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How has gaming changed these days? Don't enjoy it like you once did?

rathersilly

rathersilly

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
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212
This thread was inspired by the Goldeneye one. The 90s were a golden age. Who else used to really enjoy playing games, and now, just can't find the motivation to pick a controller up?

I used to love video games - in particular, the Super Nintendo. Anything from Nintendo and its brethren. All the Donkey Kong series, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Bomberman, Zelda, Chrono Trigger... I could while away hours on end playing these things. I got my N64, and games like Mario 64, Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, these were some of the most enjoyable times of my youth. Three mates, battle mode in Mario Kart, or deathmatch in Goldeneye...

The PC was good too, I even played some RPGs like Baldur's Gate and really got into them, which is odd, as that kind of stuff usually aint my cup of tea.

Eventually, I just stopped playing. Social life took over, and they became a distant memory.

I moved to Cambodia last year for work, and decided I needed something to consume my spare time (of which, here, there is plenty), and bought an Xbox 360. I have probably 30 games for it, and I don't think I've played any of them for more than an hour, except for maybe GTA 4.

Have I just grown older and grown out of gaming? Are my memories simply fonder because I was young, and things like that are more fun when you're young? Are games these days just lacking the charm that they once did? The Super Nes certainly had some bad games, but the vast majority of them were pretty good. It seems like these days developers spend a bucketload of cash making them look and sound pretty, but don't care so much about how they play.

Does anyone else feel like this?
 
a couple of year ago i did, but right now, i'm enjoying games more than ever. i attribute this new gaming nirvana to the release of the nintendo wii.
 
^ - Aha. I think that's the secret. I bought the Xbox 360 because over here, the supply of games is limited (but, at $5 a copy, who's complaining).

I think I'll buy a Wii soon - what games should I get (considering my nostalgia for all the SNES/N64 classics)?
 
Games today leave me feeling completely unfulfilled. The only game I bother to play anymore is Dota (Defense of the Ancients) which is a custom map for Warcraft 3 on the battlenet which is actually hugely popular and regularly updated by its creator Icefrog. I play a few matches a week generally. The only thing keeping me coming back is that every game is different and generally lasts about 45 minutes from start to finish. You don't have to save and come back later. You are playing against human enemies that present new and different challenges each time. Oh and it actually requires a decent amount of skill since there are about 80 characters and 50 items to use.

Every other game I've bought, played, rented, etc. for the past 5 years has sucked aside from World of Warcraft during the PVP era (pre Burning Crusade) but that was just unhealthy.

Nothing will ever be as fun, addicting, or as consuming as the classics:
Smash Brothers (for 64)
World of Warcraft (before Burning Crusade)
Counter Strike
Battlefield: Vietnam
Ultima Online (before Trammel)
Final Fantasy 6

There's a few other decent games out there that I enjoyed but those were the only ones I really enjoyed for a long period of time.
Other games I liked but didn't really capture me completely being:
Diablo 2
Starcraft
Warcraft 3
Mario 64
Mario Kart (original)
Mario RPG
Civ3 / Civ4
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy Tactics
Mortal Kombat 1
Ever Quest 1

Maybe I've changed but to me, gaming in general has lost its magic. Companies just release whatever they can to make a quick buck, improve their stock, and sell out to EA. I refuse to buy into it any more.
 
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aanallein said:
Maybe I've changed but to me, gaming in general has lost its magic. Companies just release whatever they can to make a quick buck, improve their stock, and sell out to EA. I refuse to buy into it any more.
Click to expand...

I think the main problem is companies like EA. Back in the "golden age" that the original poster is talking about there were a lot of independent studios. Konami, Capcom, Atari, etc.

These companies made and published their own games. Now EA has purchased what seems like 95% of small gaming studios to churn out anything that will make a profit. The games I enjoy most right now come from independent studios.

All I play lately is TF2 (Valve), GTA4 (Rockstar), and Warhammer Online (Mythic). Also, Warhammer Online is the least "innovative" out of all of them and it was published by EA.

A game studio where ALL of the employees are hard core gamers will always produce a way better game than a game studio where 80% of the employees are hard core gamers but all the management that approves features/time/budget/etc are simply business majors who were hired to ensure a large profit.

I've talked about this before. I see the "gaming industry" becoming more and more like the music and film industry. The "musicians and actors" that were so amazing and got you into it in the first place have retired and now the industry is just riding their success.

This exact post could be made for movies and music in my opinion. Sadly, the genre is a victim of it's own success. However, there are still good products out there. You just have to look at the small studios that remain to provide it.
 
