Gaming Then and Now

[AChrisToThePast]

So I don't know if anybody else thinks like me (face it we're all alike but different), but I'd have to say today's gaming isn't on par with what it was say 1985-2005 (just using those as starting and ending dates because I'm no historian). I mean within those years we saw Zelda (yay), Mario, and Pokemon just starting out. I mean I like what they have done with almost every Zelda game but there are some games out there that I feel the series should probably just come to an end. I'll use a non-Nintendo game, Halo for example. I can't speak for everyone but I loved Halo CE through Halo 3, ODST was a bummer and Reach wasn't that great to me. Now they are going to release Halo 4 which isn't made by Bungie (I think most of us knew that lol) and I'm not saying 343 doesn't have it together, but I am saying can they really do what Bungie did and will the series still have its spark? Pokemon kinda falls to this as well, then again it's just my opinion. I mean Red, Blue, and Yellow were fantastic. I kinda lost touch with Pokemon at the 3rd generation because I felt like it was carrying on for too long, like a never ending story. I'm not saying that these games are bad in terms of gameplay but what I am saying is that hasn't the story lived for too long? I understand Mario will never die out because that is Nintendo's icon, pretty much their key money maker. Everyone knows Mario. I feel Zelda should still continue though because with every game it seems they are able to just mold together events and everything seems to make sense. Also there has been no real ending, no key event that signals an end... it's just as the game suggest it's a legend and with that I feel they are able to make more titles. I did not mention Call of Duty because I know those games will be created for the multiplayer aspect more than the campaign/story aspect. Anyways these were just my thoughts on gaming today. Let me know what you think.

 

[SS,OoT,WW,TP]

Of course it was better back in the day, because these days everyone is obsessed with first person shooters and dance games.

 

[AChrisToThePast]

Of course it was better back in the day, because these days everyone is obsessed with first person shooters and dance games.

I could almost agree with you lol. The point I was trying to make though wasn't the consumers wants and their tastes, but instead the game developers ideas and the originality of what they are doing. It almost seems as if everyone is out of ideas.

 

[Ventus]

Gaming as a principle I think is better back then than it is today. I mean, to be "gaming" one would have to go over their friend's house and hook up the PS2/PS1/N64 and we would all play a 4 player multiplayer game (e.g Goldeneye 007, Turok, Quake, Doom, Mario Party 2 or 3, etc). For more extreme gamers, we could go to a LAN party and play something like Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, StarCraft Brood Wars, Diablo 2...and more. We had to bring drinks or food or something, and we took breaks to go play outside or something, then got back to gaming. All of that is in the past though. Most games today don't even support two player split screen because they're so worried about the best graphics that they can't allow the game to have fun ports. The games that do usually only have two players versus each other, they don't make an effort to put bots (ingame CPU AI that fights against or with you) in shooters anymore, it's so disappointing. Gaming just consists of sitting on your own couch, using a mic playing online. No more offline gaming, guys. At least at LAN parties, we had to get off our behinds and make an effort. Another thing to notice is that buying games using disc based media is slowly but surely being out of tune. It used to be awesome to go to the store with a bunch of friends and get that newest (or not so newest) release, and pop it in the system to play! Now, we can just make all our purchases online with no hassle. Sure, it's convenient, but it isn't fun IMO.

Now, onto games themselves. I still say they were better in the past, though some games (e.g CoD) I think are better now. Past games that I think are better: Ocarina of Time versus say Twilight Princess, Soul Calibur 2 rather than 4, Tekken Tag Tournament rather than T6 (because Jun is in TTT but not T6), Dead or Alive 2 instead of 4 and so on. There's an element of physics present in the old games that just aren't there in the new games. Even the bugs and glitches of older games are better and more fun to encounter, exploitable to that matter, than the bugs and glitches of new games.

One other thing is the communities. Back then, shooters used to be so awesome. Even Zelda fans were into shooters, because Zelda fans back then were older people. Now, today's Zelda fans are generally just a bunch of sniveling brats who think that they're cool because they play a game with story. As if. Back then, we didn't have trolls or flamers or hateboys or whatever. We all respected each other. Nowadays, Zelda fans are constantly at war with Call of Duty and Halo for no reason at all (except for cases where the CoD/Halo/360 fanboy starts trolling Zelda out of the blue). Even without that, hardcore communities like MLG didn't exist, and we actually had a reason to use XFire, Ventrilo, and other stuff (Vent is still required for Guild Wars high level guilds so ya). Clans were just groups of friends, we didn't necessarily play for money though tourneys still existed in the form of LAN parties. It drives me crazy how badly comunities and gaming have had rifts driven into them. Gaming and communities back then were so awesome, now they're just boring.

