Sovrath do you write for a living, I rarely if ever see you taking an objective opinion regardless of what side of the fence you seem to fall on and again I commend you for that as when reading the boards it gives me something to strive for.
Well, that's very nice of you, Thanks!
I study writing because I need to integrate it into my life as it stands, but that is another story.
The thing is, I used to be a very judgemental person when I was "young". Read teens to early 20's. However, as one matures one sees that people who have diametrically opposed viewpoints are still good people. It's just that we sometimes have a difficult time seeing our views from the other side of the table. It's my "hold a coin up to a person, one face towards him and the other towards yourself and ask him what he sees" example.
He will say "heads". But you clearly see tails. Then the argument starts when all it takes is one to turn the coin or shift one's position to see the validity of the other's argument. At least in light of their experiences and where they are.
I agree, it is human nature for us to look fondly at the past and seek things that are similar. but it is destiny for all people to learn to appreciate things in context of the time and to recognize their strong points and to search for things that evince those strong points in our current place.
When I was a kid I saw two Jerry Lewis films. "Cingerfella" and "Visit to a Small Planet". They were hysterical and probably some of the best movies that I had ever seen as a kid. I actually loved these movies.
Many years ago I saw "Cinderfella" on sale in video tape format. I immediately purchased it because it was such a great movie. So when I got home I watched in horror as all my memories were washed away with the reality of my current place in life. I don't have the heart to see "Visit to a small planet" as I think it would be a significant nail on the coffiin of my childhood.
Being an adult does not mean letting go of the past. It does mean putting things in perspective. I still have no doubt that to the young seven year old me, Cinderfella was the greatest and funniest movie movie ever. As a seven year old I needed that movie. Now at 43 I look toward movies that inspire the same feelings and joy but in a context that can be appreciated by a 43 year old man.
After all, as babies we ate baby forumula, probably ate it down with glee. As adults we don't pine for baby food but we do pine for good food that we can appreicate with our mature palletes. Good games will come around the bend. We just have to remember that as kids we saw many games as being great because our kid minds were programmed that way. Time travel back to your first video game experienes and you might find they fall short. But that's ok and a good thing. Because moving on to similar but richer experiences is what will make our lives better.
So yes, the past is great but we must look to the future and look to new faces to give us that thrill again. It's like Miss Havisham in "Great Expecations". She "so" holds on to the past that it eats away at her and there is nothing left for her but to wallow in one moment of her life which then breeds hatred and misplaced revenge. We just need to retire that weddding dress and look towards new suitors. They are out there if we give them a chance.
You know OP, I hear you, I agree with you, but I also disagree.
One of the reasons why one spent so much time with some games of the past was the slow loading times.... Man, I loved Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, but it took like 5 minutes to load, and if you wanted to restart a saved game, you had to restart the game....
As you say, there are pearls, such as Dragon Age - playing through it once took me 40 something hours. Doing it again wouldn't be much faster. But then again, as you say, many games are like 8h and the replay value.... Heck, Super MarioBrothers has more game time - my kids must have spent 50+ h (over half a year :P ) on that game, a game I don't regret having bought for them - even I like it, although I suck in comparison to my kids (makes me feel old....).
Games seem to tend to go towards fastfood - because of the little time. And if they are not, then a (hidden) charge is involved - need to be member of this, need to download that... All a question of making the investors happy versus the pirates. Some producers claim, they don't do PC games anymore simply for that
Interesting viewpoint. In a way the movie industry started this way too and became a big Corporate machine. So since the game industry is looking similar, we can expect about 75% of games to be more about quantity and less about quality and only about 25%, and that is generous, are truly works of art and quality.
And just like the movie industry, the bar is always set by the quality works instead of the rushed, ultra marketed junk that permeates everything these days. .../sigh Ah well, time to get Oscars type gaming ceremonies and Developer Guilds, hehe and tons of critics across the world giving thumbs up or down.
Yes! Exactly!
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
So I have been playing games on computers since the original text adventures first appeared and had a C64. I loved Wizardry and Ultima. I remember playing endless hot seat games of the original heroes of Might and Magic and played Fantasy General etc but I can still find so many great games to play.
Recently from my gamestore I have been playing both XBOX 360 titles and PC titles.
Fantasy & Sci FI RPGs:
Dragon Age Origins and Awakening are great. Played them through more than once and it took me some time. Played the PC version.
