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Gaming as I knew it is dying

ACESHIGH

Banned
Couple of background details: I have been gaming since 1993, been out of the hobby for some years in the 00's. Had a NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, Gaming PCs, Nintendo Wii so I have played (just like most of you) a ton of games through the years. I try to always be optimistic about the hobby, didn't say anything about last year gaming shows, but this... this is already a recurring theme and it has nothing to do with the pandemic.

Maybe the gaming industry is slowly pushing us folks in our 30s away from it? I am seeing game reveal after game reveal, and barring a few exceptions it seems like the games I am seeing do not target me at all. When I was a teenager I always expected this industry to progress, better graphics, more immersive worlds, better gameplay, better stories. But now I am seeing that we are going on the opposite direction.

I know that there are quite a few games to look forward to: Avowed, TES VI, Halo Infinite, Starfield, FH5, BoTW2, Prime 4, Bayo 3, Horizon 2, God of War Ragnarok, GT7, Elden Ring and more. But other than first party devs and a few select third parties, it seems that no one tries to create campaign based single player games anymore. There are also genres that are not being catered at all, survival horror, car combat, arcade racing, inmersive sims, character action games and more, genres that were the cornerstone of gaming in past generations.

Seeing how Arkane had to restort to co op trash because Prey and Dishonored 2 didn't set the world on fire is so dissapointing. Maybe their first game after MS acquisition will be a return to form. Also what's about games being so colourful and having that horrendous Fortnitey artstyle? The Pimkin/Animal Crossing Great Value editions? And don't get me started on the eternal hard on indie devs have for 8bit styled games. Also if a game looks like a proper modern 3D game, chances are its Co Op or MMO... Maybe the backlash against games of the sixth/seventh gen, the grey/brown era was too overblown.

Honestly if most indie devs keep resorting to 8bit or 16 bit throwback games, they have no chance competing against a Retropie or a chinese handheld with Retroarch on it.

Where are the indie devs trying to top Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Project Gotham Racing, Vagrant Story, Legacy of Kain, SF Alpha III, Twisted Metal, Slyphon Filter, Devil May Cry and many more?

Sorry for the long rant but I had to get this off my chest. Maybe someone in their teens can weigh in to put some perspective? Are single player story based games not popular anymore unless they have best in class production values?
 

TheUsual

Gold Member
Mid 30s here. Getting older and don't have as much free time as before. We've developed our gaming tastes on what we prefer. We've seen alot so we're not always as wowed from reveals compared to when we were younger. But that's ok. There's always great stuff coming out and there's always that unexpected Indie darling that pops up every now and then.
 

RaZoR No1

Member
Easy
Graphics: It needs money, creative people/designer and time + they have to push much much more pixels.
Gerne: It is a business, gaming business. Shooters are one of the most played Gernes and you can squeeze out so money out of them. They try to maximize profit etc. One of the reasons we have MTX, F2P etc.

More adventures/creative games can be found on indies. The problem is, there are a huge load of indies at the moment.
Bigger devs cannot / dont want to risk they money makers and stick to them.. Why do you ask we already have like 20 different CoDs?

About beeing better than the classical games: It is very hard/ difficult. Alot of the gamers already played them and already know the (back then) new mechanics and effects.
Imagine playing the same horror game for the second time. First time it was scary, you didnt knew what was coming etc. but playing it the second time you arent scared anymore and the puzzles dont bother you at all because you already saw everything once. Trying to copy or be better will only result in beein compared to the classics and the classics will always win, because of nostalgia.
I think currently we nearly had every kind of possible game gernes etc.


One of the reason P.T. was so loved by the fans. It was a different kind of horror tjat wasnt really there before.
 

drotahorror

Member
Prettier than ever, sure.

But better as games? Hell no.


Been playing since the 80's as well and games are so much better now imo. Pretty much every genre of game that came out during the 8/16/32 bit era has been eclipsed so many times by modern games.

There are better platformers now, better racing games, sports games, action games, everything really is better now.

If anyone thinks NES or some shit was the best era of games then it's purely nostalgia or you just don't ever play new games.
 

WoJ

Member
I go back and forth on this. There's a lot of crap in the industry I don't like now. But the quality of games these days is just through the roof. My backlog is enormous. Spans generations. In the past year I have played Days Gone, Silent Hill, Gears of War, Dead Space, Assassin's Creed, The Walking Dead Season 3, Final Fantasy VII Remake, among others.

All of those I listed above (except Silent Hill) I'd consider modern-ish games. And the quality of those games blows me away compared to stuff from when I was younger. That isn't to say old stuff is bad. Far from it. But the medium keeps getting better. It's hard for me to deny that.

Now that said, I agree with your point about homogenization to some extent - and certain genre's being kind of left behind. I like survival horror and think that there isn't as much going on in that space as there used to be. I recently discovered I like arcade racers quite a bit, and with few exceptions there isn't much new coming out in that genre. Similar for car combat. Even stealth as well. But I think because of gameplay enhancements so many genres have melded together.

Growing up JRPG's were my favorite genre, largely in part because they let me experience an epic story, character progression, and I got to feel a sense of exploration exploring a fantasy world going on a quest and experiencing a story. Now every game pretty much offers me that in some form or fashion.

So I don't know. I have an appreciation for where gaming has been and am not the biggest fan of some business practices in the industry right now. I'm skeptical of DRM, always online stuff, and things like that. But I think the quality of games today just continues to improve. "Bad" games today are leaps and bounds better than bad games of yesteryear. At least in my opinion.
 

