Decline is gaming officially over

[Ravielsk]

I think yall are focusing too much on a simple quality meter. Is it good? Is it bad? Actually, the problem with the last 10 years of gaming is less about quality and more about innovation.

I would add to this that its not just a matter or quality and innovation but also of consistency with which both of these occur. If you go back in time you will find plenty of both quality and innovative games released each year. There is a reason why we talk about the 90's or the early 2000's instead of 1998 or 2003 specifically. Its because in those years high quality and innovative titles were coming out each and every year, so picking some sort of definitive "best year" is kind of impossible. Innovation and quality were a consistently present and were the norm.

However as you go forward in time from the start of the 7th gen this trends dies down. Fewer and fewer quality titles are released each year and the few that do come out are usually just derivatives of old stuff. With CRPGs this is especially obvious as those tend to wear their inspirations on their sleeves rather than glossing over them. And look its not like Baldurs Gate is a bad game or a bad basis for a game but 23 years down the line I would expect something new rather than endless throwbacks.

That is really the core problem here. Its that the "golden years" are defined by all three factors (quality, innovation and consistency) being present while the current decline is typified by their absence or imbalance of them. So we may have quality titles but those titles are design wise stuck in the past or innovative titles that are so poorly made it basically does not matter and all of this more or less at random.

 

[ValeVelKal]

The Codex in this thread : "Innovation has died". "There is an anti-innovation climate".
The Codex when a RPG does not reproduce the codes of 20 years ago :

 

[RNGsus]

Piracy will save games.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Reading comprehension matters most

Yes, it's something that you greatly lack. :^)

 

[Hobknobling]

The Internet alone has caused so much cultural turbulence that it is baffling how anyone can think that all the different forms of media have been chugging along at a steady pace without any hiccups.

"It is just nostalgia, bro! Just ignore the most rapid societal change in the history of humankind!"

 

[anvi]

Wow even the retarded children of reddit are starting to catch on:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/r18aeo/aaa_gaming_is_in_a_worrying_state/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/r1d0y6/you_guys_need_to_stop/

 

[samuraigaiden]

Wow even the retarded children of reddit are starting to catch on:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/r18aeo/aaa_gaming_is_in_a_worrying_state/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/r1d0y6/you_guys_need_to_stop/

You are an old man with old man complaints. Take off your nostalgia goggles and just consume product, then get excited for next product

 

[anvi]

Totes. I should be patient and happy with Stardew Valley.

 

[kangaxx]

Yes, there is a dearth of good games around at the moment. In no small part the fault of the masses, who keep cheerfully buying the latest incarnation of Far Cry, Battlefield, COD etc.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

That's not it either though, I like all the other decades except this one. Sometime you are going to have to face it, it's so obvious.

The world back then:

Pick a decade and it was full of good stuff...

And now?

you're cherry-picking stuff instead of going for the drek produced in every decade

Every mountain contains millions of tons of rock. How many contain the shiny gold stuff? Drek is a constant. Quality might be subjective, but it's still finite in terms of amounts and longevity. When it comes to music alone, how many current stars can even play an instrument? Regardless of genre or taste, musical instruments have been used to make music and highlight musical skill for thousands of years. Now pop stars' skills and talent are noted in how many dance moves they know. Even how we quantify music skill has declined. This is as close to an objective marker as we can get with 'art'. Take away the dance routines and autotune and these imitators and stars suckers are toast.

 

[anvi]

That's not it either though, I like all the other decades except this one. Sometime you are going to have to face it, it's so obvious.

The world back then:

Pick a decade and it was full of good stuff...

And now?

you're cherry-picking stuff instead of going for the drek produced in every decade

Every mountain contains millions of tons of rock. How many contain the shiny gold stuff? Drek is a constant. Quality might be subjective, but it's still finite in terms of amounts and longevity. When it comes to music alone, how many current stars can even play an instrument? Regardless of genre or taste, musical instruments have been used to make music and highlight musical skill for thousands of years. Now pop stars' skills and talent are noted in how many dance moves they know. Even how we quantify music skill has declined. This is as close to an objective marker as we can get with 'art'. Take away the dance routines and autotune and these imitators and stars suckers are toast.

 

[Ash]

Now pop stars' skills and talent are noted in how many dance moves they know. Even how we quantify music skill has declined. This is as close to an objective marker as we can get with 'art'. Take away the dance routines and autotune and these imitators and stars suckers are toast.

You're forgetting what is perhaps the final deciding factor for record labels: how attractive they are and how sexual or controversial the "star" is willing to be.

We could see some of this is the 80s/90s but it was early days, only some were operating their business this way, and the artists still needed talent.

Back in the day there was tons of ugly pop music artists. Now it's only the realm of the attractive and/or sexual, with very few exceptions.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Now pop stars' skills and talent are noted in how many dance moves they know. Even how we quantify music skill has declined. This is as close to an objective marker as we can get with 'art'. Take away the dance routines and autotune and these imitators and stars suckers are toast.