Mass Effect 2 is AWESOME. Great story and characters. Solid action and gameplay. It was long enough to get my moneys worth. Mass Effect 1 is great too if you have not played it.
Risen is a solid RPG title I played on the PC. It is hard and takes a tone of time. It is pretty close to a traditional RPG from the old days with better graphics.
Alpha Protocol is a game I guess you either love or hate. I loved it. The graphics were not the top of the industry but the dialogue system and characters made multiple play throughs worthwhile.
Console Games:
I just picked up the original Dead Space. Man- I did not realize I was missing out on a fatastic title. Creepy and startling with good story, good action and great gameplay.
Red Dead Redemption is a real live western sandbox RPG and is FANTASTIC. One of the better games I have played. If you are in to multiplayer at all that part is fun to but it is a stand out single player game as well.
Alan Wake is a great story based game with creepy imagery and fun new game mechanics in combat. A little short but worth the money.
MMOs I am playing AOC and Champions right now. AOC has shaped up to be a very, very good RPG experience and MMO in my opinion. Champions is more of a casual game for me but it is fun.
So I am one of the old gamers and I have found plenty to play. So much that I will be busy for some time. There is a game coming out called Elemental that us old school turn based, Fantasy world strategy players should love too.
Just need to think out side the box a little to find the fun games out there of which there are plenty.
Now we only get story focused RPG like Dragon Age.
WHat happen to Dark Cloud 3? Drakenguard 3? Maximo 3? Dot Hack the new age?
Have you tried "Dark Messiah - Might and Magic"? It is a few years old but it's absolutely beautiful. And completely hack and slash. Oh, you can put points into certain skills but it's like a fantasy fps game.
It's very fast paced and you can die which is a nice thrill to have when so many of these games seem to err on the side of being a bit too easy.
It's got its issues but I recently installed it again and couldn't put it down.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I still like buying games in shop becouse i like having a box of game in my collection.
But more and more i refuse buying games when i see permanent internet connection needed to play game(ubisoft) even solo games.
Ok they have chance policy on reinstall games these days its now mostly unlimited but permanent internet connection and savegames at there server i dont like at all plus fact they controll my gaming so much i refuse play such games.
Im affraid soon im playing only old games and games of today is lost to me:(
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I must say last year game Definity 2:ego draconis and Risen was surprise for me and enjoyed it alot, nice rpg's!
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Why would a developer make games like the rpgs of old that would literally last you months worth of playtime when they can slap 8-40 hours of gameplay, add a decent multiplayer mode, and sell it for 59.99. I'm an oldie gamer myself gaming for over 20 years now but everyone has different tastes. I love a good console multiplayer with a good co-op to play with my buddies, MMORPGS were usually my thing but honestly todays mmo market blows hard and there are only 1 or 2 titles I have my eye on.
Oh and, I still have Ultima VII, what a great game for its time.
I like to flash up dosbox occassionally and play some Eye of the Beholder I,II, or II. Also Dungeon Master 1, 2. and Hired guns. Used to think these games were so great back in the day. Though i prefered the Amiga versions.
Games changed. They left me behind, and there are only very few games every year which sort of interest me still. I am profoundly convinced games lost a LOT when they started to move towards a mass market thing, trying to please way too many different people, ending up being only the smallest common ground and simplified to small fast food snacks.
After I read your post I felt older because, even at twenty-six, this post resonates with me. I've been gaming since I was six years-old and NES's Castlevania was the first game I ever played. The games that drew me in were the ones you spoke of and I remember playing some of those first-person RPGs, like SNES's Eye of the Beholder -hell, I even remember playing one of the purely text-based Zork games. Story, story is really lost now and...there is too much to say about this and at the same time not enough to say.
It seems to me that the gaming industry, an industry where only a minute fraction of games actually make a return, has seen some games make stellar returns and are aiming to copy that. Perhaps it's just me -and maybe you too if I am following you as closely as I think I am- but I look at games as more than a mere product, I look at them as a piece of functional art. That status, if anyone aside from me is willing to grant that, has been lost in the effort to merely make money instead of make a great game and make the money that comes with making a great game. Great games are few and far between and there are far more good and so-so games out there, granted, but the older I get the fewer truly great games in each genre there are. It seems to me that until the idea of capitalism-gone-wrong is put away we're going to have fewer and fewer great games, just look at the substance of and support for the MMORPGs that have been coming out since 'the Golden Age'.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain. (2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
At the same time I have had fun and amazing experiences in WoW, in Halo, in Mass Effect that I did not nor could not have in UO, Doom, or Dragon Quest.
