Games getting worse with every generation?

[Giygas]

For instance Bioshock. I played it as soon as I got my 360 expecting a true GotY, but when I finally beat it I realized I didn't have any real fun with it and was left with a bland, tedious taste in my mouth

The last games I can remember having real fun with where Shadow of the Colossus, Mother 3 and Okami (well, there are a bit more I've had fun with these last few years, but those reign high on the list)

Is it me or are games becoming more shallow and boring as with each generation? Real pieces of art that suck you in like SotC only come once in a blue moon and games like Halo 3 and Smash Bros will always be touted as the "more important" games by the masses

 

[Quietwulf]

I can appreciate the sentiment, yet I find myself wondering if the problem is deeper.

I've been gaming since around the age of 10. I'll by 30 this year. That's 20 years of gaming, across multiple platforms.

I assume I'm not the only one.

I suspect once you've been playing games for that kind of time frame that, like many things, your tastes begin to refine. We expect more and more from our games, because our experience gives us a huge breath of titles to compare with.

I wonder, if I put a 15 year old in front of bioshock what they'd think? Is it that the games are becoming less, or that our expectations of what a game should offer has grown.

Think about Doom or Quake by todays standards. How about the origial Dune. These titles birthed entire genres, yet by todays standards are grossly limited.

I agree it seems like the industry is less willing to take risks these days. With so much money at stake, I can understand why.

There are a few moments of brilliance to be found, if you search hard enough. Portal comes to mind. The brilliant games are out there, they're just getting harder to find in the mainstream.

 

[stinkypitz]

There is a lot of validity to your thinking. There are some very good newer games, but for every brilliant game there are hundreds of mediocre ones.

 

[ComradeJim270]

It may seem that way, but it's easy to lose sight of the fact that games are now catering to a wider audience than before. In order to do this, they neccessarily show a greater disparity in terms of quality than you may have noticed 5, or 10, or 15 years ago. On top of this, the technology we use to play games now offers much greater flexibility to developers. If you look at games from, say, the 8-bit era, you will likely notice a lot of similarities between most of the games, because some concepts were just too much for that hardware. Now, developers have much more freedom to make games deeper or more shallow, harder or easier, better or worse... and the contrast between one game and another can be far greater than was ever possible before.

I personally think that the perception that games are getting worse and worse, while understandable, is not really accurate. It's an illusion. The boundaries, so to speak, have expanded to the point where we can't really see everything within them all at once.

 

[Flangle]

Im only 13 years old and ive witnessed some of the classics. I agree, games of today are far too shallow and lack depth, Bioshock is a good example, its far too easy. The designers spent so much time getting the atmosphere and gameplay just right but its just so shallow. Yes, it is a good game but not one that kept me up all night, i miss the games like Goldeneye for the N64 or The Aprentice for the Amega. I miss them

 

[Sylocat]

The ratiio of good games to crappy games wasn't THAT much higher in the old generations, we just think it is because only the good ones survived till now.

 

[Giygas]

The ratiio of good games to crappy games wasn't THAT much higher in the old generations, we just think it is because only the good ones survived till now.

True, growing up you did see a crap-ton of games sports games or bland platformers for the Snes or Genesis. But my point is that the BIGGEST games have become absolutely shallow, as apposed fourth-party DS games you don't even notice exist

 

[ComradeJim270]

The ratiio of good games to crappy games wasn't THAT much higher in the old generations, we just think it is because only the good ones survived till now.

It may have been lower at some points. Pretty much anyone could develop for the Atari consoles... although the folks responsible for Custer's Revenge couldn't pull off E.T. and Pac-Man on the 2600 from their basements.

 

[ComradeJim270]

The ratiio of good games to crappy games wasn't THAT much higher in the old generations, we just think it is because only the good ones survived till now.

True, growing up you did see a crap-ton of games sports games or bland platformers for the Snes or Genesis. But my point is that the BIGGEST games have become absolutely shallow, as apposed fourth-party DS games you don't even notice exist

I still think it's all in your head. Not just yours, a lot of long-time gamers feel the same way. The quality of games hasn't changed, what has changed is the audience games are made for. As a result, what constitutes a 'good game' is much more ambiguous in this day and age. What this means is that individual gamers must now be more discerning when choosing what games to buy. The gaming media and the gaming industry used to have similar definitions of 'good games' and 'bad games', but as the esotericism surrounding video games started to disappear, their definitions became more broad to embrace the newcomers to the practice of playing video games, while a lot of us (long-time or 'hardcore' gamers) retained our old definitions.

