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Another Golden Age of Gaming?
An anonymous reader writes "Julian Murdoch over at Gamers With Jobs thinks that this is the best time ever to be a gamer. In his conversation with a (one suspects hypothetical) kid in a library, he engages in a bit of a rant on the topic: 'He's me when I was 16. Everything sucked. But I'm glad I talked to him, because it turns out I needed to hear myself say it all. For all of my daily kvetching, this is the best time ever to be a gamer, because the games are good. We can bitch all we want about console wars, prices, fanboyitis, and those games which do, in fact, suck. But at the end of the day, there are more different games out there than ever before, from the oh-so-pretty Oblivion to Guitar Hero to Dwarf Fortress. From Magic: the Gathering to Pokemon (laugh all you want, it's a good game). From Heroscape to Warhammer 40k.'
So what do you think? In the midst of all the negative campaigning in the console wars, is this another golden age of gaming?"
Although there are plenty of people who hate Steam, I think what Valve has done ever since Half Life originally came out has contributed. By making a good game that is easy to mod, they have opened the door for thousands of future game makers. Not only do mods create a platform to create lots of games, some good, some not, but their method of distribution allows the good mods to be further developed into viable commercial products. And I can just download them and they run in a few minutes.
Not everything I have bought I really liked (Sin Episodes, for example...) but for less money, hassle and installation concerns than traditional games, they have made trying new games out much easier, and increased the total number of good games on the market.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
"Halo 2 was cool. You like First Person Shooters?"
"I guess. It's getting boring though. I used to play on Xbox live, but there are all these 8-year-olds in Kansas and sh*t that spend all day practicing and they just kick everyone's ass."
How is it that we allow these damn 8 years olds to whoop up on us? We need to quite our jobs now and take back our titles!
i think we still have a little while left to climb before we really hit a golden age.
we might be around the same height as the last golden age, but there's great potential to go even higher in the next few months. ps3, wii, wow expansion, all of them have the the ability to raise the bar (or drop it, whichever).
What Golden age? The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality.
The problem is now the cost of making mass market games is so prohibitively expensive that few companies are willing to take a risk and do something different.
Don't get me wrong. There are some good games out now but calling it a Golden Age is a bit much in my opinion.
I'm not sure we'll ever reach the craze of the old NES but if anyone can really bring a golden age back to consoles it's the big N. As for TTG/CCG, I think the smaller companys are making more great games.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
By definition, we can't have a Golden Age of Gaming again, any more than we can have a Golden Age of movies. The early days of when gaming hit its stride are long gone. Yes, we fondly remember when the Wizards and Gurus sat down at their keyboards and worked their black magic to do the impossible. It seemed like the sky was the limit, and new concepts for games were coming out every other day. There were pushes into story-driven games, first person perspective games, simulation games, action games, puzzle games, etc. Each magazine or software catalog that came in the mail delivered new surprises and wonders. It was all very new and VERY exciting!
Where we're at today is not a Golden Age. All the basic, conceptual groundwork has been laid. So we instead focus on providing the most immersive experience possible. Many of these games can be fun in their own right, but they simply don't compare to the excitement of seeing Duke Nukem' for the first time, or coaxing Wing Commander to run on your PC. It's nothing like the awe at playing Tetris on a portable system for the first time, or making Mario fly through the clouds on a cape. Those were totally, completely, and unabashingly wonderous things for a wonderous time.
I think Nintendo manages to capture some of that with the Nintendo DS. However, gaming will never be virgin territory again. That's just the way it is.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to check out some of Nintendo's "bit Generation" series of games for the GBA (Japanese only at the moment, but there's no text in the games anyways). The games are designed to be pseudo-retro in terms of graphics and gameplay (read: simplistic), but man are they fun! I highly recommend everyone try out Orbital. For a game that only uses two buttons (more gravity, less gravity), it certainly is engaging (and frustrating). As long as there are companies out there that are willing to keep things simple for those of us who like games they can just pick up, then the golden age will continue for a long time.
This guy's the limit!
What I mean by that is there are no new genre defining games coming out anymore. Maybe it's because we've reached hardware & software limitations or maybe it's because no one is willing to risk it with so many popularized genres out there to make a buck off of.
This is true and I applaud games like Guitar Hero or even Um Jammer Lammy
One would think (or hope) that with internet connections for consoles and the MMORPG world conquered by World of Warcraft that we would be seeing a lot of innovation. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to see less and less innovation and a whole lot more 'safety' games. Indeed, this is a golden age
My work here is dung.
It may be
It's certainly not a bad age to be a gamer at the very least. There's so many good games you can pick up for pretty much any system.
Sorry, I know my Civ rules. You only get one golden age per game.
No Clue
Before approximately the mid 1990s computer games were mostly produced by either individuals or small groups of people. They had fun and did it because they enjoyed it. They often either did it with the hopes of a company publishing it (like book authors), or the group of said people actually owned the small games company which they produced under.
This relatively relaxed and personally intimate working environment came through in the games. They were generally fun and had the kind of depth a reluctant or rushing working couldn't put into something.