For all we have "lost" we have certainly gained plenty too.
I mean Hell... I've been on this SITE for 6 years...
The problem is the developers are spending too much effort focusing on the looks of the game, and not enough on the substance of the gameplay. It's almost like the graphics are done first and foremost, and the actual gameplay is added as an afterthought. Some games play more like graphical engine demos more than anything else.
I like to flash up dosbox occassionally and play some Eye of the Beholder I,II, or II. Also Dungeon Master 1, 2. and Hired guns. Used to think these games were so great back in the day. Though i prefered the Amiga versions.
heh bought a new PC. first thing done were to download dosbox and play railroad tycoon - one of me all time favorite games :P
can relate to OP alot tho. civ 1 were great but always prefered civ 2 since lasted longer, and had a longer evolvement periode. arguably properbly "dumbed down" since get more turns to reach the same goal...
over all tho. yes its a mix of producing a game sure takes time, but you get alot more tools to do it with, and priority being set on visuals rather than gameplay...and as others have said games used to be for nerds, but now almost everyone play games, so have to fit as many as possible.....thank you god for sites like MMORPG.com where old farts can meet up
to add really enjoyed dragon age as well....am considering buying ME2, it aint all bad....aand does adventure games still exsist ?! please tell me the name of it.
I like to flash up dosbox occassionally and play some Eye of the Beholder I,II, or II. Also Dungeon Master 1, 2. and Hired guns. Used to think these games were so great back in the day. Though i prefered the Amiga versions.
heh bought a new PC. first thing done were to download dosbox and play railroad tycoon - one of me all time favorite games :P
can relate to OP alot tho. civ 1 were great but always prefered civ 2 since lasted longer, and had a longer evolvement periode. arguably properbly "dumbed down" since get more turns to reach the same goal...
over all tho. yes its a mix of producing a game sure takes time, but you get alot more tools to do it with, and priority being set on visuals rather than gameplay...and as others have said games used to be for nerds, but now almost everyone play games, so have to fit as many as possible.....thank you god for sites like MMORPG.com where old farts can meet up
to add really enjoyed dragon age as well....am considering buying ME2, it aint all bad....aand does adventure games still exsist ?! please tell me the name of it.
Adventure games are alive and well.
AdventureGamers.com
GameBoomers.com
JustAdventure.com
I could list many more sites with active communities of diehard adventure gamers. And to be honest....they continue to be an occasional guilty pleasure of MINE as well. Some of the newer ones are downright amazing. ANY adventure game by Jonathan Boakes is scary and awesome. Ragnar Tournquist is an adventure game making GOD and is now working on an MMO. And there are new adventure games released CONSTANTLY. So yes....yes....adventure games still exist.
OK, as a 64 year old gamer I will put in my two cents worth.
I have been playing computer games since about 1977. I had a coleco console that had pong and a sort of hockey game.
To make a long story short my feeling is that once something gets popular the quality goes down.
I can remember when TV first started NBC had a symphony orchestra that played concerts every Sunday night, Can you imagine NBC doing that now ?? CBS had Edward R. Murrow whose news broadcasts where in depth and without the hyped up news that we have today. The national news was 15 minutes long. Now we have CNN and hours of local news and national news that are mostly fluff and BS. I am not one that wants to go back to the good old days as there never was and never has been the good old days. I lot of things are better now. People dont die from strep throat any more and I have glaucoma yet I have not gone blind from it as people used to.
I do think that overall the quality of games have suffered. I still play Alpha Centaurii I usually play the Spartan faction and hate Yang.
Anyway you have to search long and hard to find a quality game these days when in the past they seemed to be everywhere.
OK, as a 64 year old gamer I will put in my two cents worth.
I have been playing computer games since about 1977. I had a coleco console that had pong and a sort of hockey game.
To make a long story short my feeling is that once something gets popular the quality goes down.
