The current state of gaming

Joined Jul 2004
1K Posts | 1+
Bmount
Technology and software are in two totally different places right now. I've been contemplating this every since 3d's rise and fall. At least 50 years we've flirted with 3d technology and its always been the technology's fault until this past effort. Expensive battery powered glasses aside, we finally got it right, and found no use for it. It was eye candy but it did very little to truly expand the experience. 3d gaming died quicker than 3d tv all because gaming did even less with it than tv. It's still neat, and still being done in theatres but its dead.

Now comes VR. Its beautiful, works pretty well, but again we're doing nothing with it. Show me an actual game. The stuff that ships in with the cell phones are hokey roller coaster rides and effects, no game play to speak of. The console and computer gaming platforms have games but there's nothing big anyone is taking about. People got VR for Christmas because they were too big for Hatchimals and no one could find a NES classic.

Every great Nintendo had Mario's and Zelda's propping it up. Sega Genesis had Sonic (the other segas could be considered failures), xbox had Halo, ps1 and ps2 had an insane library, 360 had a good library and an over priced competitor, ps4 xbox one -- verdict is still out. All the really loved systems have enjoyed either a massive library or must have 1st party titles, with an exception or two.

AAA titles are pumping out quality games but getting the same game year in year out sucks. Serial stuff is better left for comic books and television. Call of Duty was a great game with a multiplayer experience that was a must play but it comes out every year now. It'll retain a percentage of its followers and pick up first timers but droves and droves of people aren't coming back. Madden, Tiger Woods, COD, Titanfall, Halo, GTA, Assassians Creed, Just Cause, Battlefield, all fantastic games that I and countless others have stopped buying every offering.

Indie titles have crowded the markets and for someone like me it's a pain in the butt digging through the trash to find that one or two gem. Steam has a weekly sale of 400 plus games ive never heard of and don't really care to play. For every Terraria there's a billion copycats that just aren't as good. I've learned to wait until the indie gets "discovered" and becomes three times the price and available on every platform. Out side of minecraft these titles usually burn white hot and fall off faster than the latest AAA release.

I wasn't around in the 70's but I can imagine how gamers felt then. Atari did some really amazing stuff with technology but never was it attached to any meaningful software. Pong, Galaga, PacMan, ... awesome games but the home versions were sub-par. Pacman on the VCS was returned to Atari and ultimately buried in that New Mexico landfill with ET. Consumers were offered nothing but garbage and unsupported peripherals.

Nintendo brought about that renaissance in the form of Mario. The controller was a vast improvement over Atari's controller, the zapper had several games and worked well, and especially towards the end the software was getting everything it could out of the NES in the form of games like SMB 3. We didn't tire of the super Mario bros titles either. instead of pushing something out every year 1, 2, and 3, spanned 5 years.

The major brands marched on with the same winning formula of technology and matching software and failed when they deviated.

Look at 3do, sega cd, and phillips cdi - disc format was awesome and killed for sony but no one wanted to watch a movie occasionally pushing a few buttons. There's NO replay value to that. disc technology made great improvements in music, voice, and video cut scenes and sony had software that worked with that, the others had poorly acted movies you occasionally interacted with.

The Saturn could have been something but sega botched the release and screwed up relationships with both the retailers and 3rd party developers. The DC didn't stand a chance after sega's poor management of the consoles before it.

Back to today. We're saturating the market with same old same old, with AAA developers spending more and more money on games making them less and less. Crap is flooding in from all angles in the form independent developers and the technology is innovative but has outpaced the software being developed for it.

The video game crash of 1983 happened because of unsupported hardware, waves of crappy software, and really crappy business decisions (if you don't believe me look up atari's rise and fall). These were some dark times but they did bring about a revolution in the video game industry. Activision came from atari's pissed off programmers. They became the first third party software developer and are still the biggest today. Maybe a crash is just what we need. Something equivalent of a forest fire to burn off all that crap so new life grows. Everything has become so convoluted and mired in turning a quick profit that the overall experience has become lost.
 
I really enjoyed your post. I "feel" many of the things that you touched on. I've begin to think that the limitations of those older systems forced creativity out of the programmers. As a retro gamer I find a richness out of those older games that seems to be missing in modern gaming. I enjoy those older games. Today it seems the advancement in technology is there but the programmers and game companies don't know what to do with it. Or maybe the game companies find themselves still perceiving gaming in a framework that needs to be laid aside and new concepts explored. There are those jewels that you find occasionally but they need to catch up with the technology. I think Nintendo has been trying to break from what has become mediocrity with its present and past two consoles. To me, consoles from the other two companies are really the same consoles as the past generations, but with better graphics. Not only have they become repetitive in the game series, but they are starting to do it with the consoles.
 
You're always going to start seeing diminishing returns as the life of something goes on. Look at music. Music all tends to fall into the same sort of categories. It's the same with games. I'm basically just forcing myself to play games because at this point, you're not going to get a lot of variation.

VR is still in its infancy and the main reason it can't take off is because it requires a lot of horsepower to run well. There's the PS4 Pro now and Scorpio is set to release next year. You'll more than likely see something then. Do I think it will take off? Not really but you'll have something more substantial when more powerful hardware releases.
 
