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[Neonivek]

....I'm pretty sure I'm more ancient than you.

It doesn't matter, you took what I said... Threw it out... Then made up what I meant.

Because you needed me to fit into that box of irrational modern game hater.

Because if I don't make sweet sexy passionate love to your modern games or happen to dislike modern gaming trends... I clearly must thing games from the 80s must all be the greatest things known to man with Nostalgia goggles sown onto my eyes.

Maybe I feel overall disenfranchised by modern gaming with most of what I like about games put on the backburner with very few good games rising to the top.

As to the latter post of the post, all I saw was talk about how "games these days with the graphics and their fancy shooter stuff", and no acknowledgement of things like Mass Effect or Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft or Terraria or any number of games that are amazing compared to what I grew up with. I'm nostalgic for the old classics, not necessarily some rose-colored memories that every game was wonderful in the 1980's.

Ohhh ohhh I am sorry... I forgot

If I complain I have to mention EVERY SINGLE good game that has come out in modern times...

Of which ONLY Mass Effect 1 had a non-terrible story... and every Mass Effect after 1 fell into "generic shooter"

[RedKing]

You can dislike trends all you want (I dislike many of them as well). But at least acknowledge that the indie gaming revolution has opened things up tremendously. You would never have seen a The Stanley Parable in the 1990's. And maybe in the 1980's, but it would have been something written up by one guy and passed around via copied floppies like the old demo scene.

Your argument seems to be "Just because I hate everything now doesn't mean I don't also hate everything then." Which just means you're a grumpy old pisser who hates everything (but then we knew that).

[Truean]

Yup.

Audience changed, dramatically. Got made fun of badly for Star Wars, LotR, and video games as a kid. Now, that's all mainstream.... Played on old floppy disc systems (PC) and other old school games. Atari, NES, Sega, etc. It also somehow got "social" even though that's not really true, because multiplayer just.... Eh.

Economics changed. Used to outright buy a game, but now DLC, and licensed instead of owning.... Meh. Microtransactions. No thank you.

Graphics improved; gameplay is tired.

Generally, the sense of imagination is severely reduced and everything has become standardized (less special, less suck, more "the usual").

There are standouts like Dwarf Fortress, but really, people don't know about that. Meanwhile Sega is all but dead. Mario has been remade until I don't really recognize it anymore. Platforming is alive and well, except they call it "Parkour" and it's 3d like everything else. 

The idea of virtual used to be different, because there was originality, experimentation (yes with some terrible results too), and the idea that you were special / a unique hero (which was important for outcasts). These days, you're on multi player looking basically like everyone else (with perhaps minor tweaks), on the same quests, crafting the same stuff (or grinding for it), and it's just different. Too many other people (who are often rude/racist/homophobic/sexist etc) just going through the motions while making things unpleasant.

I still often stick to single player for that reason.

[Neonivek]

You can dislike trends all you want (I dislike many of them as well). But at least acknowledge that the indie gaming revolution has opened things up tremendously. You would never have seen a The Stanley Parable in the 1990's. And maybe in the 1980's, but it would have been something written up by one guy and passed around via copied floppies like the old demo scene.

Your argument seems to be "Just because I hate everything now doesn't mean I don't also hate everything then." Which just means you're a grumpy old pisser who hates everything (but then we knew that).

So yes... I "HAVE" to list every single good game to appease your egos... because you need to constantly listen to people making out with your games.

Mmmm because if I don't then I hate "everything"...

Next person I have to respond to because "I hate everything" because I listed negatives... Will get a passionate story about my everlasting hot love of modern videogames.

Yeah I am not saying I hate everything... like a lot of people say I am.

I am just saying that overall I find the modern trends to be a rather large detriment.

[nenjin]

We certainly have more thought form experiments in gaming now. The very concept of what a game is or can be has changed in this generation. Now they're "experiences" as much as time wasters.

Some of that has become overblown though. The cinematic nature of AAA games today is fulfilling a fantasy game developers have had forever: to be movie producers.

