Why I Think Retro Gaming Is Better Than Modern Gaming

[FromEquestria2LA]

Even though I am from a generation where I'd like modern gaming, I don't.
Why, you ask?

1) Games in those days were played for the fun of it, much moreso than now; gaming today seems to be rather serious business, I've noticed.
2) The games were simple to understand; no need to look at complex controls.
3) The graphics were vibrant and colorful; most of today's games seem to be rather dark (save for the Mario games). What do you think, guys?

 

[Momo]

I like me some dark and gritty. Then again, I only ever seem to play fantasy and RPG games, though I have been trying out a few MMOs as of late. I like the choice some modern games allow, but then also despise how some seem to have simplified that choice, such as Dragon Age. Then again, I do like some of the new gaming mechanics new games provide. So meh, new games and old games each have their pros and cons.

 

[Xenocity]

1) this is in the eye of the beholder
2) gaming has always been a serious business with shareholders. Shareholders revolted in the mid 90s at EA creating the EA we know. ~2000 shareholders at activision revolted turning that company into the company we all hate. Shareholders forced Ubisoft's hand causing the company to focus on profits. Sega bankrupted itself in 2004 by horrible decisions and giving their studios too much creative freedom. Sony is also shareholder driven too, after nearly bankrupting themselves in 2009. Microsoft never cared about gaming but was willing to spend billions to get all the content they could. This warped the industry further.
3) The U.S. market being the biggest gaming market matching the combined weight of the EU and Japan, doesn't like vibrant colors in its games or movies. You sell a colorful game in the U.S. (or Canada. UK and Australia), be prepared to be seen a child's product. The four English speaking countries want "mature"/adult content. When the biggest market is the biggest market by far, well your consumers get to dictate what is made for the most part.

With that said Mario Kart 8: DX (is the fastest selling Mario Kart game of all time... it's almost to 4 million since April).

Splatoon 2 was one of the best selling games for July in the U.S., despite only having 10 days on U.S. market. It's also selling quite strong in the UK too.

With that all said it really boils down to this:

U.S. hellbent on games with "mature"/adult looks and content to them and hating colors with a passion for being childish, the majority of the major developers hellbent on making AAA blockbusters, those AAA blockbusters taking 1,000+ employees per title and at least $50 million US to make, this means there isn't room for much else to be produced.

Also the Western markets seemingly only buy those AAA blockbusters games and nothing else each damn year.

The why you are seeing a dearth of other games on Xbox One and PS4 (and to a big extent steam)

If it isn't selling well enough, no one is going to be willing to make them.

 

[RidiculousName]

Even though I am from a generation where I'd like modern gaming, I don't.
Why, you ask?

1) Games in those days were played for the fun of it, much moreso than now; gaming today seems to be rather serious business, I've noticed.
2) The games were simple to understand; no need to look at complex controls.
3) The graphics were vibrant and colorful; most of today's games seem to be rather dark (save for the Mario games). What do you think, guys?

1)
Some people take it WAAAAAY too seriously, I agree. There are still some who just play for the fun of it without comparing levels/achievements. In old arcades top scores and such could get pretty competitive.

2)
Old PC games from the 90s were some of the most complex ever made. Console games were pretty simple though. Modern console games aren't terribly complex either, unless you count something like crafting systems.

3)
I don't get the whole "dark" thing either. They're alright, but playing a dark/edgy game doesn't make you more mature. I like colorful games. Have you played Stardew Valley?

 

[Pariah Dog]

1) This depends on the game and I agree in many cases. Some games you get to playing and it starts feeling like a job after a while. I played Fallout 4 and keeping all my settlements happy became a real chore.

2) Console games were simple. Pc games were often very complex. I remember console gamers looking down at pc games for some reason. Most of which had never even played a pc game and just jumped on the fan boy band wagon. I am glad the difference between the two platforms is smaller than ever now.

3) I have not really considered this point. I personally like dark and gritty for most things. Games, shows, vehicles...etc Bright and colorful has it's place and can be great in context. Sports games look great bright. City building or transport type games, racing games...etc

 

[SusanLR]

I miss the vintage arcade games like Pac-man, Asteroids, Tetris, etc. They were fun, colourful, and felt more like a game of skill than competition. Even Pinball.
Then I went to the PC games and have gotten used to them.
Never got into the rest of it.

