Are games in general getting worse or is that nostalgia talking?

[AdumbroDeus]

For every FF6 there was a final fantasy mystic quest, but since people play FF6 still and few people still play mystic quest, very few people remember the latter existed. This is why people believe that games were better in the past.

No, the reason why they think games where better in the past is because current days FFXIII was a complete mess and FF6 is still one of the best parts in the series. Also Chrono Trigger was released just a year later, so you had quite a few milestones in RPG genre around that time.

Essentially current day can't keep up with past expectations, you'd expect that in 15 years those old games would have been far surpassed by other technically more advanced games, but they haven't, those old games are still at the top of their genre. And while that doesn't mean all todays games are bad, it makes one kind of wonder what's wrong with todays way of developing games, when a ton of more money and development time leads to result that are not only not superior, but sometimes even vastly inferior to past experiences.

The thing is, the stuff in gaming that has improved over the years is mostly just facade, technical things like graphics, sounds and maybe the userinterface, but the underlying game mechanics haven't really changed half as much as the graphics would like you to believe and thus even old games can often keep up quite well when you can look past the technicalities.

Well understand that quality isn't consistent across genres, at certain points there is a major concentration in one genre or another just like in any other medium. Yet, adventure games is probably the best example of an ignored genre, while jrpgs aren't quite in their heyday anymore, they're just lower profile. The FF series might not be as universally cherished atm, but we still have amazing offerings from atlas for example.



But in general, you're correct, you will always see video games from a long time ago that can compare or far surpass video games from today. Morrowind is still the best elder scrolls game, and I doubt skyrim will take that crown. Even today, Toran's Passage or King's Quest 6 is an amazing adventure game. Why is this? Games are art, and while technical limitations mean that over time the tools we have to tell a story in a game improve, there will always be those games that were true giants of their time, and they will stand the test of time. Those are the games that people will remember even 50 years in the future.

 

[Kathinka]

there is definetely nostalgia involved, but i think there is much truth to it. at least for pc gaming.

the truly brilliant games are getting rarer. things like system shock 2, fallout 1&2, planscape torment, the first half life.

personally, i blame consoles. not console players mind you! not really your fault guys. at least not majorly. partially maybe for buying the stuff.
but nowadays every game has to run on the outdated console hardware, so we have technical stagnation. complexity is limited by the simple console controllers, so game play is becoming more and more dumbed down (like they ditched the upgrade system, the inventory and many things more from system shock 2 / bioshock, so it would be playable with a gamepad).
the list goes on and on and on..

 

[Manji187]

Depends on what your definition of "worse" is (what criteria you use) and what material you have selected for comparison.

 

[Evaheist666]

I'm in total agreement with how poorly single player is treated just to tack on a half-assed multiplayer mode in 99% of the games we see nowadays.

It's really not fair to say that this generation has degraded in comparison to last gen but I would defintiely say that current gen games haven't achieved as much as last gen. We've been stepping sideways all these years with just some faint hints of progress IMO. Sure the graphics look gorgeous in some games but as long as you don't have a narrative and gameplay glue then your cutting-edge graphics engine is good for nothing.

 

[grumbel]

personally, i blame consoles. not console players mind you! not really your fault guys. at least not majorly. partially maybe for buying the stuff.

I'd put it the other way around. The fault lies almost exclusively in the audience or if not there in the developers pandering to the mass market instead of targeting smaller niches. Current day consoles are a hell of a lot more powerful then the PCs on which system shock 2, fallout 1&2, planscape torment or the first half life ran. So hardware power really is not the problem, you can essentially do any game you want on a modern console, it might not be as pretty as on a high power PC, but it will be mechanically nearly identical.

Also console controllers have gotten a lot more complex over the years and really don't have a lack of buttons when it comes to 99% of the games out there. Take Tie-Fighter, reasonably complex PC game, yet you can map essentially every single function of that game to a console controller:

https://github.com/Grumbel/xboxdrv/blob/master/examples/tiefighter.xboxdrv

And the game plays perfectly fine. Or take Operation Flashpoint, again reasonably complex game, yet the Xbox1 port Operation Flashpoint: Elite was absolutely fantastic and played great with a controller.

And all of that is not even considering the ability to plug in a USB keyboard into the console or a Chatpad into the PS3 or Xbox360 controller. Also the Wii U is coming and that controller allows even more complexity then you ever had in an average PC game. Of course I don't expect those games to actually happen, as the console audience is still the console audience, but it certainly is possible if somebody actually cared.

(like they ditched the upgrade system, the inventory and many things more from system shock 2 / bioshock, so it would be playable with a gamepad).

Except of cause that upgrade systems and inventory have absolutely nothing to do with controllers. Plenty of games handled them just fine. It is a game design decision of simplifying the game for console audiences, not a necessarily for console hardware.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It depends, for how small the amount of games that I buy and play each year, there are plenty of great new and sort of new games to choose from to keep me busy. The only way I might find myself in a bad game rut is if I was wealthy enough to buy whatever games I wanted to play whenever I wanted.

Holy Crap! that more games that I thought. Im talking more about games that EA are pushing like Biowares games. Even bioware didn't like how dragon age 2 came out, they said they had to release it because of EA crazy deadlines. I mean they have already announced Mass effect 3! ME2 is still new. there should not be a new ME for a few more years at least.

Considering the slated release date for Mass Effect 3, ME2 will be a little over two years old, so I feel fine that BioWare already announced when ME3 will be coming out.

Granted that BioWare only had a year to create Dragon Age 2, which for me only had minor flaws and was a phenomenal game, I have confidence that ME3 with an at least 2 year development cycle will be amazing.

I don't have problems with development cycles on most games; I believe they have gotten shorter not just because of publisher presser, but development teams have gotten much much bigger compared to back in the day, which even with the more complex nature of designing games these days, lets them create games faster.

If I had the power to impose a mandatory minimum development cycle for new games, I would make it a minimum of 2 years, even for games franchises like Call of Duty. I just find it silly how many COD games are around now, and how similar they are all to each other. From what I hear, COD story modes are pretty underwhelming, so extra development time could go a long way in making a game that has both great single player and multiplayer.

 

[PekoponTAS]

Hmm. It's hard to say either way. There have been a LOT of great games recently. If you were to ask me, I'd say 2006 and 2010 were the two best years in gaming ever. I think a decent sized chunk of it genuinely is nostalgia. I often think that if I were to have grown up on the amazing games from 2006-present, I'd love them just as much as I do my favourites from 1985-2005. I think Yahtzee said it pretty accurately when he said...

"The potential for a game has only increased over time."

I for one completely agree with that. In my eyes, the games themselves haven't gotten any worse or generic. After all, the SNES/Genesis days were really no different in some ways. Just as today is filled with generic shooters about people in robot suits, the 16bit days were filled with just as many generic 2D platformers usually centering around anthropomorphic animals with "attitude".

 

[Byere]

I have to lean that way myself. This is the big problem though. Games are stagnating and consolidating at every level. Not only have entire genres disappeared but those that remain are gravitating towards a few games and copying the core elements/feels from them under a new title.

Think about it, when is the last time you played a star fighter simulator like wing commander? They don't exist any more, the closest we have is ONE level in Halo Reach from the current generation of games. And those games were absolutely a blast. I don't know how many of you played the first Descent: Freespace but that is a great example of how that genre could deliver great game play and an impressive, engaging and genuine awe inspiring story without ever leaving the cockpit. Now...nothing...it's gone.

Another good example is Sim City, when was the last time something even remotely close like that came out from a big publisher? Roller Coaster Tycoon is another good example. Now...nothing.

Nostalgia is a big factor in why a lot of us think games are getting worse but it's not for the reasons you think. Yes it is in part because we have great memories of enjoying them in our younger years. And we keep replaying them, in part because of that. But we have to keep replaying them if we want to get the same experience because a lot of the game types we used to enjoy just aren't being created any more.

I know what you mean. Gaming as a whole is just spiraling downwards because no new blood is being added to the corpse, so to speak...

In response to your questions,
*Last star fighter game I played that I found good... Freelancer. Though it's not a personal fave genre, I do like the Ace Combat games if we're talking general "aerial" combat sims.
*Last fun "Sim" game, Theme Hospital. Again, not a fave genre of mine, but Theme Hospital and Theme Park are the only 2 of the genre that ever really interested me.