Jamie C
Can you remember when you were younger? Looking at those 8 bit or low poly graphics of the “Latest” and “Most Advanced” video games of your generation? Do you also remember thinking; “It can’t get any better than this?”
Could you honestly say; “Games were better back when I was a kid”? Of course not! 80% of the games were terrible. Only some gems have lasted the test of time such as; Pac Man, Mega Man, Sonic The Hedgehog (not the 2006 version Shudder) and Super Mario Bros are only a small number of timeless classics.
However, I can guarantee most of you born in the 70s, 80s or 90s will agree with me when I say; “Being a gamer is no longer as exciting as it once was”.
This isn’t a generational thing either, but most will agree; being a gamer today is depressing. At least… for those who grew up to appreciate the beauty of the advancements of technology in video games.
To all of those born before 1995 let me ask you a question; When you were young, what did you have to keep you occupied? Was it a Gameboy? Was it a TV with a built in VCR player? Was it wired controllers attached to your PlayStation or SEGA Dreamcast? Now let me ask you another question; What does this generation of kids have to keep them busy? I bet most you either said a Tablet or a Smart phone… am I right?
Young gamers today have no idea how good they have it with gaming and technology. That’s not to say they aren’t grateful for their gifts.
However, despite how grateful they may be to receive such an extravagant gift, they will never appreciate the struggle it took for us to get to this moment. We are still many, many, MANY years away from hover boards, flying cars, or a real-life Duel Monster Duel Disk System… I don’t care how old I am when they come out, I AM BUYING A YU-GI-OH DUEL DISK!
They don’t see the games that came before it, unless, they actively seek it out or watch their favourite YouTuber in the year 2030 play a 50-year-old Game console, only to roast it until they can hear the 50-year-olds crying all around the world. Even when they do come across a gem, they will likely not be able to look past the “terrible graphics”, “hear piercing 8-bit music” or the “only 4 direction Controls”. They will fill their curiosity but nothing more, but you know what… they were MY experiences and I have no regrets.
“Every gamer is a true gamer… and although we may pledge fanboy allegiances to different flags, deep down inside, we all serve one master, one king… and his name is GAMING! FOREVER MAY HE REIGN!” – Kevin Butler
My very first Games Console was the SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis to Americans). I played the shit out of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Earthworm Jim and The Lion King. And you know what… I STILL can’t complete those games without a little help from Cheat Codes. Does that make me a bad gamer? Hell no. It made me a hero!
You go to the park or your school playground and shout to the high heavens… “I HAVE COMPLETED SONIC 2 ON SEGA MEGA DRIVE!” All the kids in a 3-block radius would come screaming at you begging for tips. Or ask to be your friend, so you could go around their house and do it for them. Just so they could see the end screen (no internet and YouTube back in those days).
But then… this snot nosed wimp would be standing in the corner. Everyone still eyes locked on the “Game Conquering God”. Then… the Snot Nosed Wimp pulled out from his bag a note book and mumbles the words; “I have cheat codes to skip to the final boss”. One of the kids hears this wimp’s words; “What did you say?”
Suddenly everyone stops talking and looks at the wimp. He replies; “I have cheat codes for unlimited lives and the level select screen”. A roar of cheers echoes the playground as everyone now runs to the Snot Nosed Wimp, now known as; “Jimmy the Cheating Lord”. No one knows how he got those codes but Jimmy also doesn’t like sharing his secret sources (likely a gaming magazine).
They get one code and one code only. In the 8/16-bit games it was Level Select, in the N64/PS1 era it was big head mode. Scenes like these were very common. Only Gods had that power and if you had it… everyone bowed down to you… not “The Game Conquering God” … YOU.
What do we have now? Microtransactions to make the game easier with more in game loot or items. Definitely takes away a social element doesn’t it? When the internet gained popularity (that’s right, the internet took a while to catch on) cheat codes were now widely available.
Cheatplanet.com was my go to site, known today as gamesradar.com. It may have taken away the excitement of passing codes in the park, but now we could experience games to their fullest. When games are made by very passionate developers, who know what it means to be a gamer, you get very amazing stuff. Secrets Easter Eggs that are a nod to fans, developer in jokes placed just to make their colleagues smile, Cheat Codes and deliberate exploits for players to show to their Friends or YouTube/Twitch fans. All created with one goal, to make a fun and memorable experience.