So ya, gaming back then is way better IMO than now. People will argue the whole "but it's more convenient", but it is also so much LESS fun.

 

[SS,OoT,WW,TP]

I could almost agree with you lol. The point I was trying to make though wasn't the consumers wants and their tastes, but instead the game developers ideas and the originality of what they are doing. It almost seems as if everyone is out of ideas.

Ok, well some games have been going on so long that they can't come up with anything good now, and most companies lost their original creative thinkers that made the first games, then when the new guys come in their ideas just aren't as great as the original people who worked on that game.

 

[AChrisToThePast]

Gaming as a principle I think is better back then than it is today. I mean, to be "gaming" one would have to go over their friend's house and hook up the PS2/PS1/N64 and we would all play a 4 player multiplayer game (e.g Goldeneye 007, Turok, Quake, Doom, Mario Party 2 or 3, etc). For more extreme gamers, we could go to a LAN party and play something like Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, StarCraft Brood Wars, Diablo 2...and more. We had to bring drinks or food or something, and we took breaks to go play outside or something, then got back to gaming. All of that is in the past though. Most games today don't even support two player split screen because they're so worried about the best graphics that they can't allow the game to have fun ports. The games that do usually only have two players versus each other, they don't make an effort to put bots (ingame CPU AI that fights against or with you) in shooters anymore, it's so disappointing. Gaming just consists of sitting on your own couch, using a mic playing online. No more offline gaming, guys. At least at LAN parties, we had to get off our behinds and make an effort. Another thing to notice is that buying games using disc based media is slowly but surely being out of tune. It used to be awesome to go to the store with a bunch of friends and get that newest (or not so newest) release, and pop it in the system to play! Now, we can just make all our purchases online with no hassle. Sure, it's convenient, but it isn't fun IMO.

Now, onto games themselves. I still say they were better in the past, though some games (e.g CoD) I think are better now. Past games that I think are better: Ocarina of Time versus say Twilight Princess, Soul Calibur 2 rather than 4, Tekken Tag Tournament rather than T6 (because Jun is in TTT but not T6), Dead or Alive 2 instead of 4 and so on. There's an element of physics present in the old games that just aren't there in the new games. Even the bugs and glitches of older games are better and more fun to encounter, exploitable to that matter, than the bugs and glitches of new games.

One other thing is the communities. Back then, shooters used to be so awesome. Even Zelda fans were into shooters, because Zelda fans back then were older people. Now, today's Zelda fans are generally just a bunch of sniveling brats who think that they're cool because they play a game with story. As if. Back then, we didn't have trolls or flamers or hateboys or whatever. We all respected each other. Nowadays, Zelda fans are constantly at war with Call of Duty and Halo for no reason at all (except for cases where the CoD/Halo/360 fanboy starts trolling Zelda out of the blue). Even without that, hardcore communities like MLG didn't exist, and we actually had a reason to use XFire, Ventrilo, and other stuff (Vent is still required for Guild Wars high level guilds so ya). Clans were just groups of friends, we didn't necessarily play for money though tourneys still existed in the form of LAN parties. It drives me crazy how badly comunities and gaming have had rifts driven into them. Gaming and communities back then were so awesome, now they're just boring.

So ya, gaming back then is way better IMO than now. People will argue the whole "but it's more convenient", but it is also so much LESS fun.

Yes gaming seems to be less fun now, with it being user friendly and all the challenge seems to have been removed as well as the fun factor. Zelda still maintains it's features that have always made it Zelda. I also used to spend countless days playing SSB with my friends and that kind of gaming has died down a lot. Although features like XBL and PSN are great they do take away from that old style of gaming, getting together with friends and what not. I was once a part of the competitive gaming scene and I hate it, so much. Most people are rude and do nothing but talk trash. I've heard very few people say anything negative towards Zelda but those who have were your typical CoD fanboys. I miss Halo 3 MLG gameplay, I feel it was a great community of competitive gamers. Once CoD make its big jump though the community got worse and worse it seemed to me.

Ok, well some games have been going on so long that they can't come up with anything good now, and most companies lost their original creative thinkers that made the first games, then when the new guys come in their ideas just aren't as great as the original people who worked on that game.

Yes the game developers have seemed to run out of ideas. Most game series and franchises are either past dead or on the verge of being that way. If game developers spent more time trying to create a new and original idea rather than try to innovate something broken maybe we would see something new. There is another half to this as well, us. As consumers and gamers we must accept the dying off of a series and try to accept the new ideas a company releases, if more people could be open-minded about gaming I think it would take a fast uprise and put gaming onto a better course.