You're forgetting what is perhaps the final deciding factor for record labels: how attractive they are and how sexual or controversial the "star" is willing to be.

We could see some of this is the 80s/90s but it was early days, only some were operating their business this way, and the artists still needed talent.

Back in the day there was tons of ugly pop music artists. Now it's only the realm of the attractive and/or sexual, with very few exceptions.

Go back to the beginning of the MTV era. The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star, or Queen's - Radio Ga Ga, pay attention to the lyrics of these latter day rock tunes. They were sad warnings if nothing else. The Tavistock folks knew how to concoct quite the eulogy for the musical form they were sticking a knife into.

 

[Ash]

The Codex in this thread : "Innovation has died". "There is an anti-innovation climate".
The Codex when a RPG does not reproduce the codes of 20 years ago :

Innovation cucks are pretentious. What we need back is the quality first and foremost. Once we have that baseline back, then we can complain about the lack of innovation.

 

[Ravielsk]

Another thing that sort of popped into my head regarding this is how the definition of "retro" has morphed over the years. I remember how around 2003 no one viewed the PS1 as anything else but retro. Not even because of the graphics but simply because the gap between how games were designed on the PS2 compared to the PS1. You couldn't just pick a PS2 title and the walk over to the PS1 and find a identical copy only running at a lower resolution. The overall approach to design was just that different the after only measly 3 years the PS1 was decisively retro.

Compare that to today when its kinda hard to even really call the PS2 a retro console when about 80% of the games released today still run on the same base design philosophies that were authored on the PS2. 21(soon 22) years later and the only reason why it even can be genuinely classified as retro is because of the asinine focus on multiplayer that games these days have(which is something the PS2 could never really do). Hell, the xbox360 is going to be 17 years old soon and I dont hear anyone even trying to argue its retro status.

Its just insane to consider how three years back then are equivalent to around 20 years today in terms of how game design evolves. If that does not constitute at least some form of decline then I do not know what ever could.

 

[Morenatsu.]

imagine improving computing literally exponentially and using it to add more funny filters onto your QTEs

 

[samuraigaiden]

BTW poopy heads, saying the industry used to be about innovation doesn't mean I loved it like that or that's how it should be. I am not expressing a preference, just acknowledging a fact.

In fact I hated that too. I'd prefer if 3D graphics never caught on. 2D was better.

But the fact is that since it's inception the driving force behind the industry was innovation. That is, until around 10 years ago when the games as service thing started.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

You all seem to forget ELEX 2 in your calculations.

 

[Melcar]

It's all shit. Always has been.

 

[Ash]

You couldn't just pick a PS2 title and the walk over to the PS1 and find a identical copy only running at a lower resolution. The overall approach to design was just that different the after only measly 3 years the PS1 was decisively retro.

Nonsense.

-There was numerous PS1 games that were essentially just lower res versions of PS2 games. For an example, see Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3.
-The design wasn't that different between PS1 & 2 games at all, except some minor decline (PS1 was better overall).

Now if we're talking PS1 generation to the generation before it (SNES, Genesis), that was HUGE and where the retro line should be drawn, and supports your argument of lightspeed design evolution back then.

 

[Morenatsu.]

BTW poopy heads, saying the industry used to be about innovation doesn't mean I loved it like that or that's how it should be. I am not expressing a preference, just acknowledging a fact.

In fact I hated that too. I'd prefer if 3D graphics never caught on. 2D was better.

But the fact is that since it's inception the driving force behind the industry was innovation. That is, until around 10 years ago when the games as service thing started.

PSX 3D is heavan

 

[The Wall]

Wait, you're living on the brink of cultural, racial and class civil war and you wonder why gaming is shit?

There are enough ancient, old and new good games, books and movies to last you a lifetime, I think you should be focused on more important things, like fucking bitches, making money and building your post-apo bunker. Instead you're wasting your youth on bitching

 

[The Wall]

How about you play ATOM: Trudograd or Vagrus The Riven Realms (both came out a month ago) and test ColonyShip, Urban Strife or Stoneshard while getting blown up in HighFleet. That alone should last you 150-200h

Bitch Faggots, get a 3D life

 

[kangaxx]

Innovation cucks are pretentious. What we need back is the quality first and foremost. Once we have that baseline back, then we can complain about the lack of innovation.

I think it's a little from both columns in reality. And when you put it like this it paints quite a bleak picture.

 

[anvi]

How about you play ATOM: Trudograd or Vagrus The Riven Realms (both came out a month ago) and test ColonyShip, Urban Strife or Stoneshard while getting blown up in HighFleet. That alone should last you 150-200h

Bitch Faggots, get a 3D life

Nice NES games bro.