Jump to content

Do you think gaming got better or worse over the last decade?


Zenpai

  

107 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think the gaming industry and gaming in general got better or worse over the last decade?

    • Much better!
      37
    • Slightly better
      24
    • It's about the same
      16
    • Slightly worse
      20
    • Much worse!
      10


Recommended Posts

I'll elaborate:

 

After the coming of the PS3 and the 360, gaming suffered a lot of major changes, namely, among others, due to the introduction of hard drives and Internet connectivity to all consoles.

 

My question to you all would be: do you think those changes were for the better?

 

 

Personally, I would say no. While there were a lot of positive changes, such as:

 

  • (Obviously) Better visuals and raw processing power
  • Wireless controllers right out of the box for all consoles (though Microsoft did this only after a while)
  • Virtually no more region-locking for Sony and Microsoft consoles (get with the times already, Nintendo)
  • Cloud saves
  • The ability to save games to the hard drive, making them run faster
  • The ability to patch games (though this can be a double-edged sword)
  • Trophies (see parenthesis above)

 

 

... I believe the pros are outweighed by the cons:

 

 

  • The ability to patch games made developers slack off more and more on proper quality control pre-launch - so much so that some games are fundamentally broken or even unplayable before being patched.

 

  • DLC. DLC isn't an inherently bad thing, some even add quite a lot to the original game. But more often than not, DLC is used to add very little (and mostly unnecessary) game at a comparably higher price per gameplay hour. Some games also have way too much DLC, others turn segments that should have been part of the main game into DLC and others use long-hated free-to-play tactics in the main game to goad you into buying DLC that'll make your play faster or smoother (when it should have been that way from the start).

 

  • Directly related to the above are Season Passes. Season Passes, by their very concept, just mean developers intended to add DLC from the very start instead of just shipping it with the base game. We generally used to have a complete game from the start unless the developer decided to make a special/collector's edition, which were not only comparatively rare back then, they also never came before a year had passed after the game's original launch.

 

  • Abusive trophies. While I believe trophies were a generally good addition to gaming (love a good checklist myself), some can be a downright underhanded way to force you to play for a lot longer than you normally would if you want to have the Platinum trophy. Some are also just downright unreasonable. I'm not against hard trophies, especially if they make you explore everything the game has to offer, but some are just downright both unnecessary and ridiculously hard and/or grindy.

 

  • Online Trophies. These are the bane of my existence as a trophy hunter. They're okay in mostly online games, I guess, but for most games, online trophies are a timer. If you, by any chance, get this game a few years after it came out, chances are either the multiplayer is dead, or worse, the servers have since closed, leaving you permanently unable to get the Platinum trophy. And even if you do get the game in time to still have a thriving online community, online trophies mean that you no longer depend 100% on yourself. If your skills are significantly worse than everyone else's - too bad. Some also require insane amounts of coordination.

 

 

I know that, apart from the buggy games, most of my complaints are stuff I can easily avoid by just... not caring, but... when I bought games, I used to feel assured, knowing that it would be a complete and mostly bug-free product in and of itself and that I depended on me and me only to get the most out of it. These days... it seems I, more often than not, have to deal with all these extra hurdles and shady business practices to do the same.

 

Though overall, I'd say it's only gotten slightly worse. There are still all the good points I mentioned above. The quality of the games is also about the same: some are very good, some are very bad, same as always - though all games do benefit from the increased processing power of the new systems. There are also new factors I believe are neither good nor bad that I thought I'd mention:

 

  • Indie games, by their very nature, can be great for those that are looking for new and innovative experiences and don't mind the generally more conservative visuals.
  • Digital copies are a good alternative way to purchase both older and new games (as long as it remains as an alternative). It's also a great platform for indies and smaller games. It does have its downsides, though.
  • Motion gaming is also a good alternative way to play for the right audience - it does generally fail to attract the hardcore, though.
  • Touchpad gaming can also be used to great effect, namely in handhelds - it can be used excessively and unnecessarily, though.

 

There are other, minor new pros and cons (and neutrals), but I think I covered the main aspects. The future also has a lot of new features and hardware coming our way - but that's a story for some other time.

 

 

What about you guys? Do you think gaming got better or worse over the last decade? Or is it about the same? What about the PC gaming crowd, do you have something to add? And are there some pros or cons I forgot to mention?