 

[Ventus]

I never found Halo 3 or any Halo except Halo CE to have particularly good professional/1337 gaming. I don't know, I guess it's because I played Delta Force, Unreal Tournament and now Call of Duty which all feel pretty similar to me, but Halo doesn't. I have never been part of the Halo pro community so I can't and won't comment. All I know now is that today there are a bunch of people who don't care about the fun and just cuss up a storm thinking they're cool, but back then we all were pretty chill even if we knew nothing of each other.

 

[AChrisToThePast]

This is quite true. No matter what games you are playing today the whole attitude of gamers have changed. If people could just take in what things used to be maybe we not only have a little of that old school fun back but maybe heat it up with a little new school competition. The gaming community seems more divided than united.

 

[MW7]

Most games today don't even support two player split screen because they're so worried about the best graphics that they can't allow the game to have fun ports. The games that do usually only have two players versus each other, they don't make an effort to put bots (ingame CPU AI that fights against or with you) in shooters anymore, it's so disappointing. Gaming just consists of sitting on your own couch, using a mic playing online. No more offline gaming, guys.

This is why I think Perfect Dark on the N64 is still the best multiplayer shooting game there is. I own Halo 2 and 3; COD 2, Modern Warfare 1 and 2, and Black Ops; and Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter 1 and 2. Give us customizable bots in today's games. I was so excited by the prospect of the combat simulator in Black Ops, but then upon playing the game I realized you are limited to using bots only in deathmatch amongst the numerous game modes. Honestly it was the most disappointed I've ever been by a video game, and it was entirely because of that one aspect. Upon discovering this I turned off my Xbox 360, found my Gamecube, put in 007 Nightfire, and played 6 on 1 capture the flag on Fort Knox. I know next to nothing about programming, but how hard is it to make AI hover around an area. Instead of making this possible, the designers just block off the game modes.

The gameplay is just so good in Perfect Dark. Taking that one step further, Goldeneye on the N64 is the best single player fps experience ever IMO.

 

[Ventus]

Well I know next to nothing about programming either, but from what I do know AI coding does take a bit of time, patience and experience. You have to know all your algorithms and tags and what not, as well as having proper tracking/spacing/terrain detection. There's a myriad more and much more technical stuff to get into. So I suppose from a developer viewpoint, bots would be harder to make than to just block of game modes (I agree, combat training in Black Ops was a huge disappointment because I was so expecting to play Domination with my friends offline). But if the lack of good AI bots is due to the game having such great graphics, I say forget the graphics. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye 007 and old FPS on the N64 really are the best because of what they do. Not because of online play, but because the offline play is the best yet.

 

[AChrisToThePast]

Well I know next to nothing about programming either, but from what I do know AI coding does take a bit of time, patience and experience. You have to know all your algorithms and tags and what not, as well as having proper tracking/spacing/terrain detection. There's a myriad more and much more technical stuff to get into. So I suppose from a developer viewpoint, bots would be harder to make than to just block of game modes (I agree, combat training in Black Ops was a huge disappointment because I was so expecting to play Domination with my friends offline). But if the lack of good AI bots is due to the game having such great graphics, I say forget the graphics. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye 007 and old FPS on the N64 really are the best because of what they do. Not because of online play, but because the offline play is the best yet.

That last statement was nothing but the truth. 007 was the bane of my existence but no matter how many times I died I enjoyed every second of it. Perfect Dark was a really innovative shooter to me because if memory recalls it had a few minigames right?

 

[Seth]

Back in my day we had to blow into the games to make them work! You kids are spoiled what with these fancy schmancy "CDs" you have.
I still find it depressing that games like OoT are considering "classic gaming" now, I'm not that old am I?
I am always hesitant to say old games are better, I mean would that not be a personal bias there? I feel like of course I would pick the games I grew up with. The NES, SNES, N64 and PS2 all hold special places and my memories in my heart.
VanitasXII made a great post earlier, he mentioned LAN parties. That reminds me of back in high school we got a demo of Unreal Tournament and during web design class we would play it all against each other on LAN. We would get a project and have two weeks to finish, so of course we finished all in one day so we could play for two weeks and the teacher didn't care. Oh man best class I ever had. We managed to get past the demo blocker and play the full game too, the file was named like Demo_blocker or something amazing simple like that, it was amazingly easy to just delete the file and play the old games. Would probably be a lot harder to do that today.
And yeah when I first got here the whole 'war' between FPS and Zelda type games confused me. Back in the day we all played both types. If a game was good it was good there was never so much division. While it existed I also don't remember all this "hardcore" vs "casual" crap thats everywhere today being nearly so bad.
I also miss the days where Nintendo was king. Today there is XBOX vs Playstation vs Nintendo. Back in the day we had the whole Sega vs Nintendo and even Atari a little bit but they fizzled out. There was the Jaguar I think it was, but that system bombed. Anyways even with the competition Nintendo owned back then, at least the American market. They were next to none. Nowadays that really isn't the case anymore.
My favorite game ever is on N64 (OoT), but I still think the SNES was the greatest all around gaming system of all time. It still provides me hours of entertainment to this day.

