Are we getting old or are videogames getting worse?

[Raikas]

LOL

You kids - get off my lawn!

[Raincloak]

I don't claim the existence of "Twilight" means literature has gone downhill.

I would, however, hypothesize that its bestseller status means exactly that.

Except, bestseller =/= critically acclaimed. I've studied literature. I've read bestsellers. I've formed a few opinions of my own. Just because a book is a bestseller doesn't mean it's any good at all. On the other hand, a lot of critic favorites might be "good literature," but they're not fun to read. Maybe the public has bad taste, but I question the taste of literary critics as well.

I think video games are a bit different, though, since they are primarily for entertainment and not to convey, you know, Artistic Messages or whatnot. Usually. A video game is much more expensive than a novel, and it takes longer to consume (and a LOT more manpower to produce), so you need to work harder to convince people to buy it. But there are more people who play video games regularly than people who read books regularly. So I dunno.

[Jcannon98188]

I think the majority of games today suck. But they did then too. You have to realize, the games we talk about were the gems that outshined the others (E.T. anyone?) Similarly, there are games today that are absolutely amazing. My personal favorites include Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress. And while they may not be as popular as some, less than awesome games (*cough*Call of Duty*cough*) they are still outstanding video games. I think that it is not that games today suck, it is simply that good games are harder to find, and are not being made by the same people who made the good games of yesteryear.

[Vicarious Ink]

On topic from the OP, I know for a fact this happen a lot during huge booms in the video game industry. For instance, people still have not tapped the full potential of the PS3 and 360. So they try to use new graphic engines to make better games, but they then cut out the story for hype. This happens a lot of times but there are usually a few gems in there.

[azsf]

lot of subjective statements there raincloak, wanna throw down a few examples to back yourself up? because saying games aren't art, or that books aren't entertainment...

ive seen this argument a lot, ive engaged in it both online and IRL. i've been to lectures on it, i keep up with the shifts so to speak. you already know where i stand. but one reason everyone feels a jaded with releases from the last few years probably has a little something to do with the "art v entertainment". basically, we expect so much more from our games now.

When mario launched, no one gave a shit that there was no real storyline. Donkey Kong Country saved the SNES with a fast-paced platformer with better graphics than mario, but his character motivation was reclaiming his bananas. imagine if a game like skyrim opened with that empty-banana-cave scene.

it's not that we only remember the best, we judge everything else by the standards set by the best. Bioshock launches, and suddenly if your storyline isn't a sexy political allegory that mixes player agency with poignant metaphor you may as well not even bother. Halo reinvents console FPS, and now you better be able to aim and move in a 3D environment. Goldeneye comes out and now you better have local multiplayer deathmatch.

That's a reverse timeline. All the same genre, all bringing new layers of gameplay, mechanics, and narrative that expand and improve upon the games that came before them. Do you think goldeneye is the best game in that example? If you do, really ask yourself "why?". Because it's not objectively better in any way.

[Raikas]

I don't claim the existence of "Twilight" means literature has gone downhill.

That's exactly my point - one example of something popular that you don't enjoy (even if it's genuinely crap) is not enough to prove a broad generalization of any medium - and if it's true of literature it should also be true of games (I don't buy into the entertainment vs. art distinction - books can be mindless escapism and games can be moving and beautiful).

A video game is much more expensive than a novel, and it takes longer to consume

This is a little OT, but arguably (If you judge cost per minutes of entertainment) games are actually cheaper. Comparing using standard Canadian prices: if a 30-hour+ game costs $60 on release and a 400-page+ hardcover book costs $32 the actual cost per hour is actually much lower for the game.

I think the majority of games today suck. But they did then too.

So true!

[Ammo]

I don't know if their getting 'worse,' but I can tell you that I can't remember the last time I actually finished one. I'll get half way, three quarters of the way, even an hour or two from completion, and then I'll just be all, "meh." And it's not even necessarily that I wasn't enjoying the game. I'll get distracted by something in real life and lose the thread of the game, and next time I'm looking to play something I'll want something new and fresh instead of having to get back into whatever I'd left off. Maybe I've just become so focused on real life goals that I can't let them go enough to lose myself in virtual ones anymore.

It also just seems like after so many hours in a game, it gets to the point where it's like, okay, another chapter of pretty much the same thing, which is really cool, but still the same thing I've been looking at for the last 8 hours. Unless the story is particularly engaging, I'm not going to care much if I find out how it ends. Most of the time you can pretty much guess the ending anyways...because when you get to the end, well, you win (well...except for a certain recent sequel that I haven't played yet...mostly because I never managed to finish the first one...lol).

There was a time I decided that it was actually okay to stop reading a book that sucked...and ever since then, I have no problem turning doing that, or turning off a movie, tv show, or game that just isn't doing it for me. I broke my inner obsessive completionist.

Still I love playing them even if I never finish them. Despite the heaps of regurgitated and unoriginal crap that are being released these days (we are in sequel hell, are we not?), there are plenty of good games with real artistic or intellectual value to them. Not everyone's cup of tea, but it's something I like in a game. I've also tried out some of the indie titles that have been flooding Steam lately. Some of them look like crap, but other are just gorgeous, and their uniqueness is refreshing. Haven't finished any of those either...ha.

This post is getting waaaaay longer than I meant it to. Short version - idk if games are worse, I play a lot of them, and finish very few of them.