Why Games Are Not Entertaining Anymore?

andylee · Post by **andylee** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:52 am

Dunno whether you guys have the same feeling with the player. I do, but dont know why.

When we only got the Nintendo FC, we could enjoy the Super Mario all day long, even forgot food and sleep.We would gather at someone's home and try to complete each stage and to dig out each hidden element.

But when we have plenty of games now,with better graphics and complicated elements, we just try and quit, again and again. It's really so hard to find a game we could totally enjoy it, not to mention being addicted.

So we grow up and lose the passion? I don't think so! We still keep browsing the fansite, searching for the new game info.Then why? why games are not fun anymore?

My friend and I just got the basic conclusion:

1. We could not find the initial quake;
2. We start to split hairs;
3. The companies pay more attention on making money. They could never make a game really for gaming and fun.
4. In the past, we need the fun of playing games, but now we need more, such as interaction with other gamers. The feeling of belonging to a community is very important, but actually many ppl has ignored this.
5. More and more facts

Source: http://forum.mmosite.com/topics/54/2010 ... 945,1.html

RPGguy · Post by **RPGguy** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:11 am

A big part of it, you guys are just harder to impress now that you're both older and more experienced.

I'll never forget the days when Doom first came out. We mashed together a network of 4 PCs in one room and struggled with the networking software. We'd get it running eventually but were lucky to keep it going for more than an hour before it crashed. These were the very first days of multiplayer on any sort of level, mind you.

I cannot explain the sheer exhilaration of those early sessions. We cheered at kills and were crushed when we got frag'd.

It was like having sex for the first time...your first big prize/casino win...your first high off a drug. The brain never reacts quite the same as it did that first time. But you'll spend the rest of your life chasing that initial high, with ever diminishing results...no matter how hard you try.

Sorry man, you are fighting a battle you cannot win. You gotta find a new high for your brain.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 5:01 am

you're getting old and jaded

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 5:55 am

Vicsun and RPGguy have touched on what is at least one of the core issues, as we get older we do get harder to impress/more cynical.

However you also hit on another aspect

3. The companies pay more attention on making money. They could never make a game really for gaming and fun.

Unfortunately once companies become solely interested in the profit margin they start aiming at the lowest common denominator; this means bland, easily comprehended games aimed at people with just below average IQs, which is also the target market for films, TV shows etc., which is how crap like * Idol, or *'s Got Talent dominate our screens instead of I Claudius these days!

* Insert appropriate nationality here, American Idol for example!

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:19 am

I'm still waiting for the man.

jklinders · Post by **jklinders** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:28 am

I am willing to guess that nostalgia has a role to play as well. It's always the good old days, whether they really were good or not.

Video games were also really novel back then, the idea that media on the TV screen could be manipulated by the player, where before it was simply watching what happened. they are so much a part of culture now that it is far easier to get jaded about them. When gaming, I sometimes try but usually fail to access that inner child in me that found everything about it so new. To me that was where the magic was.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:57 pm

Tricky wrote:I'm still waiting for the man.

Feeling sick and dirty, more dead than alive?

andylee · Post by **andylee** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:30 pm

jklinders wrote:I am willing to guess that nostalgia has a role to play as well. It's always the good old days, whether they really were good or not.

maybe you guys are right. I will try to find another beginning

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:05 pm

I'm sure nostalgia plays a role in everything, but I think a big part of the reason why "games aren't good anymore" comes down to imagination. Now, more people are playing games these days than ever before, and the business is just as profitable as Hollywood, so a whole lot of people do think games are entertaining. The only thing I can really think of that is so different these days is largely due to how much the older games required you to flex your creative muscles, either through their primitive graphics or through dialog that doesn't tell you EVERY.LITTLE.SINGLE.THING. and hand-hold you throughout the entire quest. You could probably argue for difficulty when talking about many of those old dungeon crawlers, but if I remember correctly most deaths in those games were really cheap and random.

The whole money argument is nonsense. Anyone who was around in the 80s was well aware of the huge range of Nintendo crap that was pushed on kids, including cartoon shows that were basically half hour advertisements. Video games have always been a business. Maxis (or at least the Maxis division) is still around because they were able to find a successful and profitable business model, and Origin isn't around anymore because they were not able to continue a successful business model.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:54 pm

I recently went back to "Exile 3", "X-Com" and even "Eye of the beholder" to discover that.. Holy hell, you're right. I have much more fun with those eye-gouging pieces of horrible graphics, than all those modern games together.

Why? Because now they focus on graphics, blood, gore, nudeness and vulgar language instead of any effin content.

Note that i played X-com for the first time now, AFTER playing a dozen X-com-alike games, and i find the old one the best. This means, that the newer games ain't just "No new content, the same game with new graphics" but simply WORSE.. with new graphics.

I would like to discuss it more in detail, but i have a world to save! Hoorah!

RPGguy · Post by **RPGguy** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:03 pm

Very cool stworca! I didn't even think it would be possible to play X-COM on Windows XP or greater. So I never even tried.

What operating system are you using?

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:12 am

Vicsun wrote:Feeling sick and dirty, more dead than alive?

Yeah. I wish games went for 26 dollars though.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:58 am

RPGguy wrote:Very cool stworca! I didn't even think it would be possible to play X-COM on Windows XP or greater. So I never even tried.

What operating system are you using?

Windows XP. Vista is a disaster and i don't trust 7 yet. The steam version (for 5$) runs smoothly on XP. I also recall running the 93 version of X-Com on XP, but it was a long and painful process

Do Try Exile 3 too! You don't have to pay the 25$ (it is the most expensive old game for sure!) to explore a huge chunk of the world. I did tho!

[url="http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile3/winexile3.html"]This is exile homepage,[/url] where you can get a demo version (but this is the biggest demo in games history! I played with it for days)

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 8:33 am

endboss wrote:The whole money argument is nonsense. Anyone who was around in the 80s was well aware of the huge range of Nintendo crap that was pushed on kids

Well I was around in the 80's, but as it happens I've never owned a console, and never will, especially not Nintendo. By crap, and expect crap, PC owners tend to be more demanding, and therefore offer a lower profit margin, so PC owners are ignored more and more, it really is about the money, we do live in a capitalist world after all.