Rampant Games - Not So Jaded After All

Couchpotato

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Rampant Coyote has posted a new article on his webpage. It deals with a problem many of us have, and explains how in the end he is not so jaded after all.
In recent years, I would sometimes worry that the simply joy I used to experience of being completely absorbed by a game for hours at a time – even a “dumb” arcade-style shooter – was something that wasn’t possible anymore.I’d play top console games – the kind that I believe that, as a kid, I would have played obsessively for hours on end. And they just aren’t thrilling me. Maybe it was because I was now a jaded ol’ game developer. I have a tough time playing a game without a critical, analytical eye. Sometimes I wonder if my experience makes that old joy just something I can only experience through memory and nostalgia.

Has anybody else ever feel that way? The games of today just not doing it for you anymore? And you wonder, “Is it them, or is something wrong with me?” Are those years of latent guilt poisoning the well? If anybody suggested I’d “outgrown” games I’d probably feel inclined to punch them. No way – I still loved games, I still appreciated them, I just had doubts as to whether or not I could be as completely absorbed by a game as I once was.

Fortunately, over the last couple of years, I have found I don’t really have to worry about that anymore. I keep discovering that I’m still as much a sucker for a good game as I ever was. It really was them, not me. And once again I have to fight feelings of guilt as I realize my quick twenty-minute trial turned into three whole hours.
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I'm pretty sure it's the games, they almost all just suck. I've had some of the same feelings lately, am I just getting old and my interests are drifting or are the games just not that interesting anymore?

Maybe a little of both but I think it's mostly the games just haven't been that good lately. New Vegas was good, Risen was ok and I still enjoy those old classics but I've just played them to death.

I can't wait for Wasteland, Project Eternity & Torment to come out...
 
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When it comes to mainstream AAA tiles, for over the last 10 years, each new game within its genre are very 'samey' with only occasional exceptions.

Like the movie industry's endless honeymoon with CGI at the expense of anything remotely considered a good story, the videogame industry has focused heavily on graphics (and to a lesser degree physics) at the expense of gameplay.

The result has been 'samey' games with better textures and whatnot.

This is why I'm so excited about the concept and success of kickstarter (at least so far) because it seems like there is a light at the end of this long dark tunnel we've been stuck in for a long time. A lot of new gameplay that defies genres along with a focus on 'old school' gameplay that at last appears to be undergoing a renaissance with updated technology.
 
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The industry became like the one in Jodorowsky's Technopriests.
Most of games are released after 50 idiots tested them and the only stuff those idiots like can go to the market.
If sales are poor, there is no inquisitor to kill salesmen, but soon we'll probably see that too.
 
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The new games are more stupid, generic, unoriginal which makes them unengaging to creative people, who always expect something new and abhor mouldy content. That's why indie games have a chance to bring back Thinking Man's games.
 
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I've experienced gaming droughts from time to time, but I can't really say that the overall game quality has decreased over the years. The likes of Skyrim, New Vegas and Dragon Age are as good as it gets. There was a five year period around 1996-2001 or maybe 1997-2002 where we got more high quality games than usual, but those years were the exception, not the rule.
 
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I played the Giana Sisters game demo on the RPC.

What a blast ! I felt 20 years younger ! All of that old feeling of "sheer fun" was there again ! :)

So, I mnotice : It is still possible.

Only, that games aren't so much "simple fun" oriented anymore.

They are more oriented into bringing profits - or to cater a certain crowd - but the "fun factor" gets lost. It shows how moch "profitized" they are. And how much optimized towards certain kinds of players.

The Giana Sisters game - everythings just there (okay, I'm biased, I admit it :lol: ) : The sheer fun, the colourfulness of games 20 years ago, the challenge while being easy to control … I was in heaven … ;)

Why is it seemingly so difficult for developers nowadays to build in the sheer "fun factor" into games nowadays ?

Have the players changed ?

Do the big publishers tell them to build in different things instead ?

I really don't know. I only see that games which are simply "fun" still exist today - but there are so few of them left today …
 
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"And once again I have to fight feelings of guilt as I realize my quick twenty-minute trial turned into three whole hours."

This still happens to me but quite rarely, because I'm much pickier about what I spend my gaming time now. End up doing lots of research before I buy something - years ago, I'd pick up anything new in the PC RPG/TBS area.

A combination of not having those endless hours anymore and less patience for mediocre crap I guess.
 
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