[Chacranajxy]

As I'm sure some of you are aware, it's Summer. That means no new games. Which for me, means its time to dig into older stuff again and play through some of the stuff I missed from generations gone by. And one of the cool things about retro gaming is the allure of discovering some amazing game that you've never heard of or that you never got a chance to play back in the day that really captures everything awesome about gaming. Which kinda got me thinking about this gen, and how people are going to remember it say... 10 years down the road.

So what do you think? Are people going to look back at it fondly, or will it be remembered as an era where the industry really didn't know what the hell it was doing?



Those who are aware of my antics probably won't be surprised by my answer: I think this gen will be looked back on as a complete and utter mess. DLC, online passes, out of control budgets, experiments with F2P and episodic models -- it all smacks of an industry that's trying desperately to evolve, but can't quite figure it out. That, and I can't imagine games like Uncharted or Assassin's Creed aging well. The games of this gen are a lot like the 8-bit era in that they seem like they're trying to establish new types of experiences... but they don't quite nail it yet... they feel like experiments a lot of the time. And as a fan of Japanese games, it's been a disaster. Sure, the Japanese fared better on handhelds, but most of the games coming out of the mystical orient seem to lack the charm they once had. Except for Falcom.

So yeah, I'm thinking this gen will be looked at as a low point in the long run.

[alr1ght]

Call of Duty and DLC.

[Tucah]

Cover based shooters, motion controls and DLC.

[Gravijah]

video games i guess idk.

[Diprosalic]

as the worst one yet.

[CambriaRising]

Rampant cash grabs, and consumer hatred.

[Holy Crap]

On disc DLC and "Yeah, but can it play Netflix?"

[TacticalFox88]

A whole lot of bitching about things that we should've saw coming.

[aeolist]

Entitlement

[Conciliator]

Those who are aware of my antics probably won't be surprised by my answer: I think this gen will be looked back on as a complete and utter mess. DLC, online passes, out of control budgets, experiments with F2P and episodic models -- it all smacks of an industry that's trying desperately to evolve, but can't quite figure it out.

I won't venture on a guess on the 'legacy' of this gen(really, is any console gen unanimously celebrated as a whole? 16-bit is the closest probably, but lots of the posters here didn't really get into gaming until the playstation era or later. I wonder what a favorite-gen poll would look like?), but if you're expecting these alternative-profit methods to get better for the consumer in the coming years...well, I hope you can hold your breath for a long time.

EDIT: Actually the industry might get a little better at budgeting appropriate to sales projections. But, again, that's a financial development, not an artistic one.

[GDGF]

As a pretty wiierd one.

[SatelliteOfLove]

The looming perfect storm of rising costs, unreasonable player expectations (less jaggies and jank! I can get similar for $3 on X), Dogmatic design strategems, industry types perfecting the art of self-fulfilling prophecy marketing, and an increased number of alternate venues.

[Net_Wrecker]

[richiek]

Shooters, gore and bald space marines.

[Juan29.zapata]

It will be remembered by the good things (great new IP's, improvement in some fields like graphics), and lamentably the bad ones (publishers being greedy, DLC, annual rehashed releases, arrogance of certain companies). But honestly, I'll remember it as a good generation, it brought be good memories. Sure not as the awesome memories from two gens ago, but nonetheless, memories of some great games that I will forever cherish.

By the way, isn't it too soon to talk about this when not even most first parties have announced a new console?

[Grinchy]

As the PS3/360 generation.

[Chacranajxy]

As the PS3/360 generation.

Clever.

[Riggs]

Entitlement

Your so original.

CoD/DLC

[PetrCobra]

Most consoles sold in a generation to date.
Uniqeness started to look important.
Cinematic scripted shooters more important than uniqeness.

[Myriadis]

As the true golden age of gaming, especially by the ones who rose up in this time.

[Bidermaier]

it will remembered as the trojan generation. What they were supposed to be enthusiast machines then became online media boxes with casual oriented gaming features

[Mac the KNife]

The death of video games as we knew them.

[Zekes!]

The beginning of the end

the end of the beginning

[Piers]

RE4 blueprint with exciting cinematic action.

But there was TF2 and Minecraft this generation. That was one hell of a game changer for me, pun not intended and all.

[shinobi602]

The best gen so far for me.

I've been gaming since the NES era and I haven't played this many quality games in a looong time.

[User Name Here]

The death of video games as we knew them.

Or the beginning of the end.

Edit: DAMNIT Zekes!

[apana]

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.

Super Mario Galaxy Generation

[Sethos]

As a low point in gaming, where we went from passionate developers and lots of great content to DLC, money milking and cheap gameplay experiences.

Can only go up from here ...

[tolkir]

The Beginning of the End

Edit: double beaten u_u

[CronoShot]

.

[Firebrand]

Bloom and vaseline shaders.

[Kyuur]

The end of clear-cut 'generations', probably.

[ffdgh]

hmm.....Shooter/QTE/DLC/Gimmick generation?

[Diddy Kong]

It won't

[Khold]

HD* and DLC

Advent of digital distribution

[weird]

The one where nintendo had a low tec console... And won....and then dumped it all.

the last (?) befor the next big reconstructure (crash?) of the industry.

oh and Juggernaut DS

[DjRoomba]

last hurrah of home console video games before its inevitable death in the mythical next-gen

[Dennis]

Lasting forever.

And shooty bang bang.

[Conciliator]

Actually garish bloom, QTEs and downloadable content may be historical staples of the generation. Though, at the very least, DLC ain't going anywhere.

[Beelzeboss]

Hopefully the generation that taught console makers the value of a digital store and the importance of patches and updates.

[BassForever]

Motion controls, DLC, the beginning of all digital content and consoles becoming glorified PCs

[The Praiseworthy]

A generation of consoles where the JRPG games has died in... with so many great franchises from Japan.

[thirty]

way too long. Shoot stuff, motion stuff, shoot stuff, motion stuff.

[Pyrrhus]

As the beginning of the end, if the publishers are serious about what they're saying. For the conventional console market, I mean. PC gaming seems to be going well and the smartphone market seems to be a goldmine for some.

[Llyranor]

The gen I got to play Bayonetta/Vanquish/Sin & Punishment 2.

Good enough for me, heh.

[Mr.Fresh]

I think this gen will be looked back on as great. We had a lot of great games come out. we had games like Blue Dragon, Valkyria Chronicles, Catherine, No More Heroes, Portal, The witcher 2, Xenoblade, and Skyrim. We got Tons of Great downloadable games like Super Star Dust HD, Geometry Wars, Journey, Flower, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, Trials HD, Minecraft, Limbo, Braid, and Battlefield 1943. We also got HD remasrers like MVC2, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Jet Set Radio, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, God of War 1 and 2, Halo Combat evolved, Ico and Shadow of collosus. It was pretty good imo.

[ShinobiFist]

Generation BETA

[injurai]

The generation that splits into a small sustainable model, and a powerful money guzzling model that burns the land behind them.

[ntropy]

video games impersonating Mark Twain

[Clear]

The one where people will look back in 10 years and realise that they never had it so good.

Some people seriously need to take off their rose-tinted glasses and take a second look at what has gone before. Maybe then they'd realise how spoilt they are.