When the mid 1990s came along the expodentially growing technical complexity and increased size of the market meant these small bands were superceded by large corporations. Employees in these companys are overworked, directed, stressed factory workers. A kind of blandness and sameness in games today can be seen because of this creatively-draining production process. Some people keep buying games, but for alot of people who did play games in the 80s and early 90s they hold no appeal for it isn't about 'fun' anymore, but flashy graphics, the 'scene' of boasting about your big Radeon card, and some kind of macho adolesent pak mentality which inhabits online games.
The old days are over.
What Golden age? The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality. Yes, because there were not crappy movie, cartoon, or book licenses ever at any other time ever ever ever. Oh, and sequels were not invented until 2004, right?
This is the NFL, which stands for "Not For Long" if you keep making those bulls*** calls.
This IS as close to a "Golden Age" of boardgaming as there has ever been. Check out Boardgamegeek to see why. For electronic gaming, I believe that time will come when the focus shifts back from "AWESUM GRAFIX!!!" to making fun games.
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Just require more great people to initiate. I think it is 3 for the second, 4 four the third, and so on. Not that I ever use great people for that, but I hear you could.
(Oblig Civ4 ref.)
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I feel this is FAR from a Golden Age. There hasnt been that 'feeling of excitement' in a game in a very long time. I feel the PS1 was the last time I was truely 'Wowed'. Genres were created. Games were fun. Games were scary. Stories were epic. With the exception of the MMO worlds, what genres have been created? All we have been introduced to lately has been prettier graphics and better physics. Unfortunately the cost of games have sky rocketed (see $600 ps3, $70 games) so high that getting a new company with a fresh idea started up is extremely difficult.
This is the age of redundancy in my eyes. Madden 200(x), Quake 4, Half life 2(episodes 1, 2), , zelda after zelda, mario after mario, a suck it for all its worth star wars game, suck it for all its worth cartoon based game, tekken 9,000,000, street fighter 2 9,000,000 edition.
Of course, there is the DS and the upcoming wii that will hopefully rattler some heads into the land of innovation. Until then, everyone is just going to keep playing WoW.
When most people are playing rehashed sequels or sitting playing cookie-cutter MMORPGs 12 hours a day, drooling at the screen grinding on monsters over and over again like zombies, I don't think this is can be considered a golden age.
The wii and ds may provide a mini-renaissance, but that's about it.
The only thing keeping gaming alive right now is the rest of society that recently discovered gaming and think everything gaming was invented in the late 90s. For old hardcore gamers, today's games are basically poor copies of old games with flashy graphics.
I haven't been interested in a new game for quite some time, because it's all the same garbage. I'd rather go back and play old NES or DOS games, back when gaming was actually fresh and exciting. What's worse is that the so-called "gamers" today turn their noses up at the old games because the graphics "suck".
Kids today. Get off my lawn with your Halo crapfest. DOOM is far superior than that graphically overblown, poor excuse for a FPS.
Oooh, trollish! Anonymous powers: activate!
I think trying to classify something as large as the games industry into "sucks" and "doesn't suck", or to trying to define a "golden age" just isn't possible.
Looking back, things always seem better because you tend to remember the good bits more than the mediocre. There are some really great games out there. Sure, there are lots of sequels and generic FPSs, but you don't have to play them.
It's okay, he was just playing Civ IV. We're in a golden age right now, but don't worry about that because it's going to end in 20 years or so. So, if you think building all these cultural advancements is going to help, you've got another thing coming. I just know that everyone thinks they're safe. But you just wait, because Genghis Khan is gonna come rollin' in here a couple turns later with his Keshiks and roll right over our modern armor. I know this, because it ALWAYS happens to me.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Sure, Zelda's always had great gameplay and graphics
eldavojohn
Think that gaming is coming into its own as a "respectable" entertainment medium. No longer the toy of children and teenage boys, gaming is an entertainment source for an ever widening demographic. TV and Movie production companies are taking notice -- even trying to bait the gamer audience with motion pictures based on games. Advertisers are trying to figure out ways to market products in a media without commercial breaks. This means more money for games, larger development teams, and more avenues to publish games... this also means that the new investors are looking for a safe/profitable (you think they never when to business school) investment. So while more games will be hitting the market, look for more of the same. Hollywood's formual is to churn out mindless drizzle in hopes of repeating past successes. Lets all pray (or whatever you do) that gaming doesn't mimic film and TV -- where all the most polished and professional productions are, for the most part, crap; and where the indie-market becomes the driving force of innovation and quality products.
(Off-topic fer just two shakes of a Parots' Tail....Sept 19 -ITLAPD!!
.00001-bit seas! Sailin on, who can ferget (yarrr! who can remember?) the death dealin Captain... errr... Commander Keeeeeeeeen?
Arrr! I must get me plug in fer the day o' days before me comments. I hope no scallawag keel-hauls (-1 Mod) me fer me ferver -Yar Har!)
Ye' must be three sheets to the wind, if ye' were to tell me 'twer not an age ye' call "GOLDEN" (Yarrr! GOLD!)
Aye, I can recall back to day I was but a gamin' lubber - Me Atari and me spent many a countless watch ravenging the
Let me take ye' forward a stormy watch or two, and remind ye' of where the ship lies -
Weee've got us photorealism, Multiiii-thread Cooores,
Swashbucklin and Adventurin
An' Lo' Killin. Aye, Killin Galoooore!
