Why modern gaming sucks (according to the Escapist)

[waywardOne]

yes there were consoles but Pitfall hardly counts as an RPG. consoles were just ugly replicators of the twitch games found in arcades with 100 variants of Space Invaders, Dig Dug, and Asteroids.

even what are fondly remembered of as RPGs on consoles were pretty much the same thing as RPGs on consoles now: lots of combat interspersed with inconsequential dialog interviews.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Go read the Ultima 8 reviews from when the game came out. Seriously, go read them. Then tell me it was much like now.

Whoa, one counterexample, guess I'm wrong now

Yeah, I remember U8 getting panned for the jumping puzzles on PC Gamer magazine. I still have it around, I think. The same magazine also included a 3 page article praising it for being another fine addition to the franchise. The bitching was relegated to a small box in the corner.

Things were different. Internet reviews changed everything.

Reviewers back then weren't immune to brandnames and bribes. The internet is just a more efficient medium for spreading bullshit.

 

[Sick Bum]

Go read the Ultima 8 reviews from when the game came out. Seriously, go read them. Then tell me it was much like now.

Whoa, one counterexample, guess I'm wrong now

Yeah, I remember U8 getting panned for the jumping puzzles on PC Gamer magazine. I still have it around, I think. The same magazine also included a 3 page article praising it for being another fine addition to the franchise. The bitching was relegated to a small box in the corner.

Things were different. Internet reviews changed everything.

Reviewers back then weren't immune to brandnames and bribes. The internet is just a more efficient medium for spreading bullshit.

When ITZ comes and burning phosphate tears through my back I will look back to this time and miss it only due to nostalgia.
Herp derp de derp.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Your argument goes on the nurture versus nature lines, but the problem here is that not only has this argument been disproven about a million times when it comes to intelligence,

It's not nature vs. nurture. It's basically - a guy makes a promising game (which isn't great yet, it merely promises the future greatness - each Rebel Star game was in fact a single scenario) and suddenly discovers that some people actually want to give him money for playing that game. Then he makes a next game that is somewhat more complicated and again receives money for it (Laser Squad had originally three scenarios. It had two expansion packs, 2 scenarios each.)
X-Com exists only because when Julian Gollop took a demo of Laser Squad 2 to Microprose, they demanded a strategic layer because Civilization was a great success.

but that it goes against your original post completely since it's well known to everyone but you most game devs these days started off as modders.

And how many of them are independent developers? Don't they continue the same thing that they were doing as modders - working on games of big developers? How many of them actually have a vision?

The people making dumb ass mods today will never in a million years make a game like xcom because they are just too stupid. Maybe a few of those guys are as great as julian gop but for the vast majority they will never make anything remotely palatable to people who have a brain.

We don't need the 5000 of talentless hacks that make dumb ass mods. We just need these few. But what if these few are the ones that don't make it into the industry, because for example, they create some interesting mechanics and keep refining and testing them without end because they don't actually have any reasons to release a mod?
What if they work on a great mod and actually assemble a team with some talented people and then quit the internets when they finish school and get a serious job because no one is going to pay them for modding? Or actually finish a single good/great project and simply quit for the same reasons?

The difference between modding and actually making a game is that making games gives money which gives a good reason to actually finish and release ones work. And a lot of great devs happened to deliver their first game in about a year and get paid for it.

 

[BLOBERT]

LOLLOLLOLLOLLOOL AT THE CRYCUNT FEST LOLLOLLOL I JUST PLAYED ULTIMA 4 FOR A FEW HOURS WHILE ALL THE HARDCORE FAGS HERE PLAYED DRAGON AGRE FOR THE FIFTHTEENTH TIME LOLLOLLOLOL JUST SO THEY COULD TALK TRASH ABOUT IT

BROS HERE IS SOME SOUPER ADVICE BAD GAMES ONLY COME OUT RIGHT NOW SO TEN YEARS FROM NOW THOSE GAMES ARE ALLOWED TO GET BETTER I KNOW THE ANGER IS HARD AND IT IS TOUGH NOT TO LIKE ANY NEW GAMES NOW BUT JUST THINK HOW HARDCVORE YOU WILL BE IN TEN YEARS WHEN YOU POST LOOLLLKOLLOL POPAMILE FAGS DRAGONAGE WAS HARDC ORE

BROS GROING UP IN THE EIGHTIES ALL THE GAMES WERE GREAT IN FACT I THINK THERE WERE QUITE A GFEW NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS WHO MADE GAMES IN THERE SPARE TIME

