HHave we passed the golden age of PC gaming?

[runzwithsizorz]

I'm not referring to graphics and other technological improvements, but just pure imagination and storytelling. Yes, there are good games out there, but it seems that many of them are cookie cutter plots and not many new concepts. Max Payne 1 and 2 were unique with the film noir overtones and interesting story line. Max Payne 3 seems to be just another FSP with no character and a so called "modern" twist. It seems that developers have become more interested in the bottom line and appealing to the lowest common denominator when it comes to gaming. (Not that I object to making money and selling product, but have we lost the essence of what PC gaming used to be?) I get the impression that some of you feel as I do...look at the excitement when some of you were eager to download the FAN made "Wing Commander" game.
I remember when PC gaming encouraged innovation and when new talent could try their hand at creating games and selling them; small enterprises that were not bought up by mega corporations like Microsoft.
I remember Myst, Thief series, Kings Quest, Deus Ex, Sanatorium, Clive Barkers Undying, Draken, Wheel of Time, Longest Journey, Siberia, NOLF, Unreal, System Shock, Wing Commander Prophecy, and many more, some money makers, some not.
Not to say there aren't any good games out there. Loved Painkiller, Halo 1(made for PC), STALKER series, Far Cry (which never got resolved in the end nor was a true sequal ever made), Crysis, and some new remakes, such as Deus Ex. Played ME 2 and bought Witcher.
I guess in the end, the once new shiny penny has become old and somewhat dated; conglomerates have taken over and innovation and imagination takes second place. The only bright spot seems to be coming out of Eastern Europe these days.Too bad in a way, because I remember when...
You may agree or disagree, but that's just the way I feel.

Wife of Runz

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

We are in a new Casualized(ie, Dark) Age of Gaming.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

nah. i say the options have never been better or more convenient. sure you will always have the trend setters and genre creators, but new stuff is out there, and its easy enough to play the old classics. I agree there are a lot of rehashes and sequels, but take a look at everything out there. If i had steam when i was younger and had more free time, i would have never left my house! So many more options. I wouldn't have stuck with just my small library of games. I think we are rocking the golden age of gaming as it becomes more mainstream, pulling in more young creative minds for development.

 

[Barfo]

Is this a new spin of the "PC Gaming is dead" thing?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Gaming is like movies. It is mainstream so it has to appeal to as big as market as possible. That means dumbing things down so all the mouth breathers can grasp difficult concepts like "long sword +1"

 

[micrometers]

The golden age of pc gaming was the voodoo 2 era.

Then, pc's truly were on the cutting edge.

PC gaming has been declining since HALO on the xbox. That is my opinion.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Is this a new spin of the "PC Gaming is dead" thing?

Not at all. I hope not! As I said, some good games out there. And not much better for console gaming either!

 

[KaOTiK]

I think we passed the golden age for gaming in general. Ever since it has become truly mainstream it has been going down the shitter. Sure we get some good games still, but the amount of crap that comes out is crazy and the worst part, that crap sells really well so it just continues a self fulfilling cycle of shit.

I've said it for awhile and still believe it to be true, the gaming industry needs another crash.

 

[Gheris]

Yep I would say we have passed it. As a previous poster stated, when things become more mainstream then they lose that magic. The reason for this is mainstream = $$$. $$$ = "get it done NOW." "Get it done NOW" tends to kill creativity. However we are seeing some fun/great stuff from the indie side of things. So there is still hope.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

nah. i say the options have never been better or more convenient. sure you will always have the trend setters and genre creators, but new stuff is out there, and its easy enough to play the old classics. I agree there are a lot of rehashes and sequels, but take a look at everything out there. If i had steam when i was younger and had more free time, i would have never left my house! So many more options. I wouldn't have stuck with just my small library of games. I think we are rocking the golden age of gaming as it becomes more mainstream, pulling in more young creative minds for development.

Not to be contentious, but those "young, creative minds" would be???
To be fair, I play FSP. Role Playing and Adventure games, as you can see by my post. Not to say there are not other genres (i.e. world building) out there. And I guess I'm kind of picky about games I want to spend my time on.

 

[Texashiker]

I'm not referring to graphics and other technological improvements, but just pure imagination and storytelling.

I think we have reached a point where game developers no longer reach for the golden chalice. Instead of making a quality product, development companies are making crapware.

