Taking Games too Seriously

[Kerrash]

+1 to the OP. As an indie Dev myself I couldn't agree more

 

[Lianachan]

I think part of the problem with my outlook on modern games is graphics.

Graphics in games are so realistic looking now that it's easy to expect too much from the rest of the game.

If you look at the gameplay of the original Elite (this is the C64 version) the game is actually very simple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTTpV5qFrs

Basically, all you do is buy cargo, take off, fly to a system, shoot some enemies, dock, sell cargo, repeat. But we didn't mind because that's what we expected. It looked like a game, so we were happy with the simple gameplay.

The gameplay in Elite Dangerous is basically the same, under the fancy graphics it's essentially the same game, but we expect more out of it because it looks so much more realistic. it looks "real" so we expect it to behave more realistically.

It's the same with my earlier comments on Pitstop 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5r4s_jW8r0

I played it as a kid on the C64 and loved it (it was the game that got me interested in F1 racing). I accepted that it was a game, that the "AI" didn't move out of the way, that a pit stop only had 2 pit crew and only one could move one at a time.

But I play Project CARS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXu7xp4u_5Q

And I complain that the cars don't drive realistically, that the AI bump into me, that the pit stops have no pit crew, etc, etc... I expect more from it because it looks more realistic and forget that at the end of the day it's just a game in the same way Pitstop 2 is.

So I maintain that the problem with games is me, because I expect too much, not the games themselves.

I don't think good graphics have anything to do with it. Back in the olden days of gaming, you didn't expect poor gameplay because of graphical limitations - gameplay had to be good for a game to grab you, because there were no great graphics for it to hide behind. There were many brilliant games that you could really feel part of - the original Elite, The Lords of Midnight, to give just two old Spectrum examples. For me, Elite Dangerous is the worst of the Elite series because it's the first one that didn't really pull me in. That has nothing to do with its graphics setting expectations, or my age, it's the feel of it, and (for me) the lack of an offline single player game.

 

[peteuplink]

I don't think good graphics have anything to do with it. Back in the olden days of gaming, you didn't expect poor gameplay because of graphical limitations - gameplay had to be good for a game to grab you, because there were no great graphics for it to hide behind. There were many brilliant games that you could really feel part of - the original Elite, The Lords of Midnight, to give just two old Spectrum examples. For me, Elite Dangerous is the worst of the Elite series because it's the first one that didn't really pull me in. That has nothing to do with its graphics setting expectations, or my age, it's the feel of it, and (for me) the lack of an offline single player game.

I'm not talking about poor graphics = poor gameplay. I'm saying that games look so realistic these days that it's easy to expect too much from them. Project CARS looks so good that it's easy to expect that it's going to be more realistic than it is. The core gameplay of ED is exactly the same as the original game: Buy goods, set course, launch, hyperspace, fight enemies, fly to station, dock, sell goods, repeat. Frontier Elite 2 and First Encounters were basically the same gameplay but in a more realistic representation of the Milky Way Galaxy. Elite was never a deep game in terms of it's gameplay. If you take it for what it is, a simple space trading game set in a "realistic" representation of out galaxy, it's fine. It only runs into problems when people start projecting their expectations on it.

 

[Minonian]

If a game too easy than you get bored, if its too hard, monotone, than you get get bored too, and the lack of sucess gets you annoyed and frustrated. you need to find the balance, and fine tune the game mechanism, so it can gives you challenge, and not became impossibly hard. Thats games for the masses in these days folks! And the reason of that is simple. These are not the good old days when you have no contact with the DEVs so you either accept the game as it is or look after another, now you can rant about if there is something what you dont like. And if people can rant? Guess what???

They will rant!
In the other hand? if we talk about an MMO game were you pay heavy cash time after time be honest! They have some reason, and right to point out the problems and what they don't like.

Simplicity VS complexity? It got nothing to do with playabity, or deepness. As a man who played countless hours with tetris pac man, Wizards of wor, krakout and his ilks, i know that! The way i see, the good game is not about compexity or immersion, or simplicity. Its about a simple approach.