An' Now in 5.1 audio, needn't bother with letter's yer Eyes
Have ye seen ye Oblivion?
Have ye seen ye F.E.A.R. - W.O.W. - Ye Console P-Cube-X?
Even now yer belov'd Dungeon-o-Dragons?
Ye scurvey dog, could ye live now without PCI-Express?
Yarr - I fear thar be some dissen't among the ranks,
the ol' buccaneers tend much t' thar ways
Those dogs who worship thar good ol' days, aye, they should walk the plank!
Aye! 'ts ne'r been be'er
te see games as a treasure
Ye'd have te be plum-gone rum insane,
te think the past be'er 'an than a world with
Massive Multiplayer Online Raidin' Pirate Games! YARRR HARRR!!!
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I don't remember the first one, but I'm told it ended in 1983 with the infamous "crash".
Some time in the late 80s another boom started and ran into the early 90s. This is the rise of PC gaming and the debut of games like Wolfenstein, Doom, X-Wing, X-COM, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft. This golden age stagnated when all the new games seemed to just be clones of what came in the years before.
1998 and 1999 saw some impressive game releases with Half-Life probably being the most notable in the PC world, but I'm not sure I'd call it a golden age.
I wouldn't say the games on the market are the most diverse ever. The early 90s had a lot of independent developers turning out some really incredible--and plenty of really horrible--games. But we do have some really great games in the pipline right now and the new consoles with yet more PC-like features are sure to trigger some innovation in that market.
I'd say our true golden age will be 2008-2009. That will give developers the time to learn all the quirks of the new consoles and refine their games. It will put Windows Vista at middle age, with probably much-improved graphics capabilities (DX11?), as well as new hardware that will blow us away.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
..was when ye olde 8-bit and 16-bit games became easily emulatable on me desktop!
And surely 'twas made all the sweeter when it became easy to find ye massive torrents with all of each system's entire calalogue o' ROMs in a single RARrrr, matey!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
The new console wars are encouraging, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of it. But MMORPG's are entering a dark age, not a golden age. WoW's success means few companies are willing to gamble, because they don't think they can beat it. (And they're right -- without spending $50 million on content, they can't.) There's not a decent PvP game on the market, and the selection for future pvp games is very slim. Compare this to five years ago when we had Daoc, Shadowbane, and the promise of WoW on the horizon.
games have just not been the same since ...
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front
door. There is a small mailbox here.
I've thought this generation is the golden age of gaming. And it is.
For nintendo fans. They are getting EXACTLY what they want and deserve a great console, great games, great controller. But let's look at the other two.
Sony has now forced the market into blu-ray and is now beating the consumer with the price. They have failed in every way possible and the only one who suffers is the consumer. No rumble, a weak and late motion controller, they might have more power but it's significantly harder to program for.
On the other hand Microsoft now is owning the business. That's fine but they have touted online and graphics way too much. There are unique games coming but for the most part the 360 doesn't have a great first year line up, it'll get better though.
This isn't the glory days of great games, this is the hell of big budget titles forced advertising, and if you don't sell over a million copies of a game you don't make a profit. The gamers assume glitches are everywhere and they accept them no matter how big. You're paying out your butt for anything related to the console (even Wii, 60 bucks for a controller, and then you need more for Virtual console controllers), and the gamer gets hurt.
If that doesn't make you see a less then rosy outlook, add in the fact that now we have the both over powered horses are getting into the dvd wars. The PSX over headed, the Ps2 has had major hardware failure particularly in the laser, and now the PS3 will have a even newer laser system. Microsoft 360s are dropping like flies from the early shipments. And this is the golden age?
This isn't the golden age, This is the dung heap that people are telling us it's the golden age. The golden age was when games were good consoles were solid, and games sold like hot cakes. Super Mario Brothers 3 sold 40 million, because it was a great game on a system that everyone had, not because it broke systems, required you to pay 50 bucks for a second controller and then had glitches after all that.
The next generation could be a golden age, when everyone takes a step back from the power race and focuses on the gamer, not beating their opponents bloody.
Julian Murdoch over at Gamers With Jobs thinks that this is the best time ever to be a gamer.
In other news, dairy farmers throughout the world wish to remind the public of the miraculous health properties of milk and cheese, and potato farmers, noting the potato's abundance of Vitamin C, have also made an announcement that a diet rich in potatoes is a great way to avoid any possibility of scurvy.
yeah this is the age of super expensive consoles and games (ps3 xbox360) and old consoles repackaged in a new case with a new controller (gamecube -> wii). all the games are the same old crap but cost more. golden age my hairy ass
I think you're just emphasizing on the basics of the expression (Golden Age) but like anything, the expression "Golden Age" has various meanings. in this example i would say it means more an era, a state where everything is just simpler, broad, easy and trouble-free. (like the 70s was the golden age of pot and steamy windshields!!)
In the case of the article, I believe golden age is right. With the current state of the market, every type of gamer can find their fair share of games. young, teen, adult, seniors, they can all play and from various source like consoles, cell phones, PCs, portable console and each source offers a pletora of styles and each styles has a truckload of titles.