I can remember when TV first started NBC had a symphony orchestra that played concerts every Sunday night, Can you imagine NBC doing that now ?? CBS had Edward R. Murrow whose news broadcasts where in depth and without the hyped up news that we have today. The national news was 15 minutes long. Now we have CNN and hours of local news and national news that are mostly fluff and BS. I am not one that wants to go back to the good old days as there never was and never has been the good old days. I lot of things are better now. People dont die from strep throat any more and I have glaucoma yet I have not gone blind from it as people used to.
I do think that overall the quality of games have suffered. I still play Alpha Centaurii I usually play the Spartan faction and hate Yang.
Anyway you have to search long and hard to find a quality game these days when in the past they seemed to be everywhere.
Thank you!
My point exactly and I appreciate your input as a 64 year old gamer. If anyone is going to have a better sense of how things have been over the course of years it's someone who has been there.
I too know of the NBC concerts (Toscanini was the conductor and he was a ruthless one at that!) and have been exposed to quite a lot of early television programming.
Heck, I've listened to my share of the early radio shows as well.
That's why it's important to look at thing in context as you are correct, there were never any "good old days". We are always moving forward and should always be aware of the past. People say thing are getting worse but if one looks at the course of our history things are getting better. It's just a two steps forward, one step back process. But people never have enough hindsight to be aware of all the previous steps we had to go through.
Oh, and I also play Alpha Centauri from time to time as it is one of my favorite games. Every time I see a post by Elocke I think of the very faction of his avatar and Dr. Zakharov as it was the faction I always played ; )
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Wizardry was my fav on the C64/128 (I had a samurai that was the bomb).
Does anyone remember the name of this game for the C64:
It had a race track that was built out of wood and looked like an old style rollercoaster with loops, jumps, and wide turns on it. A tractor would pick up your car and drop you on the track. You could control the cars speed and turn left and right. The track had no railing so if you messed up you would crash & burn in a blaze of fire and bent metal. If you got through the first track you could move on to the next one (3 tries per track).
Had tons of fun in that silly game but I was only able to unlock about 8 tracks total.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Change is always difficult to accept and adjust too, and the more we resist the worse it is. kb4blu is right that popularity changes things particularly dramatically. Although while I would agree the average quality might decrease when things become popular, there are greater odds of something good appearing in that population. Even saying the average quality decreases is a bit of a lie because popularity brings positive changes as well as negative ones and just as often the balance can go either way.
There are great games in the past, like Alpha Centauri, which I'm rather surprised how often it gets brought up in the random posts I read. Btw I always played as Deidre and I hated Miriam . But at the same time there are great games today, at least if we accept individual opinion. Sometimes there are games that are great ideas, but poor execution, and sometimes there are suprisingly good games that come from really unoriginal material. While those only average out to being... well average, at least games are being made, people have jobs, the industry grows.
I like the fact gaming is popular because it brings new games, new talent, larger budgets, everything in a sense that can drive the industry forward. At the same time it also has the negative side of popularity like really bad games, "outsiders" who want to change everything that made games great "back in the day" etc.
I'd like to quote the movie Tommy Boy for a moment. "In auto parts you're either growing or you're dying, there ain't no third direction." So true of life in general. Apologies if the quote isn't 100%, taking it off the top of the head for posting speed sake.
Wizardry was my fav on the C64/128 (I had a samurai that was the bomb).
Does anyone remember the name of this game for the C64:
It had a race track that was built out of wood and looked like an old style rollercoaster with loops, jumps, and wide turns on it. A tractor would pick up your car and drop you on the track. You could control the cars speed and turn left and right. The track had no railing so if you messed up you would crash & burn in a blaze of fire and bent metal. If you got through the first track you could move on to the next one (3 tries per track).
Had tons of fun in that silly game but I was only able to unlock about 8 tracks total.
Racing Destruction Set?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Comments
Well, that's very nice of you, Thanks!
I study writing because I need to integrate it into my life as it stands, but that is another story.
The thing is, I used to be a very judgemental person when I was "young". Read teens to early 20's. However, as one matures one sees that people who have diametrically opposed viewpoints are still good people. It's just that we sometimes have a difficult time seeing our views from the other side of the table. It's my "hold a coin up to a person, one face towards him and the other towards yourself and ask him what he sees" example.
He will say "heads". But you clearly see tails. Then the argument starts when all it takes is one to turn the coin or shift one's position to see the validity of the other's argument. At least in light of their experiences and where they are.