 

I feel like this guy pretty much summed up modern games, give the guy a cookie! :D

Better,for graphics and controls, yes, but worse for Microtransactions and Season Passes.

I will admit though, some DLC is alright, like adding some costumes/weapons or future Story DLC, but when they purposely remove Story Content or force you to buy weapons and etc before a game is even released, then its not acceptable. Its a hit and miss scenario basically.

 

I think they went too much the PC route with expansions and such and tried to copy it in some form. The result, as you can see... :(

Slightly worse, Unfinished titles, season passes and DLC, not being able to mod without being banned. It's a different kind of fun now, it's all about following the rules now which doesn't help when home brewers are better than official developers. The age of gaming is not now, it's more the age of consumers and tight control by 2 companies, MS and Sony.

 

You mean Nintendo and Sony, right? :)

I can't say it got better yet . It's too early to decide , ps3 had a good run and ps4 is doing well

 

Correction, Playstation 3 had a GREAT run my friend! And I'm sure the Playstation 4 will raise the bar just like it's predecessors! :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has gotten much worse I think, most publishers these days invest on games that create profit for them instead of just focusing on making memorable and fun games that could last for decades.

 

That's because gaming is a business and gaming publishers make products for money. You know, like it always has been.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the whole, gaming has gotten much better over the last 10 years.  Can't believe people can actually argue that it has got worse - rose tinted glasses I guess.  Like anything though, there are good and bad aspects.

 

THE GOOD

  • Online gaming, 
  • Better writing,
  • Improved visuals,
  • Motion capture (for more authentic animations),
  • More variety of games,
  • More gamers,
  • Gaming is more widely accepted than it was 10 years ago,
  • Digital games,
  • Better acting & voice performance,
  • Cross buy/cross save,
  • PS+ (or XBox gold if you're a heathen),
  • Trophies,
  • DLC (Yes, some DLC can be good!),
  • Indie developed games,
  • Games today are made by people who grew up playing games themselves,

 

THE BAD

  • Day 1 patches,
  • DLC (a.k.a. Micro-transactions),
  • Franchises releasing yearly games that are basically the same re-skinned game,
  • Gamers (at least a small minority) can come across as being very whiny and entitled, which gives the rest of us a bad name.
  • Console/PC wars,
  • Certain gamers dismissing games because they are "Indie",
  • Certain gamers thinking "AAA = Better graphics" and that nothing else matters,
  • Multiplayer trophies (when the servers get taken down too soon),
  • Too much hype about certain games before release,
  • Not as many demos,

DLC is an interesting point.  I get why people dislike DLC, especially when it comes in the form of micro-transactions (...cough* Horse Armour ...cough*) as that is plainly just exploiting people for money, though people clearly buy this crap otherwise it would have died a long time ago.  I do have a problem when people state that DLC is just content that has been left out of the original game.  Admittedly, Day 1 DLC doesn't help the argument, but I think there are good examples of companies that spend time creating genuine good quality content that adds value to their original game (i.e. TLoU Left Behind, RDR Undead Nightmare, or even the new Witcher 3 DLC).  Games are incredibly expensive to make, so DLC can be a good way to create content instead of scrapping everything and starting from scratch again.  

 

Personally I'm split on DLC.  Generally I think single player DLC is good, whereas multiplayer DLC is bad. It depends on the game though.  At the end of the day though, you don't have to buy the DLC if you don't want.

 

As for people having rose tinted glasses, it is easy to remember all the good old games (and there are some cracking old games).  People forget though that there were plenty of buggy, broken games from back in the day.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

DLC has always existed on the pc though it was mainly unofficial and better. Most of the game modes in online shooters like cod, battlefield etc etc where devised by home developers and of course free of charge. Cd Projeckt are the only developers this generation that haven't created crap for extra $. PS3 and 360 had a good run until the last 12 months or so, those rose tinted glasses should see suckers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say that gaming has generally become better overall but not by a lot. Before gaming was targeted at a different market overall but now as games and the hardware of consoles/PCs has become more advanced developers do things they could not do before. We've gone from games like Crash Bandicoot to The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 around 20 years, this is a great development, however, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix and more have abused these advancements with trends of DLC and Season Passes in almost every game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Season Pass and over 300 micro transactions announced before the game is released.

