The Longevity of Modern Games

[Tuna]

The '80s were a great decade for music!! Maybe not music videos but music in general. Damn you all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Pq0xYr3L4

We had another name for that band, "Flock of A@@$^les"

lol.. one of the few bands that I purposedly avoided when they were backing up a headliner..

Another one we repeatedly avoided was Eddie Money (He used to backup Santana all the time), we used to stay out in the parking lot and have a few more beers during the opening act..

[Gusington]

Why? I love both Eddie Money and Flock of Seagulls.

There is a lot to be said about the brandy snifter quality of a game. Can I sit with it and just chill for a while? Case in point: last night I just sat and chilled with Skyrim, basking in the afterglow of beating Dawnguard. While basking I explored two new areas, a cave and a fort, and got some phat loot. On my way to the next mission waypoint I stopped at a few cities to empty out what I had found and lighten my load and make some good coin.

It only took an hour to do this but it was very satisfying. A snifter full of brandy would have been the only thing to make it better.

[airboy]

I disagree with the basic premise of the thread.  I think the golden age of gaming is now - and that it will continue to improve.

Why?  Internet distribution.

Designers now have the ability to raise enough capital to start game projects via Kickstarter and the relatively inexpensive design tools available.  The internet makes it possible for game designers to keep more of the total price of the game.  The internet also makes it possible to gain sales internationally at very low distribution costs via direct download.

We have seen in the past six years or so very interesting niche wargame releases - many of which are vast improvements over previous decades.  The flury of WW1 strategy games are a good example.  Other examples are Spiderweb Software RPGs, Faster than Light, and Legend of Grimrock.  Panzer Korps, John Tiller, etc.......

The only real threat that I see to all of this is theft of product which robs developers of enough return to make a living.  That is a real threat to the business model.

The only area that has seen less development and fewer offerings are single player RPGs with very high graphics standards.  If you must have excellent graphics to enjoy a game - then wargame, strategy game, and RPGs are few and far between for single player types.

Lets face it - many of the games grogheads enjoy playing are niche markets.  Wargames, detailed strategy games, RPGs that are more than click-fest twitch games.  These are simply not a big mainstream market.

[eyebiter]

Once we reach a certain threshold for graphics quality, this will be a good thing for the games industry.  It will force them to find new types of games to develop, rather than your generic first person shooter, real time strategy, or <insert popular game name> clone.

[W8taminute]

Gus I love Flock of Seagulls too and that album of theirs was one of the first music purchases of my life.  In fact Chaka Khan was the first 12" single I bought. 

I'm also surprise no one mentioned that the fighters in the screenie of Battles in Time are a direct rip off of Buck Rogers, the '80s version.

[JasonPratt]

I do sometimes wonder how much -- not "if", because I think it's only a matter of to what degree -- we're blinded by nostalgia.  (And lest anyone make comments about pots & kettles, I say that being fully aware I'm as guilty of this as anyone else.) 

FEMALE KLINGON BOOBS
blinded by nostalgia

[Gusington]

Hating Flock of Seagulls is inconceivable if you grew up in the 1980s, like guitar rock, or play GTA Vice City...or any combination of those three things.

[Father Ted]

I wish I 'd never mentioned 80s music...My point was that I did grow up in the 80s, and thought I pretty much hated nearly all the music of the time, at the time.  A small amount of contemporary stuff I did like, and if that was 80s music, then I like 80s music, and I could probably do the same for every decade.

I'm not going to say what it was I liked or didn't coz that's not the point of my argument

[Arctic Blast]

Hating Flock of Seagulls is inconceivable if you grew up in the 1980s, like guitar rock, or play GTA Vice City...or any combination of those three things.

I grew up in the 80's, I like guitar rock and I enjoyed Vice City. And I despise Flock of Seagulls.

[W8taminute]

I wish I 'd never mentioned 80s music...My point was that I did grow up in the 80s, and thought I pretty much hated nearly all the music of the time, at the time.  A small amount of contemporary stuff I did like, and if that was 80s music, then I like 80s music, and I could probably do the same for every decade.

I'm not going to say what it was I liked or didn't coz that's not the point of my argument

I definitely get your point however be prepared to get all your threads hijacked off topic with the group of boys we've got here.   :)

[Longdan]

Sheeesh.  I never even heard of Flock of Seagulls until a couple of years ago.
I was an adult when the first bare female boob was on TV (on purpose).  The first band I saw in
concert was The Turtles they had a guy with a tambourine!  I was a co-owner
of a 1962 Ford Falcon.  I bought a "45" of some Beachboys song with my allowance
(used because I couldn't afford a new one) around 1963 or so.  Some sh*t happened in
the 80's.  Some was good some was not.

[MetalDog]

Hating Flock of Seagulls is inconceivable if you grew up in the 1980s, like guitar rock, or play GTA Vice City...or any combination of those three things.

I grew up in the 80's, I like guitar rock and I enjoyed Vice City. And I despise Flock of Seagulls.

Quoted for truth AND accuracy times a MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gusington]

Whatevs, Pop, whatevs.

[MengJiao]

Back in the day, I always knew my games would be out of date.  Replaced by better graphics, higher resolutions, etc.

I think games still have their peak moments and begin to fade.  For example, ARMAII vanilla online was great for a couple of months in the summer of 2010 and then it got cleaned up.

TW Medieval II for me at least, peaked about 3 years ago as well.

On the other hand, IL-2 1946, 4.11.1m seems like a great moment for a pretty old game.  I've been launching torpedo salvos at ships off
Cytheria happily for days now.

But plenty of games are fading fast: Harpoon in all its incarnations, WWII online.  There's just so many games out there, you don't notice as much when they fade out.

[Nefaro]

I wish I 'd never mentioned 80s music...My point was that I did grow up in the 80s, and thought I pretty much hated nearly all the music of the time, at the time.  A small amount of contemporary stuff I did like, and if that was 80s music, then I like 80s music, and I could probably do the same for every decade.

I'm not going to say what it was I liked or didn't coz that's not the point of my argument

I'm not terribly enamored with 80s synth music, either.  Used to drive me nuts, how much they played that crap on the radio over & over & over back then.  It wasn't all bad, but much of it I didn't enjoy.