Is gaming dead for you?

[Vegosiux]

For me personally, there are very few games over 10 years old that I can still enjoy. Gaming really wasn't better in those days.

I'll ask you how many games that are 10 years old or older you enjoy once we're in 2022. It's not exactly an accurate comparison, you'd need to compare how many games you enjoyed then as opposed to how many you enjoy now.

Not how many games from then you enjoy now as opposed to how many new games you enjoy now.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

But it's not only that. Games are being released in less that satisfactory condition. A lot of them are in poor quality, have tons of bugs and glitches, and this is quickly becoming the norm.

This, however, is inexcusable. Developers are using the freedom of patches to shove substandard products out the door, watching to see if they promise a return on investment before actually making them work. I didn't buy any of the Elder Scrolls games because of this, and I won't do so until Bethesda cleans up a bit, and starts showing that they think of artistic integrity and customer satisfaction in the same ballpark as money.

I love this false illusion that buggy games are increasing in number because games can now be patched. That games can be patched is a good thing because bugged as fuck games were always there. Especially back in the days before the market crash.

I'm not saying that "bugged as fuck" games were not there before; that's obvious. Likewise, I think that patching is a great thing, because it can fix errors. And the Crash of 1983 was caused, at least in part, by massive amounts of buggy shovelware.

But I do think that the number of AAA, top-quality games that have serious flaws in them are increasing. It's not nostalgia to recall the strict guidelines that companies had to follow to earn the Nintendo Seal of Quality in the N64 days, for fear of the 10NES chip. Even the biggest publishers (what few there were) knew that trying to ship sub-standard products wouldn't fly. The result? Games had less serious, game-breaking flaws (although there were plenty of minor bugs).

However, the competition in the market has grown, and while that means plenty of great new games, it also means that console makers have to ease up on their guidelines or risk losing out. Combined with the relative ease of patching (compared to recalling thousands of discs/cartridges) and the exponentially greater amount of time and money invested in making a game, this means that both console makers and game publishers know that they can get away with more. The result? More games have serious, game-breaking flaws, which developers hope to fix post-launch, like Skyrim.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I'm with the "gaming is the best it's ever been" camp, for several reasons. If you don't like the big, mainstream AAA releases, they're easy enough to ignore. It's far easier to find and purchase alternatives now than it has ever been and there are still some real gems being released from all levels of the industry. On top of that it's also far easier than ever to go back and the classics of yore! With services like GOG providing us with hundreds of classic PC games and emulators allowing us to play games from any system up to and including the Wii on our computers it's never been easier to be a retro gamer.

Not only are there still fantastic games being released (in amongst a lot of crap, yes, but that crap has always been there) but we now have all the best games of yesteryear to play, too. We're more than a little spoiled for choice.

 

[GundamSentinel]

For me personally, there are very few games over 10 years old that I can still enjoy. Gaming really wasn't better in those days.

I'll ask you how many games that are 10 years old or older you enjoy once we're in 2022. It's not exactly an accurate comparison, you'd need to compare how many games you enjoyed then as opposed to how many you enjoy now.

Not how many games from then you enjoy now as opposed to how many new games you enjoy now.

Good point, good point, my bad. Then I'll say this. I first came into contact with gaming when I was about 4 (in 1991, when we got our first PC). There were a few games I enjoyed at the time (some platformers and racing games mostly), but the greater majority of them just couldn't hold my attention. My father played more games than I did and he only played Captain Comic.

By the time I was 7, I just didn't play any games any more. Why? Well firstly, they were ugly as sin. And not just for that time, they just didn't particularly look like anything recognizable to me, so were not very relatable. Secondly, games were quite dull. Again, even without modern games to compare them to, there was just very little to do in them. When I look back at games I played at that time (like Pacman, Tetris, Test Drive), I can hardly believe that video games had a future after that. They were fun, but just not for a very long time. Sure, there were a few that were of a much higher level, but I've seen very few. So why play games, when I had Lego? Thirdly, they just didn't run very well. Operating systems (or any program for that matter) at that time weren't very user friendly, so even getting a game started often felt like performing an arcane ritual. Consoles often weren't much better, though in that case it was more dust blowing and cartridge slamming.

I only picked up gaming again when I was 13, when there were games like Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Age of Empires 2, Homeworld. But again, those are the titles that stand out. It's just like when people often say that the PS2 had a great library; it just had a very large library. For every great game there were a dozen crap games. So at that time gaming was a very small hobby for me. There was of course a vastly superior PC, and I sometimes played Playstation or N64 games with friends, but not much more.