Uncharted 4 - Microtransactions announced almost a year before release.

Star Wars Battlefront - $50/£40 Season Pass announced before game release.

Batman Arkham Knight - Season Pass cost more than the game itself and most of the DLC is skins.

Assassin's Creed -...

And the list goes on...

The only great and amazing Season Passes are to me the Telltale ones as they are the full game most of the time.

All of this is just terrible and don't get me started on the pre-order bonuses *cough* *cough* Square Enix *cough* *cough* Deus Ex.

Then there are these Day 1 patches which, like most DLC, show an unfinished game.

There's a lot more I could go on about but the most annoying part of most games to me is the multiplayer.

By this I don't mean that multiplayer is bad but when they are not done as well as they could be and are sometimes even painful to play e.g. Tomb Raider it becomes really frustrating. Then there are games with terrible but hilarious (in a bad way) multiplayer so such as Uncharted 3, a multiplayer I enjoyed the most. It's also annoying when there is a load of lag in games and especially annoying lobbies (mostly shooters with 12 year old kids screaming through their mics).

A lot of developers need to step their game up if they want to produce great games, I say developers but I really blame the publishers, and if they want gaming to be much much better than it was in the past. Hopefully PS4/Xbox One will be as innovative as predecessors to show that the gaming industry is not fully being corrupted by greed and we aren't heading for another Video Game Crash (which I doubt we are).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion thing go neutral sure the grafic and gameplay got alot better but since the start of the last gen console DLC, pre-order bonus, microtrasanction (sorry if I mispelled) kinda ruin modern gaming, this make companies more greedy, remenber Metro last light when you most paind for an dificulty ? That was really dump. And also online trophy but that one is minor good thing there people who expose companies greedy ness like Angry Joe Show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gaming got better, company practices got worse.

Classic games are still there, you can go back and play them. Will it ever get back like that? Not a chance. Companies are always trying to advance and add more. You can never please everyone. Some people think more is better. I use my consoles for games, others use it for that and social media for example. That's purely up to choice.

But most people like having those options. I don't plan to ever use social media on my PS4......but I know it's there if I need it.

Onto the games. I think what we have now is great. Yes some games are broken at release. That I pin on the companies. However most of my games don't really hit those problems.

DLC in my opinion needs to be restricted to cosmetic only. Make that shit optional for us. Want this outfit? Then it's dlc. That would be fine as it doesn't ruin my game if I can't have some nicer costume.

Keep it cosmetic and then if you spark up an interesting addition to that story, then sell it as a standalone (like infamous first light)

Edited by Kazeh54
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

^I really don't like like Square Enix is used as an example without actually considering any of their J-games...

SE is NOT only Deus Ex, Just Cause and Hitman or something.

But the thing is they do do it with Deus Ex, Just Cause, Hitman and more, these games are more popular in the west so it's the stuff they do with western games that give them the bad reputation.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But the thing is they do do it with Deus Ex, Just Cause, Hitman and more, these games are more popular in the west so it's the stuff they do with western games that give them the bad reputation.

Western games have a bad reputation for their business practices, not for the games themselves. Japanese developers do it too, so no one is entirely innocent.

 

And that's why one should play SE's J-games :awesome:

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest says hello

Pretty sure Eidos hasn't done anything worse than that :P

Edited by Natsume
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Much worse, because everything got tainted by DLC, day one patches and generic content. Also, games are solely made for casual gamers nowadays. No challenge whatsoever. If you grew up during the 8- and 16-bit eras then you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't then keep on acting like a h4rdc0r3 player for beating Uncharted on crushing. rhxdmb8r.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Gaming has gotten tremendously better.  The fact that people can even say something optional like "online trophies" has made the gaming landscape worse is beyond me.  You can't blame the industry because of your stubborn anal retentiveness.  The amount of variety in games these days, taking both the professional and indie scene into consideration, is off the charts.  So many quality games are coming out almost on a weekly basis now, that people have gotten spoiled.  If a game isn't outright perfect for them or isn't just different enough, it's hurled in the "worst game ever created, will bitch about online at some point" pile and you just wait for the next game to come out... or play one of the 20 great games that came out while you were playing your last game.

