This generation of gaming vs the old early 90s era of gaming - Gotmadskillzson's Blog

Gotmadskillzson's Blog

This generation of gaming vs the old early 90s era of gaming

Posted on August 18, 2010 at 03:18 AM.

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Well I have been playing video games since 1983, ever since I was 4 years old. Had just about every console that came out.

Now I know a good number of OSers weren't back then and know nothing about gaming pre Playstation 1 era. So I will go down memory lane and tell people the difference between the now generation and the old generation.

Back then video games were an art form. People took a lot of pride in what they produce. It really was a labor of love. Games back then didn't come out every month like it do now. Instead games came for the most part only during the christmas holiday season and the end of spring beginning of summer season.

Now you have about a dozen games that come out every tueday YEAR ROUND. I am sure those in the younger generation might be thinking well isn't that a good thing ? Yes and no.

Yes in the matter of you can play more games more often that are new. However there is a very big down side to this also. That downside is the quality of gaming. When games become mass produce, like anything else that is mass produce, the quality suffers.

And with online gaming becoming the norm, it has made the quality of gaming even worse. Why you might ask ????

The theme of the PS3 and Xbox 360 era of gaming is multi-player and HD. Graphically sure games are top notch, characters and surroundings actually look like real people moving in real looking cities and jungles.

However......the single player experince this generation has almost completely been killed off by game developers. Back when I was a kid, a game lasted for MONTHS. Why ? Because they had a STORY LINE, a pretty darn good one that was written out and put together really well.

When you played a game in the late 80s to mid 90s, you got to learn about a character, get attached to him and took the game personally. The story line was so good you became the character.

And at the end of the game, you felt pretty darn good about yourself because it took you so long to beat it. You got your money's worth.

Today......you will be lucky if a game lasts 8 hours. Different way of thinking this generation of gaming. Now it is all about the online mode. That is all people care about. First thing people ask when they hear a game coming out is if that game has an online mode and how many players can play at once.

Lets be honest here people. Ask yourself this......Did you even play the single player mode for the Halo series, Call of Duty series before you went to online mode OR did you run straight to online mode when you got the game ?

Online mode has become so popular that they have a game called Mag, in case of none you never heard of it, that is ONLINE ONLY, but yet they charged FULL PRICE for that game. What is the 1st thing people said when they heard about that game ? OMG ZOMG 256 players online ! I"m buying that !

Same thing with Battlefield Bad Company 2.......OMG vehicles, quads, tanks and helicopters.....24 players at the same time, I am buying that !

Never once did people mention how good the story line is for the Bad Company series. Heck I would go out on a limb and say a lot of people that play Battlefied Bad Company 2 or Modernwarfare 2 didn't even beat the single player mode of the game at all. Wouldn't be surprised if they never made it passed the 1st level of it.

Why ? People this generation don't care. They rather have fluff instead of substance. And honestly that is all online mode is, FLUFF. People care more about their win's, Kill to death ratio then the actual storyline of a game.

That is the main reason why people play Modernwarfare 2 over Battlefield Bad Company 2. In reality by all means, Bad Company 2 online mode is better. More vehicles, bigger maps. The only difference between the 2 is Bad Company 2 is more TEAM ORIENTED.

Where as Modernwarefare 2 is all about the INDIVIDUAL, PERSONAL GLORY. People like to have kill streaks, fancy metals by their gamer tags, prestige signs and all that FLUFF. People care so much about that FLUFF in the Modernwarfare 2 game that people CHEAT LIKE CRAZY just to get it.

When online gaming 1st burst on to the scenes I thought well this would be great for sports games. How ever I was quickly disappointed. Sports games, like other online games, are filled with people who care more about getting the W then actually having FUN.

They rather quit then take a lost. If they can't beat you legit, they will cheese or use a glitch to get the W. And all the mean while, the single player mode suffers.

Now you have sports games that have lack luster franchise modes. Commentary lines that have been said for the past 10 YEARS. Instead of focusing on core game play, game companies instead brag about some new ONLINE feature for this year's game.

Maybe I am in the minority but I can careless about online features. As long as I can play online if I want to, that is all that matters. Online always takes the back seat to me.

If the story line isn't good, then the online part of the game won't matter to me at all. I always LOL when people on here make threads about the best games for a system and people will yell out MODERNWARFARE 2.

I just shake my head and say you got to be kidding right ? Of all the games, people yell out that name. I am going to be honest here. Modernwarfare 2, like the 1st Modernwarfare was a game that can be beat in 6 hours with a C+ story line.

Top 10 ? NO. NOT EVEN CLOSE. But hey this generation of gamers don't know any better, online mode is what they been raised on, so if a game don't have an online mode where you can get perks and personally glory to boast about online, the game isn't good to them.

I mean never mind the fact this generation you a few gems out there that had a good story line and lasted a pretty good length of time. Games like Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Red Dead Redemption.

I mean Halo Reach is about to come out and already I see people by the dozen yelling out I see you online on release day ! It is like wow, people don't even care to beat the story mode of a game 1st anymore ? Or at least try it before they jump online.

Kind of sad really......considering games cost more today then they did back when I was kid. At least back then I got my money's worth out of every game I bought. This generation.......not so much.

Like I said earlier, most games this generation can be beaten in 8 hours. Most games this generation story lines are so bad that I can careless about what happens to the character. It doesn't draw me in at all.

I remember back in the day when I played Wing Commander 4 and when Cat Scratch or Vaga Bond got killed, I felt hurt. They were my squad mates, had a vested interest in them.

Nowadays when a NPC gets killed it is like who was that person again ? I can't remember their name, oh well, moving on. There is no connection at all.

Video game companies have forgot what their core purpose is. And that is to be telling a STORY. A story that is so good a player gets wrapped up into it's world, to the point everytime a player wakes up, gets off work, out of school the 1st thing he or she wants to do is get back that story to find out what happens next or why his enemy is the way he is.

Thankfully this year Red Dead Redemption came out and Mass Effect 2 came out. Both games have EXCELLENT story lines and are worth buying.

Comments

# 1 shadthedad @ Aug 18

Excellent article man! I have to agree with you on this one. In my opinion your only hope would be to purchase a wii. I have a PS3, but I use it primarily for sports games. The wii has dk country, Kirby, and golden eye dropping this fall and I'm confident you will see the old school feel a lot of modern titles lack.