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A New Golden Age of Gaming?

Posted by Zonk on from the sans-short-shorts-superman-i-hope dept.

Calathea writes "The BBC has an interview with 'Elite' legend David Braben where he talks about the next generation of games that will herald a golden age and equates them with Hollywood of the 30s." From the article: "A similar transition happened in the early 1930s in the film industry. In the 1920s, films were almost pure spectacle, and that spectacle became ever more extreme to keep the audiences coming back - cars skidded around towns, people dangled and fell from buildings, cars were forever being smashed to pieces on railway crossings. The stories were light-weight justifications for linking the dramatic moments together ... But it opened the door for the golden age of film, where Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd gave way to Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles in the 1930s. With hindsight the contrast is immense, and I think we are on the cusp of a similar change in the games industry."

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. The Golden Age has come and gone. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd argue that the golden age in gaming, comparable to the movies of the 30's, was the NES-era. The NES opened up gaming in ways that was unheard of before and Nintendo's dominance of the market remains unrivaled today. The current gaming era more closely resembles the movie industry today, with bloated budgets and the emphasis on special effects over substance and style.

    It's not like you can predict a golden age anyway. You can only objectively define a golden age in hindsight long after that era is over.

  2. Yes.. but movies didn't suffer from seque-itis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Movies were original then.

    We're stuck with gems like:
    "Run-Down-the-Hallway-and-Shoot-It-Part-Six"
    "Suburban-WhiteBoys-Pretending-They're-from-da-Ghe tto-Part-Eleven"
    "Not-Enough-Guts-to-Join-the-Army-but-Enough-to-Pl ay-Soldier-Here-At-Home-Part-Five."

    If by "Golden Age" he means games worth pissing on, then yeah, I'd say MS & Sony are bringing it on..

  3. Re:I don't necesarily disagree by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So what you're saying is that we're coming to the point where style wins over substance...

    Wonderful. Gaming has made it to pop-culture status. The signal to noise ratio is about to get a lot worse.

    Of course I guess this also means that Madden games are now essentially the equivalent of a Brittney Spears album.

  4. Making More Passive Games by Xenolith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This article seems to become a commercial at the end for this guys game. The author thinks the key to next gen games are more interaction. Maybe. I would like to see someone make a 3D "game" that is nearly totally passive. It is no longer a game, but a piece of cinema. You may make a few choices, for instance to change the ending or to make something less violent. You may get the option to watch the drama or comedy unfold from "spectator mode", so you can view the action from different angles and distances. Or you can view it from predetermined camera views, your option.

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