What are the reasons games seem to be getting worse in Quality?

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: Powernick50
I just wanted to get some opinions.

In the early days of gaming...the sierra franchise..and the general gaming world circa 1990's it seems like the games were at least 10 times better than they are today. I'm wondering if anyone feels the same and has an opinion as to why this is? I have two hypothesis'

A) I am just getting burnt out and growing out of games and therefore the current generation of games is looking inferior to old school games

or

B) Developers now focus more on graphics rather than novel systems and storyline as in the past (early fallout series and D&D) because graphics were fairly standard across the board.

I agree with you 100%.
I miss the old Sierra games the old Microprose games.. the old Origin games.. and even classic LucasArts games..

everything is now shooter this RTS that... all shallow crap.

 

[sactoking]

My vote is for programming complexity. When was the last time a game was released that was programmed by 1-3 people? The older games were the vision of ONE person, who could bring the vision into being. Now you need a team of 5-10 people just to get the multiplayer connectivity coded.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: Powernick50
I just wanted to get some opinions.

In the early days of gaming...the sierra franchise..and the general gaming world circa 1990's it seems like the games were at least 10 times better than they are today. I'm wondering if anyone feels the same and has an opinion as to why this is? I have two hypothesis'

A) I am just getting burnt out and growing out of games and therefore the current generation of games is looking inferior to old school games

or

B) Developers now focus more on graphics rather than novel systems and storyline as in the past (early fallout series and D&D) because graphics were fairly standard across the board.

Ten times better? The old games aren't even on the same playing field and there are some great games out there today.

That having been said, over the past couple years with the Rise of the Consoles we're seeing that PC games are getting consolized (emphasis on flashy graphics, shitty user interfaces, less depth, less overall maturity) with often negative results. For example, Unreal Tournament III which had the potential to revive the UT franchise was heavily consolized and bombed as a result.

Copy protection is also becoming a bothersome issue with some of the companies releasing games with outrageous and invasive forms of copy protection.

 

[aclim]

Could it be that we are getting older and our view of games and how they are change? I mean the older games were great because in the most part it was something new and unknown. After gaming for 20+ years it will be different even tho say a 10yo kid might think that same game is the best thing possible.

 

[Modelworks]

My litmus test for games is simple.
Take away all the extra graphics and sound effects, if the game is fun like that, you have a hit.

That was what made the old games popular. Take away all the graphics except for what was really needed and the gameplay was still there. They couldn't sell the games on graphics, they had to have gameplay. No one was going to sit in front of a pc with the player displayed as a stick man if there wasn't some story or adventure involved.

That is why people complain about FPS. No matter what you do to it it is still move and shoot, move and shoot. The FPS that sell are the ones that alter that with other things like CTF, add a good story line, or really involve the players.

Look at the classics like Chess.
No flashy graphics there, but serious strategy involved and that is why it remains fun.

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: Powernick50
I just wanted to get some opinions.

In the early days of gaming...the sierra franchise..and the general gaming world circa 1990's it seems like the games were at least 10 times better than they are today. I'm wondering if anyone feels the same and has an opinion as to why this is? I have two hypothesis'

A) I am just getting burnt out and growing out of games and therefore the current generation of games is looking inferior to old school games

or

B) Developers now focus more on graphics rather than novel systems and storyline as in the past (early fallout series and D&D) because graphics were fairly standard across the board.

Go play HL2.

I have. It was A great game..an anomaly.

Portal..again..decent game.

but I digress.

I think there have been many valid points made here.

1) EA likes to kill good franchises
2) Rose Tinted Glasses from the "Good Ol' days"
3) Consolization
4) Prgramming Complexity
5) Our children are devolving (hehe)

 

[GaiaHunter]

Well sometimes instead of starting again and creating something new that might or not work, you need to improve an old game.

Unfortunately most of the resources spent on that go exclusively go for graphics (which are important) and less to gameplay.

Lack of really critic game journalism - you can bet most hyped games will have good reviews, regardless if they suck, have bugs or not.

On the other hand some great games, just because they have no name disappear in the history bin (No one Lives forever, Sacrifice, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Clive Barker's Undying, were games I enjoyed playing a lot that probably sucked in terms of sales)

Console gaming - its a market with a bigger share of kids. You give something new and shinny to a kid and he will be happy. As a parent u just give whatever crap so he shut up (unless you are old school and slap him , just don't let anyone see you doing that ).

 

[jackace]

Originally posted by: PeanutButter

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
1. Demand for graphics quality over game quality: Pretty graphics sell well for the 360 / PC / PS3 group.
2. Dumbing-down of games: Most people do not like to think when playing games. This is why you see arrows pointing to the place you need to go for your quest (like Oblivion) instead of journal entries and other clues about where to find your objective. Regeneration in shooters like CoD4 and Uncharted : DF cause considerably less thought to be placed on conservative battle tactics. If you get hurt, just hide for a few moments and you will be healed again!
3. Shorter Games: Games are getting shorter as the population's attention span shrinks.
4. Games for everyone: Companies are increasingly catering to non-traditional gamers in an attempt to increase sales, alienating traditional gamers.
5. Ship now, patch later: This is starting to occur on consoles in addition to the traditional problems on the PC. As more people get broadband access, publishers can save money / time on a title by shipping it before it is finished and patching it later if it is a hit.
6. Cut content: Similar to #5, except it usually does not get patched in and if one is lucky, it will come as a $30 expansion pack (or $5 DLC for a piece of the cut content) a year later if the game did well in sales.
7. Franchise milking: Sequel / prequels to existing IP rather than creating new IP. This is perceived as far safer since the franchise recognition is already in place and they can use a formula that they know will work.
8. Quality control: Similar to 5 and 6, but this is an extreme case of both. This occurs when the game should have never seen the light of day. This is usually closely associated with #7.
9. Cannibalization: Focusing on action and "casual" games more than all of the other genres (aside from sports) combined by a large margin. Action and casual games are easier / quicker to make than (real) RPG or (non-action) Adventure games. All the developer has to do is add randomly generated levels to an action game to increase the length of it.

