Board 8 > What do you think of this article? Too old for video games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/

When you grow up, your heart dies...

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"Filthy lawbreaker, unhand that vending machine!" - Casey Jones

Yeah, I'm too damn old.

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Heh, good article. I definitely seem to be more bitter at games recently than actually enjoying them.


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Booyah, Grandma. Booyah.

more like '5 ways for the author to whine about his life (and also video games)'

what an obnoxious article
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Definitely not too old according to this article ! Only 3 applies to me.

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HeroicGammaRay posted...
more like '5 ways for the author to whine about his life (and also video games)'

what an obnoxious article
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I wouldn't say it's obnoxious. My guess is that people who tend to feel this way about the article have way more free time than others.

I pretty much agree with what he's getting at. It's not the industry that changes, so much, it's the players.

I have way less time to play games now than when I was growing up so I want (expect) all of my video game time to be awesome. Not all parts of every game are awesome, though, and at those parts, with the little free time I get, playing games sometimes feels more like work than fun.

Anyway, there are still some gems out there, but the games that aren't exactly gems aren't as much fun to me as they would have been 15 years ago, probably due mostly to "real life" getting in the way.

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"Filthy lawbreaker, unhand that vending machine!" - Casey Jones

I think it's a David Wong video game article.

Which isn't necessarily a positive thing.

Every single one of his articles is him standing on his soapbox and talking about what he thinks of the video game industry and elements of modern gaming. The only time this ever worked out for him was when he described the techniques games used to get you addicted to them, which was a legitimately good read. And then he went back to the same doom saying s***.

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Now this is entertainment!

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Black Turtle spilled my diet soda!

The more I read the article, the less it sucked. Once I read #3, I was really starting to relate to what he was saying.

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I can't help but think this was posted for me, considering I went on a rant in another thread tonight about how games are not made to be "fun" any more. To be fair, I had a point to make, and I wasn't being a sad sorry SOB so much as just trying to contrast game design today to Tetris, but I still got the feeling after writing it that I was being a cranky grandpa telling kids to get off my lawn.

HeroicGammaRay posted...
more like '5 ways for the author to whine about his life (and also video games)'

what an obnoxious article
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BlAcK TuRtLe is a black turtle.

same old "you're just nostalgic, that's all" argument that's been around forever

None of them apply to me.

Hooray!

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There was a signature here. It's gone now.
Your face is bees.

That guy really likes talking about his kids.

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We are definitely changing as players and as people, but he seems to be passing off everything that's wrong with gaming today as just "we've outgrown the target market." I don't think I agree with that.

This is a damn good read

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Yo Where All The White Women At

back in MY youth, articles were more objective!

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There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out

The article is exactly what it describes, a list of things that let you know you've outgrown gaming. For every list point, I could come up with several counterpoints that prove why gaming today is better than ever, but the point is that being too old for games makes you unable to realize these counterpoints. I think the article was well-done (I only skimmed it and watched the amazing Team Roomba vid, so I dunno about his writing style or anything).

There comes a point in most lives when you have to accept that you are done with games. Take your 90s games nostalgia as a souvenir, and move on. It's bad if you try to fight it and continue to pretend you're still as much of a gamer as you used to be. That's how you turn into one of those "gaming hasn't been good since the 90s" people.

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_foolmo_
'but that statement is something only an Aspergers patient would say' - UltimaterializerX

a lot of it is true. But things like DLC and "you must be online to play this game" ARE ruining gaming.

EDIT: i also think retail-wise gaming has taken a hit. The amount of gaming small businesses that are still around today are a small fraction of yesteryears. These type of things only hurt the consumer.

It's way too generalized and overall irrelevant. I'm too old for video games in the same way I'm too old for politics and movies and television and etc.
Just because I'm mature enough and experienced enough to pinpoint the flaws and appreciate the truly high quality content for being what it is does not mean I've outgrown it. I'll accept that as I've grown older, my stance toward gaming certainly has changed; there will never again be a game wherein I try to catch all 151 Pokémon, nor will I be obsessed with/have the time for attempting a 1% run of Metroid Fusion, or getting all 120 (150) stars in SM64 (DS). But this doesn't mean I've outgrown video games. All that means is that I've started looking for different value in what I play. I don't care about high-play time console-collectathons now so much as I care about just having fun in unpredictable situations with random people, with the occasional good RPG for my handheld for long trips or hanging with friends.

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Well, none of his points really apply to me as I still love gaming, but an awful lot seemed to be just 'why aren't FPSs RPGs?'

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I love gaming. Been gaming for roughly 24 years now, and I've been so busy with stuff that I just don't have much time. I've gotten older, but gaming is the one hobby that I have and still love.

There are plenty of improvements in general in gaming, but there are a ton of negatives that have come to existence. Things like DLC which should be great, are actually making the industry worse. I easily see myself gaming when I'm like 70/80 if I live that long.

