Patrick Congdon thinks first person shooters could use some work, but rather than just bitch, moan, and gesticulate wildly at the screen, he took the time to write out his Top Ten Maxims Every FPS Should Follow. Some of his edicts, such as "The player must always know the objective," would seem obvious, but I think we've all spent our fair number of hours aimlessly wandering around various gaming environments hoping that we'd blunder into the next scripted part of the game.
He also rails against cutscenes that last so long you could hand-carve a dining room set while you're waiting for the cue to pick up your controller again; I see his point, but I think that if the story is grabby enough, the length of the scene is largely irrelevant.
The article provides examples for both the Dos and the Donts, so feel free to pick apart his arguments at your leisure. Let me know any points you want to add, too. My personal gripe with first person shooters is the Bag of Holding Complex; you're this super soldier who can, apparently, hold 8 different guns with countless clips of ammo and still jump from crate to crate? Riiiiiiight.
The Academic Word: Ten Maxims Every FPS Should Follow [Game Career Guide, via Gamasutra]