Speaks the truth!

Going to have to agree with this as well, especially numbers 1, 2, 5 and 8.

So tired of seeing games come out with basic problems with the UI, chat, animations, sluggish game play, etc. Especially in MMOs.

 

[Pia]

I don't agree with "shorter games" marking a decline in game quality. There should be both short and long games. If the devs can conjure up six hours of great, unique content (for a single player FPS for example), I'd like to see them polish that six hours, then ship. It doesn't make the game better if they dilute it with another ten hours consisting of key hunts, platforming sections, identical corridors, and obvious and constant backtracking. I have better use for my time.

IMO, the biggest problem currently is self-perpetuating risk avoidance. Devs won't take chances with gameplay, which means they confine themselves to a major, established genre. That means high level of competition. You need high budgets to beat said high level of competition. This causes even more risk avoidance. Games become bland and pointless for the players whose goal is to have interesting experiences and not just burn some time.

The same risk avoidance is responsible for lack of mature content. I'm talking about the polar opposite of teen power fantasy: psychological, emotional stuff. Paying a price for what you do. Not having everything spelled out for you. A sense of mystery. NPCs that interact with each other, tell stories, lie, and do not consider you the center of the world. Making sacrifices and burning bridges instead of being able to "game" everything and everyone endlessly. NPCs whom you could actually care about a bit. Children. Old people. A player character that is not a superman and will not grow into one.

And then there is DRM. Maybe not a big factor in sales so far, but a pet peeve of mine. Network activation on SP titles goes *way* too far - not that the rest of the DRM makes sense.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Pia
The same risk avoidance is responsible for lack of mature content. I'm talking about the polar opposite of teen power fantasy: psychological, emotional stuff. Paying a price for what you do. Not having everything spelled out for you. A sense of mystery. NPCs that interact with each other, tell stories, lie, and do not consider you the center of the world. Making sacrifices and burning bridges instead of being able to "game" everything and everyone endlessly. NPCs whom you could actually care about a bit. Children. Old people. A player character that is not a superman and will not grow into one.

This seems to be what the Witcher is all about. I think they did a pretty good job of creating that type of world, but I have only played the Enhanced Edition version with much better English dialog.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: novasatori
EA and others like it could also do this, they just don't want to because at the end of the day consumers ARE buying their junk.

Originally posted by: Powernick50
5) Our children are devolving (hehe)

I think these two sum it up pretty well. Kids are dumber than we were. I helped tutor a friend's daughter in Chemistry last year and couldn't believe how hard a time she had with very simple concepts. The school system has dumbed down the tests to make the kids look better and aren't teaching nearly as well as they used to.

A result (cause?) of this is kids wanting to be spoon-fed their games, nothing challenging or they will lose interest and pick up something else (and tell their friends to avoid whatever stumped them). So we have arrows pointing the way to the next destination. Consoles have become king because of the installed user base and standardized hardware.

I wonder how much of reduced PC game sales is due to piracy and how much do to simply people losing interest in gaming because the general degeneration in game quality? Any more I refuse to buy a new game at launch because the bugs hurt whatever fun might have been enjoyed. Instead I wait for a bunch of people to review games and then pick up a cheap copy after the major bugs have been addressed.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I'm not a hardcore gamer but I do play a fair amount and I don't really know what the OP is talking about.
Some of the games I've played in the past year:
Call of Duty 4: Awesome
Mass Effect: Awesome
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2: Awesome.
Team Fortress 2: Awesome
Half Life 2: Episode 2: Awesome
Portal: Awesome
GRiD: Awesome
Bioshock: Not bad
Quake 4: Pretty good

Games I'll be playing this summer:
Far Cry 2
The Witcher (with that new improvement package)
Fallout 3
And who knows what else.

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I'm not a hardcore gamer but I do play a fair amount and I don't really know what the OP is talking about.
Some of the games I've played in the past year:
Call of Duty 4: Awesome
Mass Effect: Awesome
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2: Awesome.
Team Fortress 2: Awesome
Half Life 2: Episode 2: Awesome
Portal: Awesome
GRiD: Awesome
Bioshock: Not bad
Quake 4: Pretty good

Games I'll be playing this summer:
Far Cry 2
The Witcher (with that new improvement package)
Fallout 3
And who knows what else.

You are right..I consider those to be DECENT games.

HL Episode 2 is just a extended clip of HL 2.

The Witcher is original..point there.

The rest are more or less FPS with RPG elements spattered about. Somewhat fun but did not hold my attention for very long. Portal's concept was very good. Lasting power is not there.

Maybe I am just jaded