Great Hair

Banned
I've been gaming since 1981 and games are better than ever.
internet seriously GIF

 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
OP, you listed like a dozen games you are looking forward to. I can't ever remember looking forward to a dozen games at a single time. Gamer since '88 here. I think gaming is pretty good these days but personally my time for gaming and tolerance for playing games in not interested in has gone down.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
Gaming's not dying, you're just getting old.

The funny thing is, I still play a lot of games and enjoy the hobby. But the gaps in budgets and genres are evident.


I get where you are coming from, but there are still plenty of single player games coming, and there always will be. Its just easier for companies to mtx multiplayer games, se we see a higher percentage of them.

This is more against indie devs than AAA. Even successful indie devs cant make the jump to release at least 6th gen style games at a higher resolution, become AA devs, which we had a lot in the 5th and 6th gen and made catalogues really interesting.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
I don't know when I started gaming. Some year in the 80s. I played pong then Atari at my Uncle's house and had colecovision with the atari addon a couple of years before getting a NES. I played all those 8 bit games and typically won't touch an indy game like that unless it gets a lot of buzz, but that does mean I have played a few. But I can see people wanting more stuff like that and enjoying it more than a 1 off here and there.

The big thing with me is time. I don't have time to play a lot of games. That means the ones that I do play tend to be well received and if I personally don't like them, I stop playing them. So I am only really playing games that good. And there are a fair amount of good games still coming out. Fads aside, you really should be able to find enough good games to piss your wife off when you are playing games on a Saturday morning and not playing with the kids.

Then you have to look at the kids. We had simplistic 8 bit games, then better 16 bit ones followed by switching from 2d to 3d. We had so much change. They now get it all on the Switch and when they get older, they will have ridonkulous PCs to play TES7... (probably still TES6) on. You can just throw a 4 year old a system filled with good classics, new remasters of classics and new titles and let them decide what to play while they peek at you playing more mature stuff on the PC. It's cool.

There are lots of ways to enjoy games. Just ignore the trends that don't interest you and pay attention to what is still worth your ever decreasing amount of free time.
 

Laptop1991

Member
It's been dying for a while now, well changing really, especially since the financial success of GTA online in 2013 and the money made from MTX since, i hardly buy new games now as they are Gaas with stores as there just aren't that many new SP ones worth it imo and all those indie titles just arn't good enough for me compared to the SP story driven AAA games i use to enjoy anyway, hopefully it will change at some point.
 
Can someone explain why some opinion topics are allowed and others aren't? My two threads about Halo and Phill Sñencer got locked inmediately. Is there a rule I don't know about?
 

TwiztidElf

Member
Eh. I feel like the really good games are fewer and further apart, but they're still there.
Sure, E3 has been disappointing so far, but there has been some gold if you look hard enough.
Right now, I feel like I'm in gaming heaven between Wreckfest, Guilty Gear Strive and Ratchet.
 
It’s nostalgia 👓 OP. I’m 31. Take them off and you’ll realize gaming industry back then wasn’t some perfection you’re imagining it to have been.

Two of the best games I ever played were on last gen: Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Games today are prettier, they sound better, they are larger with more content and gameplay mechanics are more complex. Even storylines are continuing to improve.

There are more developers and platforms than ever. Competition is fearsome. Indies are killing it with the likes of Disco Elysium, Hades or Outer Wilds. And I don’t even have time to play everything I want these days like I used to.

Gaming currently is in very good place if you ask me.
 

Spacefish

Member
AAA games are dead, they are too expensive to experiment with and after years of homogenisation and timidity I've given up hope. Only select few studios like Capcom have the ability or desire to deliver a big budget game that isn't just a mix of whatever AAA mechanics are popular at that moment in time but even they are loosing their edge. I want indie games to revive the industry but culturally everyone is obsessed with the past.
 

Larvana

Member
Gaming wasn't that great back then either, sounds like you're just getting old and ready to move on, considering your complaints it's not the gaming, it's you.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Seeing how Arkane had to restort to co op trash...

I can't comprehend a serious person believing this.

You apparently reviewed a game based on it's CGI debut trailer.

There are always people like you. Mario 64 will be trash because I prefer 2D games. StarCraft will be trash because I like turn based strategy. Ocarina of Time Will be trash because I like Doom clones...

Your mind seems unbelievably closed based based on your post OP. And you're probably not a booger in real life. What gives?
 
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Stuart360

Member
Can someone explain why some opinion topics are allowed and others aren't? My two threads about Halo and Phill Sñencer got locked inmediately. Is there a rule I don't know about?
If you seriously need to ask that, then its probably best that you dont make threads. And you should be thankful that you only had threads locked, some of your recent posts have been console war bullshit, including that Phil Spencer thread.
 
So people think Microsoft, just since May, got Arkane to make a game they didn't want to make. And it's an open world title that can be played alone as well.
 

Fahdis

Member
Take your pick "it's better than ever crowd":

4 Player MP Shooter, Fantasy RPG from Japan, Fantasy RPG from the West, Open World Racing Game, Battle Royale Game, First Party Exclusive with an Agenda, First Party Exclusive focused on Nostalgia, New IP focusing on XYZ Mythology based on the future or the past, Fighting Games with the same tired Tropes, 2D Hard as Fuck Side Scroller, Repackaged Puzzle Game, Time Sinking MOBA's, Time Sinking MMORPG, Walking Simulators, Rehashed RTS. Looks like in my midlife the Millenial Nihilism is hitting me with full force. Zoomers aren't ruining games, it's just the desire of gaming right now. Let's look back circa 2008-2011 where everything was Bloom, FPS and washed out colors.

Everything is focused on Guns and Swords. Like fuck... damn.

Last time I literally had fun playing a game was Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and it was 4 hours long the first time.
 
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