Is todays games for the stupid people ?

"ARE" not "IS"

Games today are complex in some ways but dumbed down in others... I reckon it is pretty difficult to keep up with an evolving customer base, we have young kids starting to play games that are a larger customer base than those that have been playing since the early days of gaming.

We have seen what games can be and what they have lost along the way to the likes of some mediocre games. Game developers have not been rewarded correctly for making good games.
 
DarthSWNT said:
"ARE" not "IS"

Games today are complex in some ways but dumbed down in others... I reckon it is pretty difficult to keep up with an evolving customer base, we have young kids starting to play games that are a larger customer base than those that have been playing since the early days of gaming.

We have seen what games can be and what they have lost along the way to the likes of some mediocre games. Game developers have not been rewarded correctly for making good games.
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I can't accept that. Those games we speak about were around when we were kids.
 
Most certainly games are dumbed down.

I was playing contra the other day. Now that was hard as hell. Old adventure games would make today's console kid's brains to melt down turning them into vegetables.

The problem is due too advancement in graphics especially with console games that now appeal to a wider audience. Naturally the companies what to maximise profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Kids who want to load up their console, depress the trigger button and blow away hordes of enemies mindlessly charging at them in glorious HD for an hour.

They lack the attention span, imagination and intelligence to appreciate the kind of games that came out pre the late 90s.

That's not to say there should not be games for dummies. Everybody enjoys the odd mindless shoot em up but the problem is it's engulfing the entire market. Even series that used to cater to gamers with more grey matter are now being dumbed down in their latest releases.
 
This is always a debate I find very interesting - old vs new.

I mean, on the one hand, look at the music and movie industries. I dont think movies have changed that much in terms of how they are made for the last 1-3 decades. Yet, how many movies coming out now are what you would consider classics? How many movies come out on DVD and you think, man I have to have that because I know I could watch it again in 5 years and still think its awesome. Okay, some, yes, but it just seems to me that these days, movies are more things that you watch once and then thats it. I dont know why. Have movies changed or have we?

Regarding games, and the difficulty thereof, at least with early games, they were made hard because making them hard is easier than making lots of content. Especially arcade games, arcade operators like difficult games because they suck those precious coins up. Thats most probably where the early difficulty came from. However, these days, I definitely agree that the difficulty on average has decreased because your average gamer just does not care enough to figure it out for himself or try again. I find myself the same sometimes. I like to be challenged but not frustrated. Modern games, in general, are less frustrating but also less challenging.

I reckon much of the difference is because the nature of the industry has changed as those small companies became giants like EA, Ubisoft and Activision. With that increase in size, their mindset changed from hobbyists working from home or a small office to a corporation with shareholders, budget meetings and profit forecasts. Getting something creative out of such a framework is always going to be difficult. Thats why the modern syndicate is an FPS but the old syndicate was a strategy hybrid thing with dystopian elements. It was almost an experiment, but it worked. No market research or anything, they just made it. These days, companies do not go for risky games, fullstop. They rely heavily on advertising and media and less so on the games themselves. Thats why they have to look good but not necessarily play good. Its all about marketing and money.

What does it mean for us? Indie games!
 
Ancalagon makes a really good point :)

As for the movies, most of them we see are either sequel/prequel or just another remake of something that was already filmed. Even at tv series level you get nowadays that if the series doesn't contain some emo thing mixed with not too much thinking and a lot upfront obviousness it will fail and not to be continued. This seems to be the case especially in US/Canada vs some of the Europeen regions.

I do play a lot of Indie games like limbo for example. They are our saving grace from some of the new titles that only feature "new" and "shiny". I think you are however quite correct to say that hobbyist or small dev houses tend to put out those more challenging and decent titles. Which actually makes sense as it's a "game by gamers" and not a game by mass produce with market share in mind. Which also brings me back to something else that if your game sucked, failed etc etc back in the day you really failed as a development house financially and your reputation suffered. So your game had to be good, tuned, tested and at least worthwhile, however that's not a problem anymore today as with too large entities as EA where your code just gets pushed out and you still make that dollar bills.

With computers and consoles not being so expensive and most of the market being "children" I suppose it's expected to a lot of titles being dumb for dumb people. I'm really put off when a developer house just punt that they will cater for the mass market or they won't break "game x rules". Though that all ties in with making to sell over making for enjoyment :(


I do like to mindlessly play as well, this helps with switching off and just clicking away, but not in each and every title :mad:
 
Yeah I find it also depends on my mood, as you say. Sometimes something mindless is cool, sometimes I want a Baldurs Gate 2 level experience.

Definitely agree about movies - those have become a lot more sequelized. When was the last time you saw a completely original movie not based on a prior movie, comic book or game? And excluding romantic comedies here. Almost all of the action films that we watch these days seem to be based on comics.

Yeah thats true about skill - developers who sucked went out of business, quickly. Today, EA, Activision etc just shovel the game out and it sells because of marketing. No skill required. Look at DA2 - I never played it but I heard it was terrible compared to the first one. But it doesnt matter, it made its money. Same with DNF - terrible game but it sold.

I wonder if we will ever see a video game crash like that which occurred in the USA just prior to the NES coming out? Consumers lost confidence and the whole market bombed. Lots of companies went out of business. Then again, would that really help? Would that return gaming to small dev houses in people's garages? Or would Apple and Microsoft, largely immune to bad business in the gaming industry, just pick up the slack?
 
czc said:
Have you guys ever considered that you're just too good? :p
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I would say yes to this.... BUT why i think this isn't the case is that i have stopped gaming a lot because the games are slapped together to make a quick buck also due to work as well so i cant be getting better, if anything i must have lost my touch at least a little and games are still much easier than they used to be even with me being a worse overall player..
 
I remembers spending months to complete a "quest" game: those old sierra games where you had to type the exact sentense they wanted.
They`ve made games more user friendly now though.. unfortunately to the point where in some games its more like an interactive movie.
But maybe we were just dumber as children... and therefore games seemed harder.
 
Jabberwocky said:
I remembers spending months to complete a "quest" game: those old sierra games where you had to type the exact sentense they wanted.
They`ve made games more user friendly now though.. unfortunately to the point where in some games its more like an interactive movie.
But maybe we were just dumber as children... and therefore games seemed harder.
Click to expand...

Aaa, games like Hugos house of horrors!! lol those games used to drive me #%&%@ mad!!!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
 
Jabberwocky said:
I remembers spending months to complete a "quest" game: those old sierra games where you had to type the exact sentense they wanted.
They`ve made games more user friendly now though.. unfortunately to the point where in some games its more like an interactive movie.
But maybe we were just dumber as children... and therefore games seemed harder.
Click to expand...

Agree to some extent here...
Just remember from C&C, where 4th mission for GDI/NOD was super hard to do for anyone back then, however, now it is simple mission for us as adults. Nice point.
 
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