Gaming fell off a long time ago. Did you realize?

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"Modern games are all the same"

  • I agree

  • Of course they are

  • 100%

  • No doubt

  • Thats it, I'm going to clown college.

  • No.

  • Whichever moderator edited this poll to add "No" is a tosspot.


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ital

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Due to the way corporations work, how big gaming as a field got, economics, focus testing, IPs, generally being risk averse and every other reason why movies suck now compared to the 80s gaming did the same.

Did you notice? Except in gaming the peak wasn't the 80s but 90s-10s whilst it was still bubbling underground and then into the build up to making it big with commercial success and acceptance. That totally killed all forms of creativity because underneath all the "ooh shiny" we're looking at ancient gameplay techniques that really aren't that much fun if you think about it.

People don't because they game to escape boredom and frustrating lives and are happy with something slightly less inane than their usual day to day. Thing is if you're connoisseur type of nerd you see through that crap and realize what it is:

Stale, safe recycling dressed up in new clothes.

Hark back to the 80s and you had something in movies that isn't in todays mainstream titles:

Originality.

People tried something different. Some hit, some didn't... But you had choice. Gaming was similar during the 90s onwards as it was coming into its golden age with astounding titles that generated neural newness from their experience. Now its pretty much just a retread. On the flip TV is having a golden age but thats mainly because they finally get to create as much depth and world building as a novel as opposed to trying to cram it all into 90 minutes.

Am I wrong or is it truly a case of play one (in a genre) you've played them all. Even consider RPGs, that most staid of trope laden titles. These days they're virtually identical in every respect. First Person Shooters - same. Racing games - don't exist any more. At least not the ones I want to play. Platformers - Its not Mario but here's a game equivalent of that off brand third party controller your cousin would try and palm you off with back in the days for 2 player action.

See where I'm going with this? This new "Lets make everything open world" trend is another sign of the homgenization of gaming as everything becomes like everything else in a bizzaro world style of inclusivity.

Its why the Wii U should've been much bigger than it was because the second screen bought something new to the mix and it was a great concept that could've revolutionized gaming if handled right. Now we've got the watered down Switch which is simply the same as everyone else yet less shiny and almost portable. Sad as N were one of the few who still captured the spirit of gaming and sense of wonder it can generate when done right.

Can you see how the charm and uniqueness has been slowly sucked out of the industry and how people just accept any old dross as long as it keeps them distracted and mildly entertained. TLDR generation will be getting their Adderal twitch slash ADHD itch slash Dopamine distracted glaze in their eye before they even get passed the thread title but you, you know what I mean, don't you?

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to roll a hoop down the street with a stick. Real entertainment. No DLC required.
 
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ital

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To put it all simply:

There is more entertainment in this little clip of old Simpsons than there is in entire modern seasons which are Simpsons only in name:



And don't say "but but but what about <insert your favorite new cartoon families zany escapades here>" its a knock off derivative which is a sideways evolution at best and nowhere near a quantum leap.

Gaming is the same these days.
 
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UltraDolphinRevolution

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I´m currently playing Tomb Raider (2013) and feel like I am playing Resident Evil 4 or 5 (plus climbing). But I don´t mind because I enjoy it more than the original Tomb Raider or RE games. In the 90s many games converged towards 2D platforming. The first Act Raiser tried something new, the successor went back to the industry standard. It is nothing new.

I agree, however, that the Wii U is underappreciated. Much better than the Switch in my view.
 

appleburger

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Gaming industry is bigger now and panders to a much larger audience.

Although, because the industry is so massive now, you still have devs filling out niche spaces, giving us a lot of these retro experiences, plus we still have massive retro libraries to enjoy, so while modern gaming doesn't suit me as well as the retro stuff did, I feel like I'm enjoying the golden age of gaming, personally.

I'll happily enjoy my shovel knights and Binding of Isaacs while Candy Crush and Call of Duty make millions, though. Doesn't bother me.
 

Veho

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Yes and no.

Yahtzee spoke about this in a recent Extra Punctuation video (the relevant but starts at 7:18):




I'm not that pessimistic though. Yes, large game publishers will cling to safe formulas with their giant investments (and even then they run a risk of a multi million dollar game flopping), they are in no hurry to fund some unproven novelty. But smaller studios and indie developers come up with new ideas all the time, and once they become popular, they get implemented into AAA games, then they become stale, then it's on to the next trend.

