Why I'm a Retro Gamer - from Racket himself

[brunoafh]

The market isn't about diversity anymore, it's about what prints money.

I would say that was true of every generation.

I'll have to disagree. Developers used to be far more experimental when development costs were low and you weren't expected to have to dump a nation's debt into a release every year. Development studios were mostly small groups of people that just enjoyed what they did and wanted to have fun and create games. People seem to forget the industry wasn't this booming mainstream thing that it is today 30 years ago, that's essentially the difference. The same can be said of every major form of entertainment and everything in general that takes off really. Smart small, get corporate. Squaresoft, Id Software, Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, all started as small time companies in a market not at all established or reeling in the cash.

I'm also confused why Madden/sports games have been brought up multiple times.

Because they crowd the shelves and allow companies to be lazy and release the same games every year instead of come up with something new. That's my gripe anyway. If EA were to set some budget aside and let an aspiring group of minds come up with something fresh instead of reskin a bunch of man ass in football pants maybe we'd have some cool new IPs instead of sports game the game 2094 the game.

[isiolia]

I'll have to disagree. Developers used to be far more experimental when development costs were low and you weren't expected to have to dump a nation's debt into a release every year. Development studios were mostly small groups of people that just enjoyed what they did and wanted to have fun and create games. People seem to forget the industry wasn't this booming mainstream thing that it is today 30 years ago, that's essentially the difference. The same can be said of every major form of entertainment and everything in general that takes off really. Smart small, get corporate. Squaresoft, Id Software, Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, all started as small time companies in a market not at all established or reeling in the cash.

...and now we're back full circle with digital markets creating the possibility of low-budget, experimental games having an audience. A smaller one, perhaps, but an audience nonetheless, with some help from larger companies. An article about the making of Dust: An Elysian Tale as an example.

And who will buy these niche games if they're only available in digital form? People who are intentionally trying to find out niche stuff.

Not necessarily. Fire up most any of the big name digital services and you tend to find at least some of the better digital-only games rubbing shoulders with the big AAA games/DLC. Probably half the "free" games in the PS+ Instant Game Collection would fall under some of the genres you listed a bit ago - couple platformers, couple beat 'em ups, and so on.

Besides that, with the internet, people are probably going to hear about more titles in the first place. It'll pop up on gaming blogs, on forums, on Facebook messages... then if they are interested, there's definitely a copy there for them.

[Violent By Design]

The market isn't about diversity anymore, it's about what prints money.

I would say that was true of every generation.

I'll have to disagree. Developers used to be far more experimental when development costs were low and you weren't expected to have to dump a nation's debt into a release every year. Development studios were mostly small groups of people that just enjoyed what they did and wanted to have fun and create games. People seem to forget the industry wasn't this booming mainstream thing that it is today 30 years ago, that's essentially the difference. The same can be said of every major form of entertainment and everything in general that takes off really. Smart small, get corporate. Squaresoft, Id Software, Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, all started as small time companies in a market not at all established or reeling in the cash.

Yes, but some of those companies like Capcom still do release small games.

Like you said, these companies start small and then become corporate. Really, no different than it is now. Indie companies are starting small and becoming big time, the fact that we are in the internet era actually means that quality games will have way more exposure than they did back then. Look at how much money Riot makes for example.

I'm also confused why Madden/sports games have been brought up multiple times.
Because they crowd the shelves and allow companies to be lazy and release the same games every year instead of come up with something new. That's my gripe anyway. If EA were to set some budget aside and let an aspiring group of minds come up with something fresh instead of reskin a bunch of man ass in football pants maybe we'd have some cool new IPs instead of sports game the game 2094 the game.

Madden was like that in the 90s as well. Don't see what changed there.

Also, UFC Undisputed came out this generation, which basically redefined its own genre.

[brunoafh]

...and now we're back full circle with digital markets creating the possibility of low-budget, experimental games having an audience.

I was considering editing my post and mentioning the digital market and how it allows freedom and creativity.

I'm content with the idea of digital markets, my contempt with digital distribution lies with console DLC, and it being managed by Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo (can also apply to publishers that are dicks with PC stuff). I want nothing to do with that. A digital market in general though, is a great thing, and allows gaming to be what it should be. There are thousands of free indie games out there as well, again proving that making games, for many people out there, is not about printing money whatsoever.

[Menegrothx]

Also, I am pretty sure Angry Birds has made much bigger profits than Madden has, so I find it strange that someone implied that Angry Birds is some how the lesser game.

Angry Birds is a simple, single screen game. There's no way you can compare it to a proper video game. It might be well designed, but I will never respect it the same way I respect the mature, intelligent writing of Planescape: Torment, the freedom of GTA: San Andreas, the symbolism of Silent Hill 2, the athmosphere of Portal, the lore and the size of World of Warcraft or the sheer brilliance of System Shock. It's a slap in the face for the developers of those "proper" games to speak of them in the same sentence with a game like Angry Birds.

Mass Effect and Skyrim are insanely popular RPGs, the argument that an RPG that has a ton of hours, high production and writing do not get respect doesn't make sense to me. I see it as quite the opposite. I look at some of these rpgs as games that are like big time movies, they're basically just made by having tons of money to pump them up, and people will buy them due to how huge the scale is. I really could not disagree more with the RPG point, RPGs are so well represented (and successful), I really do not see how someone can say there is a lack of them.