BROS LOLLOLLO I AGREE ABOUT CONSOLES RUINGING IT ALL WHEN I WAS FOUR AND I GOTR AN INTELLIVISION IO COULD TELL GAMING WAS GOING TO SHIUT THE CONSOLES RUINED IT ALL

IN FACT I THINK AFTER FALLOUT AND PST MADE IT BIG ATARTI GLUTTED THE MARIKED WITH ET CARTRIGFDES AND THAT WAS THE START OF CONSOLETARDS

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS COME TOP THINK OF IT I DONT EVEN THINK NINTENDO WAS A CORPORATION I THINK IT WAS JEFF NINTENDO WHJO MADE ALL THE ORIGINAL GAMES LIKE ZELDDA AND STUFF IN AN EARLY INTERVIEW HE WAS QUOTED AS SATYING THAT HE WANTED TO MAKE REALLY STUPID GAMES BECAUISE HE WAS EVIL AND HIS EVIL MARKETING GENIUS WOULD MAKE STUPID PEOPLE TAKE OVER VIDEOGAMES FROM THE HALLS OF IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLLLS S LOL.LOLOLLOLLLOL

 

[Sick Bum]

Blobert you are right, as usual. I got a little carried away holding up Julian Gop as a kind of ubermensch but I think the same basic principal applies.

It's easier but more time consuming to make games. Game makers are lower and lower quality until it's like movies or ad execs where the people coming up with ideas are little bitch boys with no education or skills to speak of who can be thrown out in a heartbeat if they don't perform, and by perform of course I mean make big numbers.

Everything in games is driven towards having a product thrown together very fast, which is why things like complex UI or complicated game elements are disappearing. Not because people don't want them or even because they cost money, but they take time. Companies want to decide what is 'hot', market the shit out of it for a year and immediately release the game.

So that means any really complex gameplay or user interface has to be ditched. Minigames can be thrown in or taken out on the fly without affecting anything else, so suddenly we get every game with some god damned retarded mini game shit.

And there you have it. Game designers who at best are some dickwad who posts on the internet all day and at worst is some office bitchboy, minigames out the ass, crossmarketing as closely as possible to movies or books or other games including competitors. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!

 

[Trash]

Modern gaming is what it is because it went from a fringe hobby to an industry. The article does however neglect that there still is a very valid market for niche games with lower production budgets. Just look at the sizeable indie and wargames market for example.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS PART OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE JUST SEEMS WHINY

HIS POINT IS YEAH THEY MAKE GAMES LIKE I LIKE BUT THEY ARE LOWER BUDGET SHIT I DESERVE A LITTLE BLOOM AAND PATRICK STEWART ALSO!!!!!!

 

[Sceptic]

Whoa, one counterexample, guess I'm wrong now

Sigh.

Might and Magic II (NWC, sequel to a praised game), Rings of Zilfin (SSI, king of the hill at the time), Magic Candle 2 (not really bashed, but noted as not as good as the first one), some of the latter Gold Box games depending on the magazine... and those are the ones I can remember 20 years later. Oh and I never considered PC Gamer to be that reliable, it was more prone to hype than others.

Reviewers back then weren't immune to brandnames and bribes. The internet is just a more efficient medium for spreading bullshit.

Of course they weren't, but their livelihood wasn't so closely tied to publishers' whim. Publishers couldn't afford to retract their ads from a big publication, even if the publication bashed their game. The advent of the internet also introduced the expectation for day 1 reviews, as well as ANYONE calling himself a "game journalist". So you get reviews written by morons who have played the game for 30 minutes AND who are getting an all-expense paid trip to some hotel somewhere.

 

[Trash]

So you get reviews written by morons who have played the game for 30 minutes AND who are getting an all-expense paid trip to some hotel somewhere.

There is a horrid Dutch gameshow aimed at what must be pre-teens which makes a habit of showing off at least one of their awesome pr trip they went on per episode. WW2 reenactment? Check. Diving with sharks? Check. Fully paid concert with well known bands? Check. Partying in the Tokyo nightlife with and all fully paid by a pr dude? Check. It's fucking sickening.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

So you get reviews written by morons who have played the game for 30 minutes AND who are getting an all-expense paid trip to some hotel somewhere.

Goes with today's 4-hour-long games, then

 

[Rogue]

And for where the money goes, it goes to graphics

Good, I never liked where the post-Fallout/Baldur's Gate game graphics went. Now there's more ammunition against them.

I agree completely. Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1&2, Red Alert 1 etc. is fine. I don't really want more from graphics. I mean it's supposed to be a game, so what's wrong with using your imagination?

