I Miss the Love...

[Dr. BaconStein]

That went into video games. I really do. Nowadays it always seems that on the developer/publisher's end, it's all about sales and review scores, and on the customer's end, it's all about status - what's new and popular, as opposed to what's actually good. This is one of the few places I actually feel safe enough to express this, but it's been bothering me for a while now.

I'm obviously not going to lump every modern developer/gamer together and say that they all do this, as there are still a handful of companies I trust, but based on what I've experienced from the overwhelming majority of gaming communities, most of them seem to have a very hostile and conformist attitude towards anything that isn't a new 10/10 "AAA" title, whatever that even means.

It's difficult to hold a normal, mature conversation about some of my favorite games and systems without everyone telling me they are bad. I honestly don't know where to turn anymore as I seem to have a wrong opinion on just about everything. When did people stop being open to other options? When did things like clone consoles and mobile gaming become such a big taboo, just because it's not "normal"? When did not caring about the latest Mario or Sonic game suddenly make me a hipster?

I'm tired of being told that what I enjoy doesn't matter just because it doesn't have the "mainstream" stamp of approval on it. I guess I'm just venting, but has anyone else felt this way about modern gaming? I would imagine there must be some of you who have felt misunderstood by the greater world of gaming.

[The Adventurer]

When did people stop being open to other options?
Answer: Always.


When did things like clone consoles and mobile gaming become such a big taboo, just because it's not "normal"? When did not caring about the latest Mario or Sonic game suddenly make me a hipster?

Now I'm confused A) Mobile gaming is all the rage right now, thanks to the power of smartphones and the convience of digital downloads.

And B) I thought you were griping about games not being as fun or exciting as the old days, why wouldn't you be excited about the next Mario or Sonic game? And not caring about them certainly doesn't make you a 'hipster'. In fact in my experience getting excited about the next big Mario or Sega offering makes you old fashioned in the eyes of the Grand Theft Call of War Gears generation.

In my experience right now is an INCREDIBLY diverse time for gaming. The digital revolution has opened up a ton of doors to small developers, and creativity is flowing out. Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Portal 2, Cave Story, Machinarium, and really a list as long as my arm. I mean, yeah sure, many big ticket developers do seem to be going through motions, and have a generally banal, assembly line way of manufacturing video games. But good gravy is it a good time to be a fan of games right now, creativity and innovation is coming out of the woodwork.

[j_factor]

In my experience right now is an INCREDIBLY diverse time for gaming. The digital revolution has opened up a ton of doors to small developers, and creativity is flowing out. Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Portal 2, Cave Story, Machinarium, and really a list as long as my arm.

When exactly were doors closed to small developers? A lot of my favorite games throughout the years have been by small developers. If anything I think things have gotten worse for small developers, and "the digital revolution" has ghettoized them. In the past, there was not this dichotomy that we now have, with "small developer"/"indie" games over here, and "big developer"/"mainstream" games over there.

[The Adventurer]

When exactly were doors closed to small developers? A lot of my favorite games throughout the years have been by small developers. If anything I think things have gotten worse for small developers, and "the digital revolution" has ghettoized them. In the past, there was not this dichotomy that we now have, with "small developer"/"indie" games over here, and "big developer"/"mainstream" games over there.

You're kidding right? Between Steam, the iTunes App Store, console Marketplaces, Humble Bundles, and Kickstarter everyone and their mom are getting a shot at easy game distribution with the internet playing the word-of-mouth game for easy promotion.

Previously you were beholden to having to put your games on discs and carts. That means publishers to put up money for distribution and advertising. And that means giving up development control, and fewer green lit games overall.

[theclaw]

It's simple. I can't justify being effectively forced to sign any mobile contract. Unsubsidized phones new enough to not orphan off the latest apps cost far too much.

Even then I'm rooted in oldbie ways at a deep level I've tried hard to forget. Us folk had 5-1/4" floppy disks that sometimes needed flipping, and liked it! Those new fangled touch interfaces don't agree with me.

[The Adventurer]

It's simple. I can't justify being effectively forced to sign any mobile contract. Unsubsidized phones new enough to not orphan off the latest apps cost far too much.

Even then I'm rooted in oldbie ways at a deep level I've tried hard to forget. Us folk had 5-1/4" floppy disks that sometimes needed flipping, and liked it! Those new fangled touch interfaces don't agree with me.

Sorry to hear that. I grew up with floppy discs and blowing on game carts, but I can't get enough of this Jetson's level of technology raining down on us like mana from heaven. Its nice living in the future, and I can't wait to see what happens even further down the line.

[Dr. BaconStein]

Now I'm confused A) Mobile gaming is all the rage right now, thanks to the power of smartphones and the convience of digital downloads.

And B) I thought you were griping about games not being as fun or exciting as the old days, why wouldn't you be excited about the next Mario or Sonic game? And not caring about them certainly doesn't make you a 'hipster'. In fact in my experience getting excited about the next big Mario or Sega offering makes you old fashioned in the eyes of the Grand Theft Call of War Gears generation.Most people I've spoken to seem to think mobile gaming is some sort of joke. They act like the only mobile game ever released is Angry Birds and mobile will never be as big as handheld or console gaming. They complain that mobile games don't use buttons but when I show them things like JXD or Yinlips they complain that I'm advertising Chinese Junk™ without even considering what it is or what it can do.

As for the Mario/Sonic thing I used to be a long time fan of both series until the past few years when "retro" became the new fad. What made old games so fun to begin with was the innovation. It's not so fun when a new game tries to be exactly like the old games but fails to recapture the same charm because it does nothing new.

I feel like it all just roles back to sales, big developers have become too afraid to do something new so they fall back on things that worked 20 years ago as if they're infinitely reusable. They aren't. Generational gap could be a part of the problem... I haven't been around a lot of older (I mean like 30's and 40's) gamers so I tend to hear a lot of the same things wherever I go.