Sure you can refer to the 70s-80s as the golden age if you like but it was not as golden as it is now. Back then, ok so we had pacman, defender, pong and they ARE classics but they only appealed to a small portion of people - compared to what gaming is today we might want to call it the jurassic age (which came WAY before greeks and their golden age of mythology). then things evolved so much that right now, its a free for all - you wanna game, sure ok, choose your style, choose your game and play!
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
The Golden Age can't be now (not for me anyway) because I have a job, a spouse, kids and a house to attend to. Oh there are plenty of great games I would love to play and really immerse my self in, but I can't really get the time.
Now my son OTOH is five. He plays SMS and Zelda on Game Cube, and various Mario and Wario titles on his Game Boy. He doesn't quite get some of them yet, but he'll get better. His Golden Age is rapidly approaching. More games than ever to play, and a whole childhood to play them in.
Sadly my time is over, until I retire that is.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
Sure sequels have been around for awhile but now the game industry is DRIVEN by these, not by new ideas.
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
Mod parent up.
This is exactly the problem with games today. Everyone is playing it safe now...it's Hollywood. Nobody wants to take risks or just make fun and challenging games anymore. There are FAR fewer good games these days. Don't let pretty graphics and sound fool you.
I can't honestly believe that anyone that has been gaming since the 80s can say that this is another golden age and keep a straight face...
Well if this is a "golden age" then which is better? C&C: Generals or Rome: Total War?
Come on, I bet if you split the past two decades up into two or three year 'ages', the fraction of great, good, mediocre and crap games would be fairly constant.
I wouldn't call this a golden age, but things certainly aren't as bad as some people make out. Apart from anything else, sequels aren't always a bad thing (Pikmin 2, for example).
If you're only watching the big headlines and TV commercials, of course you'll wonder how all these sequels and the joke of PS3 is a "golden age." There is an awful lot of crap out there, probably more than before.
But if you keep your eye on the good stuff, it has never been equalled. HL2 (and its episodes), the upcoming Portal and TF2, Oblivion, all the DS's great games, the upcoming Wii, Shadow of Colossus, that painted dog game on PS2 (forget name sorry), Xbox Live, upcoming Mass Effect, MMOGs like EVE and WoW. The list just goes on and on of games that are at the height of design.
It's like television. If you look at all the crap, there's sure a whole lotta crap. The best of today's television is the best television there's ever been, though. Battlestar Galactica, Adult Swim, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, The Wire; as well as shows that were on only a year ago like Everybody Loves Raymond and Band of Brothers (guess that's a little older). I even think some of the reality shows are really good. Shows like Project Runway show you into an industry you'd probably never be able to enter, without it having to be a sitcom "about an eclectic bunch of friends living in Manhattan" that happen to work in fashion. Yes it's tuned for entertainment, but there's a helluva lot more reality in a reality show than there is in a sitcom.
Maybe if you did a mathematical breakdown averaging the quality of shows, this decade might not win because of all the total crap. That's obviously not fair since there used to only be a dozen channels. If you look at the best of time, though, I'd put the stuff we have now up against anything. All-time greats like The Cosby Show or MASH or Homicide: Life in the Streets alone can't beat the number of quality shows we have today.
But of course since this is the internet this opinion makes me very uncool. Oh well. That'd be a problem if I had any respect whatsoever for the "Everything Sucks, Everything Else is Better" attitude of the internet.
Julian Murdoch thinks that this is the best time ever to be a gamer
Well of course it is, as time goes by, more and more games are created, more and more consoles are created, more and more emulators are developped, and nothing disappears.
Being a gamer in 2020 > being a gamer in 2010 > being a gamer in 2005 > being a gamer in 2000 > being a gamer in 1995 > being a gamer in 1985 > being a gamer in 1975 > being a gamer in 1930.
You just got troll'd!
I'm not saying things are the bottom of the barrel, I'm just saying its far from a 'Golden Age' as the article supposes. There are few companies taking risks now due to the extreme cost of games, whereas it was much easier in the 80s, 90s, or even earlier in this decade to do so.
To another poster - yes there have ALWAYS been games tied to licenses (movies, books, etc.) it just seems the percentage of games which are not licensed off of previous content or a sequal to a previous game is EXTREMELY small.
I've been gaming since the 70's- and I think this is the golden age.
I can go out and buy a game that has better mini-games than anything that was made in the 80's. An easy, if over-used example would be Geometry Wars, which was just a small part of Project Gotham Racing 2.
The on-line gaming space is absolutely fantastic now. Not only are there millions of opportunities for you to get a game going, but the games actually WORK. Just last night I was playing Call of Duty 2 on my Xbox 360. Rooms would fill up with 8 people in just about 1 minute. The lag was imperceptible, the automatic matchmaking meant that the competition was good- AND we could all chat while playing!
In the 1980's I couldn't even dream that I would be able to TALK to a player who was thousands of miles away, as we planned our attack on 4 opposing human players in a fairly realistic 3d world. And while I was crouched, protecting our radio (headquarters) I could tell where the enemy was using my surround sound system. And when the enemy finally made it to the door, my team-mate sniper could tell me "move to the left, I have a clear shot".
