Evolution of Games ?

Started by Waldorf, October 29, 2013, 10:13:38 AM

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Waldorf

The Evolution of Gaming from a disheartened middle-aged veteran gamer. Discuss.


2001
Full game.
Complete release version.
Demo available.
No online activation or requirement.
Maybe 1 or 2 patches.
No refunds.
Spyware hated and treated as virus.


2004
Full game.
Complete release version.
Demo available.
Some online activation.
1 or more patches.
No refunds.
Spyware hated and treated as virus.


2008
Full game.
Complete release version. Incomplete versions are rare and cause community outcry.
Demo available.
Online activation and some requirement to have online access to play.
Several patches required.
Often game is 'fixed' by fan community.
No refunds.
Spyware starts transforming into legitimate things like STEAM and sites like Facebook and Google services.


2010
Full game.
Slightly incomplete release version. Incomplete versions cause community dissatisfaction. Complete versions are infrequent.
Demo mostly available.
Online activation and requirement to have online access to play.
Many patches required.
Often game is 'fixed' by fan community.
No refunds, even though online activation/deactivation allows 100% enforceable disabling of game from the vendor.
Spyware becomes legitimate as vendors use it in their game clients.


2013
Reduced game with sections of play previously available by default now sold as DLC.
Incomplete release version treated as matter of course. Complete versions are rare to non-existent.
No demo available.
Online activation and requirement to have online access to play.
Many patches required.
Often game is 'fixed' by fan community.
No refunds, even though online activation/deactivation allows 100% enforceable disabling of game from the vendor.
Spyware? What's that?


MengJiao

Quote from: Waldorf on October 29, 2013, 10:13:38 AM
The Evolution of Gaming from a disheartened middle-aged veteran gamer. Discuss.

2013
Reduced game with sections of play previously available by default now sold as DLC.
Incomplete release version treated as matter of course. Complete versions are rare to non-existent.
No demo available.
Online activation and requirement to have online access to play.
Many patches required.
Often game is 'fixed' by fan community.
No refunds, even though online activation/deactivation allows 100% enforceable disabling of game from the vendor.
Spyware? What's that?

  Ranting as required as an elderly enthusiast: PC Games are becoming more colaborative and open-ended.  I'm not so sure about games in other electronic forms -- they may be just as limited and pre-scripted as PC games used to be.  I don't see the problem with patches.  Games are more complicated, teams change, systems remain a diverse lot etc.  so patches are to be expected.

  So -- for example -- Battle of Stalingrad will eventually be available on Steam (as is RoF now).  I guess if I have to do some obligatory complaining about Steam (well just fill that in blah blah blah).  Anyway, I could buy into the top of the line version of the alpha pathway as a "Demo" right now, but
I've already seen RoF so I have some idea of the game system.  So do I need a demo?  Not so much.  But fill in the complaint (b.b.b.) if that is needed.

And then (fill in complaints as needed)...even after the game is available on steam (complain as needed) I'm sure there will be patches and spyware and online connections (complaints as needed) AND there will be DLC to pay for.

I can't see anything bad about all this.  I get a game based on a system (RoF) I've seen.  there are various editors available and a certain number of planes and I get to get it all on Steam which has run perfectly on my last 3 systems and which takes care of all sorts of gamey stuff in a systematic way.  On top of all that, I get the benefit of patches and control over when to install them on Steam AND the option to expand the game via DLC if I want to.  All of this is a huge series of vast improvements in how PC games work.

