Is Gaming dead?

[oldSock]

Good day everybody,

 

Today i decided to ask the question above.

 

Like many i enjoy my games or rather I "use to" enjoy it until the updates got so big and so slow that basically it become a source of frustration.

 

To date i haven't played a lot of games "none" worth mentioning. With the exception of mobile gaming, gaming in general became an expensive investment regardless of its platform. Even free to play games comes at a cost. The hardware to accommodate it and in some situations some countries still believe in forcing their people to pay per 1mb of data. I have to say i am tempted to call it data extortion but because many countries do enjoy cost effective fast unlimited internet it would be unfair.

 

But today its not about the platform or the hardware. Today i want to ask an important question. What are we paying for when it comes to games? In many situations a game that is strictly online it is hard to say you can play it 10 years from now. Even if you have the relevant hardware the game itself may be hard if not impossible to get. Yes right now many older games have followings that try to mod/support and keep the game alive. However the publishers of these games may OR may not be to happy about that.

 

So this is where i looked at my games i still have that install from CDs and DVDs. Most of them still work. Not all of them but most. That said i have a very hard time backing them up. So if those physical disks fail the game IS gone. This frankly pisses me off because i want to be able to collect, archive and enjoy it. But lately i feel it is fair to say that it is hard to backup games that can consume so much space that one has to dedicate an actual hard drive to some of the titles. 

 

Also backing it up is half the battle. I still need to restore them and get them working again when the "service" itself doesn't exist anymore. Again it is possible BUT it comes at a risk because stability and other elements can become a factor.

 

It is at this point i feel it is fair to say that gaming is not in a good place as it stands. Also from a collector stand point, I do feel gaming is dead. I say this because I know how much effort it takes to get old titles to run. I know how devastating it is when I lost all working backups due failures of physical media.

 

So do you feel gaming is dead? Do you feel that official support should exist for the collector?

 

i am really interested to know what you think should be done to fix this situation.

 

Why is it important? Lets be honest, some titles are expensive and was enjoyable surly in a few years time one would like to still enjoy it.

 

 

Thank you for reading

be safe and have a great day.

 

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

4 minutes ago, oldSock said:

That said i have a very hard time backing them up. So if those physical disks fail the game IS gone.

There is a scource forge program that lets you rip a disc to a ISO, which you can nativly mount.

[DailyProcrastinator]

I think this really depends on the types of games you enjoy. 

 

Gaming as a whole is not dead, the industry as a whole is growing a lot. Even the exposure indie developers can get is growing with subscription services and just promotions given through steam etc.

 

Online based games age the most because the fan base moves on to bigger and better. That is a given, it is not like there will be one online shooter to rule them all. 

 

I have really enjoyed some different sandbox games recently and the Xbox Game Pass for PC gets me to try games I haven't before, and probably never would otherwise. 

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I guess part of the issue is the actual gamers themselves. Gamers these days expect more and more from developers these days. They demand to be constantly given fresh content (especially now during Covid where everyone is cooped up at home) because if they don't, the game begins to feel stale, repetitive and unrewarding. But games are much more complex than ever before and that comes with much longer development times. And if you rush that development time to provide more content in a timely manor, you're bound to introduce more bugs and unoptimized games. 

 

I mean, Destiny 2 is a perfect example. The past few Seasons of the game has been an absolute dumpster fire from progress halting bugs, to lack luster public events, to new content that's literally old content that has just been given a new coat of paint. Like the new Season public event is literally an existing PvP game mode shoe horned into a PvE collaborative public event. When players first got a taste of the new event, all they tasted was deja vu.

 

It's hard for fans to understand development takes time. And if you demand new content and threaten Bungie of possibly leaving the game, what you'll get is half-baked content. Now it's not to say Bungie is completely free of guilt because there are certainly things that could've been done better on their end. But a lot of the times gamers these days have really high and unrealistic expectations. 

[merco]

I think gaming is cheaper than it ever has been, if you are willing to make a few compromises. You can get a 400-500$ PC or something and get an Epic games account and they will shit free games on you. All they want is your data or something? I dunno, free games.

