Gaming today vs gaming 'back then'.

[TOGSolid]

I absolutely had more fun back then, but the variety of games coming out in those days was a lot better. I think we're starting to see a resurgence in bringing back the concepts from the glory days though. I dunno, I think now that the 'gee whiz' aspects of next gen gaming are finally losing their luster and the technology has become so commonplace, developers are starting to get their asses in gear and finally start putting out some solid titles.

 

[NickCaligo42]

It's more than just "trying to be innovative and unique" versus "trying to be safe." Game designers back then were more competent. They were designers from the world of tabletop gaming and toy-making who got into trying to translate their skills to the digital medium, so when they designed games, they actually designed games. Today the people who have their positions are generation-X-ers who at the very best were fans of their work and at the very worst just sort of lucked into their jobs without any real qualifications and stayed there because it was a sweet gig. You have NO IDEA how many creative directors are like this, having got into major companies during times when they were fairly unstable and quickly risen to the top on little more than a single map in Unreal Tournament. They're overly accepting of the industry's successes and not nearly critical or analytical enough to understand why they work, so they coin ideas and terms like "Diablo-style RPG," attempt to copy old games' formulae, and completely miss most of the stuff that actually makes the game enjoyable. They can produce games, and there's something to be said for that skill, but their understanding of storytelling and gameplay is immensely oversimplified because they tend not to have had any experience with either outside of making video games. In the case of those guys who just sort of lucked into their jobs they didn't actually have that much of an interest in gaming in the first place apart from one or two genres and will tend to flat-out ignore anything outside their personal tastes, which incidentally tend to be very similar. The exception is that they sit up and take notice of what's making the most money. This isn't to say that they don't have good ideas or contributions to the world of gaming or that there aren't exceptions--whoever's in charge of Rocksteady and Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood) seem to know what they're doing very well, but most of the time the modern designer just abdicates their thought process to an older IP.

As for the concept of fun and humor... yeah, I know where you're coming from there. I attribute it to two things. First: gaming has aged with the core audience that it found in the 90's. When games like Final Fantasy 7 originally wowed us with how "serious" a game's story could get (and Final Fantasy 7 was goofy as all heck), they assumed that this is what we wanted and have switched to this form of writing full-force. Second: gaming is, at this time, struggling to be taken seriously when it seriously doesn't need to. Most of the "contributions" I spoke of tend to be philosophy borrowed from filmmaking and observations about the divide between gameplay and reality and how best to conceal it in the interest of games being taken more seriously as an art form. It's contradictory, because the same people who'll harp about "immersion" will also admit openly that they never expect games to be taken that seriously at all and believe that storytelling in games is a waste of time, usually for stupid reasons like "movies contain two hours worth of content at most, and games are ten times longer, and I don't think anyone can take in 20 hours worth of story, so we're not going to try that hard."

Yeah... I don't have a lot of trust for the authority of the modern game developer these days...

 

[Rooster893]

I've always had more fun back then. It was simple and fun. Have you ever played the game Frog on the atari?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Ahem *cue Yorkshire accent*

Back in my day, playing a game meant summat, it meant you were a gamer,aye.

Back in mah day, this was all 1s and 0s. If we had to play a game, we'd play Solitaire and like it. None of those fancy mice either, we had to do it with paper cards.

 

[Blow_Pop]

i have more fun now just because i can play a wider variety of games now as opposed to childhood. no one objects to things being bloody.............

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I think I enjoyed older games when I was younger because they challenged me more. I find new games to be very easy (at least SP wise). Obviously there are exceptions. Even going back and playing old Snes or prior games I find to be more challenging than picking up the latest Xbox title.
Also obviously there is nostalgia and we always hold a soft spot for the things we first enjoy. Be it games or whatever.

 

[Cybersiren13]

The good ole' days were the best. I miss playing questing and melee/multiplayer games when I was in middle school and high school. I usually don't have time for it now because of college but I'm trying to get back into it as much as possible now that I got an Xbox 360 for Christmas.

 

[pulse2]

Yeah, I agree with the point that games have definatly improved over the years for the better, but it depends on the interpretation of better I suppose. I love gaming still, but unlike before, (unless on wii) its mainly me, on my own, playing on my 360 or PS3 with a mic chatting to mates, while back then, it was all of us crowded round a small tv shouting and laughing for a silly game like Lego Racers. By today's standards, Lego Racers doesn't come close to modern day racers in terms of graphics etc etc, but it sure was a highlight of my youth. My bro and I played everything, we had stacks of games like nobody's business, from Sled Storm to Frogger, and we enjoyed playing them all.

My PS3 and 360 game collection isn't as big, partially because when a game is crap today, it certainly is crap, I tend to sway towards games I can actually play against or with my mates on and games are expensive, you can't just pick up rare and silly colourful games in the bargain bin any more I remember walking into GAME back in the day and picking up 10 games for £10, I'd be lucky if I could get that today.

I loved Crash Bandicoot and spyro rip offs, Croc, Gex, King Ridley or something or another, they were all colourful, silly and enjoyable. I think developers had more fun back then as well, things were more about having fun rather then business, what will make big, what will make flop, flops today = bankruptcy eg, Free Radical. Tomb Raider for example was fun back then, its dying a hard death today, unlike Tomb Raider 1-3, I have to literally convince myself to by a TR game, 'legend' being the last enjoyable one.

Nazz3, yeah, it was serious plot wise, but you could MAKE the fun, you spent more time running around and causing havoc then playing seriously. MGS4, there was fun to be had, but I felt as though it was constrained fun.

 

[Super Offical]

Much harder and unforgiving back. Now its much easier because of casual gaming.

 

[Internet Kraken]

I used to only play a few games exclusively back in the old days because I could easily say "these ones are the most fun". Now I have so many different equally good games I don't know which to play.

In my opinion, gaming today is vastly superior to gaming in the past. There is now a much larger variety of well designed games, capable of satisfying my craving to play any genre I can imagine. Plus there is still plenty of creativity that so many people here seem to be fond of in the indie market. It's also much easier for me to acquire new games and continue playing them thanks to digital distribution. Everything about gaming has improved to me, and I really don't see how people can think otherwise. It just seems like blind nostalgia.

Plus if I want to play an old game I can just fire up my old consoles or find an emulator of it online. It's not like all of these old games have suddenly vanished.

 

[pulse2]

I used to only play a few games exclusively back in the old days because I could easily say "these ones are the most fun". Now I have so many different equally good games I don't know which to play.

In my opinion, gaming today is vastly superior to gaming in the past. There is now a much larger variety of well designed games, capable of satisfying my craving to play any genre I can imagine. Plus there is still plenty of creativity that so many people here seem to be fond of in the indie market. It's also much easier for me to acquire new games and continue playing them thanks to digital distribution. Everything about gaming has improved to me, and I really don't see how people can think otherwise. It just seems like blind nostalgia.

Plus if I want to play an old game I can just fire up my old consoles or find an emulator of it online. It's not like all of these old games have suddenly vanished.

I don't think it's so much the games themselves because its obvious that games today offer so much more benefits, but instead, the experience had with the games of today as opposed to how you experienced them back then.