@mklinic:
I agree, it is human nature for us to look fondly at the past and seek things that are similar. but it is destiny for all people to learn to appreciate things in context of the time and to recognize their strong points and to search for things that evince those strong points in our current place.
When I was a kid I saw two Jerry Lewis films. "Cingerfella" and "Visit to a Small Planet". They were hysterical and probably some of the best movies that I had ever seen as a kid. I actually loved these movies.
Many years ago I saw "Cinderfella" on sale in video tape format. I immediately purchased it because it was such a great movie. So when I got home I watched in horror as all my memories were washed away with the reality of my current place in life. I don't have the heart to see "Visit to a small planet" as I think it would be a significant nail on the coffiin of my childhood.
Being an adult does not mean letting go of the past. It does mean putting things in perspective. I still have no doubt that to the young seven year old me, Cinderfella was the greatest and funniest movie movie ever. As a seven year old I needed that movie. Now at 43 I look toward movies that inspire the same feelings and joy but in a context that can be appreciated by a 43 year old man.
After all, as babies we ate baby forumula, probably ate it down with glee. As adults we don't pine for baby food but we do pine for good food that we can appreicate with our mature palletes. Good games will come around the bend. We just have to remember that as kids we saw many games as being great because our kid minds were programmed that way. Time travel back to your first video game experienes and you might find they fall short. But that's ok and a good thing. Because moving on to similar but richer experiences is what will make our lives better.
So yes, the past is great but we must look to the future and look to new faces to give us that thrill again. It's like Miss Havisham in "Great Expecations". She "so" holds on to the past that it eats away at her and there is nothing left for her but to wallow in one moment of her life which then breeds hatred and misplaced revenge. We just need to retire that weddding dress and look towards new suitors. They are out there if we give them a chance.
@Aericyn:
No way?!?! got to love the pacific northwest! Don't tell me you also get visits from the Ice and Coal company as well?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You know OP, I hear you, I agree with you, but I also disagree.
One of the reasons why one spent so much time with some games of the past was the slow loading times.... Man, I loved Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, but it took like 5 minutes to load, and if you wanted to restart a saved game, you had to restart the game....
As you say, there are pearls, such as Dragon Age - playing through it once took me 40 something hours. Doing it again wouldn't be much faster. But then again, as you say, many games are like 8h and the replay value.... Heck, Super MarioBrothers has more game time - my kids must have spent 50+ h (over half a year :P ) on that game, a game I don't regret having bought for them - even I like it, although I suck in comparison to my kids (makes me feel old....).
Games seem to tend to go towards fastfood - because of the little time. And if they are not, then a (hidden) charge is involved - need to be member of this, need to download that... All a question of making the investors happy versus the pirates. Some producers claim, they don't do PC games anymore simply for that
Yes! Exactly!
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
So I have been playing games on computers since the original text adventures first appeared and had a C64. I loved Wizardry and Ultima. I remember playing endless hot seat games of the original heroes of Might and Magic and played Fantasy General etc but I can still find so many great games to play.
Recently from my gamestore I have been playing both XBOX 360 titles and PC titles.
Fantasy & Sci FI RPGs:
Dragon Age Origins and Awakening are great. Played them through more than once and it took me some time. Played the PC version.
Mass Effect 2 is AWESOME. Great story and characters. Solid action and gameplay. It was long enough to get my moneys worth. Mass Effect 1 is great too if you have not played it.
Risen is a solid RPG title I played on the PC. It is hard and takes a tone of time. It is pretty close to a traditional RPG from the old days with better graphics.
Alpha Protocol is a game I guess you either love or hate. I loved it. The graphics were not the top of the industry but the dialogue system and characters made multiple play throughs worthwhile.
Console Games:
I just picked up the original Dead Space. Man- I did not realize I was missing out on a fatastic title. Creepy and startling with good story, good action and great gameplay.
Red Dead Redemption is a real live western sandbox RPG and is FANTASTIC. One of the better games I have played. If you are in to multiplayer at all that part is fun to but it is a stand out single player game as well.
Alan Wake is a great story based game with creepy imagery and fun new game mechanics in combat. A little short but worth the money.
MMOs I am playing AOC and Champions right now. AOC has shaped up to be a very, very good RPG experience and MMO in my opinion. Champions is more of a casual game for me but it is fun.