This is the small cycle of gaming industry; there is a larger one too. At some point the bubble pops and a bunch of huge projects fail and the large publishers clam up, and suddenly a whole bunch of smaller projects get their chance, and new ideas are tested out and developed and iterated, and the most successful games get sequels, and those sequels get larger budgets, and a million clones and ripoffs get funding, until they grow huge, and slow, and stale, and the cycle repeats.

And you're viewing the 90s through nostalgia goggles, because even then, the industry loved to play "rip off the leader" leading to most games within a genre being pretty much the same.

Frankly, this is like discussing "music these days"; large labels and executives will push proven and cookie cutter pop, and music was always better "before",
 

Kraken_X

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With the availability of modern game engines and assets, many of them free, it has never been easier to make great games, and more amazing games are released every year than a person could play in a lifetime.

The problem is that modern AAA games are generally pretty bad and those get most of the attention and money. Many impliment F2P mechanics and season passes taking advantage of gambling and fear of missing out to addict players rather than making money by actually being enjoyable and having quality. For indie games, it's really hard to tell the low effort asset flips apart from the gems in a video or screenshot. There are amazing mods, freeware and fan games out there too, but in a vast internet, those are even harder to find.

Back in the day, there were fewer games in general, but everyone played the same ones that were good.
 
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ChibiMofo

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Gaming has never been better than it is right now. As for the miserable failure that was the Wii U, it was no innovation at all. What was an innovation was the Wii. Nintendo didn't learn the lesson from the Wii and the Wii U's failure has left them merely a handheld maker now. The Switch may not be as innovative as the DS and the 3DS, but it nailed everything else.
And as someone who lived through the dreary 80s with the forgettable movies it produced as well as sequel after sequel I find it hilarious that you find it to be an innovative era. Movies are far more imaginative than they have ever been, and I'm a Harold Lloyd fan.
 
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ital

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Yes and no. Though i agree about the "open world everything" these days.

Of course, its a point for discussion and not a blanket statement but in general there is mass homogenization going on across the board and thats the main issue as people aren't discerning enough. Age of the Consoomer for real as they'll take what they're told to like and then evangalize.

I´m currently playing Tomb Raider (2013) and feel like I am playing Resident Evil 4 or 5 (plus climbing).

I agree, however, that the Wii U is underappreciated. Much better than the Switch in my view.

This is it. Most games have the same "bones" underneath with a different skin on top. The core mechanics are almost identical so all that differs is the visuals and story. Prince of Persia 2008 was Uncharted in robes and in the process ditched everything that made the original titles unique. Might as well watch the cutscenes and skip the game as its nothing new to play.

Wii U developed into a tried technology would've changed the game in terms of interaction and play. Same as the DS/3DS were a breath of fresh air due to sheer thinking outside the box devs did once it got into stride. That on a home console with two screens and further evolution would've been quite interesting.

Gaming industry is bigger now and panders to a much larger audience.

I'll happily enjoy my shovel knights and Binding of Isaacs while Candy Crush and Call of Duty make millions, though. Doesn't bother me.
True, there is too much money for creative risk to even be considered. Indys are holding it down and come through with some proper gameplay and unique aspects but the allure of money brings pretenders in who then flood the market with derivatives. The signal to noise ratio now is immense, case in point everyone should've played VVVVVV and been shouting about it from the rooftops as its 100% pure gameplay that far exceeds many AAA titles in terms of pure fun and "onemorego"-ability that defines gaming.

And you're viewing the 90s through nostalgia goggles, because even then, the industry loved to play "rip off the leader" leading to most games within a genre being pretty much the same.
I'm aware of the "insert animal who has a gimmick but isn't Sonic" type stuff that filled the shelves along with a million Kart racers that ain't Mario but thats not the point. The point is you'd also see stuff like Actraiser, Earthbound, Uniracers and countless other quirky, unique titles that were signed off on. Nowadays those ideas wouldn't get off the ground whilst "Football simulator same as last year with decade old mechanics but +1 in the title" sells millions as does "Off brownish grey first person shooter, volume 12, now with an extra caffeinated tea bag mode for more dunking" does the same.

