| Inspired by a discussion in the anime section. Also, if you want, what was the golden age? For me, the present. Games have become too big. It's all about giving the masses what they want and what's proven to be safe. Ideas are too risky when your game costs tens of millions of dollars. I've played all these AAA games before. The middle (between AAA and indie) barely exists anymore. Controllers haven't improved since the DualShock almost two decades ago, even though they showed their age and limitations during the PS2 generation. And with pre-orders, DLC and online networks, publishers now monetize their games for everything they're worth. I've never been more disinterested in gaming. I wish it all crashed and burned, more painfully than in '83. |
| Civ 6 has given me some hope for the current generation as it's the first Civ to be almost close to Alpha Centauri's goodness in a vanilla state. And Civ 5/ Beyond Earth were both bottom-rung. Rocket League and Europa Universalis are the two only games from this decade I have more than 1000 hours in. Compare that to Morrowind, where I had 4000+ At least Skyrim was better than Oblivion. But I'm Norwegian, so the game feels like just going outside. Basically it's ups and downs, I'd say the absolute dark age of gaming was 2012-2015. 2016 is a lot better so far. Between 2012 and 2015 there's basically only The Secret World and Rocket League that felt like value for money for me. Maybe Cities: Skylines. To a degree Dying Light but meh. |
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| Last gen was the worst in terms of known franchises taking a dive. Dlc and season passes are a good portion to blame. FF13 almost killed Final Fantasy, Resident Evil 6 put capcom in the red,Devil may cry is still dead thanks to That trash reboot. |
| PSN:ShadowStrike002 2x national and 2x all-American wrestler  |
| Honestly, I think we're in a great period for games as of now - I remember 2012-2013 specifically was an exciting release sched - Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 releasing back to back, Diablo 3, XCOM Enemy Unkown putting the series back to radar, Hitman Absolution (which I personally found fairly good), Tomb Raider's great reboot, Dishonored, Far Cry 3 (which I personally didn't enjoy, but lots of others did), Hotline Miami. This year's been particularly good as well, in my opinion. XCOM2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fallout 4 (fun but fairly shallow and disappointing), Civilization VI, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Hitman, Dishonored II right at the top of my head. I've only gotten XCOM2, CivVI and FO4, but this year has been astounding for games. The driest time in my opinion was probably around 2007-2010, although I'm sure lots of good games came out then, and I'm pretty sure Crysis was released in that time frame along with a few AC games, it doesn't stand out as much as those two periods I mentioned to me personally. |
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| We're in the best age of gaming. Stories rival and surpass hollywood blockbusters and the immersion has never been better. The worst was probably those atari days, but even those games were pretty fun. |
SpamuraiSensei said: I don't feel the same. What I'm seeing is that games are trying to emulate Hollywood blockbusters, instead of surpassing them with the strengths of the medium. I'd like to see more environmental storytelling, like in Limbo and Inside, instead of all these disruptive cutscenes, scripted events and tedious exposition. Portal is another example of how to tell a story without prioritizing it over the gameplay. Besides, the Hollywood blockbuster isn't a good model to emulate. Most blockbusters are pretty forgettable. Maybe if devs stopped envying those types of films so much, the games' stories wouldn't be so poor most of the time. We're in the best age of gaming. Stories rival and surpass hollywood blockbusters and the immersion has never been better. |
EzekielNov 23, 2016 9:24 AM
Ezekiel said: SpamuraiSensei said: I don't feel the same. What I'm seeing is that games are trying to emulate Hollywood blockbusters, instead of surpassing them with the strengths of the medium. I'd like to see more environmental storytelling, like in Limbo and Inside, instead of all these disruptive cutscenes, scripted events and tedious exposition. Portal is another example of how to tell a story without prioritizing it over the gameplay. Besides, the Hollywood blockbuster isn't a good model to emulate. Most blockbusters are pretty forgettable. Maybe if devs stopped envying those types of films so much, the games' stories wouldn't be so poor most of the time. We're in the best age of gaming. Stories rival and surpass hollywood blockbusters and the immersion has never been better. I disagree - what you're seeing are typical AAA games doing AAA typical games things. There are a lot more AAA games coming out nowadays that stick to their formula, yes, but there tons of games that prioritize gameplay over narrative, or have it tie together in a fantastic way. Indie games have not had such a great time to be recognized and enjoyed, and a lot of them tend to go left field with tying narrative and story together. |
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| Need to go back those good ol' singleplayer times |
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| Stone Age was kind of dull. No respawn and developers used primitive tools. |
| "The future is always blank. Only your willpower can leave footsteps there." "Ruling over death means ruling over life. Death is the climax of life. To have the best death, you must honor life." |