As a gamer...I think as a kid I had the ability to pour my imagination into a very small space. Dragon Warrior 3, a small, bland RPG by today's standards, managed to draw me into its world. I invested all the graphically barren levels with meaning. The adorable enemy graphics took on a life of their own in my mind.

Now, older and jaded, all the work lavished on graphics today don't require that of me. Somehow the higher rez things have gotten, the less I feel the need to fill in the details.

And yet, that magic is still there at times. Dwarf Fortress is a direct example of gamers investing their games with all their creativity, adding detail and meaning to the game space. Undertale, which is basically a throw back to RPGs of old, has gotten critical acclaim because of the feels it manages to generate in its users, young and old. Binding of Isaac completely captured my imagination in a way that no game has for years.

I think what's really different now vs. then is, back then we had fewer options. Graphics would never rise above a certain level. Gameplay wouldn't either. (The 80s were almost the stone age of video game ideas and concepts.) So we made the best of what we had. Now.....there is a buffet of gaming out there, all kinds, all quality levels, all styles. It's much easier to let a game do the imagining for you, and there are so many more games to pay attention to.

Yeah I am not saying I hate everything... like a lot of people say I am.

Ah yes, the familiar Neon curse where no one actually understands you the way you understand you.

[Neonivek]

You would be surprised how limited that Buffet is... but that is due to the market shift in the late 90s where games became too expensive for certain niche markets (No really, look it up)

Indies are trying but they haven't gardered enough experience just yet. Though I definitely have my pick of the best (and it isn't... Telltale...)

Yeah I am not saying I hate everything... like a lot of people say I am.

Ah yes, the familiar Neon curse where no one actually understands you the way you understand you.

Do... I count it?... naw... it isn't direct enough.

[RedKing]

You can dislike trends all you want (I dislike many of them as well). But at least acknowledge that the indie gaming revolution has opened things up tremendously. You would never have seen a The Stanley Parable in the 1990's. And maybe in the 1980's, but it would have been something written up by one guy and passed around via copied floppies like the old demo scene.

Your argument seems to be "Just because I hate everything now doesn't mean I don't also hate everything then." Which just means you're a grumpy old pisser who hates everything (but then we knew that).

So yes... I "HAVE" to list every single good game to appease your egos... because you need to constantly listen to people making out with your games.

Mmmm because if I don't then I hate "everything"...

Next person I have to respond to because "I hate everything" because I listed negatives... Will get a passionate story about my everlasting hot love of modern videogames.

Yeah I am not saying I hate everything... like a lot of people say I am.

I am just saying that overall I find the modern trends to be a rather large detriment.

Show me on the doll where the bad game touched you. 

[Neonivek]

Ok you asked for it... I'll get writing.

[RedKing]

I'm just saying....you're kinda overreacting on this. Yeah, there's too many co-op CoD shooter type games, yeah there's a lot of F2P microtransaction-heavy games, yeah there's too much DRM and "always-on" clients, yeah there's an emphasis on graphics and physics models and perhaps less on writing in many games.

But there's still more games on Steam right now (more than I can afford, at least) that I would love to play. There are games with wonderful voice acting, good writing, games that are as much experimental artform as they are game, games that metagame by making use of emergent behavior. It's a mixed bag, I just think you're focusing too strongly on the negatives.


To me, it's in the same camp as "Nobody makes good movies anymore" and "nobody makes good music anymore". Both of which are patently bullshit observations.

[miauw62]

If we're going to reminisce over loading up games in the bad old days, I'd like to take a moment to get nostalgic about waiting 15 minutes for Daley Thompson's Supertest to load from cassette (replete with that screechy modem-esque loading noise the whole time) on the 128K version of the ZX Spectrum, all so I could destroy a joystick trying to get past the first race.