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And I didn't read most of the article, but I think the whole getting older thing is widely overblown. Yeah, you may not be as fond as NBA Jam as you used to, but that doesn't mean you won't love other old games. There are plenty of good games that are both old and new.

The last time I played FF7 I was like man these graphics are so outda...10 minutes later I was absorbed into the game.

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GameFAQs isn't going to be merged in with GameSpot or any other site. We're not going to strip out the soul of the site. -CJayC

Can't really relate to these at a whole. The guy tries to take a broad idea and then relate it to a certain portion of a certain game and then make it sound like it applies to every single game.

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Chrono1219

Multiplayer definitely is a sign of me getting older. I can't stand to play games online unless I need it for a trophy or something. I got CoD:BO because my other old military buddies play it (and I only play it if they are playing it), and it's the closest thing we have to reliving our Goldeneye years. I am ****ing terrible at the game.

Everything has to have some kind of Multiplayer or Online gimmick too.

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Good article, in theory, but the thing is, I'm late to playing a ton of older games (for instance, I've only played through some PS1 classics for the first time 4-5 years ago, and I'm only playing through some PS2 classics these days). And they're really better than today's games!

So no, it's not just that I'm older.

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I don't think the list was supposed to be serious in any way, I found it funny

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From: Vlado | #106
Good article, in theory, but the thing is, I'm late to playing a ton of older games (for instance, I've only played through some PS1 classics for the first time 4-5 years ago, and I'm only playing through some PS2 classics these days). And they're really better than today's games!

So no, it's not just that I'm older.

No, the genres that get attention have just shifted.

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Chrono1219

Very good article.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

This isn't a "I've gotten too old for video games" article. It's merely a "I've gotten old" article.

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Dark Defender

Honestly I think a lot of this isn't due to getting too old or having less time or anything like that. It's about having more money. When you were a kid you probably didn't get that many new games so you devoted lot of time to each one because what else were you gonna play. Nowadays I can buy as many games as I want so I'm a lot less willing to put up with games wasting my time with bull****. Even if you had unlimited time you still wouldn't dive as deeply into anything because the second it loses you, you move on to something else.

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Black Turtle spilled my diet soda!

That guy really likes talking about his kids.

I really liked this. You could tell how watching their experiences informed him that despite his curmudgeonliness, games hadn't gotten magically way worse since he was a kid; he's just no longer capable of appreciating certain parts of them.

For me, points 5/4/3 all certainly hit home. I hate the idea of the 60 hour game, game stories rarely do much to me and certainly don't hit quite as hard emotionally, and online multiplayer against teenagers holds no appeal to me.

However, I still do really enjoy a lot of what new games do despite no longer having infinite patience for them and being dulled to their storytelling quirks, and 2/1 mercifully don't apply to me at all yet. Games are still fun and I think there is certainly still plenty of originality and innovation to be found in them.

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Yeah if anything I think today's market is better for innovation and originality than in the past. Digital delivery services like Steam and XBLA have created a market space for lower-budget, riskier titles. There's less room for risk-taking in mainstream AAA titles, but if you look beyond that you can find plenty of originality.

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Black Turtle spilled my diet soda!

I agree with just about everything in that article. Simply put, I can't imagine any new games having the effect on me some of the older ones I played had, or me getting immersed in a game like I used to. To quote the author, "Wait a second. Is it possible that those old games didn't do anything magical with their programming to create 'immersion,' and that, like my kids with GTA, I 'immersed' myself in those games because I was playing them at a time before I was dead inside?"

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ahh that good old Team Roomba vid

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Nice catch BlAcK TuRtLe.
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Dauntless Hunter posted...
Honestly I think a lot of this isn't due to getting too old or having less time or anything like that. It's about having more money. When you were a kid you probably didn't get that many new games so you devoted lot of time to each one because what else were you gonna play. Nowadays I can buy as many games as I want so I'm a lot less willing to put up with games wasting my time with bull****. Even if you had unlimited time you still wouldn't dive as deeply into anything because the second it loses you, you move on to something else.

Definitely a good point. Being able to go buy whichever games on my own power whenever certainly devalues the individual game compared to having to wait for say, Christmas morning.

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multiplayer is basically 'get more and better friends' really. hell you can do it easy on the weekend. this is assuming you guys are in the same room anyway.

the only games i'd ever say are 'too long' are probably DQ games. >__>;
rpgs of the past decade contain some of the best storylines of the genre too. so i'm not getting that complaint outside of nostalgia goggles. ....and that goes for the last two as well really. games not being about fun do exist, but a lot of 'em are. and the industry's more diverse than ever and has continuously been evolving.

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very good article. not in the stage of life where a lot of the stuff applies but i agree with much of the general sentiment and the writing was engaging

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Dunno about this. As of now I generally prefer older games, but both Mario Galaxies and Resident Evil 4 are god tier. Otherwise most of my favorite games are from the early to mid-nineties (with StarCraft being the only thing from the late nineties which I'm really a huge fan of).