P.S.
I think that developers should really decide where to draw the line. I recently played Alan Wake and I was thinking "why the hell did they spend 5+ years making this crap"? After briefly checking out several segments of the bonus disc, I found out that they investigated certain motels in the US to find out how to model light switches, to make the experience authentic. And that they paid special attention to get the constellations just right, so that the stars would not be out of place at night. I mean who the fuck, besides top astronomers, who don't even play games, will check where the stars are in a goddamn shooter game, in which you don't even look at the sky??? I mean you might as well just burn the money. Make the sky black and spend those manhours developing a second game. FFS.

 

[zeitgeist]

After briefly checking out several segments of the bonus disc, I found out that they investigated certain motels in the US to find out how to model light switches, to make the experience authentic. And that they paid special attention to get the constellations just right, so that the stars would not be out of place at night. I mean who the fuck, besides top astronomers, who don't even play games, will check where the stars are in a goddamn shooter game, in which you don't even look at the sky??? I mean you might as well just burn the money. Make the sky black and spend those manhours developing a second game. FFS.

I think I commented on this in one of the recent threads, this is what you get when you have this huge machinery set in motion and you have all these huge budgets that you can justify any way you want to. It's a perfect vehicle for unabashed nepotism. This is also done in the movie industry (especially international co-productions), if you have friends, relatives, prospective business partners or anyone at all who can benefit from the budget (and return the favor in some way), you can give them a completely superfluous role in the project. No one needs those roles, of course, but the money is there due to the state of the industry, and all those people need to finance their lifestyles somehow.

 

[Zomg]

I dunno how endemic dumb shit like that is in general but it's a well-known salesman trick that you can toss minor shit onto large purchases easily. So marks end up spending a few extra hundred bucks on a car to get dumb options they'd never spend that money on separately, since it's only maybe 1-2% of their total purchase and that short circuits their ability to valuate normally.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

jeff nintendo is my favourite game designer.

 

[Sceptic]

So you get reviews written by morons who have played the game for 30 minutes AND who are getting an all-expense paid trip to some hotel somewhere.

Goes with today's 4-hour-long games, then

Well played good sir.

 

[Jaesun]

Newsflash, modern gaming sucks.

pic.jpg

 

[racofer]

Saving the thread:

 

[Destroid]

Modern Grey Knight designs are ugly, 2nd edition is superior.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

And for where the money goes, it goes to graphics

Good, I never liked where the post-Fallout/Baldur's Gate game graphics went. Now there's more ammunition against them.

I agree completely. Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1&2, Red Alert 1 etc. is fine. I don't really want more from graphics. I mean it's supposed to be a game, so what's wrong with using your imagination?

It's not even like these games actually required using imagination. Baldur's Gate and Fallout basically reached a very satisfying graphics style which needed only upgrading screen resolution. The same with Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

 

[DraQ]

And for where the money goes, it goes to graphics

Good, I never liked where the post-Fallout/Baldur's Gate game graphics went. Now there's more ammunition against them.

I agree completely. Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1&2, Red Alert 1 etc. is fine. I don't really want more from graphics. I mean it's supposed to be a game, so what's wrong with using your imagination?

It's not even like these games actually required using imagination. Baldur's Gate and Fallout basically reached a very satisfying graphics style which needed only upgrading screen resolution. The same with Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

Fallout, IE games, etc. do look good, but upping resoultion also requires upping the detail, or you'll end up with Arcanum. Making games this way also fails to utilize extra processing power and potential for better mechanics (not that going 3D automatically improves the mechanics, mind you, but it does open opportunities), while straining the memory.
Finally, every person remembering clicking furiously for out-of-sight doors in IE, or scanning the walls for obscured loot should welcome the transition to 3D (or reverting to overhead).

Of course, improving graphics beyond functionality and basic aesthetics as main focus of development yields obvious results and they aren't pretty (pun fully intended).

 

[Alex]

Sorry DraQ, but I have to disagree. All of your arguments can be fixed without using 3D graphics. except maybe the mechanics argument, but then again I am not really sure what you are talking about there...

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Sorry DraQ, but I have to disagree. All of your arguments can be fixed without using 3D graphics. except maybe the mechanics argument, but then again I am not really sure what you are talking about there...

 

[zeitgeist]

Finally, every person remembering clicking furiously for out-of-sight doors in IE, or scanning the walls for obscured loot should welcome the transition to 3D (or reverting to overhead).

This can be solved easily by implementing a "highlight loot/exits" function, similar to the highlighting of loot in Diablo or that object/exit highlighting that all adventure games seem to do nowadays to avoid pixel hunting (and remove most of the fun in the process).

 

[Exmit]

in 90's there was no forums to whine about games and everyone enjoyed their games ,
now everyone sits on forumz and complain