Maybe this isn't for you. Maybe you would rather play a game by yourself, pushing colored blocks around while sub-midi quality music played repetitively through your speakers.
I do remember multi-player in the 80's it was a lot of fun. My friends and I would sit around a computer and take turns playing a game. (Whoever lost the last city in Missle Command would get pummeled by the rest of us.) It was great fun. Now I have the option of Internet gaming, OR we can still gather around one box and play. (I do both)
As someone who has been gaming consistently for 30 years (sadly...yes, for 30 years consistently and nearly constantly) it is my opinion that games have never been better.
No reason to lie.
The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality.
The game publishing industry is driven mostly by the same people who drive the rest of the entertainment industry (after all, most game publishers are owned by mega-media corporations). This means that the game publishing industry will be stodgily uncomfortable with risk. Risk to these people is anything that hasn't made money before; ergo, you will see lots of sequels (most crappy, the rare one occasionally good), lots of games based on other properties that have made money. That's just the way media corporations function.
What Golden age? The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality.
You're judging the current state of gaming by looking at the worst examples. Yes there's a lot of crap out there right now, but I think there's always going to be crap. Don't focus on the crap.
If you sift through the crap and instead focus on the best examples of gaming, I think the author is right, there's an amazing variety of innovative games out there right now.
& I wish I knew the password to your heart . . . &
I don't think it's the games getting worse. CS:S was a worthy second to CS, WoW and Guild Wars satisfy MMO needs on both sides of the camp, and there have been some solid RTS releases in the past few years aswell. I think people are getting tired of the interface. For how many years have we been sitting with mice and keyboards? The games may be different, wrapped in prettier colours every year, but the interface is the same. Gaming is fighting a downhill struggle in that it not only has to deal with exhausted genres where it has no option but to repeat the fundamentals of the past three big releases, but it also has to deal with the inevitable fact that people will get bored of physically doing the same thing over and over. I think that's another reason why PC is losing ground to the console. Each iteration brings a host of new peripherals, and while they may just be new takes on old fundamentals (Wii excluded), it's still something new, and new is the only reason why we buy games in the first place. Alternatively, it could just be me being too eager for VR gaming.
"Looking back, things always seem better because you tend to remember the good bits more than the mediocre."
That's part of it. The other half is that as games have become more realistic, the imagination has had less opportunity to fill in the blanks as it were. People are remembering not only what was in front of them, but the aftertaste that their imaginations left behind.
I don't know about the article, but my "Golden Age of Gaming" was roughly 15 years ago with my Atari 2600 and Nintendo.
I love my current gaming just as much, but the days of playing the original Final Fantasy till 4am is still fresh in my mind.
Golden Age is subjective.
- 1. Those are all trademarks of last generation, now we Steam on the PC, XNA express/Xbox Live Market place on the Xbox 360, and the Virtual Console on the Wii to bring back Indy innovation with viable distribution models... Releasing us of our dependence on publisher cranking up the sequel machine. With Indy players taking a piece of the pie it will encourage the big industry players to start innovating to compete...
- 2. That's not even taking into account all the ideas surely buzzing through their heads with how to leverage things like the Wii-mote and newly available download distribution models available across the board.
- 3. From a Technological stand point we're hitting the next plateau graphically. Games evolved in 2D for quite some time, Atari 2600, then they improved during the time of 8bit consoles and they hit their peak during the 16bit console era (SNES, Genesis), they've only improved marginally since then. Then we had early 3D stuff the PS1 and Saturn had fairly basic graphics, PS2 and Xbox dramatically improved on that but they still weren't perfect and now with the latest crop of consoles we're reaching a graphical plateau where a lot of the graphical shortcomings are more Dependant on developer effort then system performance. Whenever you reach a graphical plateau the effort pushes more towards other areas, like solid gameplay, good level design and a better story.
Through all of that of course the PC was evolving with the consoles, typically a half step ahead. I didn't RTFA but that's my impression of the coming generation (Xbox360, Wii, PS3, and the latest PC tech)... IMO we wont start seeing the fruits of the golden age until sometime next year with but a teaser this holiday.Collector's Edition
I don't see how having a lot of sequals are bad things. Many of the best games I've ever played are sequals, such as Baldur's Gate 2, Galactic Civilizations 2, both Medieval and Rome Total War, Caesar 3, ect. This isn't like movies where sequals are very often blatant cash grabs. In many cases, game sequals are honest attempts to improve upon their predecessors, and in many cases they are successful.
Your comment pisses me off, there. I own the original Half-Life, and I bought the Bronze (6 CD) edition of HL2. I get on steam, Steam changes my Half Life 1 and does it's 'upgrades' then tells me my CD key is in use, registered to another user. Same with my HL2. I can't play either game I paid for, and while it was far too late for a refund for the original HL, they refused to take my HL2 back and give me a refund or even attempt to remey a god-damned thing. I just lost money, FOR NOTHING. So I've got a reason to bitch about Steam, fuck you very much.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
For us (25+ y.o. gamers, I'm 36), the "Golden Age" is over, because we grew out of it. Things can't ever be "new and exciting" again, because we have been looking at it for the last 10 or 25+ years. Maybe when we can plug in to a neural net or something.