GJK

I P500'd (pre-ordered) GMT Games' "The Supreme Commander".  Soon after it arrived, people began to notice errors in the printing.  Almost immediately, GMT Games announced that they would be sending out new maps, countersheets, charts and an updated rules book to everyone that P500'd the game at no cost to the customer.  I've had countersheets that were misaligned during printing.  MMP replaced them at no cost with no questions asked.  There are a LOT of boardgames that I could "Pirate" by playing them fully, for free by using VASSAL and downloading the rules that are freely offered by the manufacturer yet most of those companies now encourage electronic versions of their games be developed.  Unfortunately for PC game companies, piracy has taken a huge toll on their profits and now there is deep paranoia by many (most) software developers that makes purchasing, licensing, updating, uninstalling/reinstalling a chore (to be polite).  I applaud Matrix for keeping a DRM-less scheme.  Register your game and they will keep a record of the license number (for most of the games, they seem to of lost track of a couple of S/N's for games purchased years ago but I can't really fault them for that).
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Sir Slash

As a PC Gamer, I am happy I don't have to go through the pains console gamers do when a popular new title comes out. The release of Rome 2 was an example. I got 20% off for pre-ordering, Steam downloaded the game to my computer, and the morning of release, they automatically patched it to activate the game. The morning of Sept. 3rd, I was sitting playing the game all without leaving my comfortable chair. No lines to stand in, no crowds to fight, no driving, no looking for one of those mini-parking spaces close to the store, and no dealing with those smirky, puberity-driven know-it-alls. This is a big selling point for me as I get older, easy access.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

phredd1

From a long term gamer, on the edge of being elderly, I see no reason to argue with you Waldorf. You hit the nail on the head with that post.

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on October 29, 2013, 10:42:15 AM
All of this is a huge series of vast improvements in how PC games work.

  Note to self: or at least potentially.  Remember to read Rock, Paper, Shotgun as much as possible.  At least the comments and reviews
even of horrible games are funny as in:

  CrazyPaladin says:

So instead of Zomibes mode we get aliens mode? I'm fine with that, so long as I don't buy this game
*Note to self: don't buy another CoD game*

  Which is from the comments on a review of a trailer for a COD game or mode called "Extinction" with Alien Ghosts in it, part of which went:

I really hate writing this cynically. I honestly hope Extinction is incredible, a revolution, and something that brings gushing geysers of sparkling joy to millions of people. Or maybe it'll make them think or something. I don't know. I just want games to be great and to see sincerity rule the world. No matter how silly, angry, or ranty my posts get, that, I guess, is where they're coming from.

  See!  Even the reviews of crap are better than they used to be!




BigBlueFleet

#6
Great post , somewhere along the way we lost physical copies of manuals too.

Some offer a  complete manual but you may need a second mortgage.

Nefaro

Quote from: GJK on October 29, 2013, 10:49:02 AM
Unfortunately for PC game companies, piracy has taken a huge toll on their profits and now there is deep paranoia by many (most) software developers that makes purchasing, licensing, updating, uninstalling/reinstalling a chore (to be polite).


This is a common misconception perpetuated by DRM software companies and some of the more nefarious game publishers.   There is no "huge toll on their profits", although some of them would like everyone to believe it.

In truth, they didn't lose any sales.  This whole accusation is based on the expectation that all the people who pirated a specific title, and didn't later purchase it after playing such an unsupported and multiplayer-less (?) black copy, were all going to purchase it one way or another.  That's a few steps beyond wishful thinking on their part, and is often used a public excuse accompanied by vastly inflated estimates of how much money they would have made if it wasn't for that quite relatively small portion of consumers.

It's all about cutting after-market resale and leasing licenses to prevent such ownership rights of the copy you purchased.


BigBlueFleet

Quote from: Nefaro on October 29, 2013, 02:39:56 PM
Quote from: GJK on October 29, 2013, 10:49:02 AM
Unfortunately for PC game companies, piracy has taken a huge toll on their profits and now there is deep paranoia by many (most) software developers that makes purchasing, licensing, updating, uninstalling/reinstalling a chore (to be polite).


This is a common misconception perpetuated by DRM software companies and some of the more nefarious game publishers.   There is no "huge toll on their profits", although some of them would like everyone to believe it.

In truth, they didn't lose any sales.  This whole accusation is based on the expectation that all the people who pirated a specific title, and didn't later purchase it after playing such an unsupported and multiplayer-less (?) black copy, were all going to purchase it one way or another.  That's a few steps beyond wishful thinking on their part, and is often used a public excuse accompanied by vastly inflated estimates of how much money they would have made if it wasn't for that quite relatively small portion of consumers.