Humble Bundle is a great source for games if you don't have too much money (they even serve them to you in steam keys made out of real gold). Those 2 methods will not give you your favorite game that has just been released, but they will save you A LOT of money.

 

You were mentioning CDs in your original post, I don't think CDs were even sold 10 years ago, am I wrong? It is an ancient medium by now and as a collector you should know about disc rot. Should developers refund you for something that they made 30 years ago? I would say no. DVDs are probably a little more durable. I am not much of a collector, but 2 years ago I got a free PS3 through luck at my workplace. So I thought wow that's cool, it was worth about 80-100 bucks on ebay, so I decided to keep it. I bought about 20 (used) games for it and they were all very easy to find on the internet and also in great condition. I think the oldest game is probably Heavenly Sword, a game that was released 13-14 years ago. I'm somewhat confident it will work in 10 years, maybe I am wrong, but I'm sure in 10 years I will not really care anymore (and I will probably even have played the game once, maybe... we will see... I hear it is good...). 

So from a gamer's point of view I am more than happy, I got an old console with 20 games, cherry picked from the tons of reviews that are out by now, favorites, hidden gems, etc. and it cost me all in all about 90 bucks. What a time to be alive.

 

From a collector's standpoint, I'm not sure. It seems fine right now, but that will probably change in the future at some point. Now considering you are talking about games today, well most of my games I buy in digital form. Technically a subscription steam will provide me with whatever I want to download at any given time. My oldest game on there is from 2013 so I have been with them for 7 years. Not a very long period of time, but at least some trust has formed by now, that they don't just take their servers and vanish, laughing all the way to the Maldives, with my money in big bags with a dollar sign on it in their luggage. (Who knows, might still happen in the future though.)

So yes while digital releases are not quite the same and you can't hold them in your hand, and you also need an internet connection to download them (sometimes even use them ugh) I am in the fortunate position to live in a place where that does not matter. My internet connection is good enough and it almost never fails me. If it does it is usually back in a few hours and I could even fall back to one of my consoles which I can just turn on and play even without the internet, isn't that something. (Btw I bought 3 games for my switch so far and all of them were physical releases, I guess I'm just oldschool like that sometimes.) And if I have my connection I'm not even responsible for backing up my games or anything, I just let steam servers do it for me, and since they are not financed directly by me, I'm not even paying them to do it, unless I use the steam store. hooray for capitalism? I dunno it is what it is and I am perfectly fine with it by now. It has its pros and cons, but for me it is super convenient and I am glad I don't have to change limited capacity discs all the time anymore. Hell I don't even have a hard drive in my computer anymore, I can just use fast and silent flash storage, until the next big thing comes around. 

 

Forgive my somewhat unstructured rambling, I don't really have a point other than "No gaming is not dead". I can see how collecting can be difficult and can consume your time and money, but that is the same with every hobby and you're not forced to do it. Yes if you want to collect then you have to buy storage media, like for example a hard drive every now and then, I don't see the problem.

If you just want to play some old games though you can also just get an emulator and enjoy some nostalgia. 

 

Well in any case, have a nice day and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[Fatih19]

I think you're only looking at the price, but not the game themselves. Games has never been more beautiful, complex, and realistic than ever before.

 

Also, you're looking at the wrong type of games. There are a bajillion offline single-player games. Dig deeper.

[porina]

Games are generally a source of entertainment. The direct or indirect monetary cost of playing the game (hardware to run it, any cost buying it, any ongoing cost to continue playing it) turns into entertainment value. If it is worth it or not is a personal decision. I think that should mainly be a short term value judgement. Chances are you play the game most some time soon after you obtain it, and decreases over time until such a point you don't care about it at all any more.

 

There is some concern that online required games will be unplayable at some point in the future, but if you get your value out of it before then, is it that bad? I spent about 4 years of my life in Ragnarok Online (iRO specifically). That is now essentially dead to me. I can't play it, although equivalent alternate versions still exist it seems. I still have the memories and friends I made along the way. Was the money I put into it lost? No, I got the value at the time.