For my kids, though, holy cow! For $50 I got a flash cart that can play almost 30 years worth of console games on my son's GBA. He has a library of over a hundred games, and they are all fun for him, no "Yo' Noid" crap. In less than 2 months, my daughter will be waving a contol around like a tennis raquett, or turning like a steering wheel, just like I did with my Atari 2600 joysticks and paddles. But hers will actually control the game! Would you just kill for that back in our "Golden Age" of the 70's and 80's and early 90's?
And yesterday, my youngest asked my daughter a question about ninja's. Her response: "Let's ask the computer." In 2 or 3 minutes, he had color pictures printed and hanging on his door and his question was answered. I remember when Scotty asked the computer questions, now my kids do it
So I think that todays kid's "Golden Age" kicks ass, just like ours did.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
You made some very good points. I agree that online gaming has opened up a lot of doors and introduced things we never dreamed of as kids. You can really immerse yourself in some of today's games.
I play just as many new games as I did 20 years ago. I appreciate the advances that have been made over the years. You have to realize that even though I obviously don't consider this the best time in gaming, it's certainly not the worst either. From your response it seems that you think I have to love one or the other, but not both.
I just don't feel that the games of today live up to the peak that was hit in the early to mid 90's. Maybe it's nostalgia, but maybe it's because I think games back then had more character.
I'd hardly classify the 80s and 90s and "pushing colored blocks around while sub-midi quality music played repetitively through your speakers".
Maybe I have a greater appreciation for art style than I do for 3D modeling and texturing.
Anyways, I completely respect your views and I'm glad you responded.
One PvP game with a lot of potential coming out next year is Warhammer Online:w s.html?sid=6147072&mode=recent w s.html?sid=6154042&mode=recent
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/ne
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/ne
It is being created by Mythic, the guys who made one of the early PvP MMORPGs, Dark Age of Camelot. It has a long, detailed history of material to work from. And it has had a long time to observe what World of Warcraft has done with its MMORPG, and how fans have responded to those decisions.
I am holding out hope that this is the game PvPers have been waiting for. Logging into WoW and killing wandering, scripted mobs gets old quickly. And joining one of the WoW battlegrounds and killing other WoWers is... okay, but is obviously not the main focus of WoW.
Warhammer, on the other hand, is built with PvP in mind first. You can level from 1 to whatever the level cap is completely through quests and missions to kill other PCs and capture live, enemy towns. The potential is huge, they just need a compelling PvP system that rewards skill over gear... that's the tricky part.
I guess that if we apply "golden age" to the moment where the new medium was born (electronic gaming) then yes, golden age was back in the 70-80s.
:) in the strict sense, we're in a renaissance era - not a golden one.
but i still believe we are in a golden age of gaming - probably more on the end of it.
maybe this decade hasnt seen the birth of gaming but lots of new faces of gaming were born. if golden age simply means the moment of artistic evolution where people just go and let their mind be creative with a medium then we have to talk about all the various faces of gaming. : 3d shooters, puzzlers, MMOs.
but im not gonna argue againt Wiki and you
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Well of course, all you ever need to know about ninjas is right here.
"What Golden age? The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality."
You have not just listed the sum total of all games currently available. You've just listed the games that suck (at least in your opinion - some people apparently enjoy those games, or they wouldn't sell). But for every "sequel of [a] previous game", and for every game based on a "crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. license" I can probably name a game that isn't. Some of those "license" games are decent, and some of the non-license games aren't that great either.
The truth is, there are a *hell* of a lot of games out there now. So you have to dig a little bit to find the games *you* like. And guess what, whatever game *you* like, there will be 10 people who think that games sucks. That's the nature of an open market. Choices, choices, choices. What'll you have?
It is impossible that every game ever made should please every game player out there. Some people love the Elder Scrolls Series, other people can't figure out what people see in those games. I personally have been rather enjoying myself, playing City of Heroes (a game which, while not based on an original concept, per se, does not use *any* licenses at all - they created their own universe from the ground up, essentially, not withstanding Marvel's bull**** lawsuit) for the last year and a half. It's the longest time I've ever played any MMOG. My previous record was 6 months before moving on. But I'm sure there's plenty of people who would find CoH to be too shallow (it is, in fact, quite a lot simpler than most other MMORGPs, involving more of an action-oriented gameplay, than extensive character development, skills systems, or economies [there practically is *no* economy in CoH]).