Quick to learn, hard to master! Think about chess or minecraft. This is the things what common in them. easy to understand the basics, but the possibilities behind their simple basic ideas, and "rules" i dare to say, infinite. It takes long long months until you can count yourself as a good builder, and the same amount of time to say you are a red stone master who not just copies the others but capable to use the others inventions creatively, and make your own machines. I done it both.

Graphics, and the smartness of enemies? Times are changes. And that's all you can say, because with the advancements the needs are increasing too.

 

[peteuplink]

Another important thing to take note of is the fact that games are only as good as the people developing them or the hardware that they’re played on. Making games is not easy, if it was everyone would be doing it! Sometimes a developer has to make allowances or compromises in the design in order to get something to work, because of either limitations in the hardware or limitations in his ability. It may not work exactly the way he wants, it may be a “It’s the best I can do” moment, and he may be just as annoyed at himself that the game isn’t exactly what he wanted as the gamers are at the "lazy" design. This is something that the gamers sometimes don’t get or understand, and it leads them to coming to forums en-masse to vent their frustration at the developer.

 

[Minonian]

Another important thing to take note of is the fact that games are only as good as the people developing them or the hardware that they’re played on. Making games is not easy, if it was everyone would be doing it! Sometimes a developer has to make allowances or compromises in the design in order to get something to work, because of either limitations in the hardware or limitations in his ability. It may not work exactly the way he wants, it may be a “It’s the best I can do” moment, and he may be just as annoyed at himself that the game isn’t exactly what he wanted as the gamers are at the "lazy" design. This is something that the gamers sometimes don’t get or understand, and it leads them to coming to forums en-masse to vent their frustration at the developer.

Well there is good reasons to say i can't do that! And there are the cheap excuses. Buy yes you are right.

 

[Insomnia]

I remember when my older brother told me about this fat guy with a mustasch that you could control with the help of a "wired remote" with a "plus" and two buttons on the remote. Apparently you steered this mustasch fella on the TV.
Not impressed.
My brother brought me to his friend so I could try it. And it was so fun! Both my brother and I told our parents to buy a Nintendo for Christmas. They bought us a SEGA Master System. Boy, we were screwed... But the Master System turned out to be AWESOME!
I still have it.
Bought my cousins C64 to play International Karate and Outrun (used a table fan for extra immersion). At the same time I discovered Super Metroid (my absolute favourite game of all time).
And I was stuck in gaming. I took it very, very seriously.
Played Final Fantasy VII and I discovered games could engage me in ways I never thought possible.
Games were everything now.

10 years after I played FF7, I got Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and I forgot everything related to life. Unfortunately the game was severely unoptimised and after 500+ hours on the same character, the game was stuttering so bad it was impossiblt to continue.
Started semi-hardcore raiding in World of Warcraft after loosing my job during the financial crisis.
Got myself a job. And a kid. Skyrim was released and gaming was everything again. Started modding it. Learned a bit HLSL and started my own ENB Series profile for Skyrim. Took it extremely serious.
Started looking up how to access game engines and use the game's engines assets to do screenarching.
Stopped playing the games I bought and just fiddled with the game's assets and modded them.
A year later, I rarely played games. I just took pretty pics at high resolutions in cinematic aspect ratios.

After modding Skyrim a few years back and forth and learned to program HLSL a bit, I just stopped. Gaming wasn't fun anymore. Tried alot of games, but nothing felt engaging at all.

It wasn't until late 2014, when I discovered Alien Isolation and Vanishing of Ethan Carter, that games were fun again. For a short time.
Recently I played the indie games Homesick and Gone Home. Two of the best games I've ever played.


I don't take games serious now. I still try to take pretty pics but I never downsample or hotsample the games at ridiculous resolutions like others. People are telling me to do it, but I just think it's taking games too serious.


tl;dr
I used to take games seriously. Then I took an arrow in the knee.