What I meant was that in the late 1990s/2000-2003 story based RPGs like Baldur's Gate 2 and Fallout 2 were isometric (but there was also 3D RPGs). Nowadays all the story based RPGs are 3D. You don't play a tactical/strategy RPG for the same reasons you play a "regular" story based RPG, so the fact that some strategy RPGs still use isometric view does not matter. SRPGs are the kind of games you play when you want to stimulate your mind in the same manner you do when you play chess, while you play a game like Baldur's Gate (or Mass Effect) to explore an epic storyline, so they're two different types of RPGs. Although unlike ME, BG is still good even if you're no intrested in storyline.

There aren't any popular new western RPGs like Fallout 1/2, Arcanum and Icewind Dale, it's all 3D now, like the new Fallout games.

An odd phrase caught my eye when viewing the past few post, you said something along the line of "a game that is digitally downloaded will never have the respect of a commercial release". I might have misquoted you since I am too lazy to click on the back button and check, but this catches my eye for a few reasons.

1) The respect from whom exactly?

See my first paragraph

2) How is a digital download not a commercial release?

Ok, retail release.

Team Fortress 2, Dota2 (yes, I know it is Beta only but there are talks of it not having a physical release anyway), League of Legends - all download only and those games are huge. They represent today's gaming culture just as much as Call of Duty does.

Except that Call of Duty does not have a creative fanbase Team Fortress 2 comes in physical form with Orange Box, that's how every one got it (and Portal) in the first place.

I don't see how LA Noire or Heavy Rain can be action adventure (there are hardly any action elements).

Apart from those gun and fist fights and car chases you mean? That list is really weird, considering it lists Portal 2 as an adventure game. Adventure games have traditionally been considered to be games like King's Quest, Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, Discworld, Myst and so on. Action adventure is an extremely broad term for just about any third person game that isn't stricly a platformer nor a third person shooter and is generally a mix of different game play elements like puzzle solving, jumping, fighting, shooting, driving and so on. Stuff like 3D Zelda games, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, God of War, Psychonauts and so on. I think that L.A Noire fits in the description well, it just has a heavy emphasis on puzzle solving, while games like RDR and GTA both use the same gameplay formula but focus on shooting, fighting car/horse chases and are a lot more unlinear.

I mean this is the first time a good 3D Sonic game has ever been released (Sonic Adventure games are product of their times) but you're totally dismissing them.

Sonic Generations is one of my all time favorite platformer games. I'm not dismissing it, I'm saying that just because there are Mario and Sonic 3D platformers does not mean that the 3D platformer genre is doing as good as it did during the PS1 or PS2 era.

In less you're going to only cite games that have Bunny hopping and rocket jumping as fast past games.

Yup. Even compared to Doom, the characters in most modern FPS games run slow as hell even while sprinting.

[CD AGES]

Also, UFC Undisputed came out this generation, which basically redefined its own genre.

I guess I haven't been playing UFC all these years on my Dreamcast

[BoneSnapDeez]

The section about pick-up-and-play games really rings true with me.

When I was younger, I remember going home on Friday nights and having an all-out video game marathon: 45 minutes of Contra, a few innings of Bases Loaded, a couple of levels of Ninja Gaiden (until the inevitable Game Over), a dungeon of Legend of Zelda, etc... This isn't possible with modern games - between the cutscenes, load times, ads, tutorials, and other BS it's much harder to casually flip back and forth between different titles.

I'm also confused why Madden/sports games have been brought up multiple times.

Because they crowd the shelves and allow companies to be lazy and release the same games every year instead of come up with something new. That's my gripe anyway. If EA were to set some budget aside and let an aspiring group of minds come up with something fresh instead of reskin a bunch of man ass in football pants maybe we'd have some cool new IPs instead of sports game the game 2094 the game.

Not to mention the fact that the NFL/EA license agreement killed all diversity in football gaming. I would love to see Sega, Tecmo and others still cranking out NFL titles - the Madden games are sinfully boring.

[noiseredux]

The section about pick-up-and-play games really rings true with me.

When I was younger, I remember going home on Friday nights and having an all-out video game marathon: 45 minutes of Contra, a few innings of Bases Loaded, a couple of levels of Ninja Gaiden (until the inevitable Game Over), a dungeon of Legend of Zelda, etc...

yeah now you'd have to do 45 mins of Deathsmiles, a few matches of Street Fighter X Tekken, a couple levels of Lollipop Chainsaw, a dungeon of 3D Dot Game Hero, etc...

pick-up-and-play totally doesn't exist anymore.

[flojocabron]

I like videogames! They make me happy and angry!

[o.pwuaioc]

The section about pick-up-and-play games really rings true with me.

When I was younger, I remember going home on Friday nights and having an all-out video game marathon: 45 minutes of Contra, a few innings of Bases Loaded, a couple of levels of Ninja Gaiden (until the inevitable Game Over), a dungeon of Legend of Zelda, etc...

yeah now you'd have to do 45 mins of Deathsmiles, a few matches of Street Fighter X Tekken, a couple levels of Lollipop Chainsaw, a dungeon of 3D Dot Game Hero, etc...

pick-up-and-play totally doesn't exist anymore.

Percentages are for suckers.