Ask yourself in 1998...

[ElectroJosh]

Throughout the nineties I loved gaming (98 being no exception) and everytime I played a great game I always knew there would a better experience around the corner. Around 98, when I finished High School, was when I got pickier about my entertainment - I had less time to listen to music, watch movies and play games (plus I was getting older).

If you told me I would be still loving RPGs - I wouldn't be surprised - If you told me that I would rebuy a lot of my favourite games from the 90s (downloaded from GOG) I would have been shocked - not at the fact I still love those games but because its faster to download them than it was to install them from discs (floppy or CD).

If you told me I would go off the RTS genre that would have shocked me.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I would probably say awesome platformers by Rare and awesome Star Wars space sims by LucasArts.

...

FFFFFFFFFFFUCK.

Goddamn it. Yes, I probably would have said Banjo-Threeie.

God fucking damn it.

 

[IronMit]

1998 me was like omg MGS is awesome..when's the sequel coming
2012 me still thinks MGS is awesome ..can't wait for the next one

I thought maybe we would have VR like in the x files episode where the NPC starts actually killing people lol

 

[Nazulu]

I remember I once imagined back when Starcraft first came out, an RTS game with really smooth 3D graphics and awesome mechanics that has bridges and buildings falling over realistically and heaps of options that allow you to do any thing, but I think that was inspired by SSB Melee.

Unfortunately, I hardly play RTS games any more since all the new games are so average. I'm playing classic games as well till something new is worth getting.

 

[Vault101]

1998: I'M GONNA HAVE A NINTENDO AND ITS GONNA BE AWSOME!!!

2012: yeeeeaaaaaahh.......about that...

 

[Charli]

Oh lord, I'd probably just expect me to be playing more Pokemon.

KID. POKEMON IS NOT THE END ALL BE ALL OF GAMES. PUT THE GAME BOY DOWN AND HERE'S A PC. YOU GONNA LEARN.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

What would you be playing in 2012?

For those old enough to remember gaming in the 90s what would you have predicted gaming would be like in the present day? I'd likely imagine some super virtual reality almost real life looking game...but I'm actually playing a PS1 game that came out in 1999 and enjoying it just as much as a new current gen game.

I actually just saved and quit a new game of Final Fantasy VIII! If I were to go back to about December 26th of 1998 and tell myself that Final Fantasy will be around in 2012 but it'll be absolute shit, I wouldn't want to believe me.

When I was younger though, I guess the thought of no longer using 'bits' to describe a system would have seemed weird. I wouldn't have expected Sega to have died off either since around late 98 (possibly) my uncle had imported a Dreamcast and I remember loving the thing for the few minutes he let me play with it.

EDIT!!!

(me from 1998) "Oh my God you guys, ya know what would be awesome?! If there was a Dragon Ball Z game! Just one man! I've been watching DBZ for Soooo long and just wanna finally see Super Saiyan Goku FINALLY beat up Frieza!! Why don't we have it yet!! My friend said that he saw on the internet that people have Dragon Ball Z games in Japan dammit!!"

(me now) "Dragon Ball Kinect...and I thought Sagas was the low point..."

 

[Sandjube]

I would probably say awesome platformers by Rare and awesome Star Wars space sims by LucasArts.

...

...now I has sad.

OT: I'd probably have just not realised that games would change from like, all being platformers on my Nintendo, to all being like, Modern Shooters...

...I miss you, Nintendo 64.

 

[mgirl]

I'd probably have assumed pokemon, new spyro, possibly crash bandicoot, and I guess the tomb raider games, since those were the games I loved as a kid. It's weird thinking about playing the first tomb raider game now, that was so long ago...

Also, my predictions would have been almost correct, apart from Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, and the fact that I play a lot more games now than I ever have.

 

[zxvcasdfqwerzxcv]

In 1998 I was loving Grim Fandango (it made a very good Christmas that year).

In 2012 the adventure game genre has been dead for years. With the exception of the efforts from Telltale Games.

 

[Eleuthera]

1998 Was a bit of a lull in gaming for me, I had just started university and was up to my eyeballs in coursework. I honestly can't remember what I would have been playing then, or thinking about playing now...

