Have we become spoiled game players?

[Negatempest]

Each time a new console launches I here, "Day 1 games suck", "games worked better in the past", "There weren't as many bugs", etc. I am sure you guys can add in a few of your own. So, to keep from making this a long post, which is easy to do, I'll keep my opinion as short as possible.

Yes, as a 24 year old gamer myself I believe we are spoiled. Raised with the NES and blowing into the cartridge kinda gave me a little more patience and empathy for a video game. Considering that the "american" version of the NES was a far more of an inferior model to the Japanese one, we still view it with admiration. Bugs are as persistent now as they were in the past. Some video games in the past were made half complete, I really don't think I need to list them most of use know them by heart, as any game today maybe even less.

I, in no way say that you should forgive games today or look at video games more tenderly. I am just saying we are spoiled, that is all.

So what is your own opinion? Could I be crazy? Are we spoiled? Are our wants/needs too little, too much?

 

[Valdus]

Old games didn't require you to pay extra to get content that was meant to be in it in the first place. Old games didn't require you to go through DRM. Old games weren't just reharshes of even older games with a differnt label slapped on it.

No I don't think we're spoiled. The gaming community is pretty vocal, but alot of our complaints are legit. And well...gamers are growing up. As a kid I could be fascinated by anything - but as an adult you would actually have to give me somthing that's amazeming before I'll say "That's amazing!"

 

[Bags159]

Why shouldn't I expect a game to function on its release date? Obviously you can't expect all bugs to be fixed, but most should be.

 

[Frotality]

yes, damnit.

even a shitty game back in the day motivated me to beat it if only for pride's sake; with all the hand-holding gameplay and linear cutscene filled level design today im seeing a alot of gamers who wont give anything that doesnt let you effortlessly kill 20 things in the first 10 minutes a chance.

this is to be expected of course. same thing happened with movies; very few people i know can even sit through 2001: A Space Odyssey, despite it being heralded as one of if not THE greatest work of sci-fi and my favorite movie of all time; theyve all been spoiled by michael bay's bullshit, just like weve been spoiled by CoD's, Halo's, GoW'S bullshit.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Considering that the "american" version of the NES was a far more of an inferior model to the Japanese one, we still view it with admiration.

I've heard that before, in what way was the American NES inferior?

 

[godofallu]

Idk I can remember when XBL first came out every game had FREE map packs. Remember Return to castle wolfenstein or halo 2 or counter strike ect ect ect?

Now every update on XBL costs money.

So there is a counter point.

 

[Vern5]

I think the spoiled attitude goes far beyond gamers. The western world is gripped by an entitlement culture that has literally paralyzed every aspect of it's societies.

This is the tragedy of the American Dream and the dreams of many other nations. Taking an objective look at the development of the western world yields a sad story of corruption and stagnation.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Hell, you could make the case that such a huge industry devoted to basically doing nothing is a sign of a decadent and spoiled society. Moreso when everyone is whining and bitching about it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

As a 29 year old gamer, I have only two words for this: "Ya think?" ¬___¬

 

[psicat]

Old games didn't require you to pay extra to get content that was meant to be in it in the first place. Old games didn't require you to go through DRM. Old games weren't just reharshes of even older games with a differnt label slapped on it.

No I don't think we're spoiled. The gaming community is pretty vocal, but alot of our complaints are legit. And well...gamers are growing up. As a kid I could be fascinated by anything - but as an adult you would actually have to give me somthing that's amazeming before I'll say "That's amazing!"

Ah, but games haven't changed since the old days, yet gamers have, getting more vocal and demanding. Leaving out innovations in technology, and DRM, which bugs me to. I've played old games and new, and don't see much of a difference. Games where good and bad then to, games where occasionally unpolished and buggy at release dates then to. Troika Games where and still are some of my favorites yet bug-ridden messes when first released. And, there are only so many game and story archetype variations so everything is to a certain extent a rehash of something else. Hell even prices haven't changed much my parents would pay $30 to $60 for NES games, and now I pay pretty much the same price for DS, PC, PS3 games. So the only major change is in gamers becoming a somewhat self entitled bunch.

 

[Skizle]

We have been so used to game companies giving us so much so that we would buy their games. Now it seems like whenever something in a game is taken away from us it MAKE US SOOO ANGRY that we constantly forget that companies do these things a favor. Look at MW2 for the PC when they announced that it wouldn't have dedicated server support. People raged like none other, yet most of them still bought it. As a console to PC game I only had one responce: Lock your Pc away for 2 years, grab a Ps3 or Xbox 360 and play that and be thankful for what you used to have.

 

[anthony87]

Hell just look at the reaction from most of the people on the thread about the Mass Effect 2 giveaway. It shocked me that so many people were able to find fault with a free game and manage to complain...

 

[Negatempest]

Considering that the "american" version of the NES was a far more of an inferior model to the Japanese one, we still view it with admiration.

I've heard that before, in what way was the American NES inferior?

You don't know? The one in japan was a top loader. This prevented the need to always "reset" the console to make it work. Also because of the way the "american" version hardware was build, the loader part would slightly bend the games cartridge (the name alludes me right now), thus you would slowly but surely damage your games each time you tried to play a game. No different than the problems we have now with current consoles. "Blowing" into the console was actually never part of the Japanese Famicom. What we looked at as "fond" childhood memories was nothing more than a very poorly built console.

 

[Negatempest]

Old games didn't require you to pay extra to get content that was meant to be in it in the first place. Old games didn't require you to go through DRM. Old games weren't just reharshes of even older games with a differnt label slapped on it.

Old games (SNES and onward) spent more than 6-7 months in development and testing, which resulted in games that had less glitches, and issues, and while newer games are more complex, if there wasn't that "launch next game BEFORE next year" rush that every company has, games probably wouldn't need so many patches, and have as many complaints. It's all boiled down to money grubbing companies that call games failures if they don't sell well over one million copies in the first week.

Yes and No. True, in the past the company was willing to polish a game before it came out. Not as often now since their passion is nearly gone. But in the process of time, even now, content had to be cut out. Sonic 2 suffered cut content, Golden Eye 64 suffered cut content, bugs happened in the past as frequently as now. The only difference being that the "cut" content could now be purchased as DLC, which angers customers. Time is everyone's enemy.