It's only been in the past 5 or 6 years that I've found enough entertainment in gaming to really get invested in it. There are games I'd happily spend hundreds of hours with without getting bored, something I couldn't dream of when I was little.

 

[shrekfan246]

It could be ALOT better.

EDIT:

Spoiler: The Alot: A mythical creature that one rarely sees, but when it is spotted, one must be prepared for anything.

OT: Hey, I just noticed I never put my own opinion in here.

Nah, I don't think gaming is dying or dead. I'd say I get bored of games a bit easier than I used to, but there are still plenty of fun things that catch my attention. Just wish they'd release some worthwhile things during June/July every now and then.

 

[Savber]

It has never been better.

Watch Kickstarters, the indie developers, and platforms like Steam and I can't help but feel optimistic.

Also we still have companies like Valve, Bethesda, and CD Projekt Red all of which are dedicated to better the gaming industry while also being pretty good heavyweights at their own rights.

 

[Saviordd1]

Nope, communities will always bastardize something with arguing, it's not going to ruin the hundreds of hours I put into games over their span.

 

[Iampringles]

I wouldn't say it's dead, but so many new releases these days seem so unoriginal that I could understand someone who thinks gaming is dead.

 

[MrLumber]

Lol I love threads like these, people get so worked up.

OT: No, I just wish there was the same level of innovation going on as back in the mid to late 90s and early 2000s. This isn't really a problem with the industry, but more of a symptom from the recession back in 2008/9. For instance, I haven't seen a AAA title like Glover or Buck Bumble in ages. By in large, I think gaming as a medium is maturing, and this is just a period of growing pains. The future will (hopefully) be where its at.

 

[mateushac]

I don't think the gaming industry is dead, it's just not evolving as fast as it was in the last 10 or so years. With more money in place, companies are much afraid to make revenue risking experimentation (that allied to the "sort of inelastic" demand curve for gaming).

For me, though, this lack of change in games has reduced the amount of new titles bought. From all the titles I bought since January, only one was released in this same year.

 

[Erttheking]

Frankly I find video games to be just as fun as they always were.

 

[SecondPrize]

I don't think so. Every new title doesn't need to be the 'best ever' and every season doesn't have to see the release of many huge mega-awesome games. If we're going through a slow period now, well, that just happens sometimes. There have been a few big-named companies going belly-up recently but you can't point to that as a bad sign for gaming in general without knowing a lot more than we do about the situations with those companies.
I do think the heavy-hitters in the industry could find a better balance between employing MBA's and people who care about games, but they're still making buckets of money so wtf do I know.

 

[Headsprouter]

No, gaming's great at the minute for me. Minecraft, the recent Bethesda titles, and even older games that i've got into recently, like Team Fortress on PC. And I don't need to go into how much better that is than it is on Xbox. I haven't touched my Xbox since I got my computer, and personally, i've found that gaming on a PC is just way better. I won't belittle console users, but I think the only people who dislike PC gaming are people who've never tried it, or just don't like the elitist attitude of those who do.
Back on the subject of games, with games like Borderlands 2 coming out, which looks great, Bioshock infinite, and GW2, which looks to be vastly improving on the previous game, from my perspective, gaming's heart is pumping at optimum efficency.

 

[Zakarath]

Console gaming's been dead to me for a while. As soon as I got a semi-decent PC, i sarted using it less and less, for many of the reasons suggested here (emphasis on things I don't care about I.E. multiplayer shooters, stagnant themes and always taking the 'safe' approach, etc.) But on PC, steam especially, there's a huge variety of games, new and old, in the genres that are my favorites (RPGs, strategy, space sim, however you want to class Dota 2).

We've been hearing about the death of PC gaming for a while, but for me it's the console that has fallen by the wayside. (Although I did just recently dust off my PS2 so I could finally play Okami.)

/pcgamingmasterrace

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Ha!

No. :3

I've been gaming since I was 4, started with point-n-click games on the computer like Pajama Sam, Putt-Putt Adventures and so on.

Why would I stop now during my golden age with all of these awesome games?

If I wasn't where I am today, I would have never of played Persona 4. Think of that madness!

 

[samaugsch]

For some companies, it is.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Not even close, if it was I wouldn't be on this gaming website.

 

[Victor Salgado]

Close to being, there just hasn't been anything new or onteresting for a while. Companies are making more games for casual players and changing the formula of old franchises to appeal to wider audiences.Resident Evil, Ninja Gaiden,DMC, Dead Space and Hitman are among the most glaring examples of this trend. I think if this continues the companies might lose their most dedicated supporters. As things stand I think I'll go back to previouus generations for my fun from now on.