So I am one of the old gamers and I have found plenty to play. So much that I will be busy for some time. There is a game coming out called Elemental that us old school turn based, Fantasy world strategy players should love too.
Just need to think out side the box a little to find the fun games out there of which there are plenty.
I miss cool 3d Hack and Slasher RPG.
WTF happen to those?
Now we only get story focused RPG like Dragon Age.
WHat happen to Dark Cloud 3? Drakenguard 3? Maximo 3? Dot Hack the new age?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Have you tried "Dark Messiah - Might and Magic"? It is a few years old but it's absolutely beautiful. And completely hack and slash. Oh, you can put points into certain skills but it's like a fantasy fps game.
It's very fast paced and you can die which is a nice thrill to have when so many of these games seem to err on the side of being a bit too easy.
It's got its issues but I recently installed it again and couldn't put it down.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I still like buying games in shop becouse i like having a box of game in my collection.
But more and more i refuse buying games when i see permanent internet connection needed to play game(ubisoft) even solo games.
Ok they have chance policy on reinstall games these days its now mostly unlimited but permanent internet connection and savegames at there server i dont like at all plus fact they controll my gaming so much i refuse play such games.
Im affraid soon im playing only old games and games of today is lost to me:(
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Instant Gratification is the killer.
Im playing morrowind again hehe.
I must say last year game Definity 2:ego draconis and Risen was surprise for me and enjoyed it alot, nice rpg's!
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Why would a developer make games like the rpgs of old that would literally last you months worth of playtime when they can slap 8-40 hours of gameplay, add a decent multiplayer mode, and sell it for 59.99. I'm an oldie gamer myself gaming for over 20 years now but everyone has different tastes. I love a good console multiplayer with a good co-op to play with my buddies, MMORPGS were usually my thing but honestly todays mmo market blows hard and there are only 1 or 2 titles I have my eye on.
Oh and, I still have Ultima VII, what a great game for its time.
I like to flash up dosbox occassionally and play some Eye of the Beholder I,II, or II. Also Dungeon Master 1, 2. and Hired guns. Used to think these games were so great back in the day. Though i prefered the Amiga versions.
Archlinux ftw
After I read your post I felt older because, even at twenty-six, this post resonates with me. I've been gaming since I was six years-old and NES's Castlevania was the first game I ever played. The games that drew me in were the ones you spoke of and I remember playing some of those first-person RPGs, like SNES's Eye of the Beholder -hell, I even remember playing one of the purely text-based Zork games. Story, story is really lost now and...there is too much to say about this and at the same time not enough to say.
It seems to me that the gaming industry, an industry where only a minute fraction of games actually make a return, has seen some games make stellar returns and are aiming to copy that. Perhaps it's just me -and maybe you too if I am following you as closely as I think I am- but I look at games as more than a mere product, I look at them as a piece of functional art. That status, if anyone aside from me is willing to grant that, has been lost in the effort to merely make money instead of make a great game and make the money that comes with making a great game. Great games are few and far between and there are far more good and so-so games out there, granted, but the older I get the fewer truly great games in each genre there are. It seems to me that until the idea of capitalism-gone-wrong is put away we're going to have fewer and fewer great games, just look at the substance of and support for the MMORPGs that have been coming out since 'the Golden Age'.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
At the same time I have had fun and amazing experiences in WoW, in Halo, in Mass Effect that I did not nor could not have in UO, Doom, or Dragon Quest.
For all we have "lost" we have certainly gained plenty too.
I mean Hell... I've been on this SITE for 6 years...
The problem is the developers are spending too much effort focusing on the looks of the game, and not enough on the substance of the gameplay. It's almost like the graphics are done first and foremost, and the actual gameplay is added as an afterthought. Some games play more like graphical engine demos more than anything else.
This thread makes me want to fire up dosbox and play some Master of Magic.
heh bought a new PC. first thing done were to download dosbox and play railroad tycoon - one of me all time favorite games :P
can relate to OP alot tho. civ 1 were great but always prefered civ 2 since lasted longer, and had a longer evolvement periode. arguably properbly "dumbed down"
since get more turns to reach the same goal...
over all tho. yes its a mix of producing a game sure takes time, but you get alot more tools to do it with, and priority being set on visuals rather than gameplay...and as others have said games used to be for nerds, but now almost everyone play games, so have to fit as many as possible.....thank you god for sites like MMORPG.com where old farts can meet up
to add really enjoyed dragon age as well....am considering buying ME2, it aint all bad....aand does adventure games still exsist ?! please tell me the name of it.