I don't think the VR will take off until it is a standard packin for the system. It must be something to focus the system around. Something that everyone would have if they purchased the system. As it is right now, it will only be centered around a small percentage of the total game library. And I am only making that assessment when looking at past peripheral add-ons. It will need third party support. Sony is not known for supporting their own hardware most of the time. Someone would need to create a killer game that would catch the gaming community's attention.

Right now I suppose those that own one are wanting and waiting for something to play. Until then it will be used for watching movies and collecting dust. Games will need to be built around a diversity of genre.
 
Rant #1. VR

Considering evolution, compared to music video games are still a single cell organism. Music's origin goes back at least 30 thousand years and who knows how many instruments. It's evolved quite a bit. Video games have been around since maybe the early 70's -- you wouldn't think diminishing returns this soon but who knows.

I think there's tons of new possibilities and a lot of uncharted territory I just don't think the software side and the hardware side are on the same side. Hardware wants to jump head first in the deep end while software wants to stick its toe in the shallow end. Eventually software makes it to the deep end but by then hardware is off in a bigger pool.

I'd be happy if they'd scale progress made in hardware with that made in software. What's a 64 bit processor if all the applications are 32 bit? What good is VR if no one can code for it?

What I've played vr wise is awesome except it will get old quick. Half of what's on playstation that's and actual interactive game has many reviewers calling it tron-like. TRON LIKE?!? Tron is my age. Of those games one is almost 40 years old (I played it's grandfather on the vcs) and another is a game I remember from the dreamcast. Batman and Star Wars were amazing but Star Wars was a glorified demo and batman didn't involve a lot of game play.


Rant #2. The Switch

I'm getting an overwhelming sense of buyers remorse and I've only preordered the thing. Where's the beef? The only good stuff coming out for it looks to be available on the wii u as well meaning i'm still going to be buying wii u games at least initially. When the Wii came out there was a Zelda game that saw release on both platforms (happening again) but there was also wii sports. Mario made its debut soon after and the library exploded from there (mostly garbage but it did explode). The wii u had very limited games with it as well but lego city was new and fun as well as a decent Mario title. Maybe Nintendo will rattle some titles off soon but i'm not holding my breath.

Rant #3. PS PRO, Scorpio, etc.

Microsoft will end up winning this round. the ps pro is going to have twice the graphical processing power and a bit more cpu BUT developers have to make games that scale with the regular ps4... WTH? I get it, and as an owner of a regular ps4 I'm glad BUT why bother. the thing supports 4k but doesn't have a 4k blu ray and devs are going to be encumbered with scaling graphics? I guess it works for developers of computer games but playstation's programming?

Scorpio seems like more what i'm getting at with technology taking smaller steps. It's capable of VR but not really pushing it since "the games just aren't there yet" and Microsoft left it up to the developers if their games are exclusive to the system. It sounds like Microsoft is console-izing computers and allowing the hardware and software to progress in tandem.

the stupidity preceding the release of the xbox one and the subsequent back pedaling made me swear off xbox. I've owned every iteration of every majorly produced console since the Atari 7800 and the xbox one is the only one I've not purchased. Maybe just maybe Microsoft started listening to the gaming community again. I'd love to come back to Microsoft - live is so much better than playstation or Nintendo's online services. Hopefully Microsoft does better with the scorpio.
 
Good posts in this thread, was definitely a good read.

It is a shame though, I feel like during the PS2 era and maybe the Wii was the last time you really saw companies taking risks or making something other than AAA games. These days it feels like it's either AAA games or Indie games, those kind of weird AA games aren't really made anymore.
 
anyone else get this looming feeling that SaaS (software as a service) is on the horizon? Microsoft back door hinted about it when they got all that hate pre launch xbox one but they've sense made office and even windows that way. Maybe the uproar from the xbox one served as a distraction / red herring while Microsoft got the reaction they were expecting, gained confidence by changing their mind, all while getting the masses used to the scenario in a more subtle manner.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to pay money to have unlimited access to something like Nintendo's 16 bit catalog or every Microsoft game from the last 20 years but i'm a pragmatic. IPs from defunct companies have been bought and sold and it'd take a fortune to have a complete catalog of anything, not to mention the amd NVidia thing that made backward compatibility a guessing game.... that'd kill used game values if it did happen which would screw my kids out of their inheritance.
 
I don't like what I am beginning to feel in the gaming world. I think we are getting ready to see one or the other happen in the next generation. I think technology has out paced the "Blu ray, DVD media and has become the "old tech" and outdated. We are either returning to proprietary cartridges (like the switch) or download media only. And it is highly possible it will be service only. Nintendo isn't even putting out a console. To be honest, they are releasing a portable with a docking station. What has Sony and Microsoft got behind their closed doors?
 
targetrasp said:
Rant #1. VR

Considering evolution, compared to music video games are still a single cell organism. Music's origin goes back at least 30 thousand years and who knows how many instruments. It's evolved quite a bit. Video games have been around since maybe the early 70's -- you wouldn't think diminishing returns this soon but who knows.