But, I tend to agree with the sentiment that we are in more of a Golden Age of gaming than a dark-age. It's just that it's hard to see, because there are *so many* games, that people tend to think that most of the games suck. But I'd wager there's more games that any particular player would have fun playing, than what they could really play in a year. Sometimes a title grows on you. I got Morrowind shortly after it came out about, what, 4 or 5 years ago? It's a very slow-starting game, and at the time, I moved on to other things that I was, really, quite a bit more interested in at the time. Recently, I decided to come back to it and give it another try. It's really a decent game once you play it for what it is, and not try to force it to play like other games you may have played. That said, it does leave a few things to be desired (I haven't tried Oblivion yet - I hear that the world in Oblivion is supposed to be less 'static' than the Morrowind world, which was my main hang-up with Mw - kind of feels like I'm walking around interacting with card-board cut-outs with notes attached to em). The point is, there are a lot more games out there that are really good games, that you completely ignore with your dismissive attitude about crappy sequels, lame license games, and {insert sports franchise} {insert year} titles.
no good team fortress mod out(best multiplayer fps of all time). sourceforts is ok.
good new rts? maybe CoH, but it's too easy and too short. nothing like C&C, populous, starcraft, civilization or other RTS classics have come out in a long time. civ4= civ3 clone with 3d. it's not a "new game."
sports games are no different than the last few years except with new team/stats/player database
recent FPS games: fear, prey. both pretty "been there, done that." maybe portal will be cool. hl2 was a good engine a couple years ago but they haven't done much with it yet other than the mediocre single player game, and the sourcified CS which has been dumbed down to compete with halo.
MMORPG is still WoW, unless you like 5+ year old games
there haven't been any new great games in the past 3 years, pretty much. it seems like a Crappy Age, not a Golden Age.
I agree this is a golden age.... for real time strategy and (maybe) first person shooters.
The reason I say maybe on the first person shooters is..can you really compare anything released in the last 3 years to the impact of, first, DOOM, then DukeNukem 3d?
But aside from that...I am SO sick of RTS games.
I know it is because the developers are developing for twitch gamers, and the suckers who buy every console that comes out, as soon as it comes out. (son, looking over my shoulder, says "why did you call me a sucker?" I say "son, they developed those games on PC's; there is no reason in the world they don't release them on PC's, except to drive console sales".
Where is the Xcom: Enemy Unknown of this Golden Age? the Civilization? The Railroad Tycoon? The Ultima Underground? The Dungeon Keeper I&II? The first 3 Wing Commanders? Settlers 1 & 2? Master of Orion 1&2? Star Control 2? Loom? and finally, (hushed) The Master of Magic?
Golden Age my Ass.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
what happened to strange and original concepts, anyone remember midwinter and midwinter2:Flames of freedom on the amiga, or Covert action? it's all been replaced by twitch 1st person shooters or incredibly huge rpgs that none have the time to finish. Just give my brain some exercise damn it...gawd, cant stand waiting til the next Phoenix wright is out on the DS...good games are far between.
Whenever some era in history is cited as a Golden Age, it's usually associated with (relatively) very high prosperity. Even if we expand the definition to very high achievement, I don't know what era I would label as a Golden Age, but might be inclined to believe the present day it. Such a label though... very subjective, each era has it's share of causalties, and it's probably too soon to decide.
A renaissance, on the other hand, is associated with many dramatic shifts in both the tools and techniques available. For practical reasons, only a few participants adopt the new stuff, perfecting it to a point where the major producers (and users) feel comfortable enough to adopt it themselves. With the variety of platforms, peripheral devices, distribution sytems, and gameplay available, I'd look at the past couple years (plus the next one or two) as a mini-rennaisance.
Quality or not, it keeps the industry in business. I'd argue that we should be encouraged that these big publishers are catering to the video game industry (with their Madden NFL sequels and the like), since those sales volumes justify the continued support for your adopted platform, or any platform at all. I'm partial to the Splinter Cell series so I guess I'm part of the quality 'problem' since each is really the same game using different maps. However, IMO, ChaosTheory is a whole lot better than the original due to those little additions.
Especially for PC games, it's become easier than ever to buy non-mass-marketed games - if we don't limit ourselves to the mall game store. And anyway, the big producers aren't going to be assuming the risk - there should be smaller outfits willing to test the market for them.
.kkrieger, which break from the standard approaches to graphics - while not techinically new, it's re-inventing it for modern quality (from a programmer's POV, it's cool to observe). The stagnation claim also completely ignores gameplay found in games like Nuclear Dawn, which mix FPS and RTS - a really cool approach, IMO.
* Note: some of the examples I use below are not currently available, even as beta. I know this already, but these examples will be available soon and if they aren't exactly as advertised, they'll be pretty damned close. I'm focusing this post to the range of today +/- 2 years. *
Let's look at the FPS genre, which everyone loves to point at as the ultimate example of genre stagnation. This view discounts the contributions of games like
Outside of FPS, we've got the bizarre, and the very bizarre. We should add cute to the novelty list too.
Tired of the ancient two-handed gamepad controller? Try out the Wii remote.
The above are only a few examples. We've been seeing a number of unique approaches to video games in the past couple years, and these examples have the ability to inspire developers in previously unthought of directions. How many people would have seriously thought of using a controller like a sword for actual gameplay before the Wii remote? The more people thinking about these thin
This is not my sig.
You can't ever recapture the excitement over a "new" genre. Tabletop RPGs as a genre will never be as exciting as the late 70's/yearly 80's because it was a time of exploration and unknown limits, coupled with a large fan base (and anti-fan base too). Same thing with FPS video games. Doom came out and blew everyone away with its themes, multiplayer network action and 2.5D virtual world (that you could expand upon at will). The games that immediately followed captured some of the initial high, but after that it's just the same old, same old.
