Quote Originally Posted by Komutan
A question to all who claim tha games are getting worse:

Are games really getting worse or is it you who changes?

I bought my first computer(C64) when I was 11 years old. Today I am 32. It is impossible for me too see the games(and many other things) as I was seeing them when I was 11.
I've thought about this, and obviously things change as a person gets older. You get a little more patient, you appreciate deeper storylines, and yeah... your reflexes degrade. But I think it's mostly the games that have changed (talking specifically about PC games here).

I've been playing since the beginning, starting with Flight Simulator running off a floppy disk in glorious 4-color CGA graphics. I've played most of the "big" PC titles over the years including shooters like Doom/Quake, RPG's like Baldur's Gate, strategy games like Civ, although the focus has always been on tactical combat sims (planes, subs, etc.) which is a dying market now. So that's one thing that's changed. First person shooters have somehow taken over the niche that used to be occupied by flight sims.

One reason may be a change in PC gaming demographics. In the early days of PC gaming, computers weren't ubiquitous household appliances like they are now. The audience was older, on average, and computers were very expensive, not the $500 boxes you can buy today. The Dad in the house used the PC that doubled for home finances and word processing to fly a combat flight sim, or play a mature, well-written RPG like Baldur's Gate at night, while his kids were out in the living room with a game console hooked up to the TV. Kids just weren't allowed much time on Dad's expensive computer

These days, that's all changed. Now every kid has his or her own computer, at least most places in the developed world targeted by game companies. I think this has affected the marketing and the survivability of older genres like tactical combat sims, and shifted the focus more towards visual flash and shorter attention spans. It's the reason for the "dumbing down" of titles like Total War, and the reason why a game like Bioshock, which had great potential, turned out to be basically a very pretty shooter and nothing more. Any game with very high production costs has to be targeted to a 12 year old and up demographic, instead of the 30+ year-olds who used to be the only people playing home computer games. Even that phrase "home computer" is something of an anachronism, from the days when that was a fairly rare thing.

There are a few games that appeal to the older-than-30 crowd out there, but they're niche critters like Silent Hunter 4, MS Flight Sim, the Civ series, Galactic Civilizations 2, etc. I'm thankful that at least a few games like that are still around, for geezers like me.

Oh yeah, and get off my lawn, you kids!