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Hearing the gaming history lesson you give your readers on your blog. Being in my late 20’s now, it gives me a better perspective on the changing gaming landscape which is very interesting to me. This will be a very brief e-mail;
I hate when games try to emulate movies in terms of cut scenes, dialogue, scripted events etc. However, I love it when games try to emulate the ‘feeling’. Like for example, Metroid was trying to emualte the movie Alien, giving the player a sense of isolation and fear. Evoking emotion is the main goal of any form of entertainment. But how it is accomplished is differs from each medium. Games shouldn’t attempt to be movies, that’s boring, and only serves to satisfy wannabe hollywood directors known as game devs.
At my local mall, they recently placed a DK arcade kiosk in a desolate corner. Wouldn’t you know, couples, middle aged adults and the like are still seen clamoring not just to play, but to watch someone skilled play. Games of your time (not that your a fuddy duddy lol) Have a timeless appeal because you could get better, and compete, and test your skill. The graphics are shit..so? Who cares? The game is so dope!
I wonder if Donkey Kong was modernized with better tech, some form of multiplayer if the game would be a hit…I’d bet it would be. I guess the e-mail wasn’t as brief as I thought it’d be.
But as I rummage through the games of the past, and see the games of the future, I find it hilarious and sad (tradgedy is comedy) That the new games are forgotten weeks, sometimes days after release but the games known as classics, from the 80’s remain played. And the reasons for that is as you mentioned, skills were needed to succeed. Just as in life, you had to adapt, learn, and grow in order to ‘beat’ a game. Are these also not the skills needed to succeed in life?
Enjoyable blog as always Master Malstrom
Donkey Kong 94 on the Gameboy may be what you are looking for although it doesn’t have multiplayer. Today, it is considered a classic.
Concerning raiding in World of Warcraft (10 million players has all type of players in it), I noticed something interesting. At a new tier, everyone starts off at the same level. But as time goes on, the skill level between the raiders widen to the point to create two camps. The first group are improving themselves and are gradually getting better every time. They avoid more avoidable damage, they tweak their DPS or healing just a notch higher than before, and so on. The other camp are players who aren’t improving at all. Yet, they keep showing up for the raids. What the hell?
It became clear that these non-improving players were treating the game like a movie: they show up and stuff happens. After all, other video games are this way so why shouldn’t the raids? And Blizzard has reduced everything to such a degree of self-gratification that even players completing raid finder doesn’t mean they have the mentality to raid. The first camp treated the game as a game meaning they are interested in self-improvement. The others treat it as a movie where stuff ‘happens’.
I think the gamers who treat games where they show up and ‘stuff happens’ will eventually get bored and be absorbed by movies, Internet media, and whatever else. They’re not really gamers. Perhaps they are part of the reason for the social stigma against gaming.