In my experience right now is an INCREDIBLY diverse time for gaming. The digital revolution has opened up a ton of doors to small developers, and creativity is flowing out. Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Portal 2, Cave Story, Machinarium, and really a list as long as my arm. I mean, yeah sure, many big ticket developers do seem to be going through motions, and have a generally banal, assembly line way of manufacturing video games. But good gravy is it a good time to be a fan of games right now, creativity and innovation is coming out of the woodwork.I agree that the small developers seem to be where the heart is at. It's just that it seems like a lot of people write them off as bad just because they've never heard of them. Again, the same people seem to view gaming as a status symbol... Not doing it for leisure, but for popularity. It just seems like a silly way to think of games, quite possibly one of the nerdiest hobbies you can have next to cartoons. I guess I've just talked to way too many annoying internet tough guys on game forums that think liking x game/company or hating y game/company makes them cool.

[The Adventurer]

Lets not kid ourselves, the 8/16/32/64-bit generations were just as business driven as today. The difference was where consumers were spending their money. Gamers have always craved the next technologically superior game/hardware when it comes to their buying habits. Graphical power, advanced NPC AI, internet integration; all that stuff is where the cutting edge lies these days, and developers/publishers have found a particular repeatable formula to showcase these in a way gamers want to buy them. Eventually the wheel will turn, and something else big and bold will capture the consumer imagination and the video game landscape will be choked out with that. Its just the way it goes.


As a die hard PC Adventure Game fan I know what it means to be marginalized when your preferred genre eventually evolved/was-cannibalized by something else. But you can't spend all day hoping for yesterday to repeat itself, that's not how progress works.


EDIT: Personally I rather don't mind Nintendo's trend of repeating formulas. I think it works for them, most of the recent Mario Platformers have been some of the best games of this generation. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They could do more to develop new franchises with new gameplay mechanics though. I will agree to that.

[Aussie2B]

As for the Mario/Sonic thing I used to be a long time fan of both series until the past few years when "retro" became the new fad. What made old games so fun to begin with was the innovation. It's not so fun when a new game tries to be exactly like the old games but fails to recapture the same charm because it does nothing new.

I hear you on that. Stuff like the New Super Mario Bros. series is completely derivative and soulless, and I have no idea why people get so excited for it. Although I think you're a bit behind the times if you the latest Mario and Sonic games are all that relevant these days.

There's still passion out there, though. I like the smaller developers in the traditional industry. Indie gaming doesn't do much for me since a lot of it is the aforementioned derivative "retro" junk, and the other stuff is often pretty shallow but gets attention from hipsters for its "indie cred" and pretentious themes, not unlike indie films. But, yeah, there are some small developers that clearly love what they do and put their all into their games. My favorite small developer these days is CyberConnect2. For many years, they dreamed of creating a follow-up to their first game Tail Concerto, despite that it had fairly low sales, and they pushed and pushed until they could get a publisher to back it. It was 10 years before that dream became a reality in the form of Solatorobo, and the game just oozes passion and love. They so meticulously realized its world, down to every last minuscule detail, even if a lot of that wasn't featured in-game, and they continue to do events related to the game and create new merchandise. And they seem like they have such playful, joyful spirits, just look at this silliness:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtjaaaam/6850009672/
http://www.cc2.co.jp/cms/hack_movie/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_23231.png
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2011/08/asurapose1024px.jpg

That goofball is the PRESIDENT of CyberConnect2, Hiroshi Matsuyama. They also seem like incredibly kind, caring people too. Like when Japan had their earthquake and tsunami, they opened up their private offices all day to the public for anyone who wanted a place to rest, get a drink and some food, etc. Even now, they just started up a new campaign where they're selling digital wallpapers and donating all of the money made to the Japanese Red Cross for continued aid to help with the aftermath.

This may seem like I'm going off on a tangent, since, as a consumer, buying games that are fun is the bottom line, but the knowledge that there are still awesome games made by awesome people gives me hope for the future of the industry. Even if the mainstream consumer base would be going "Sola-what?", companies like CyberConnect2 and their games are what keeps me excited and interested in modern gaming.

[j_factor]

You're kidding right? Between Steam, the iTunes App Store, console Marketplaces, Humble Bundles, and Kickstarter everyone and their mom are getting a shot at easy game distribution with the internet playing the word-of-mouth game for easy promotion.

Uh, what? Those things have not leveled the playing field; quite the contrary.


Previously you were beholden to having to put your games on discs and carts.

This is not some major hurdle. Any idiot with a little bit of money can get it done. Carts were more expensive, but still not unsurpassable. The biggest hurdle with consoles is licensing fees and imposed minimum production runs.

I mean, with music, there have been (and still are) tons of CDs put out by absolute nobodies, "indie record labels" amounting to two people with a PO Box, "mixtape" CDs put out by DJs and music producers (who the hell buys those?), and so on. Getting discs pressed is not a big deal.


That means publishers to put up money for distribution and advertising. And that means giving up development control, and fewer green lit games overall

It doesn't mean giving up control. Plenty of small developers created games themselves, and then contracted out the games to publishers. That used to be EA's primary method of business as a publisher. The first James Pond was made by two guys in England. One guy made the game, the other did the sound. They got it released through a small upstart UK publisher and it became a hit, and then they got EA to do a Genesis port. The game got pretty good reviews. Not much was made of it being the developer's first game or how small they were. It wasn't much of a factor. The game was as legitimate as any other.

I don't see that kind of thing happening today. Two guys can still make a game. But now, they pretty much have to release it through a restrictive download service, and they have to release it at a budget price. And their game will be seen as under a completely different category from the "real games" put out by major companies.