/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>21162027
I think people who say this are complaining about two major categories of changes to video games. First, what mainstream audiences and rising budgets have done to top-selling games. Second, what ubiquitous Internet connectivity has enabled: DLC, always-online, gacha, no LAN multiplayer, servers that die several years after the release without a replacement, etc.

The second category is pretty self-explanatory. The first means the things that came naturally from the technological advancement in game hardware. More visual fidelity meant more people had to work on a game for longer, which meant the game had to sell more copies, which meant it had to be marketed to a broader audience. All of this changed the product itself. Video game settings and plots got less weird and more acceptable. The vocabulary of mechanics got more rigid and less experimental. The whole medium started to borrow more and more from cinema. When you resent these changes, it is natural to look to the past when cinematic games were either impossible or a technological feat in and of themselves and see it as a golden age.

I think they are basically right about both. AAA gaming was at its most interesting over a decade ago. But now fidelity has started to level out. Tools are coming out that allow indie/doujin/small developers to do more with less. The future is looking bright -- for them.

Another thing is that that guy was talking about the golden age of Sega specifically. You can reject all of the above and still think that Sega is past its prime.

Me in the middle