It's all about cutting after-market resale and leasing licenses to prevent such ownership rights of the copy you purchased.

You nailed it Nefaro! I'd argue that software outfits as a whole have made more than ever because of more and more peeps having  access to computers these days. 

Arctic Blast

I'm seeing a whole lot of rose coloured glasses there.

There were just as many horrible or broken games 'back in the day'. We just tend to remember the good stuff, and ignore disastrous crap we played back then like Maabus. Many games were released that didn't work, and they were never fixes because there was no convenient model for distribution of patches and updates. Games are actually easier to patch now than they were before, hence more patches appearing. How patches and improvements showing up is a bad thing is beyond me.

'Spyware! Oh noes!' just comes off as very Chicken Little, particularly with no context offered. The only tracking I see tends to be voluntary. Don't want Steam submitting your system info to their surveys? Opt out of it.

This whole 'They took stuffs out to be DLC!' screed is also a claim with absolutely no evidence or proof. As for DLC itself, the branding of an entire business model as if every example of it is all exactly the same is simplistic at best.

As for the loss of physical media, I'm fairly ambivalent. Reduced costs thanks to a lost need for producing and shipping and stocking physical copies (and yes, companies do have to pay stores to stock them) is a positive. As well, the explosion of smaller indie developers would not have happened period if it weren't for digital distro.




Toonces

As a very, very long time gamer (can 42 be considered an old gamer?) I guess I take the complete opposite tack on the evolution of games.

I PREFER games on Steam.  I have no use for physical disks or manuals anymore.  I like having all of my games conveniently organized into a single digital library, automatically patched up, easy access to mods and online play.  I prefer the ease of one-click buying, of opting to add the pieces to the game I want via DLC. 

I hate having to hunt through my 500-CD case to find the disk of the game I want to play.  I hated having to hunt through a paper manual for word 6 on page 22 as a DRM. 

When Steam goes TU I'm going to be hating life, but until then...nope, not seeing the problem here.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

OJsDad

Quote from: Toonces on October 29, 2013, 05:51:23 PM
As a very, very long time gamer (can 42 be considered an old gamer?)

Mmm...no.
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Toonces

Well, gee...I've been gaming since Atari 2600, TI-99A and TRS-80 days.  Just how far back to I have to have game to be considered an old gamer?   ::)   ;D
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

phredd1

Quote from: Toonces on October 29, 2013, 08:38:01 PM
Well, gee...I've been gaming since Atari 2600, TI-99A and TRS-80 days.  Just how far back to I have to have game to be considered an old gamer?   ::)   ;D

Yeah, but were you in your very late 20s when the Atari 2600 first came out? There is more than one way to define an "old gamer"..........................................................

agathosdaimon

interesting topic - i think it is all okay if games continue to be made by gamers for gamers - and provided our ingenuity, creativity and intelligence  are not stifled or just funneled into soulless profiteering and genre band wagons.

I am 32 and miss the fun of going to a pc computer games store and looking over all the nice box art. -its appalling the pc section in stores like EB Games now, they have given up trying to compete with steam. I like steam and gg and gog though for differnt reasons- sales, cheaper prices, access. i still though hunt down all the old dos games on ebay and enjoy them greatly with dosbox.

i am now also pleased to see some genuine wargames on ipad like John Tillers Panzer campaigns.

there were many badly done games in the past, perhaps people did not such benchmarks for them back then though there are many game hundreds of games that were also quite good back then and still impressive now - ie battles of napoleon, east front 2, carriers at war, battlefront, USS Ticonderoga, red baron, m1 tank platoon 1 and 2, 
small companies managed some amazing games - some surely were just made by one or two people like the ssg games. I am sure thats still possible today, but maybe the pressure to get something out post haste means all the early access stuff
early access is all good provided that this is stated and it is know the game is still being refined and the devs and community have good communication.
At the end of the day what are we all looking for? what are we finding enjoyable? who are games being made for? and who were they made for back 10 to 20 years ago?