 

This now applies to more games I play. FFXIV, as another MMO, is still going strong. Will it still be going in 20 years? Maybe, maybe not. Would I care then? Probably not. The mobile games I play are even more vulnerable. How long can they sustain? I don't know the answer to that. One game I did play and doesn't exist any more is Earth and Beyond. Probably the first space MMO? It is earlier than Eve Online for example. Do I wish I could revisit that world? Sometimes, but we move on to different virtual worlds. I have a lifetime upgrade access to Elite Dangerous, but I haven't played it in seriousness for over 2 years now.

[WereCatf]

5 hours ago, oldSock said:

So do you feel gaming is dead?

Considering I just played through Wasteland 3 twice, I'm going to have to go with a strong NO.

[gloop]

1 hour ago, WereCatf said:

Considering I just played through Wasteland 3 twice, I'm going to have to go with a strong NO.

How did you like it? I saw Skill Up’s review of it which was pretty positive, and he hasn’t failed me yet. 

[WereCatf]

Just now, gloop said:

How did you like it? I saw Skill Up’s review of it which was pretty positive, and he hasn’t failed me yet. 

I've always enjoyed both cRPGs and tactical turn-based combat, and Wasteland 3 has both. I encountered quite a few bugs, but I didn't find any that completely broke the game. This is to say, I did like it and I would like to think anyone who enjoyed e.g. the ye-olden-days Fallout 1 & 2 would enjoy Wasteland 3 as well.

[PeachGr]

Gaming industry, recently, started making more money than movie industry. Gaming is really growing. Old game that are still playable by the most people are league of legends (~14 Yo) age of empires/ mythology (~20 yo).

But since teens have the time to move the system, it's reasonable to not find your games on the top of the list anymore

[eeeee1]

gaming will never die. get that idea out of your head.

[JZStudios]

Your issues primarily reside in the PC market. Old console games still work fine, and that's a valid reason for keeping old hardware until something like Dolphin makes emulation near perfect, or GOG.com puts in the effort to make sure it works without DRM.

That being said, my buddy hasn't played his Xbox much outside of one or two games, and any time I try to play a different game there's some 30gb update patch so I just turn it off and watch TV or something. Same thing happens on Steam.

 

In other terms, games as a whole have become pretty boring, repetitive, and derivative which has led to the rise of indie games. These too though have started to get pretty samey. If you look at Metacritic reviews from critics and community, the decade of 2000-2010 had FAR more high ranking games of original ideas than 2010-2020. It's not just nostalgia either, these games are still fun today with new players as well.

This is a pretty decent video.

 

7 hours ago, Fatih19 said:

I think you're only looking at the price, but not the game themselves. Games has never been more beautiful, complex, and realistic than ever before.

 

Also, you're looking at the wrong type of games. There are a bajillion offline single-player games. Dig deeper.

Graphics≠Good gameplay. Tony Hawks Pro Skater just got a remake and people are having a blast. It's not very complex, certainly not realistic, and playing at least the PS2 entries, they don't look particularly amazing, but they're still fun as hell.

Not in mainstream game markets. Maybe indie games, but for the most part if you're not into pixel art roguelites or platformers your choices are slim.

 

5 hours ago, WereCatf said:

I've always enjoyed both cRPGs and tactical turn-based combat, and Wasteland 3 has both. I encountered quite a few bugs, but I didn't find any that completely broke the game. This is to say, I did like it and I would like to think anyone who enjoyed e.g. the ye-olden-days Fallout 1 & 2 would enjoy Wasteland 3 as well.

I got Wasteland 2 free and hated it, so I decided to skip 3 altogether. Does the percentage chance actually work correctly? Wasteland 2 you could have a 99% chance of success and fail 7 times in a row.

[oldSock]

Wow thank you,

the postings here was really friendly and i got a lot of perspective,

Honestly cool of all of you to participate in such a meaningful way.

Seriously Thank you.

As for me, my concern has more to do with preservation then anything else. Surely having a archive of gaming evolution isn't a bad thing.

i mean yes for the player it is short term value vs long term value. For the collector it has a lot to do with keeping it alive well after its time.

A good example is Hellgate: London

 

Now upon its release the game had serious problems, it basically just killed your ram. Now a patch or two did exist But the game was never really playable even on Good computers at the time. It had serious potential in my opinion and i felt if we got real support for it at the time it would have been one of the better games of its time.

