On Modern Gaming

[Zing]

I am still unable to fully parse the intent behind the OP.

I will say that something seems to be off about gaming since around the time the 360 hit. I haven't fully thought it out, but I think it is just the explosion in numbers of gamers and games in general. It's almost like there are too many games. There is this feeling of rushing from one game to the next, even if you don't actually do that. The feeling at retail and in the media is of being overwhelmed. Everything is go, go, go, and you keep up the gaming churn, moving from one title to the next.

It's not like the old days of say, Quake, where you had games that people rallied around for years. Games that inspired people to create their own websites and chat channels. Games that inspired things like alt.games.mk or uploads to GameFAQs. I don't even know why someone would create a FAQ for a commercial website like that now. At one point you could actually be familiar with the name of the person who wrote the FAQ you were reading. I guess my feeling is that everything was slower and more involved 10-20 years ago. More deliberate.

[sabrage]

Anyways... While those are good points DS, I think that the market is over-saturated. When I was younger I never had nor heard of a backlog. Maybe my backlog issue is that I buy my own games with my own money, but I feel the value of the games (price per hour) is lower than older games and finding the gems can sometimes be more work than beating them.

My backlog issue is that I spend more time reading and thinking and talking about games than I do actually playing them. I love the culture and mystique of gaming almost as much as I do actually playing games. I write mini-reviews in my head as I play them, and usually find someone to talk with about the game I just played within minutes of stopping.

[MrPopo]

I figured out the reason I have a backlog years ago. Back in the day my parents bought me games, now I buy me games. It's amazing how many more games you get when you can buy them yourself.

[Jmustang1968]

I figured out the reason I have a backlog years ago. Back in the day my parents bought me games, now I buy me games. It's amazing how many more games you get when you can buy them yourself.

my backlog came from buying my own games an a certain MMO that hogged my gaming time for a few years.

[BoneSnapDeez]

The important thing to consider about this generation is that the big games, the 100 million dollar shooters, the rollercoaster-track spectacles that the masses lap up, aren't going to be remembered in 10 years. Taking the example of Halo, everybody remembers, loves and replays Combat Evolved because it was an amazing game. Nobody talks about Halo 2 anymore.

That's a good point. Twenty years from now, I doubt people will talk about Modern Warfare 4 and 6 in the same way we talk about Final Fantasy 4 and 6.

[BoringSupreez]

The important thing to consider about this generation is that the big games, the 100 million dollar shooters, the rollercoaster-track spectacles that the masses lap up, aren't going to be remembered in 10 years. Taking the example of Halo, everybody remembers, loves and replays Combat Evolved because it was an amazing game. Nobody talks about Halo 2 anymore.

That's a good point. Twenty years from now, I doubt people will talk about Modern Warfare 4 and 6 in the same way we talk about Final Fantasy 4 and 6.

Heck, no one even talks about Modern Warfare 2 anymore. The only COD game other than the most recent one that anyone cares about much anymore is Modern Warfare 1.

[Michi]

..... my backlog cries.

Mine too *sigh*

[J T]

I am still unable to fully parse the intent behind the OP.

I will say that something seems to be off about gaming since around the time the 360 hit. I haven't fully thought it out, but I think it is just the explosion in numbers of gamers and games in general. It's almost like there are too many games. There is this feeling of rushing from one game to the next, even if you don't actually do that. The feeling at retail and in the media is of being overwhelmed. Everything is go, go, go, and you keep up the gaming churn, moving from one title to the next.

It's not like the old days of say, Quake, where you had games that people rallied around for years. Games that inspired people to create their own websites and chat channels. Games that inspired things like alt.games.mk or uploads to GameFAQs. I don't even know why someone would create a FAQ for a commercial website like that now. At one point you could actually be familiar with the name of the person who wrote the FAQ you were reading. I guess my feeling is that everything was slower and more involved 10-20 years ago. More deliberate.

I feel like modern gaming just whips right by too, but I also wonder if it is just a function of age. When I think back to highschool, it feels like it was a really long period of time with a lot of things going on; however, it was only 3 years. Nowadays, 3 years can go by and it feels like a drop in the bucket. This is actually a common thing as we age that our perception of time changes and it feels like things go by more quickly than they used to.

[Ivo]

I feel like modern gaming just whips right by too, but I also wonder if it is just a function of age. When I think back to highschool, it feels like it was a really long period of time with a lot of things going on; however, it was only 3 years. Nowadays, 3 years can go by and it feels like a drop in the bucket. This is actually a common thing as we age that our perception of time changes and it feels like things go by more quickly than they used to.

The perception of time changing with age is apparently part of life. I wonder how much of that is related to our heart rate going generally down as we age (and particularly being quite higher when we are kids). But that can't be all of it I think.

Ivo.

[noiseredux]

The perception of time changing with age is apparently part of life. I wonder how much of that is related to our heart rate going generally down as we age (and particularly being quite higher when we are kids). But that can't be all of it I think.

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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... UAging.pdf