Typical gaming discussion for those above 30.

[vanleth]

Is it only me, or has the money in the computer gaming industry gone far beyond my imagination. Are we seeing too many similar games?

In the early days, gaming was a joy in achieving whatever. You saw pixels move and you were thrilled. And then you started to THINK about how to make that better. It was a global contest, but it all had a gentleman approach, it was about making the best idea.

Today games has become a supermarketstore product that compete with the regular beef or DVD movie in the basket. Give it 3D babes, and you will have a market. No offence of the 3D believers.

But my point is, Didn't the gaming industry suffer in becoming to well know? Or am I just missing the true diamonds in future gaming. I like plots, challenge and imagination, but I can't feel that edge any more. Will I never have that sparkling gaming kick again, I sure hope not.

Free crazy discussion please, give it your worst and best.

Kinds regards
Christian

[benny]

@vanleth:

I started playing games since the Atari VCS 26oo. So I am really into it since
the beginning of home-entertainment started. With all great titles like
Pacman, Frogger and so on ...

Of course, new ideas nowadays become really rare and the production of a
modern PC, PS2, XBOX360 game needs a budget of some millions dollars.

Personally, I wouldnt be interested in such a large production, but hey - arent
we all stunned by nowadays possibilites about ingame graphic and physic effects
So, I am definately interested in seeing what is possible with todays hardware.
Nevertheless I often prefer such small games with simple graphic but with a
catchy gameplay.

All in all, you see a similar evolution in the gaming industry for mobile devices.
It all starts with Snake by Nokia and now ends up with more and
more 3D-graphic effects. However, it is still possible to create games in
rather small development teams for cellphones. But it seems that the big
players in the game industries conquer this market as well.

[Fangbeast]

Bring back the goold old days when games were simple, clean and fun and you didn't have to pay thousands of dollars (that you didn't have) to be able to play the latest and greatest, heart pounding, lung searing, eye burning, jaw popping, finger breaking (loads more where that came from!!).

Everybody should have (and does have) a choice what they want to play but the newest game requirements seem to be pushing the computer industry to catch up and push many out of the price bracket that they could live with.

I've find that the simplest, quietest, easiest game with the least requirements is the most comfortable one to play and the one that causes less stress.

The modern games with their focus on "kill or be killed" is driving a restless, angry generation whose attitudes and problem solving skills are severely impaired.

I'm not ashamed to say that my game playing skills are at the level of "Alex the Allegator" (yes, correct spelling in Allegator, author's spelling) and I'm proud of it.

Or bejewelled, chuzzles, that sort of thing. Lovely and calm.

[benny]

...
I've find that the simplest, quietest, easiest game with the least requirements
is the most comfortable one to play and the one that causes less stress.
...

Excellent point. I second that

[netmaestro]

I've always found the pacman-frogger genre to be by far the most entertaining. I remember my college days when we used to go to the American Hotel, order a pitcher and compete in Asteroids. Then they hired some strippers and we learned to get high scores while looking away from the screen half the time. Now that's gaming, baby!

[Num3]

This is because i always play today's games 3 years later...

My top games ever are:

Tetris
Pacman
Civilization
Turrican II
Half Life 1

[josku_x]

Half Life sucks hard. Codename Gordon RULZ

[va!n]

i dont play any games... first i dont have the time for it and second, all today games are looking the same for me... just only some different game game, dirfferent characters, different 3d models / engines and textures... lust but not least nearly all modern games are following the same concept.. kill, kill and once again kill with many blood and more realistic characters and 3d worlds... its nice to see such stuff is possible with today hardware but isnt it a worng way to make such "ego shooters" to realistic? Ok, playing in a team could make some fun but after some time (personaly) me feel boring, because its ever and ever the same (sorry to say) shit...

I am very impressived by some screenshots of new anounced games and their engines and details but please make some more fun game (even some good old 2D games) and not only all this 3d styled "ego shooter" grab...

Why was the C64 and Amiga so fame? Surely due fact of its great 2D Games and all kind of gametypes... I remember some gread games like "Tetris", "Shadow of the beast", "Lotus", "PacMan", "Galaga" and a lot of other very complex games.

Maybe i am going a bit old... however... personally i really still miss the good old time!!! (even the time before we got the fu**** expensive EURO here in germany)

[josku_x]

You live in Germany? Check out Magnussoft's Packs World 2. It's a very lame remake of the original Pacman.. And I have the full version (with Level Editor)

[dracflamloc]

You also have to remember that back then our imaginations were much more active. I look at my 13 yr old brother playing games and he's just as into some of these newer adventure games and 3d shooters as I was into super mario and zelda.

I think age has a big factor. I've recently stopped being as into FPS and more into web-based strategy. I've been making turn based strategy games using php and mysql more than normal games lately.

Notice I haven't even made Warg3 yet =P

[josku_x]

When I was 13 I were very much into megaman and when I was younger I had a Nintendo with Kirby and super mario

And I have somehow stopped the web development scene and started to be more into purebasic

[Barney]

A game does not need to be 3D to be a good game. Just look at Zuma and its numerous derivatives. Heck! I've purchased Zuma a year ago and I am still enjoying it. Granted. Zuma uses 3D accelleration if present but it is essentialy a great 2D game and there's plenty of 2D games around to make everyone happy for years. The best thing is, most of those games are actually more enjoyable than 3D games and they cost less. Not only that, but they also look great due to the capabilites of modern hardware.

I was writing 2D games for Commodore machines back in the 80's (Steve Davis Snooker, Sabouteur, Angle Ball) and I still enjoy writing an occassional educational game for the kiddies. Languages like PureBASIC and others are great for 2D games, so I'd say let's leave 3D to the big companies who can spend huge amounts of money into their development. What we should be doing is working more on 2D games that use the 3D hardware. I am sure that's the best path modern indy programmer could follow.

Barney

[josku_x]

@Barney, welcome to the forum. You have an excellent point. That's why I am enjoying the 2D Megaman games more than the 3D ones. The world is getting sick, sooner or later there will be "4D". Why don't people realize that the fashion is 2D and not 3D?

Looking in some game shops, 3D shooters do not sell so good as some 2D shooters. (I know it sounds obvious, but I used to have a 2D shooter in my Nintendo. And it selled more than 2 millions of copies. [Information taken from Nintendo Power magazine])

[dagcrack]

The problem with game genres concepts and so on resides on what today's kiddies want or like.

I'm sorry but big developers do think like this, they just want to make money and risk nothing most of the times when it comes to new game ideas.

But, theres a few of us working on different aproaches and concepts, its just that many think its going to be a waste of money and time...

[Joakim Christiansen]

In the past games where made to be fun!
Now they just make them to earn money!
That's why there are so many fun "amateurs games" out there!