Excellent insights, sir.

I can see the point your making. I wonder if me thinking games aren’t as innovative has to do with the amount of games I’ve played as an adult, versus a smaller pool of experience as a child.

I bet the fact that we’re older and are harder to impress is a factor too. Things are a lot less magical and mysterious to us as adults than they were as 5-10 year olds.

Nintendo has taken a fall though, that’s for sure. We’ll see if the 3DS and the rumored Wii 2 can save them.

Great observation, Booth! It is much easier to impress a child than an adult.

And finally we see eye to eye. Seriously, well put my friend. I’ve actually tried to revisit beloved games from my past and after a quick session I usually put it down and let it fade back into blissful memory. Technical limitations aren’t really felt until we have something to compare it to – and too many older games lose their luster when you stack them up against years of developmental progress.

Case in point. I LOVED Beyond Good and Evil when it came out. I jumped on my soapbox and preached to the masses – to anyone who would listen – to just give it a try. While it didn’t do anything particularly new – it did cull from a variety of gameplay ideals (collecting, combat, 3D platforming and puzzle solving), it brought all of those elements together in its own unique way – creating something that felt new and exciting. The world felt lived in.

Less than a decade later, I revisited the latest HD remake. While I still view it with a fond eye and find the art style holds up due to its “animated aesthetic”, the game mechanics can be spotty. The camera frequently throws fits. The combat feels floaty and at times unresponsive. Back then – we simply soldiered through those annoyances because most games played like that. But now we know better.

So, it’s important to be respectful of the past but let’s not forget to stop and smell the roses right where we’re standing.

Great post!!!

Great points , I have to conceed that my expectations as an older gamer are much higher and there are just a few games that have really drawn me in over say the last 2 years. I can however still load up Deus Ex, Even system shock 2 .. and enjoy every immersive minit of them .
I do feel there is a shift from content focus to just getting things out the door these days and Invested corporate interest Is never good for most franchises, or anything with the number 2 after it.

Excellent points, Alaric, and very well stated.

I came of “gaming age” in the early 1990s, so I reveled in the glory of games like Space Quest, the Tex Murphy games, Star Control 2, Wing Commander, X-wing, and even older stuff like SSI’s “gold box games.” I remember how fantastic gaming was back then….but I also forget the crap games that I played. (I seem to recall actually buying Mad Doc McCree, beating it in a day, and returning it to the store in exchange for Shadow of the Comet…) There were also plenty of cheap knock-off games, and games that I had zero desire to play, and it’s very very easy to lose sight of that now as my hair is graying and my contact lens prescription is getting stronger by the year (no bifocals yet, though, thankfully…).

And while I can still fire up the ol’ Space Quest games or wish that SOMEONE would remake the X-wing series for modern hardware, I can also see much of the same

I think what’s happened in recent years is two things. First, as an adult, I’ve become FAR more selective in what I’ll play and enjoy, partially because I see the potential to do so much MORE with gaming than what seems to be done. (IE: “Oh look. ANOTHER [WWII FPS/fantasy-themed "levels 'n' loot" MMO/base-building RTS/etc.]“) Second, I think that, with the rise of gaming as a real industry, we’ve also seen a lot of consolidation within the industry, with companies like EA and Activision gobbling up developers and centralizing the creation process. That’s both good and bad, I think. Good because it CAN mean really fantastic games backed by lots and lots of money. Bad because it can also mean stagnation of game design as the company only gives money to those projects that are “proven” and falls back on franchises rather than taking risks on new styles of gaming.

In that one sense, I think the early 90s (and before) were different. There was far less centralization, so there was — to some degree — more room for innovation. That said, even with more room for innovation, I can’t count the number of point-and-click adventure games that all devolved to pixel hunting, or the number of Doom knockoffs when that game came out, or the number of games that were “just like Lemmings only a little different”, etc. Innovation existed, sure, but so did a lot of “me too” efforts.

I also think we’re starting to see that centralization be challenged — in a friendly way — by more indie offerings (or perhaps I’m just more aware of them than I was before). Obviously the biggies like EA and Activision aren’t going under any time soon, but it’s nice to see smaller companies breaking through and gaining wider audiences. All of this, I think (and certainly hope) bodes well for the future of gaming.

To quote, Metallica, “Nothing else matters!”

TODAY IS JUDGMENT DAY! BEFORE WE ALL DIE, I WILL EMULATE THE CITIZENS OF THE INNER-CITIES AND RIOT AND BURN CARS!

THE END IS NEAR!!!

Hmm. Today is in fact Judgement Day. Skynet became self-aware on the 19th, and today it nuked Russia. It’s OK though, no great loss.

where is my flying car?

Are you insane?! Do you really want New Jersey drivers having to deal with THREE dimensions instead of just two?

Jersey driving 101:

1) Be the second fastest car on the road (#1 gets the ticket)
2) Road signs are advisory in nature only
3) All lanes on the Turnpike are the FAST LANE
4) Your traveling distance from lane to lane must equal your linear distance on arrival.

In a 3D environment, the rest of you don’t stand a chance.

That Terminator timeline is all sorts of whacked. In the first and second flicks, Judgment Day was in August 1997. Then it was in 2004. And now because of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, it’s 2011. Every time the producers want to milk that cow, they suspend Judgment Day a little further. My guess is nothing happened yesterday because the rites holders are holding out for a reboot.

Speaking of timelines, I am really curious how much time had passed between the events of Portal 1 and Portal 2. I am 6+ hours in, right now, and I get a feeling the resolution is very near.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet

NEW JERSEY = smelly, scum of the Earth that are too lazy to pump their own gas, have Devils roaming in the Pine Barrens and like to use jughandles when driven

SOME ONE NEEDS TO NUKE THEM NOW! SKYNET?

@ Ed re: Skynet

Isn’t that the paradox of time travel? THINGS CAN CHANGE!

I HEART RIVER

I still think they use that as a crutch anytime they want to make another Terminator flick. With the Governator free, I imagine Judgment Day has now been postponed until 2020, or so. Or is that a Presidential Election year? : )

I have to disagree. For starters I wasn’t a kid when the video game revolution started (I was in my 20′s when Pong came out). For me story line trumps all, I’d rather have a game that challenges my mind not my fingers (@ 50+ my fingers aren’t that fast any more). To me nothing coming out today compares to the Might and Magic series, Wizardry series, the early Ultimas, the early Final Fantasies before they became button mashers, and Dragon warrior 1-4.

I wouldn’t say that the FF series are button mashers, more of an evolution from a simple attack or magic command – it had to happen to diversify the installments. I’ve been playing them since I was eight or so and as the twenty-two years have passed they aged pretty well (except for 9 which never should have been made). I’m a heathen when it comes to that though, FF8 was the one I played the most. They still remain pretty story-driven though.