# 3 different consoles to choose from: Sega - Nintendo - Sony which is now Microsoft - Nintendo - Sony.
If 3 consoles at war makes a golden age, then that one cancels itself out since there's been three since the SNES/Megadrive/PCE matchup.
3 Next generation consoles you can buy: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3
See above. A new generation does not a "golden age" make.
Large library of very good Indie games to choose from
Where? I've got all 3 last-gen systems, a GBA, and a DS. Where can I find these games and play them without voiding my warranties or convoluted exploits? (A sincere question.)
The largest MMORPG in the world is also getting an expansion pack: World of Warcraft
An expansion pack to a GUI to a mediocre MUD is a sign of a golden age? I think your standards may be a bit low.
Innovative gameplay development: Nintendo and Valve just to name a few
Nintendo is a given with the Wii. But what has Valve done that's innovative? And don't say "steam" because that's NOT a gameplay innovation, it's a marketing/control innovation (and even then, the term must be used loosely).
Read this and be prepared to put your money were your mouth is.
...the game industry is DRIVEN by these, not by new ideas.
Yes. Just like Hollywood. My co-workers are sometimes irritated that I don't see the crappy movies they do or watch the cerebral damaging TV trash they like to watch. And yes, I teach them. Also yes, I waste my time on other things.
I think the last generation of consoles were so far ahead of the previous generations that they truly inspired a "golden" age, if that's what you want to call it. The PS2 and the XBox have given us some remarkable and truly creative games -- just think of GTA, unbelievable platformers like Jak, perfection in FPSs and multiplayer games with Halo and Half Life. We've had offbeat games like Psychonauts, Dance Dance, Katamari and the return of the adventure game in games like Fallout. Sports games made insane developments -- Madden as we know it was created for the PS2 and XBox. NBA Street, anybody? Action gaming reached a new height with Ninja Gaiden and the new PoPs. And what about MGS and Rainbow six? Battlefield Earth? Perfect Dark? No One Lives Forever? Each fantastic. Franchises like Metroid and Zelda reached new highs too. Even the Dreamcast pitched in with modern classics like Samba de Amigo, Seaman and of course Soul Calibur.
Now, in the current generation, that initial spurt of creativity seems to be reaching it's tail end. Great games are still being made here and there, but most are just competent sequels, trapped in the same genres defined by the last spurt in creativity. Although great strides have been made in portable gaming - the DS is fabulous, the PSP technically ridiculously comptetent, by and large mainstream games are dull. On consoles and the PC games seem to have temporarily reached a dead end. They're all big budget filler, pretty polygons with AI and gameplay that's hardly advanced. The market is dominated by sequels and rehashes of the same genre - Madden 07, GTA 5, Call of Duty 2, Civ IV, V whatever. When consoles are peddling nostalgia and backwards compatibility, you know that not much new is happening. The thrill of anticipating new games is largely gone. I'm intrigued by the new Wii controller, but I don't think I'm excited enough to preorder it. It's not something I _must_ have. There are a few bright sparks in the landscape - WoW and Oblivion spring to mind, as do Prey and Fear in the FPS genre. But with earlier games if I didn't play them I felt that I was missing out on the great zeitgeist. These are amazing games, but not playing them is not anything to lose sleep over.
If anything, we're at the tail end of a great spurt in gaming. I hope there's a resurgence -- the DS is promising, as is the Wii. But the Xbox 360 and the PS3 only offer more of the same -- bigger and bolder perhaps, but not really much better.
shooting is not too good for my enemies
between the ages of 13 and the player's age when he has his first, long-term relationship.
Steven
While I enjoy many of the games that are out, and due out soon, I couldn't call this a Golden Age. My idea of a Golden Age is when the is fresh, has endless potential and everyone is exited about it. For me (other peoples milage may vary) the Golden Age for non-MMO games ended around the time of Civ (for MMO's it was after "The Big Three", EQ1, AC1 and UO). Not many games are around now that aren't just a variation on those themes/concepts. Current games will get better incrementally, but they just won't have that Golden Age "WOW I gotta get that!!" factor. IMHO, the next Golden Age will be with the introduction of true VR, a la Star Treks holodecks. Not THAT will have major WOW factor...
Where? I've got all 3 last-gen systems, a GBA, and a DS. Where can I find these games and play them without voiding my warranties or convoluted exploits? (A sincere question.)
Are you aware games exist on computers?
But what has Valve done that's innovative?
Portal(Portals) / Half Life 2(Zero Point Gravity Gun)
n expansion pack to a GUI to a mediocre MUD is a sign of a golden age? I think your standards may be a bit low.
This is the sign that games that are well known are continuing to be "well known".
See above. A new generation does not a "golden age" make.
Ah, yet new technology, new innovation and over 7 venues for entertainment does: Computers, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, GameCube, DS, PSP, Gameboy Advanced, Cell Phone, PDA Phone, PDAs, Palms.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
Are you aware games exist on computers?
Depends on your OS.
Ah, yet new technology, new innovation and over 7 venues for entertainment does: Computers, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, GameCube, DS, PSP, Gameboy Advanced, Cell Phone, PDA Phone, PDAs, Palms.
I think you give them far too much credit. That's 3 venues, tops. Computer, Console, Handheld. Same as we've had for 15 years.