 

Trophies/achievements are a huge plus in my book with modern gaming.  They're completely optional, and work wonders when used for the right purpose.  They keep me interested in games that, spoiled as I am, I probably would've given up on after an hour without even giving it a fair shot (I'm looking at you, Evil Within).  Then some of those games turn into my favorites, that really didn't deserve me spurning them.  The only downside being that trophies have more or less replaced the much approved "in-game unlockables" of yesteryear... but not always.  Some developers still get it right.

 

Even simple things like the fact that wireless gamepads are a requirement now.  Online gaming is a BREEZE compared to a decade ago and only getting better with things like SharePlay.  The consoles are flimsy as fuck (they also work a lot harder than the SNES ever did), but the blu-ray discs are durable as hell. ;)

 

The only downside I take out of this, really truly, is that it's become painfully obvious that developers are abusing the ability to patch, so that they can release games before they're done.  Which I blame publishers more than anything for desperately pushing unrealistic deadlines.  But on the other hand, games are truly more complex than ever before, bugs are inevitable, and I think the original intent (and it may still be the purpose) of day one patches are to stick it to pirates who can't connect to "fix" their ill-gotten games... which I approve of, even if playing with fire like that routinely bites developers in the ass.

 

If anything has gotten worse... it's not the quality of games, or the consoles.  It's the quality of the people playing them.  I'll swear by that.

 

 

Burgers.jpg

 

I get that most of the time people post something like this, it's half kidding half truth, it gets a bunch of pent up adolescents to "like" your post, it's cute and kind of funny... but occasionally someone says "LOOK AT THE PICTURE THIS IS EXACTLY WHATS HAPPENING IT MAKES ME SO MAD FUCK DEVELOPERS FUCK EVERYONE I USED TO GET A WHOLE BURGER BEFORE NOW I HAVE TO PAY EXTRA ITS NOT FAIR WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS TO US", and I want to hurl them out the window.  It's the same thing as that "car without tires" analogy that sometimes makes me want to punch a baby for no reason.  It's hyperbole taken to a literal extreme, and then cited as evidence.

 

Let's just be flippin' honest here for one second, there are very few examples of paid/exclusive DLC where the core game becomes unplayable (a car without tires) or unreasonably unsatisfying (a burger without meat and condiments) without them.  I defy any of you to find me a legitimate game where it's core, it's tires, it's meat, is sold separately.  And NO, a handful of fighters in Mortal Kombat, and some COD map packs, doesn't count.  Nor do episodic games.

Edited by FrecLognAizeW
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slightly better. I don't think it's as creative as before going back to the PS2, PS1, N64, SNES and the like but I do think that thanks to Online then that has made many changes, for better or worse. Thinking about the better changes though, Being able to play with or against other people from around the World, There being much more Games available now thanks to the Online Store and this includes those that would have never been available as Disc releases such as Shovel Knight, Thanks to how popular that became through the Online Store, It's now got a Disc release. Also Downloadable content that includes more that would not have been available before.

 

Obviously Online does provide the chance for things to be abused such as Downloadable content or Patches, These should be brilliant but sadly have been used wrong far too much. However, I do think things have become slightly better thanks to Online being more available than before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Games have obviously gotten better. Though there are some things going on in the industry that I don't agree with, for sure. Namely the fact that content is being withheld to later be released as DLC. Not to mention it feels like there's less variety now than there once was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Overall, I believe gaming has gotten worse in my opinion. Sure the graphics have drastically improved but that should be a given. I'm not saying every game needs to have super-high-ultra-can't-tell-video-game-from-reality graphics but they should be getting better since our technology is improving. However, graphics shouldn't be defining games, games should be defining graphics. I feel like companies are using graphics more and more to make up for the lack of game they are selling. Not to mention the influx of remakes and sequels the past couple of years. I get it, sell the stuff that makes you money. A practical and reasonable business strategy but it gets stale for those of us on the receiving end. Give me something fresh, something new. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes and no

The vast majority of games we get now are awful compared to PS2 classics

But then there's games like The Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, the many movie tie-in games among horror and RPG that are doing really well

But the old GTA games and Square/Level-5 RPG's where much better back on PS2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...