| It depends on what type of gaming. With VR gaming, we're at the start of the golden age. However, we're kinda in the crappy age of physical games, because there's so much great stuff being made that's digital download only, which sucks. What also sucks, is that we're in the middle of the "Retro Gaming Bubble," where older games are too expensive for an average Joe to afford. It's really sad, as most of the really expensive games aren't even rare. It's just a bunch of idiots hitting those ridiculous Buy it Now buttons on eBay, and when that happens, every other seller keeps jacking their prices up. |
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| You mean to tell me that this ISN'T the crappy gaming age we live in? I 'member when you could buy games and actually own them and when I could be rest assured that my game would be functional on release date I 'member |
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| Shit age of gaming: 2011 to the current year. Best age of gaming: 1992 to 1997 Runner up: 2002 to 2007 We have lost almost all touch with what makes a game fun. Instead of pushing values such as challenge, reward, risk, we are pushing budgets, costs, and profitability too much. We have a largely unfaithful set of developers in the big names. Those who were once giants back in the 80s and 90s are only a hollow husk of their former glory. Indie shines in the darkness, but only for brief moments before being swallowed again by the musk of corporate greed. Times when I get my hopes up for games lately are immediately faced with regret and disappointment. Bait and switch is becoming a more common tactic than ever, despite it being a staple of gaming since the 80s. I think gamers need to stop spending their money in the wrong places, because it's the equivalent of a vote for the wrong business. Piracy needs to come back strong for this to happen, because trial editions created by the developer often cherrypick and are heavily polished to give a look and feel that impresses, only to later disappoint after the money drops. |
Syrup-Nov 23, 2016 12:25 PM
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Lord_Sithis said: Children only want what looks cool and is popular with the kids in their grade. Everyone knows this. I caught my little brother drawing anime characters with guns and cigarettes and stuff all the time when he was young. It's not hard to trick a child into giving you money. As a result we get people complaining about Dark Souls being hard, kids buying every single Call of Duty game even though they are the same every time, and pre-release DLC. As for Dark Souls, gamers need to man up. Certain practices that limit the ability to control the character in an implausible way such as forced delay and long, punishing animations is inexcusable. However, learning a game and feeling like you came out of the experience as a stronger gamer than when you walked in is something that should be treasured. I have yet to play the Souls games, but I hope I wont be disappointed by them. |
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| I'm not really sure what the best age in gaming was but ever since DLC (especially on-disc-DLC) and Microtransactions became popular it has been pretty annoying. also pre-order bonuses and system exclusives are annoying. It's also annoying that every other game is a FPS. |
| Present, a lot of JRPGs are becoming F2P money pits, many great game series have died and even companies like Konami have died. |
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| The past 15 years have certainly been the crappiest age in gaming. Mostly ugly art graphics, horrible gameplay, weak storylines and piss-poor soundtracks. With the exception of Big Rigs and Sonic 06, this era has virtually nothing to offer an old school gamer like me. Seriously though, modern times probably. The age of microtransactions and DLC's being everywhere is one of the worst things video game companies have come up with so far |
| "I like young-girl sexual creations, Lolicon is just one hobby of my many hobbies," he says. I ask what his wife, standing nearby, thinks of his "hobby". "She probably thinks no problem," he replies. "Because she loves young boys sexually interacting with each other." |
| was born in 2000 but i dont think that there was once a crappy age of gaming, well the only games i was addicted to were:Tekken6,Linage2,World of warcraft and League og lefends |
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| This is going to be a controversial, if not downright hated, opinion. I think the crappy age of gaming was from the late 70's/early 80's until 1989/1990. This entire era was over-saturated with easy cash grabs by studios that didn't actually give a danm about quality, screwing over developers and gamers alike. This era is littered with games that have aged VERY badly, to the point that they become nearly unplayable. This isn't helped by the general shallowness of game design. This era was so limited when it came to console and PC power that it was difficult to actually tell an expansive story or have any really good gameplay. This was a main factor in the aforementioned shallow game design. Sure, we got some classics out of this era, such as your classic Zelda, Mario, and Contra. But these are the minimum exceptions, the 'survivors' of a very lacking era. Granted, I'm not saying that this era in gaming is great either. It really isn't. From about 2012 until now, we've dealt with bullshit like: ''Street Fighter IV Ultimate Hyper Combo Limited Edition', Disc-Locked Content, Paid DLC for items that merely have a skin-change, and holding entire games hostage in order to force purchases (IE: the most recent CoD), Day-One Patches, installation times, and more. But I'd rather take this then the stupidly high risk of the aforementioned era that nearly every game I'd