Adventure games are alive and well.
AdventureGamers.com
GameBoomers.com
JustAdventure.com
I could list many more sites with active communities of diehard adventure gamers. And to be honest....they continue to be an occasional guilty pleasure of MINE as well. Some of the newer ones are downright amazing. ANY adventure game by Jonathan Boakes is scary and awesome. Ragnar Tournquist is an adventure game making GOD and is now working on an MMO. And there are new adventure games released CONSTANTLY. So yes....yes....adventure games still exist.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
You are all are starting to make me feel so old.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
OK, as a 64 year old gamer I will put in my two cents worth.
I have been playing computer games since about 1977. I had a coleco console that had pong and a sort of hockey game.
To make a long story short my feeling is that once something gets popular the quality goes down.
I can remember when TV first started NBC had a symphony orchestra that played concerts every Sunday night, Can you imagine NBC doing that now ?? CBS had Edward R. Murrow whose news broadcasts where in depth and without the hyped up news that we have today. The national news was 15 minutes long. Now we have CNN and hours of local news and national news that are mostly fluff and BS. I am not one that wants to go back to the good old days as there never was and never has been the good old days. I lot of things are better now. People dont die from strep throat any more and I have glaucoma yet I have not gone blind from it as people used to.
I do think that overall the quality of games have suffered. I still play Alpha Centaurii
I usually play the Spartan faction and hate Yang.
Anyway you have to search long and hard to find a quality game these days when in the past they seemed to be everywhere.
Thank you!
My point exactly and I appreciate your input as a 64 year old gamer. If anyone is going to have a better sense of how things have been over the course of years it's someone who has been there.
I too know of the NBC concerts (Toscanini was the conductor and he was a ruthless one at that!) and have been exposed to quite a lot of early television programming.
Heck, I've listened to my share of the early radio shows as well.
That's why it's important to look at thing in context as you are correct, there were never any "good old days". We are always moving forward and should always be aware of the past. People say thing are getting worse but if one looks at the course of our history things are getting better. It's just a two steps forward, one step back process. But people never have enough hindsight to be aware of all the previous steps we had to go through.
Oh, and I also play Alpha Centauri from time to time as it is one of my favorite games. Every time I see a post by Elocke I think of the very faction of his avatar and Dr. Zakharov as it was the faction I always played ; )
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Wizardry was my fav on the C64/128 (I had a samurai that was the bomb).
Does anyone remember the name of this game for the C64:
It had a race track that was built out of wood and looked like an old style rollercoaster with loops, jumps, and wide turns on it. A tractor would pick up your car and drop you on the track. You could control the cars speed and turn left and right. The track had no railing so if you messed up you would crash & burn in a blaze of fire and bent metal. If you got through the first track you could move on to the next one (3 tries per track).
Had tons of fun in that silly game but I was only able to unlock about 8 tracks total.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Change is always difficult to accept and adjust too, and the more we resist the worse it is. kb4blu is right that popularity changes things particularly dramatically. Although while I would agree the average quality might decrease when things become popular, there are greater odds of something good appearing in that population. Even saying the average quality decreases is a bit of a lie because popularity brings positive changes as well as negative ones and just as often the balance can go either way.
There are great games in the past, like Alpha Centauri, which I'm rather surprised how often it gets brought up in the random posts I read. Btw I always played as Deidre and I hated Miriam
. But at the same time there are great games today, at least if we accept individual opinion. Sometimes there are games that are great ideas, but poor execution, and sometimes there are suprisingly good games that come from really unoriginal material. While those only average out to being... well average, at least games are being made, people have jobs, the industry grows.
I like the fact gaming is popular because it brings new games, new talent, larger budgets, everything in a sense that can drive the industry forward. At the same time it also has the negative side of popularity like really bad games, "outsiders" who want to change everything that made games great "back in the day" etc.
I'd like to quote the movie Tommy Boy for a moment. "In auto parts you're either growing or you're dying, there ain't no third direction." So true of life in general. Apologies if the quote isn't 100%, taking it off the top of the head for posting speed sake.
Racing Destruction Set?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre