Issues Of Modern Gaming
Broken gaming
Ok, so I have been gaming for a long time, my gaming history begins on the commodore 64 when I was a mere four (4) years old and spans the decades moving forward to present day. That amounts to a thirty three (33) year history of gaming. The console wars? Yeah I was there, front line in the trenches. Got a high score you want to show off? Send a physical photo in to a gaming magazine. Need a cheat? Call a hotline in the back of one of those magazines. Birth of console internet gaming? Yes saw that come about too… why do I mention all of this? Well trust me it’s not to show off my age by any means, but it’s to establish that im no spring chicken when it comes to gaming and I have seen quite a bit in my time. My gaming friends range vastly in age from teens to 40 plus and among the many conversations we have regarding gaming I have seen particular trends when discussing complaints about contemporary gaming vs old school/retro gaming. These are some of the highlights of the many conversations I have had with others.
C64 in all its glory
Console war recap
Blinded by the wow factor
No doubt that we have come a long way In graphics, modern games are astonishing in appearance and this is fantastic for game immersion. However, this focus on graphics has seen a downfall in some other very important aspects of the gaming experience.
Graphics old vs new
The stories being told have taken a big hit in gaming. Much like the Hollywood blockbusters that spend crap loads on special effects and big explosions, but skimp out on everything else. We get copy and paste storylines with minimal effort put in to really engage gamers so they actually care about characters and what is the driving force behind their autonomy. Now don’t get me wrong, there are modern tales which do hold up, but few and far between. It’s as though the graphical advances have become an excuse for complacency.
Hey let’s make the same movie, more than just one example of this
Difficulty
There was a time when games were hard, like really hard. Yeah you had your casual games out there, but in general games had their physics, controls a steep learning curve and all you could do is adapt and that was it. If you managed to master the elements and complete the game you had the honour of seeing the end credits and finishing screen. If you were lucky after this you may be given some cheats or alternate costumes to help you on your next pass at the game. These days we get participation trophies, we gain achievements for loading the game disk. We have our hands held as we play through and if it gets too tough don’t worry because you can just pump in $20 and buy some upgrades instead of playing the game and earning it.
Gamer kitty gets upset when the game gets hard
Developer greed
Gaming has become a massive industry and the market saturation has been abundantly clear. This has created various issues in quality game development. It seems that we have to contend with quantity over quality and this equates to having to choose the lesser of two or more evils or not play at all.
Graphs and stats always make things look more professional
A common trend is releasing unfinished games, like seriously? we have gone to midnight releases of games and rushed home to play the first level before catching some sleep before work or school only to have to do hours of mandatory updates… to a brand new game we just bought on release!!! What if you don’t have the internet ?
Only 3 minutes, this guy is lucky
Leaning on this same concept let’s look at Micro transactions, again, really? So not only are we sold incomplete games, but now we have to buy the rest of the game in small segments to have the complete experience? Some of these parts of the game are “game changers” and cannot be attained any other way, this also goes back to the difficulty argument where we can pay to advance and make the game easier. Now developers will tell you that this is to keep people coming back to the game, but let’s be real here, if the game as actually good you would come back regardless of these “extras” that really should have been in the game in the first place.
What it feels like to many
Cash injections, just pay to win
Indie games were a fresh rebuttal to the giants pumping out the same thing every year with mild tweaks, a new cover and new price tag. Indie games aimed at bringing gaming back to its roots and providing content that was meaningful and efficiently packed a punch, showing it wasn’t big budget graphics but intelligence of design and gamer engagement which won us over. Even the simplest of games with some real thought put behind them had long lasting effects imprinting themselves in our minds forever. However, just like the industry as a whole, it was not long before the love of money infiltrated the indie games field and again we had the copy paste mentality and the release of lots of re shelled crud then ensued.
Back to the AAA’s though, many of these changes have led to the destruction of franchises who alienated the very fan bases which made the franchise flourish in the first place. Of course things need to grow and evolve, but let’s have a good look at how we are doing that and make sure it’s positive for the industry and its consumers.
Wouldn’t we like to know
This situation has led many, myself included, to disengage with the modern platforms for retro gaming experiences. Now many would call it the nostalgia and age getting the better of me, but I have had great challenges in retro games I have never played before and many of my junior gamer friends find value in doing this also. So effectively the nostalgia argument does not seem to be valid in the grand scale of things. I would argue that the game development at the time was more authentic, thought out, and aimed to provide a genuine experience with consumer in mind. In all seriousness though we have to admit that it is a sad state of affairs when a growing portion of the gaming demographic turns to consoles decades old to gain a sense of real challenge, authenticity and engagement from their gaming experience. Being able to experience a campaign not just online modes, Local LAN, Couch co op, the list goes on.
Retro consoles, a lovely sight for sore eyes
I often ask myself how we got here? how did gaming fall from grace and become this shallow, vapid industry so devoid of the experience I used to love? Well the long and short is that this is mostly on us, the gamers… we take it, we fall for the crap, we believe it’s good because we are told it’s good. We fork out our hard earned cash for the under developed, overpriced, manure and then that becomes the new standard for game development. We perpetuate the industries focus by purchasing their content. It is up to us to say no we will not go quietly into the night. To remove ourselves from their echo chambers, their cognitive bias and group-think mentality. We must awaken and realise we are suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome and learned helplessness. bottom line its up to us to choose to stop eating the crap sandwiches that are being made for us.
Don’t worry it’s just Nutella, but you get the idea
Now this is just some of the basic data from the discussions I have had with my gamer friends over the past few years, these are the most discussed elements of the downfall of modern gaming in my particular sample of gamers. Now I put it to you to add to this list of gripes with modern gaming, are there other elements which are more prominent in your sample of gamer friends? or do you disagree with these observations completely?