purchase will be crap. With that said though, it looks like we are moving into an age of incrimental console upgrades and the death/zombification of a slew of IP's. If these things happen, then yes, THIS age might just surpass the days of old as the worst. As for the Golden Age, 1995-2005. The 5th and 6th console generations. Alot of the games from this era make for a very interesting blend between console hardware manipulation and ingenious gameplay. Stories were being made during this era, and while some games did fall back on stupidly simple plots like days past, games like Metal Gear Solid and GTA:San Andreas actually showcased the amount of depth that can be put into story and characters, and nearly every genre and play style exploded with many types of iterations and experimentation, and a fine balance between continuing older franchises and making new ones. |
InsaneLeader13Nov 26, 2016 11:45 PM
"I'd take rampant lesbianism over nuclear armageddon or a supervolcano any day." ~nikiforova |
| In terms of AAA games I can't say I'm a huge fan of this generation although there are a few games that I've brought and enjoyed. Main problem I have with this generation isn't even that I don't like the prevailing styles of game but it's that they are all the same kind of games as the last generation. Indie scene is booming though and there are games that come out that I want to play. |
 Anime is good, fucking deal with it. |
| I don't know if there was a crappy age of gaming. Videogames popularity just increases. |
| Today they say you're crazy, tomorrow they will say you're a genious. |
| The current gen has some great games, but in terms of average quality, its probably the worst. Then again, more games than ever are being produced, so that is something to keep in mind. |
| The crappy age of gaming? Probably the time where early access games were never completed and games were begging you to buy expansion packs and other DLC in order to complete the game. Oh wait... |
Vokren said: This has been every age of gaming since the Atari though.I'm inclined to say this one is the worst, due to the potential it has and is being flushed down the toilet in the name of profits. Games before this decade were a hit or miss - make a good/bad game and be successful/unsuccessful, respectively (simplified). Now you can create mediocre, and even below average, games and make profits. |
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| The golden age was when they were still making PC exclusive games (or at least PC games that were later ported to console and not the other way around) |
| The rise of pre-order "bonuses/DLC" is the worst. Worse than the rise of DLCs. |
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Vokren said: Yeah. ET, the infamous game that symbolized the video game crash of 1983, could have been a good game if it was given more time but of course, publishers wanted the game to release in christmas so out came a mediocre piece of shit. That isn't just the only example.95PercentCaim said: This has been every age of gaming since the Atari though. Even assuming that was happening in the Atari age, did they really have the potential, I talked about, to create better quality games? |
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poppyface said: I like the idea of DLC. If I could make a game just the way I want, I would continue expanding it with DLC for years. It would allow me to do more than with a pre-release budget and schedule. But DLC is usually pretty crappy or contains paid content that should have been included in the first place. I haven't seen much good come from it, with exceptions like the three crowns DLC for Dark Souls II.Seriously though, modern times probably. The age of microtransactions and DLC's being everywhere is one of the worst things video game companies have come up with so far |
| There always were ups and downs depending on your preferences. But 2014 is universally one of worst years ever - Inquisition was an ass and yet gained GOTY awards and huge reviews, WatchDogs got overhyped and scammed the buyers, Elder Scrolls Online was an absolute ass, Titanfall died in like a month, Destiny was absolute ass. It was a year when unless you owned a Wii-U or paid attention to indie scene you would play nothing but shit. |
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Fai said: But 2014 is universally one of worst years ever - Inquisition was an ass and yet gained GOTY awards and huge reviews. Sounds like history repeated itself. |
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| Best Era of Gaming: mid 90's to mid 2000's Worst Era of Gaming: either now or most of the 80's |
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Dragonage2ftw said: Fai said: But 2014 is universally one of worst years ever - Inquisition was an ass and yet gained GOTY awards and huge reviews. Sounds like history repeated itself. Review=/=Quality disrepancy happens again and again It was Dragon Age 2 in 2011, Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3 in 2012, dMc in 2013, Inquisition in 2014, FF15 in 2015. There's always some awful game that reviewers will give huge scores solely because of developer or franchise title and the fans will defend to death, especially in the numbered big franchises when a lot of reviewing happens on goodwill and nostalgia to previous parts. Its nothing new or surprising. However 2014 had biggest pile up of clusterfuck releases and scandals and bad games ever, not to mention lack of actual good big titles(FC4 and Shadow of Mordor were pretty much only decent ones with Bayonetta 2 at end of year). Delays, bad games, bad ports, lies and nothing to balance out. |
AhenshihaelNov 28, 2016 4:30 PM
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