True, video games are very young compared to music. However, video games are a digital visual medium. It can only scale as well as the technology at hand. Which you touch on in point 3. I'll get to that in a bit.

Rant #2. The Switch

I'm getting an overwhelming sense of buyers remorse and I've only preordered the thing. Where's the beef? The only good stuff coming out for it looks to be available on the wii u as well meaning i'm still going to be buying wii u games at least initially. When the Wii came out there was a Zelda game that saw release on both platforms (happening again) but there was also wii sports. Mario made its debut soon after and the library exploded from there (mostly garbage but it did explode). The wii u had very limited games with it as well but lego city was new and fun as well as a decent Mario title. Maybe Nintendo will rattle some titles off soon but i'm not holding my breath.

That's one of the reasons I didn't jump on it. I was actually dead set on getting one. Once I saw the reveal conference, I was turned off. One day I'll get one but the value is just not there yet for me. But if you really like Nintendo, I don't think you'll be too disappointed, I hope.

Rant #3. PS PRO, Scorpio, etc.

Microsoft will end up winning this round. the ps pro is going to have twice the graphical processing power and a bit more cpu BUT developers have to make games that scale with the regular ps4... WTH? I get it, and as an owner of a regular ps4 I'm glad BUT why bother. the thing supports 4k but doesn't have a 4k blu ray and devs are going to be encumbered with scaling graphics? I guess it works for developers of computer games but playstation's programming?

Scorpio seems like more what i'm getting at with technology taking smaller steps. It's capable of VR but not really pushing it since "the games just aren't there yet" and Microsoft left it up to the developers if their games are exclusive to the system. It sounds like Microsoft is console-izing computers and allowing the hardware and software to progress in tandem.

the stupidity preceding the release of the xbox one and the subsequent back pedaling made me swear off xbox. I've owned every iteration of every majorly produced console since the Atari 7800 and the xbox one is the only one I've not purchased. Maybe just maybe Microsoft started listening to the gaming community again. I'd love to come back to Microsoft - live is so much better than playstation or Nintendo's online services. Hopefully Microsoft does better with the scorpio.

I don't know. Sony has the software edge over MS. They're handily beating the Xbox One in sales month after month. The only way I see MS winning is if they come out with monster games when the Scorpio releases. Otherwise, the tech they have is not going to be enough to save them.

The PS4 Pro is a bit hit or miss. Not all games will, or can, take advantage of the hardware but it doesn't seem to phase gamers. They're still buying the PS4, either Pro or regular, to beat out MS nearly every month as mentioned before.
 
Yeah Software as a Service definitely seems like something they're inching towards but I don't see physical copies going anywhere anytime soon. I mean I'm not as against digital games as I was before because they can be pretty convenient and it can keep costs down for budget titles and indies. More often than not I will spring for physical over digital.

I'm just hoping streaming isn't the next step.
 
Would steaming without any physical copies kill gaming? And how would it effect a generation of gaming? How would anyone distinguish their console over the competition?
 
I don't know that it'd kill gaming but i'd be willing to wager it'd bring console gaming closer to pc gaming and eventually fold the two mediums together into one individual super device that pretty much govern our lives in both business and play...

wait a minute, we've got one of those, it's called the cell phone. Even though it does just about every other job worse than the devices its replacing, its replacing them none the less. First watches and landlines, then instant message programs and mp3 players. now its giving computers a run for their money, using tablets as the gateway.

Women over 18 are now the majority of games at over 1/3 with adult men now a percent or two behind, in a realm we once dominated 4 to 1. Cell phones are doing it and they're coming after our consoles and computers...

I often times feel like a doomsday prepper stocking my man cave with music, movies, and console games new and old, a fooseball table for periodic exercise, and lots of caffeinated beverages and salty treats for sustenance, waiting for Armageddon.
 
retro junkie said:
Would steaming without any physical copies kill gaming? And how would it effect a generation of gaming? How would anyone distinguish their console over the competition?

I don't think that streaming would kill gaming. There are plenty of gamers who would just give in and accept it and the video game world will continue to go on. The only affect I see is that it will enable instant gratification. The way you distinguish would probably how it is now, with exclusives. If you have the games to back up your console, you'll do well. Look at Nintendo.
 
I've been saying it since our podcast days, VR is the future! Haha. You're right though...I've been tempted to get a VR device (and even recently purchased a VR-ready gaming laptop) but I just haven't seen anything particularly interesting developed for it. I would say in two years or so, we'll see some decent titles with good functionality though.

Check this out...Red Alert 2 (and RTS game, if you aren't familiar) partially re-developed as a VR game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGtrJaiUZaA
 
I never thought about the use of VR on games played with an isometric view. I've only played VR games where you're a character in the game, not the "God" character. It didn't seem like VR did a whole lot to change or enhance RTS but thinking about it RTS hasn't changed since the mid 90's. I'm sure VR's benefits can be better realized in other genres but that'd take away a lot of options.

it would be amazing if part of the game allowed you to go from an isometric view to a first person view in a mechanic where you go from god mode to controlling a single unit, making it a champion type of unit when you're controlling it.