyea with that picture?! Oh well -- here it is, in courtesy of him:

The embodiment of the year of the bow: BIG BO/W

Well at least bows are more interesting than machine guns, so there's that

Crysis 3 is the only one that stands out as unnecessary. Everything else is a natural evolution of the gameplay or game setup.

• Lara Craft is in a survivalist game. Bows = survivalist.
• Far Cry 3 is in a similar boat, but more bows = indigenous islander warriors.
• Assassin's Creed 3 has the same indigenous & survivalist bent.
• Wreckateer? Guess it just fit the game mechanics.
• Zombi-U? Probably got it from Walking Dead.

The reason we are calling it Yotb is because bows are showing up in non traditional archery games, not because there are more bows than before.... This is the result of skyrim selling 10 million copies.

Bows have always been there we are just now noticing them.

Crysis 3 is the only one that stands out as unnecessary. Everything else is a natural evolution of the gameplay or game setup.

• Lara Craft is in a survivalist game. Bows = survivalist.
• Far Cry 3 is in a similar boat, but more bows = indigenous islander warriors.
• Assassin's Creed 3 has the same indigenous & survivalist bent.
• Wreckateer? Guess it just fit the game mechanics.
• Zombi-U? Probably got it from Walking Dead.

@NekuSakuraba said:

@Paul_Is_Drunk

Crysis 3 is the only one that stands out as unnecessary. Everything else is a natural evolution of the gameplay or game setup.

• Lara Craft is in a survivalist game. Bows = survivalist.
• Far Cry 3 is in a similar boat, but more bows = indigenous islander warriors.
• Assassin's Creed 3 has the same indigenous & survivalist bent.
• Wreckateer? Guess it just fit the game mechanics.
• Zombi-U? Probably got it from Walking Dead.

How about Crysis 3? :P

Literally the first word of my post.

Bows are sick as fuck; I'm all for this.

It's great. The one thing we can gather around and have fun with in an E3 full of abject, and often quite deserved, scorn and cynicism.

As long as they have no cross hair on the HUD or laser pointer or anything, they're awesome.

@Brodehouse: The man in Crysis shot his bow at a helicopter that was shooting him with a machine gun. I understand where your coming from and understand that a man (or woman) holding a bow looks more feral/badass/survivalist than some modern military dude holding an ACR, I just think it's some what silly.

My name is Jaime Lannister and bows are for pussies.

@NekuSakuraba said:

@Paul_Is_Drunk

Crysis 3 is the only one that stands out as unnecessary. Everything else is a natural evolution of the gameplay or game setup.

• Lara Craft is in a survivalist game. Bows = survivalist.
• Far Cry 3 is in a similar boat, but more bows = indigenous islander warriors.
• Assassin's Creed 3 has the same indigenous & survivalist bent.
• Wreckateer? Guess it just fit the game mechanics.
• Zombi-U? Probably got it from Walking Dead.

How about Crysis 3? :P

Literally the first word of my post.

@david3cm said:

@Brodehouse: The man in Crysis shot his bow at a helicopter that was shooting him with a machine gun. I understand where your coming from and understand that a man (or woman) holding a bow looks more feral/badass/survivalist than some modern military dude holding an ACR, I just think it's some what silly.

To be fair the bow in Crysis appears to act more like a fucking harpoon cannon, so I assume it's some sort of crazy robobow.

The real question is which of those games can actually deliver a good bow experience.

A bow in a game is an incredibly easy thing to fuck up and leave you feeling like it's a useless peashooter. A good game implementation has to provide a feedback effect to the player, as well as deliver a perceptible physical punch on the target. Sound is likewise important, it has to be silent for gameplay but you make it too subtle and it ends up producing a further feeling of wimpyness to the weapon. It's part of the reason why archers in traditional gaming have been associated with elfs and other fragile dainty character archetypes. Not untill fairly recently did we start getting games that have started thinking abut these sort of important bow issues and made bows/xbows feel badass again. This is regardless of realism, bows are now in the same position as guns were at one time in movies, you have to make them seem larger/bigger/better then real. You want to feel like that dude just got pierced by a long piece of wood accelerated at very high speed, and said piece of wood is now sticking out of him.

For example as much as i dislike DA2 it's one of the first WRPGs that really made forward progress in the bow area and made me like a bow/xbow character again, by giving bows awesome stagger/knockback effect. At about the same time we have seen a lot of games start following the same trend.

In this modern age of videogames it is no longer enough to just shoot an arrow at something and have no visible or audible effect on the target. The stakes in the bow field have been raised and people now have higher overall bow standards.

@Brodehouse: Or a Robow....I'm sorry.

all have bows.... Could Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, and AC3 all be in the same BoVerse?

Game for Game, there are probably more 'Dust' games than 'Bow' games this year. Given how limited game mechanics are (just as book or film plots are limited) it's not surprising that there will be games based on small particles or games which use a bolt rather than a bullet or laser, the clustering is just statistical probability with no influence or analysis to be had, it's just a bit of fun.

Personally I want games like Diablo III with so many bows you need a bow selector.

it happens sometimes in media i think hunger games started the craze and now bows are cool again.

as an archer, and an instructor who teaches archery to my students after school AND works in an archery range on the weekend, this is relevant to my interests

all have bows.... Could Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, and AC3 all be in the same BoVerse?

They have bows because they use Speed bows.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@hoossy said:

all have bows.... Could Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, and AC3 all be in the same BoVerse?

My mind is so blown.

You've been bowned.

Hunger games doesn't have to do shit with the year of the bow:

• it's a shitty movie
• the bow uprising started happening way before, it's just now reaching it's crescendo (one only has to look to notice the upswing of bow usage in games over the last years)
• lots of the games with bows in them that are being shown this year at E3 have been in development for a good long while now

I'm a qualified videogame bow expert.

Trust me.