 

[Terramax]

Fair enough, you didn't like Bioshock, but you liked Shadow of the Colossus and Okami. So you won't be playing a game you enjoy immensely all year round, but I'd say even 2-4 great games a year is good enough.

Just so long as you keep an eye on what games are receiving great scores for being great games and not because of hype, and you're staying away from EA games, you've nothing to worry about IMO.

Of course, you can always try going back to older games that you missed out the first time. A few months back I witnessed Sanitarium (1998) and it's probably up there in my top 10 fav games. I'm currently going back to old Dreamcast and Saturn games at the mo.

 

[Mr Wednesday]

Lordy, not this old argument.

Why is it every generation decides that it's on the edge of a wave of crap? Go back ten years, and there would be similar complaints. Ignoring some of the utterly, utterly brilliant games that have come out in the past year.

The orange box titles, for example.

 

[ZenMonkey47]

Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crud"

Now I haven't been alive particularly long, but one piece of wisdom that I've gained is that there's very rarely such a thing as the "good 'ol days". The problem with reminiscing is that for the most part we only remember the good (or so bad that they're a crime against humanity) games we played. I remember having good times with Super Mario Bros 3 (arguably the pinnacle of NES platformers), but I also remember that it was one of the few games on NES that I would actually consider playing today.

 

[shadow skill]

I don't really think so. I will say however that the Western market has become far too fixated on shooters, which despite all these years have remained as shallow as Doom was when it first came out. Though in the case of Doom it was truly one of the first of it's kind. I really think it is a genre saturation problem rather than games being worse overall.

 

[Easykill]

Christians always think we are on the edge of the apocalypse, gamers just fear for their hobby. Don't worry, it ain't happening. Bad games and disapointment have always been there, you just forgot.

 

[Chilango2]

80's: "Man, today's games suck. We were better off when we used text and were forced to use our imaginations. Gaming is doomed."

90's: "Man, today's games suck, we were much better off with the 2-D graphics of yesteryear. They were less physically demanding, and strangely, we were more forgiving of graphical faults on older systems. Technical brilliance just invites criticism. Gaming is doomed."

00's: "Man, today's games suck, etc etc."

 

[Singing Gremlin]

To be honest, I don't think there's that much basis in this argument. 15 here, been playing since Quake 2, and if you gave me a choice between dropping detbacks into the gaping cranium of the Nihilinth or saving the universe from the Geth... Mass effect wins. I guess its easy to become spoilt, but I figure its best not to expect anything from games and just enjoy it.

 

[ComradeJim270]

I'm surprised nobody's really commented on my little mini-essays on why this belief has become so prominent in recent years. Then again, nobody commented on my last not-so-mini essay on hype... am I too verbose?

 

[Giygas]

I'm surprised nobody's really commented on my little mini-essays on why this belief has become so prominent in recent years. Then again, nobody commented on my last not-so-mini essay on hype... am I too verbose?

Naw, I agree with you on some points. It's just personally I haven't been excited since the 360, Wii and PS3 generation started

Bad games being prominent in every generation? Nothing new, but am I as excited for GTA IV as I was San Andreas? Not at all

 

[Psychedeliasmith]

Well, I'm 29 and have gone from ancient Ataris through to the shiny newfangled jiggerypokery they churn out now and I think it's not the games that have become less interesting, but that I've become less interested in them to some extent. There are still things coming out that really impress me, but I'm actually quite grateful that I don't have the same addictive need to play them for hundreds of hours at once.

However, there's always been loads of naff games, but perhaps because now there is a far bigger history of games than there ever was, they now have some extraordinarily high standards to live up to.
That's not to say anyone should lower their expectations, but it helps to see why new games often seem to disappoint. So many are hyped and promoted for two, or even more, years before we get them - almost nothing can live up to that. Ten years ago games could be so much more surprising simply because we hadn't been saturated with teaser videos on Youtube for 18 months, and the global gaming community - and its influences and backlashes - didn't exist like this.