^ pretty much. which is why i don't watch tv, movies, listen to music, or play games anymore. its all over marketed trash.
 
Did anybody play earthbound for SNES? that was and still is my favorite game of all time!
 
rathersilly said:
Does anyone else feel like this?
Click to expand...

I do. I think the problem is a lot of game developers and companies are no longer catering to the hardcore gaming enthusiasts, and are focusing more on the casual gamers. Basically they are dumbing down games and simplifying them so they are appealing to larger audience in order to make a greater profit.
 
there is, no doubt, a lot of shit out there, but there are also fine works of art (see gtaiv, mario galaxy, etc)
 
The market today is inundated with movie-franchise games (all of which suck) and war sims.

You know the silly argument that games make kids violent?

While I disagree with that one, I certainly think that war sims, being more realistic than ever, work out well to desensitize people to just how disgusting war really is.

Surprisingly (?), almost all of these games are made by American companies. I hate those games with a passion.

I am pretty bitter about gaming these days, although I agree with IP that things have picked up in the last few years.

I also agree that the golden age was in the 1990s, with the PSx being its pinnacle. Back then, some people actually made games as art. Today, the majority of games are purely merchandise and lack any artistic genius. I also agree with guido about games being streamlined for more profit. It is really sad to see the gaming world fall right into comodification, otherwise games would have been the artistic medium, incorporating visual, auditory, and written displays of creativity.
 
I think it's a combination of a few things, which most of you have already posted, to summarise though:

- Smaller game companies being bought by the giants (I fucking hate you EA).
- Catering to casuals. (what's next Nintendo? Wii BBQ?).
- Actually those two above are really the main reasons.

I mean let's look at STALKER for a moment.

Game had so many features previously, but no, management scrapped most of it because it would be "too hard" for people.

This is why I can't help being so nostalgic and playing heaps of old SNES/PSX/N64 games. I'll still probably buy a PS3 though.
 
I hope in the near future their will start a sort of "niche" market for games... a sort of "indy" games. Its almost here already with homebrew, but I think it would require technology that makes things like character design and animation much quicker.

The problem is that most good games (IMO) come from Japan, and the Japs are not exactly known for their rebelliousness...

ps. LOL @ Wii BBQ
 
^ Mod community has done wonderful things for certain games. For example: Morrowind, Oblivion, STALKER, HL series, etc etc.

I know that's not what you meant, but it's a start.

Problem with small indy development teams is that it's so hard for them to compete with the larger development companies who have teams of 100s, 1000s?

An example being Darkfall. An awesome looking MMORPG that will probably never be finished because of the small dev team and the fact it is so feature rich. We can dream though.
 
haha...earthbound is still my favorite game!

As far as gaming is concerned, I think its a mix between a shift in the gaming market, and the fact that were getting older. When Halo 2 came out, I played 6000 multiplayer games a year, while going to school, working, and maintaining a social life. Now, since Halo 3, ive grown tired of it all. Plus, ive had 3 xbox360s break...

Looking back when I had Sega and SNES, I liked the games more. I would say when the dreamcast came out is when I steered more away from gaming, until halo.
 
I have all these games that are supposedly great for my Xbox... Aside from COD4 and GTA4, I haven't played any of them for more than 15 minutes, some haven't been opened at all.

I liked the idea of Assassin's Creed. Looked good. Just started playing and it was all a bit hard, not intuitive. There are lots of games like this for me - the premise is ok, but I never get the opportunity to get into them, as soon as I've played for half an hour I'm bored.

I did buy 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed', and 'Too Human' today. I don't know if either are any good. Maybe Star Wars will be ok. I really, really enjoyed the Knights of the Republic series. Anything else out there on 360 that's really good? I have maybe 25 games already (they're $5 each in Cambodia!).

I don't think there's a lack of depth these days, it's just that the era of innovative, simple yet challenging games has walked on by, and we're left with overblown, big-budget piles of shit that rely on fancy graphics, or a connection with a film to sell. What happened to amazing platform games (ala Donkey Kong, Mario series')?

I think gaming died a little on the inside when 50 Cent released something.
 
Sorry to ask - but $5 each in Cambodia for brand new retail copies or pirated copies? Was just going to say that it would be a bit rich to complain about the downfall of the games industry if you can't fork out the cash to support it :p
 
^I think that may be it. The games I used to play when I was a teenager were great, but what really made them special was the group of friends willing to devote countless hours a day playing with me. It was being able to devote 8 hours a day to playing games with no other responsibilities and not thinking about all the other stuff I should be doing rather than playing games. No advance in gaming hardware, physics rendering, or special features is ever going to replace that.
 
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