 

I still own the original on Disk and yes i do have an ISO backup on hard drive. But did find it on steam and eventually i will maybe download and try it again. Maybe they fixed a few things. I hope so.

 

Well if you like old games give Hellgate London some attention. If you played the game please let me know if the experience was better then its first release and if they finally patched the ram problem

 

 

Thank you for reading

 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

Gaming is in as good a state, financially, creatively, and technically, as it has been for a long time...maybe ever.

Though I feel there are a few too many fps games on the market.

 

Regardless, games have changed beyond all recognition since I were a child and I think it's an exciting, interesting medium with a bright future.

 

I just wish I was going to be alive in 100 years to see what they are making. 

[whm1974]

This thread reminds of not that long ago of an arguement I had with some high school(or middle) teen who told me that PC Gaming is dead because he only seen a few PC Games in Stores. with most of them being older titles and the Casual Crap not even worth a few bucks...

 

He had never heard of Valve's Steam Client before. He had only played on Consoles and phones.

[Briggsy]

Gaming has never been more alive. We're actually in the middle of a renaissance for smaller developers, at least on the PC side of things. Steam is so overrun with games from studios I've never heard of, and some of them are actually fairly decent in quality. Even as the whales are eating up the big fish (like Microsoft buying Zenimax Media), this is making room for lots of new games that aren't priced at 70-80 Dollars for the base game. 

 

If anything, I find right now that I just can't decide what to play because there are so many gdamn options available. I remember a time when the SNES was the rage and new games could easily cost more than 100 dollars and renting was the only affordable choice. We had a game shop in my town when I was a kid that would rent by the week or month for really cheap, good times. Xbox game pass is following this model, and offers a good selection. You can limit your budget to $30 dollars max per game on Steam and never run out of good games to play. 

 

I can say with confidence that in the 3+ decades of gaming I've done, right now is as good as its ever been. I do miss the days of the xbox 360 era though, when bioware was at the top of their game, and AAA publishers still had a soul. Those days were simpler and gamers could rally behind a few good games. These days AAA have carved their own niche of micro-transactions and DLC, but the entire sphere of gaming is so massive now that you can feel lost.

[MoozOfDoomz]

On 9/13/2020 at 1:47 AM, oldSock said:

int i feel it is fair to say that gaming is not in a good place as it stands. Also from a collector stand point, I do feel gaming is dead. I say this because I know how much effort it takes to get old titles to run. I know how devastating it is when I lost all working backups due failures of physical media.

Well, with console gaming at least, we have BC, or you could just purchase the older titles and play them on their original hardware, so the only games left out are pc only titles, I'd say its a good time for retro gaming.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

1 hour ago, Briggsy said:

Gaming has never been more alive. We're actually in the middle of a renaissance for smaller developers, at least on the PC side of things. Steam is so overrun with games from studios I've never heard of, and some of them are actually fairly decent in quality. Even as the whales are eating up the big fish (like Microsoft buying Zenimax Media), this is making room for lots of new games that aren't priced at 70-80 Dollars for the base game. 

 

If anything, I find right now that I just can't decide what to play because there are so many gdamn options available. I remember a time when the SNES was the rage and new games could easily cost more than 100 dollars and renting was the only affordable choice. We had a game shop in my town when I was a kid that would rent by the week or month for really cheap, good times. Xbox game pass is following this model, and offers a good selection. You can limit your budget to $30 dollars max per game on Steam and never run out of good games to play. 

 

I can say with confidence that in the 3+ decades of gaming I've done, right now is as good as its ever been. I do miss the days of the xbox 360 era though, when bioware was at the top of their game, and AAA publishers still had a soul. Those days were simpler and gamers could rally behind a few good games. These days AAA have carved their own niche of micro-transactions and DLC, but the entire sphere of gaming is so massive now that you can feel lost.

100% agree.

[Tristerin]

I don't feel like gaming is dead at all

 

I feel like Ive gotten older

 

I feel like Ive learned to ensure my responsibilities take place prior to gaming

 

Therefore gaming is nearly dead, for me.