“The game is fun. If it’s not fun, why bother?” – Reggie Fils-Aimé
Now, it’s a very rare occasion to see cheat codes simply placed in the game to have a laugh with. Shout out to Rockstar! Thank you for keeping cheat codes in the GTA series! I love messing around without consequences. It may disable Trophies and Achievements but it’s a small sacrifice to actually have goofy fun in games once again.
Gaming has come a long way since the Atari 2600 days. The Atari 2600 may not have been the very first video game console, but it was certainly the first to capture the imagination of everyone who played. Just like the words written in a book, earlier video games made you use your imagination to fill in the blanks.When 8-bit and 16-bit graphics and sound came along, no one thought they looked realistic at all, but they were flashy, exciting and fast.
Games were starting to pick up in popularity and the games got more and more adrenaline inducing. Whether that 1 last coin in the arcade made a difference between you ending your session or continuing through the fighters or that extra life you desperately sought after before facing the final boss at home.
Technology has advanced so far that it’s hard to be excited for the generational leaps any more. Remember when rumours where flying around a few years ago that the PS4 and Xbox One will be the final console generation? Remember how angry you were that this would even be a consideration? I do. I remember being angry that they were taking our physical games away and making “Games as A Service” mandatory.
I got my brand new PS4 knowing this may be the last time I will see game boxes. Yet, I STILL HAD TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL EACH GAME?!What do you mean each game is taking up 30-80GB of storage? I remember saying to myself; “I might as well download them if it’s going to take the same amount of storage.” If it wasn’t for the fact that the physical discs were somehow cheaper than the online market place, I might have done just that. Rendering collecting games useless and running the risk of losing the games you paid for when the service goes offline.
When you look back at that moment, it wasn’t the younger generation who cared. They may not have known about it, but we did. We were angry because it was risking the very nature of why we love games… to create memories. When you take away the mundane tasks of going to the store and inserting a disc, then all you have left is mind numbing experiences.
The games may be better than the last, but games are having to rely on large budgets and emotional experiences to create those memories now. We used to say; “Soon we will be playing blockbuster movies.” Yeah, that was great for the first 5 games but now I’m bored at crying that my character’s mother died of (Insert Plot Reason Here).
I just want to be able to throw in a game, kill some bad guys, destroy buildings and save the world from an Evil Cartoon Dog. At least Doom (2016) hits that spot.
Now, games are also moving away from personal experiences and forcing you to join a community to get the “most out of your play”… or at least that’s what they are hoping you’ll think. No, I don’t want to sign up to your community service. I already have, PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, uPlay, EA Origin, Battlenet, Epic Games Live, Prime Games 4eva, AnimooX, Donky Games Service of MLG ELITE Live!
Thankfully we still have amazing games like God of War (2018), DOOM (2016), Uncharted 4 (2016), Super Mario Odyssey (2018), Spider-Man (2018). But 2 of those games are also part of the problems gamers face. “Hollywood Style” Blockbusters or “Games as a Service” seem to be the only true AAA games we receive now a days. Now, I’m not saying all AAA games are repetitive, but they have lost the charm the games of yesteryear had. It’s all about, having the best graphics, having the most online players, having the most action pact scenes.
There is no desire to experiment with new, crazy ideas anymore. It’s all about, keeping gamer’s interest so they will spend more money on cosmetics. Have you been noticing a pattern with the current trend of gaming as of late? The games may be getting more advanced but the very essence of what made being a gamer, is getting dumbed down and it’s the gamers needing to pick up the slack of creativity AAA publishers are in right now. Focus groups and charts may say we will spend our money on Microtransactions and regurgitated shooters, but in the end, we just want to have fun.
AAA game developers do have this at the back of their mind in some way. Open world, online only RPGs. Co-Op games are defiantly not in short supply, but that’s only because developers think that if they give us a sandbox, their customers will make their own fun and fill in the blanks for them. It’s almost like we are going back to the Atari 2600 days where we need to use our imagination to make our own experience. We shouldn’t be doing the work and we shouldn’t accept AAA games to overshadow great indie projects from getting the exposure they deserve. If you want to play games that closely resemble your nostalgic needs, then we need to support our Indie creators.