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#5 - I love multiplayer, both off- and online and that has given me some of my fondest gaming memories. Younger players acting obnoxious is a small price to pay and I only come across that in a few select games and only occasionally within those games.

#4 - Depends on the genre really. I have never really been big on RPGs but more so than ever now. I would rather spend that time on genres that require almost constant input from the player, such as racing, FPS, and action-oriented games, so that I may get the most value out of my time. There are some exceptions, mainly Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi titles, you can usually beat them in around 15-20 hours, Dragon Quest, usually pretty long but god do they ooze so much charm, and works by Bethesda and BioWare, they are more action-oriented. There's also a reason why I generally limit myself to those titles if I do play RPGs, and that leads into....

#3 - He talks about compelling storylines and mentions the original Dragon Warrior and RPGs that feature high-octane, emotionally-fueled stories that poorly represent human emotion at its very basics to produce an absurd, unrealistic drama full of plot holes? Then he kind of insults Mass Effect, which features a well-thought out story with excellent writing? He sounds like a man-child.

Enough about that though. Stories in games are more compelling now than they used to be, given that technology allows developers to approach storytelling in a variety of ways. The writer seems to think that you must have plenty of cutscenes to convey a good story, but he is flat-out incorrect.

#2 Originality is not dead. Every game is unique in its own way and if you cannot see that, you are probably pessimistic and always look for flaws wherever you can find them.

#1 Games are still "all about fun" and probably more so than ever given advancements in technology.

The one quote that I really did like from the article is about how we are the ones that immerse ourselves into the game, not the game itself. I think that's mostly true. The developers have to create an atmosphere that will allow the gamer to do that, but it's up to the player to take the final step.

The only one that hits with me is #4 and that really only affected genres that I would go after

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3 has a decent point to it, but he's COMPLETELY using the wrong games. ff4 and 6, really? even Lufia II had a much larger story to tell in it than those just by virtue of your character actually growing up during the game. FE4 is another one that does that, only in that instance you play their children too, which have some variations (gameplay-wise) depending on their parents. you have to go forward a bit for some others, but Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Planescape all show this. going back again, Fallout 2 was open ended as you could get. Phantasy Star 4 pulled off a pretty unique event at the time that i won't spoil. these are games that STILL have some merits today for what they had, did, and many are still good today on their own merits. those are the games people talk about when they mean stories aren't what they used to be, when they look at the mainstream stuff today.

but the smaller stuff is still every bit as good (Radiant Historia, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and all its sequels, Nier, etc - every system has at least 1 amazing one), and some smaller series have grown into the mainstream. he's just using the wrong example to start with. 3's wrong for even being on the list in the first place - anyone who says that stories in rpgs aren't as good simply hasn't played the new ones.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

I have more fun with a lot of old games I never played back when they were new than I do with a lot of new games.

This nostalgia argument is too easy for some people to accept.

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Ace Detective in Sir Chris' Police
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i think the article wasn't really as much of an attack against gaming today as it is the writer's admittance to just outgrowing games himself based on his own real-life experiences which i'm pretty sure applies to a lot of grown-ups who don't center their lives on gaming

he's just going with the usual Cracked style of writing articles by throwing insulting jokes every other sentence

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Black Turtle
all you need

but the smaller stuff is still every bit as good (Radiant Historia, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and all its sequels, Nier, etc - every system has at least 1 amazing one), and some smaller series have grown into the mainstream. he's just using the wrong example to start with. 3's wrong for even being on the list in the first place - anyone who says that stories in rpgs aren't as good simply hasn't played the new ones.

Agreed for the most part. However, I feel that its kind of a concern for RPGs that they were kind of "relegated" to handhelds this gen. I could really see it as a step towards jrpgs becoming straight up extinct. Or at least pretty damn close.

The first and last apply to me for sure. The middle three... kind of.

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RPGs being "relegated" to handhelds has more to do with the dominant HD consoles in Japan and NA being different, while everyone in both regions owns a DS and to a lesser extent PSP. Outside Squenix and Pokemon, RPGs tend towards fairly niche titles that lack the budget to go multiplatform.

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That was an interesting read

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ya right you are case the sunglasses have 3d so i can see right threw their clothes -ertyu
(about wearing sunglasses to stare at boobs without girls noticing)

Way too much whining for my preference.

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I think I started hitting most of these about 10 or 15 years ago.

And then figured out ways to re-engage myself by picking up genres I hadn't played much, getting friends who played a lot of indie games and listening to their suggestions (thankfully not hard for me to find such friends because I work with game designers).

"Games are too long" totally applies, to me, though.

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I have more fun with a lot of old games I never played back when they were new than I do with a lot of new games.

This nostalgia argument is too easy for some people to accept.

word

I've found a lot of old games I missed at the time recently, had lots of fun with them. most of the newer games I've enjoyed have been more like old games as well.

liking old stuff doesn't by necessity mean you're blinded by nostalgia. games have changed pretty significantly over the last 20 years, it's not strange that some people prefer the older stuff.