ZX Spectrum and C64 had great sound chips, though, I was under the impression that these were used during load

Also Sturgeon's law. A lot of great games came out in this decade. The indie scene has exploded because minecraft gave it mass appeal, so suddenly many aspiring developers could find a platform to make the game of their dreams. With mixed results, obviously, but it's given us gems like Undertale, or Lisa. Or FTL. Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac. The Stanley Parable. Lots of art games, lots of games so good they qualify as art.
Sure, if you actively seek out games that you know are made to appeal to a massive audience,  you will find that they are not deep and engaging explorations of the genre but more of the same since that's what people want. It's what I want, sometimes. Oftentimes I've played a game that I liked and thought "I wish there was more of this".

[Neonivek]

I'm just saying....you're kinda overreacting on this.

Overreaction? O_o

"How has gaming changed for you?"

Ok... fine

[itisnotlogical]

If we're going to reminisce over loading up games in the bad old days, I'd like to take a moment to get nostalgic about waiting 15 minutes for Daley Thompson's Supertest to load from cassette (replete with that screechy modem-esque loading noise the whole time) on the 128K version of the ZX Spectrum, all so I could destroy a joystick trying to get past the first race.

ZX Spectrum and C64 had great sound chips, though, I was under the impression that these were used during load

Well, from what I know about games loading from tape deck, there wasn't really a way for the computer to stop the game data from going to the speakers. So you were actually listening to the game's data being played over the speakers in real-time as the game was being loaded. I'm not an expert but that's half something I actually learned and half an assumption that makes sense:P

[Neonivek]

[blank]

[miauw62]

If we're going to reminisce over loading up games in the bad old days, I'd like to take a moment to get nostalgic about waiting 15 minutes for Daley Thompson's Supertest to load from cassette (replete with that screechy modem-esque loading noise the whole time) on the 128K version of the ZX Spectrum, all so I could destroy a joystick trying to get past the first race.

ZX Spectrum and C64 had great sound chips, though, I was under the impression that these were used during load

Well, from what I know about games loading from tape deck, there wasn't really a way for the computer to stop the game data from going to the speakers. So you were actually listening to the game's data being played over the speakers in real-time as the game was being loaded. I'm not an expert but that's half something I actually learned and half an assumption that makes sense:P

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tfNxV87bKgM
Sorry, I'm basically just gay for the SID chip.

[Neonivek]

One huge thing is that the market changed

Games in the past were rather narrow focused and left a lot of people out of the loop preferring to cater to a very limited audience that didn't care about advancements in UI or streamlining their overcomplicated gameplay mechanics. Luckily now games generally focus on being not only accessible but also streamlined so you can just pick them up and play. Thus I can pick up just about any game now and expect to have fun quickly and effectively.

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I also like how modern games are starting to focus on exactly the games I love. I personally love the FIFA series and pretty much anything from EA Sports. As well because of indie games it means if I want to deviate from the formula I can easily.

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As well because the idea of games have been formulized it means that "bad games" are a thing of the past, even the worst games now adays are at least boring and dull.

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Though to be fair a lot of the challenges of modern games aren't any different then the ones in the past. Modern games have their share of "doom clones" so in many ways modern games haven't changed at all from what we have grown up with.

Though currently I am not seeing a lot of games to enjoy next year, I am looking forward to Xcom 2 which promises to be an excellent experience. The only problem with that game is it isn't out now... something I'll never forgive it for.

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On the bright side the graphics wars have mostly died...

MOSTLY because graphics wars was because games had a variety of graphics and thus a game that focused exclusively on graphics stood out. Yet the majority of games have a strong graphics focus and we hit a firm rock in "how good it can get" as well as a general community of people who are tired of upgrading their systems.

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I also think modern games are especially adept at doing rehashes. Beyond Earth was just different enough to feel like a completely new experience from Civilization 5. Something the doom clones failed to do with many of them seeming exactly the same.

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I should state that everything above is for the PC, so limit it to that. Though if I had to gauge consoles I do have to love that the Xbox One has such a wide selection of shooters that I hope to play when I have my hands on it. As well Nintendo still makes amazing games even today.

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Also Mass Effect 1-3 was A+ material and should go down in history as one of the greatest games ever made... Right after Stanley Parable and Dwarf Fortress (DF homies represent!)