What I'm saying is if you compare both eras the highest highs of 90-00s are untouchable by modern gaming which takes the safe route, dumbs everything down and dilutes the brand for mass appeal. Thats the issue as I see it - a lack of innovation. Only graphics have improved, the core gameplay (the fun) has actually regressed quite dramatically.

Mobile gaming also had a lot to do with dumbing down. For someone that played a lot back in the 90s modern games simply aren't fun. At best you've got familiar mechanics strung together with cutscenes and at worst you've literally the same game in a new skin.

With the availability of modern game engines and assets, many of them free, it has never been easier to make great games, and more amazing games are released every year than a person could play in a lifetime.
And yet there is so little in the way of innovation or uniqueness. Very few things have their own flavor or innovation these days. People included. Its quite weird to see really because everything (and everyone it seems) has been processed into crap who accept more crap. Its craptacular.



The reason I used 80s movies as an example was that you saw things that would simply never be made today as they'd be classed as risky, "problematic", not enough mass appeal etc.. Its the classic battle of creatives vs the suits except the creatives wear suits these days and are just pretending to create when in reality they simply trace what worked before. Why?



I guarantee that if you're being honest with yourself you'd agree as you sit there playing yet another shitty, derivative game to pass your time. On the flip there is the fact that we were more "underground" in a developing field which has since became heavily corpratized and thus standardized but the fact still remains:

Games these days are all the same.
 

Taleweaver

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Is this another "i only know AAA productions, and therefore everything else doesn't count" threads?

I still see plenty of originality in indie titles and nowadays in board games. Granted : due to baby becoming a toddler I don't have as much time anymore, but I gave up on AAA i games a long time ago. I couldn't care less how much they rehash or who shouldn't be enjoying the result. It's their free time and their way to spend money. :)
 

appleburger

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You can share these woes across any media that's garnered mass appeal, imo. Movies, shows, games, and music are all affected by mass appeal, and eventually the nerdy niche group has to put in a little more work to find what actually suits them.

Same reason click bait became a thing on youtube, pop songs all sounding the same, hollywood films not taking risks, etc.

But, I think it's good for the industry, and even smaller groups of turbo nerds like us still get more out of it in the long run, I think. You just have to dig a little bit more to find them.

The majority of people just consume entertainment differently than those of us who are more passionate about it.
 

Ricken

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It's all up to taste. I'm stuck to my childhood favorites, but I like Stardew Valley because it reminds me of Ocarina of Time in a way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Caleck

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As far as the mainstream games go, yeah probably. They've been overrun by corporations pushing microtransactions and releasing their games completely broken. There are still big AAA games that are good, but overall there's less than there used to be.

However there is something to be said about today's rise in indie gaming and the great experiences we've gotten from it. Many of today's great indie titles likely wouldn't have survived in the climate of the 90s and 2000s. That's something to be appreciated in modern gaming.

I'm actually kinda looking forward to the future of the industry. It seems like more people are starting to take notice the shitty practices of massive corporations, so hopefully we manage to get through this phase.

-Edited to come across more clearly
 
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I'm too young to comment on the past but the way I see it is there are so many games targeting different audiences only a fraction of games made need to appeal to me. I do believe pay to win DLC, NFTs, amiibo and so on are fucking toxic though.
 
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ital

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Real problem is you're getting older. If you discovered gaming now you'd think all the stuff released today was mind blowing and everything from the 90's and 2000's is archaic.

I can see your POV. Its like how people stuck in the 70s used to say modern music is crap etc.. but there isn't so much a sweeping statement as I've tried new games and generally they suck. Everything is like everything else and shockingly lacking in character plus the underlying gameplay itself is very, very thin and repetitious.

That said I can't believe how much time I spent Pointing and Clicking back in the 90s. I tried some of those again and thought "This is what passed for entertainment? how desperate for distraction was I?" as I went through another "use this on that, no? OK, how about that? no? OK, how about that" alternating with clicking every single pixel on the screen. I mean WTF was all that about and thats before we get into the illogical puzzles and whatnot.
 

duwen

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Most of OP is valid if you only look at brand new triple 'A' content from NA/EU developers...
If you're like me and have virtually zero interest in any of that, preferring Indie titles, Japanese developed games, and a penchant for 'retro' gaming on original hardware and 'retro inspired' titles on current hardware, none of OP matters... and there's certainly no poll option to support that stance.
 
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