 

[AChrisToThePast]

Back in my day we had to blow into the games to make them work! You kids are spoiled what with these fancy schmancy "CDs" you have.
I still find it depressing that games like OoT are considering "classic gaming" now, I'm not that old am I?
I am always hesitant to say old games are better, I mean would that not be a personal bias there? I feel like of course I would pick the games I grew up with. The NES, SNES, N64 and PS2 all hold special places and my memories in my heart.
VanitasXII made a great post earlier, he mentioned LAN parties. That reminds me of back in high school we got a demo of Unreal Tournament and during web design class we would play it all against each other on LAN. We would get a project and have two weeks to finish, so of course we finished all in one day so we could play for two weeks and the teacher didn't care. Oh man best class I ever had. We managed to get past the demo blocker and play the full game too, the file was named like Demo_blocker or something amazing simple like that, it was amazingly easy to just delete the file and play the old games. Would probably be a lot harder to do that today.
And yeah when I first got here the whole 'war' between FPS and Zelda type games confused me. Back in the day we all played both types. If a game was good it was good there was never so much division. While it existed I also don't remember all this "hardcore" vs "casual" crap thats everywhere today being nearly so bad.
I also miss the days where Nintendo was king. Today there is XBOX vs Playstation vs Nintendo. Back in the day we had the whole Sega vs Nintendo and even Atari a little bit but they fizzled out. There was the Jaguar I think it was, but that system bombed. Anyways even with the competition Nintendo owned back then, at least the American market. They were next to none. Nowadays that really isn't the case anymore.
My favorite game ever is on N64 (OoT), but I still think the SNES was the greatest all around gaming system of all time. It still provides me hours of entertainment to this day.

I'd have to say you're right. I was born in 94 but I mean I grew up on a NES, SNES, and a 64. I spent hours on those systems and OoT was how I learned to read lol. To me it's a little more than a game. It plays a big role in my life. Games nowadays don't do that. I don't feel too satisfied after going positive in a CoD match because at the end of the day there's still a screaming 10 year old in my ear. I'm always down to say I prefer the classics, oh and a classic still holds it's value so... I consider OoT a classic. Might as well be a treasure to me.

 

[isaix]

Well,to me the problem is not exactly that classics were better then the current gen games,its just(I dont know for Sony and Microsoft),but Nintendo games these days are TOO EASY,I dont say that all classics where hard,but today there are a lot of games that the actual challenge of the game is the see the Game Over screen and its NOT normal:I remember the N64 days with Super Mario 64 when we saw that red screen,Mario is all dizzy and I say ''Game Over'',but with Super Mario Galaxy its Barely if I can remember the game over screen and dont even ask for Super Mario Galaxy 2 because I never saw the Game Over Screen.Or with the Sonic The Hedgehog serie,It took me lot more than 3hrs to beat Sonic 3 and Knuckles,it took me years to beat Sonic 1 without cheat codes and I never beat Sonic 2 without cheats codes,but I beat Sonic Colors,Sonic and the black knight and Sonic unleashed in a blur,in less than a day,why?:Sonic Colors had a lot more stages than Sonic 1,but it was SO easy that I beat the game in 3hrs and if you can beat a game in a day of course it will not looks not as fun as it used to be with the classics,if Sega could make there games harder we could enjoy them a lot more,Sonic doesn't need a Team,a Sword,to transform into a Werehog or returning to his past to be awesome,just challenge like the Genesis and Advance days is enough.All games doesn't need to be like Megaman to be enjoyable,but challenge can make a game so much better (if its too easy) and Nintendo really need to work on that to make there games like they used to be.

 

[dazzsheil]

I think local multiplayer truly died in April 2002 with the launch of Xbox Live.

Game companys are now focusing on the online more than anything nowadays(even as far as not even including the single player).Online removed all the REAL Social Activity from games.You played with people you know not some asian kid halfway across the damn world.Gaming was wayyyy better before the Dreamcast era.Games were more fn and story driven