Quality of games

[A Nerd]

Games simply can't impress me as easily as they did when I was an eleven year old boy.

This might indeed become a trend with some. Now that I think about it, it is quite true regarding my situation. It will be said, some day, by even the young whipersnappers who have posted within this thread, that back in my day, I played such games as [insert current game here] and the new games of today do not live up to the standards of the ones I played while young. This comment being applicable to the hieght of your gaming experience which might indeed have been when you were young. Oh, the fun I used to have with 4 - 25 cent tokens and a bedroom filled with NES titles!

[Veho Nex]

I think the first true game I ever owned must have been duke nukem 64 or Golden Eye for the N64. No game I've played yet beats those memories. I think you guys might be right.

[a completely inoffensive name]

We can't say whether or not quality of games have gone downhill or uphill.

1. We selectively choose to ignore the failures of the past and remember only the good ones, which imparts a nostalgia effect.
2. There is an inherent risk in complexity which makes such judging difficult since the more complicated a game is the easier it is for one component to screw up an entire delicately created system. An example of this is the inventory system in the first Mass Effect that didnt stack/group items but just left everything in one big super long, repetitive list. It killed the want to get more loot since it became annoying.
3. The industry is based inherently around technology, and is changing at roughly the same exponential rate that computer technology is. New abilities for developers are present that were never around just 5-10 years ago. The 10th anniversary of Perfect Dark on N64 was a week ago, you can't even jump in the game. The improvements in graphics are taking resources away from other aspects because graphics are more rapidly evolving then other aspects of game play from technology. If technology became stagnant today, then a shift toward the best story and game play would occur because graphically everyone would hit an equalizing level.

tl;dr: Everyone is biased and the industry is changing so rapidly from new technological improvements that developers probably are not trying to make crappier games, they are just always having to combat the rapid flow of the gaming river when making a game with a solid foundation that people love. Perfect example: Duke Nukem Forever, always being postponed to upgrade to the next graphical engine, the next generation of consoles, the next whatever. Then they ran out of money and had nothing to show for it.

[A Nerd]

Perhaps new ideas are hard to come by nowadays. Redundancy and repetitions seem to be quite common. How many WWII FPSs do we need? Sequels seem the way to go.

[pevergreen]

Perhaps new ideas are hard to come by nowadays. Redundancy and repetitions seem to be quite common. How many WWII FPSs do we need? Sequels seem the way to go.

To a point, yes.

But it really isnt that hard to come up with a new story. Plently of existing material out there.

[Fragony]

No idea what you guys are talking about, I almost miss the days of limited choice. There is such a wealth of quality nowadays. Take your favorite old game and ask yourselve what else was there at the time. These games are one of a kind a rare gem. Gaming as a whole is soooooooooooooooooo much better.

[Monk]

No idea what you guys are talking about, I almost miss the days of limited choice. There is such a wealth of quality nowadays. Take your favorite old game and ask yourselve what else was there at the time. These games are one of a kind a rare gem. Gaming as a whole is soooooooooooooooooo much better.

Which is to say nothing of the Indie scene that practically exploded a couple years back with a wealth of quality games for very modest prices. It's a great time to be a gamer.

Perhaps new ideas are hard to come by nowadays. Redundancy and repetitions seem to be quite common. How many WWII FPSs do we need? Sequels seem the way to go

I direct you to World of Goo, AI War, Aquaria and Flotilla - and this only from the indie stand point.