I think I might have been playing Half-Life, but no profetic visions came from that...

 

[likalaruku]

Back in 98, I'd play anything. No preferences for genre, & my friends had whatever consoles I didn't.

 

[TRex22]

In 1999 I was five. My sisters are much older and one was matriculating and the other was in uni. The only things I remember are video games and music. My father does not believe in teh value of consoles and so would only get me new pcs. I had to go to friends to play on their systems. I remember PS1 at a friends and need for speed 2. My sister's now husband gave me one of those gokarting clones. Even today I go back to those games (3d bug attack - alien invaders clone). I like emulation and so emulate PS1 PS2 and XBOX. My friends have kept all their old games. Last year in my schools library I brought a tekken emulation. Basically started a small tournament until we were making too much noise. New games are great but they take themselves too seriously. I played an arcade game call haunted mansion by capcom (i think) - been trying to find if there are any internet versions. It had one of those old school gun controllers.

I personally like both old and new games because I like messing with both old and new hardware and software. I have been messing with pcs since I was three - its an obsession. I remember in primary school I was playing around with my father's old amstrad 640k. I found a golf game which had truvoice. Inspired programming - fairly realistic voice for a time with pc speakers as soundcards.

The windows 95 stuff was the hardest to get to run because I had win3.1, DOS and then Win 98 ~XP and now 7~8. I would spend hours getting stuff to run and in comparison to new games today crashing it was more fun than Skyrim crashing today.

Sorry I was just reminiscing but I always knew Id be playing something. I have spent close to 30000 rand on computers and games as well as do odd jobs in exchange for pc parts. When I was much younger I never knew what was a good game, never read magazines or had a good enough internet connection here in South Africa to really get into gaming culture. It was a different time experimenting with old and new games. I missed some really big releases like Halo and Half-life but the fun was in experimentation of new games. Some of my most fondest memories are of the older games in my collection.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I was 6 in '98 so I either played Lego, rode my bike or painted the walls with paint I have no idea what I would say. When I was 8 I started playing solitaire on the computer, mum taught me.

 

[The_Echo]

I can't remember what I was like in '98. I turned five in '98. I may have only just begun playing video games.

But, if I were to ask... I'd probably say the same as it was at the time. Five-Year-Old Me probably wasn't much of a futuristic thinker. I probably also didn't know that gaming as I knew it had evolved from something simpler and had the capacity to go further.

 

[Veylon]

I would've figured that I'd be enjoying awesome future RPGs. I mean, the worlds just keep getting bigger and more intricate. Final Fantasy Tactics was the direction RPG gaming was headed in, right? Or at least Quest for Glory. Maybe some new X-COM sequel that simulates an entire world instead of just a city? The new millenium will be bright indeed if we can survive Y2K.

Peter Molyneaux is surely going to put all the lessons he learned from Syndicate and Populous into creating amazing new titles. Don't forget Daikatana's coming out soon! Romero won't let us down. And let's not forget Will Wright is still working the Sim franchise. After many SimCity sequels can we dare hope for a SimEarth 2? My magic eight-ball says Yes!

Ah. I had to wait for Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft before my vision of the future came into view. The 2000's were nearly a lost decade.

 

[HardkorSB]

What would you be playing in 2012?

For those old enough to remember gaming in the 90s what would you have predicted gaming would be like in the present day? I'd likely imagine some super virtual reality almost real life looking game...but I'm actually playing a PS1 game that came out in 1999 and enjoying it just as much as a new current gen game.

Well, virtual reality was dead at that point so I didn't think it was going anywhere.
in 98, I was playing Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2 and a shitload of multiplayer titles for the N64.
It was the 32 /64 bit era (back where bits were a thing still) so I would imagine we would be playing a 512/1024 bit consoles, hopefully with FF and RE titles that have AWESOME GRAPHICS and shit.
2012 comes and we do have that (although FF XIII plays itself now and RE 6 pisses me off with QTEs and stories even worse than in the 90's).

 

[Tallim]

I'd be playing similar stuff just with shinier graphics......unfortunately I didn't expect to be playing worse stuff with shinier graphics.....

heh I just realised I was 20 then...... wow