Power Stone is a great example. It’s one of my all-time favourite fighting games, I still play it today. It’s simple, fun, over the top and great in couch multiplayer. Capcom may not think there is a market for these types of games anymore but their fans do. Indie Developer Studio; Piranaking created the sequel of my dreams! It’s called LASTFIGHT. It’s on PS4, Xbox One and Steam, but I don’t remember seeing any promotion for it.
Only reason I know of it, is my resources I have gained trying to build Caiminds as an established website. I played it at EGX 2015 and spoke to the team behind it. They weren’t shy of telling me Power Stone was a major influence for them and they needn’t be. If it works and the original creators have no desire to make more, then go ahead. Its fun, its over the top, everything I wanted from a new Power Stone and it took a group of passionate gamers to make this happen.
I’m still holding hope for a Toy Commander successor in some way. Toy Commander may be outdated in terms of physics and its controls, but it’s still a fun set of mini challenges.
I may love the SEGA Dreamcast but I will always stand by my belief that the PS2 is THE BEST games console of all time and not because it’s the best-selling game console or all time. The SEGA Dreamcast may have had a ton of arcade and fun gameplay focused products, but the games were safe for the time. The PS2 however, gave developers THE platform to just go nuts. It may have been hard to develop for, but Sony did an amazing job pushing this console to gather a huge install base and because of that, there was so many games being made of it.
From the PS3/Xbox 360/Wii era, we knew what games where exclusive to which consoles. When the PS2 was around, there was so many gamers that had a PS2 and loads of games that were, unknowingly to us, exclusive to that console.The huge install base meant developers could make games that was so out there, that new ideas where being thought up, on a regular basis because they knew, the industry still had a long way to go before trends could be established. We saw games that today would be seen as too experimental in today’s standards and publishers would be too scared to market them. Back then, they were just games to enjoy for what they were.
“I remember the PS2 Era as one where no game was too weird…” – Falcon from Gameranx
We get our yearly Call of Duty’s, FIFAs and Just Dances, but they are safe money-making intellectual properties and are far from being an intellectual idea. It’s all well and good hoping for Half Life 3 but don’t you think we should be wishing for games to be games again and not “Experiences” or “Services”? As one example (and not to single out) Anthem was created to be the
next Destiny.
Destiny, a game that worked as an online service because it created an interesting world and story. Anthem was created to cash in on that type of success without putting the heart and soul of what made the game it was trying to replicate so great. It’s Metacritic score speaks for itself. A game created to keep players coming back for years, just to pay for additional content without the effort the lore deserved.
However, it’s not just Anthem, but any game created as a live service. They don’t care that you paid £50 / $60 for a product that doesn’t have enough content to be worth that money. Instead they will promise you they will update it for free, but only give you enough that you will feel you need to buy that weapon to help you progress. Or, that expansion pass that is too much for a free update and requires an additional £15 / $20, just to finish the story they have you hanging onto from the “free updates”. It’s exploitative and greedy. Less creativity and more money from a single project and their manipulative techniques have us falling for it every…single…time.
While I am excited to see what Death Stranding, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has to offer. It saddens me that we have got to this point where we come to expect at least one of those “Single Player” Games will require an online connection to play, in order to interact with the world.
A feature we never asked for but is assumed we did. All because of corporate focus groups caring more for short term gain rather than listening to the fans who fill their pockets.Games are moving away from games as a product, to games as a service. Soon, the games we pay for will disappear because the licence will have expired or the service discontinued. We won’t be able to look back at a game that brought us good memories because the store discontinued 10 years after being released.
Thank god for retro games and disc based medium. Every day, games are adding more and more manipulative techniques to hook us in with their “Surprise Mechanics”. Becoming emotional experiences that’s takes 50+ hours to complete.
The AAA games industry seems to think story and technology should be their focus, all while forgetting what made video games an interesting medium in the first place. Fun gameplay is no longer their main focus and that is something to be depressed about.While this is my opinion, it is one I feel strongly about and I hope you can respect that as I will always respect yours. There are no denying that there are plenty of gamers that don’t mind the transition we are going through.
However, until there is a generational leap as large as the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube to HD gaming, there may never be something to be too excited for again. At least we have 50 extra pours on a character’s face and 400 extra hairs on your dog companion to look forward to on the PS5 and Xbox Scarlet.