Over the past few years game developers have been making the same ole thing over, and over, and over, and over again.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

CD projekt red and the developers behind amnesia and trine give me hope. Indie and smaller developers is where we see creativity flourish.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

i disagree, but i think its a natural reaction to anyone that felt a strong emotional connection to an 'era' of anything. just how people will say music peaked in the __s and hollywood just does remakes now. blah blah. i think there are still plenty of interesting and unique games coming out. i also think the rehashes are actually evolutionary, which is actually a great thing, but many people seem to want every game to be revolutionary...

im sure today's teens and twenty somethings will be posting the same thread about todays games 10-15 yrs ago. old person's syndrome.

tho, i dont give a crap about storylines in games. if i wanted a story id read a book or watch a movie. its all about gameplay and competition for me.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i started playing video games of all types no later than 1980. in my opinion, historically games have been 90% dogshit, 10% ok or better. the nes and sega eras saw that go to 95% dogshit, and we're currently sitting at about 99.9% dogshit.

i haven't had a console since the ps2 and 3 or 4 games worth playing (gt, tekken, madden). i currently have a dedicated game pc and only play a couple games. even the ones i do play aren't very good (bf3, wot, f1).

i split blame equally between the creators of hollywood drivel and the masses that will buy any goddamn thing.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

"Hardcore"
And that's your style of gaming...not mine. As I said, I like story and empathy with the characters. Maybe it's a "woman thing".
Wife of Runz

 

[PowerYoga]

There have only been a handful of PC games that had good storytelling. There are some that were great for the time that if you went back and played now, it would feel antiquated because it is.

Gaming is constantly evolving, you just have to find stuff more suited to your tastes. The only genre that I'd say is truly dying is the space simulators one. But then a wing commander came out.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

And that's your style of gaming...not mine. As I said, I like story and empathy with the characters. Maybe it's a "woman thing".
Wife of Runz

i tried sw:tor which had a ton of praise for all the story and texture. what i found was that as the generic hyperbole skyrocketed so did the disconnect from my experience. during my 1 month rise to "power" from slave to dark council member (a carbon copy of age of conan and i'm sure many others) i would have thought i could make a meaningful decision or at least have someone pronounce my name.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

To Power Y
Antiquated? Perhaps. But I still remember Shodan, the" red pages or blue pages" of Myst, the ending of "The Longest Journey" saga, the horror and sadness of "Sanitorium",exploring the many worlds of "Deus Ex", the amoral world of "Thief"; and more. Just my opinion; just worlds that linger in memory.

 

[Remobz]

I think we have reached a point where game developers no longer reach for the golden chalice. Instead of making a quality product, development companies are making crapware.

Over the past few years game developers have been making the same ole thing over, and over, and over, and over again.

Agreed!

Most games are total crap these days.

 

[Matthiasa]

Maybe, but unless you spent way to much time gaming there are still older games to be played that are fun, frustrating and likely to have way to may stats, etc.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

i tried sw:tor which had a ton of praise for all the story and texture. what i found was that as the generic hyperbole skyrocketed so did the disconnect from my experience. during my 1 month rise to "power" from slave to dark council member (a carbon copy of age of conan and i'm sure many others) i would have thought i could make a meaningful decision or at least have someone pronounce my name.

Sorry to be dense. But what is sw;tor? I don't care what critics think...I just know what I consider imaginative story. Maybe the games are "old and antiquated" , but storytelling never dies.

 

[mmntech]

The golden age of PC gaming was in the 90s. It peaked around 1998-2000, declined a bit until 2005, and took a nose dive from there. However, I do think we are currently in a renaissance. One that I largely attribute to Steam. It's made it a lot easier for unique indie games to get published, and more importantly, advertised.

Companies like EA and Ubisoft are dinosaurs and are what give the PC platform a bad name, thanks to crap ports and burdensome DRM.

 

[Cerb]

Yes, we are past the golden age. That's just how it goes. That's the cost of not having to spend an hour to get your new driver version working correctly, or having to get a patch to play a game that was released too broken (unless you have an NVidia card, and also want video offloading to work, but that may be too OT ).

With the latest and next gens of consoles, PCs are not unique in this, anymore, either.

A gaming market crash would do us, the consumers, quite a bit of good, IMO. It's not like good games can't exist, but current market forces make it hard to get the investment/motivation needed to make them, it seems. It's not just that there's crap, but that there's many millions of dollars going into making and selling the crap, while devs with awesome ideas often don't have the resources to make a great game.

My hope is that, at the least, we can find a balance in the next several years, much like movies have, where good independent ideas can be given a chance to shine (they won't all be good). Digital distribution's reduction in costs will play a role, if this can happen.

Sorry to be dense. But what is sw;tor?

Star Wars: The Old Republic

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Sorry to be dense. But what is sw;tor? I don't care what critics think...I just know what I consider imaginative story. Maybe the games are "old and antiquated" , but storytelling never dies.

star wars: the old republic

this game had a lot of hype, which i bought into out of boredom. like most similar games, it was well-developed in the beginning (to create a positive first impression) and then fell of a cliff.

 

[Via]

The golden age of PC gaming was in the 90s. It peaked around 1998-2000.....

I agree. Games from that era were epic, before they had to cater to the casual demographic to get any sort of funding.

I can't imagine your average gamer today looking at this

and having anything other than mental implosion happen.