 

[Mr Allen]

About 15 years ago I pretty much gave up on PC gaming due to problems running almost anything under Windows XP, and then the original Xbox came out the following Christmas, best thing ever!

 

[vangelis]

Like both really - still play old "Sim" games on pc but love Zelda/Mario Kart on Nintendo Switch

 

[Marcus]

I mainly play Star Wars games, specifically the older ones like Battlefront 1 and 2, KOTOR 1 and 2.

I'm actually glad I found a gaming platform called "Good Old Games" a few years back, they have gems in there that Steam doesn't, and no DRM helps immensely.

 

[Pariah Dog]

I mainly play Star Wars games, specifically the older ones like Battlefront 1 and 2, KOTOR 1 and 2.

I'm actually glad I found a gaming platform called "Good Old Games" a few years back, they have gems in there that Steam doesn't, and no DRM helps immensely.

There are some real gems on there. I found GOG and got into some of the point and click adventure games that were popular in the late 80's early 90's. The Sierra ones were especially popular. And damn were they difficult! Difficult to the point of being totally unfair. It could often be impossible to finish the game because you failed to pick up some item early on that covered 2 pixels of the screen you didn't see and you can't go back to that part. Then you are wondering around later on just about pulling your hair out because you have made 0 progress in the game in the last 5 hours and you don't even know why. What do you do? Start over? Look at a walk-through? (yes). In the days before the internet there were no easy answers. I sometimes wonder how the hell anyone ever finished those games.

 

[Judge]

I only play PC games from the early 90s to the early 2000s on a Windows XP platform on my legacy system reflecting hardware circa 2002. All with no-cd cheats.

 

[Mr Allen]

I only play PC games from the early 90s to the early 2000s on a Windows XP platform on my legacy system reflecting hardware circa 2002. All with no-cd cheats.

Gah! XP! Grr FFS, that's why I gave up on PC gaming years ago because I couldn't get anything to work under XP! Come back Windows ME, everything worked on there, even stuff from the mid 90's.

 

[Judge]

Gah! XP! Grr FFS, that's why I gave up on PC gaming years ago because I couldn't get anything to work under XP! Come back Windows ME, everything worked on there, even stuff from the mid 90's.

I heard so many bad comments about Windows ME I stayed completely away from it. Went straight from Windows 98SE to Windows XP and never regretted it. But then I'm a techie and knew how to tweak the OS, motherboard BIOS and GPU settings to run games quite well. Also didn't hurt to have been running a Pentium 2.4ghz CPU and a GeForce Ti200 video card at the time.

Still, running much of any game on a PC platform remains a crapshoot. Small wonder the console market took off like it did. Whatever console system one buys the hardware specs remain fairly consistent, unlike the PC market where unless you have the most robust hardware you're likely to come up short in terms of how well a game actually plays.

I must say though, my retro-gaming doesn't recede all the way back to the use of 320 x 320 resolution and DOS requirements. Usually my graphics card can't run them. Besides, they look just too damn primitive to bother.

Though there's some exceptions I wish I could still play- the original "Red Baron" from Sierra. I loved that one, though I still run the later Red Baron 3D on my legacy system. I also loved the original "Silent Hunter" sub simulation, but it won't run under my Windows XP configuration. No surprise I have the successor, "Silent Hunter II" running on the legacy computer as well, though it's not all that good.

 

[Pariah Dog]

Though there's some exceptions I wish I could still play- the original "Red Baron" from Sierra. I loved that one, though I still run the later Red Baron 3D on my legacy system. I also loved the original "Silent Hunter" sub simulation, but it won't run under my Windows XP configuration. No surprise I have the successor, "Silent Hunter II" running on the legacy computer as well, though it's not all that good.

I have played those but was a huge fan of "Silent Hunter 3." I can't imagine how many hours of my life I wasted playing that. I even had a red bulb in a second desk lamp by my computer to not ruin my night vision. If only they had illuminated keyboards back then... or at least affordable ones. I could not live without an illuminated keyboard now.

I had fond memories of some games as a kid then tried to replay some of them now. It's like you say sometimes the graphics are too primitive to even bother. Some games are maybe best left as a fond memory.