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I've been playing games since Commodore 64. I've played through Amiga, early PC, Playstation, etc games. The problem is that gaming became an industry and the c
by edem 10y ago
I've been playing games since Commodore 64. I've played through Amiga, early PC, Playstation, etc games. The problem is that gaming became an industry and the companies behind AAA games want you to spend as much time playing their game as possible. The 100% fun of Chaos Engine which took 4 hours became 150 hours of boring side-questing (I look at you Skyrim). The somach-wrenching action of Freespace 2 became endless leveling up, unlocking, achievement gathering in Battlefield or World of Tanks. This problem you describe is quite refreshing though but familiar if I think about it. I can only name a few games from recent years which have deep narrative (SOMA, Talos Principle for example) but most of them have some gameplay problems which you have to get used to. For example SOMA is unnerving, Talos Principle is full of hard puzzles. If you are not already a gamer you won't see what gaming can give you. This is a Catch 22 which is really hard to bypass. What I would really love to see is something like Dwarf Fortress which is __very__ deep but combersome in a neat package which can entertain me for a few hours (or weeks if I want). I also really like the direction Quantic Dream took with their games which are interactive movies with optional exploration. What I __REALLY__ miss though is well-written story and characters with real personality with the protagonist (the player) marching through a monumental and engaging storyline like we saw in Mass Effect. I really wish I could erase my memories of playing Mass Effect, System Shock 2, Undying, Half-Life and others so I can replay them and enjoy them again for the first time.
- psyc 10y ago> What I would really love to see is something like Dwarf Fortress which is __very__ deep but combersome in a neat package Some Swede actually did this, and made a couple Billion.
- edem 10y agoYep Minecraft was a good one but it lacks narrative. I do play Minecraft anyway but I would like to put more emphasis on the simulation.
- Vaskivo 10y agoWell, the minecraft I played had a chapter where a guy got overconfident and continued building during the night. He ended up having a creeper blow up and have a ton of skeletons invade his house. He had to escape, near death. It took him a week to take his house back. In the endhe mourned his dead pet pig, and erected a monument in his memory. :) Just because it doesn't have a "set in stone" story, that doen's mean that there isn't one. I've seen stories unfold in The Sims that would put to shame most books and movies.
- edem 10y agoDwarf Fortress doesn't have a "set in stone" story either but there is a ton of emergent behavior which makes stories so fun that there is a whole community of players who are not playing the game but just reading the stories (myself included).
- dvtv75 10y agoTo be fair, that's not a story so much as an event.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- golergka 10y agoAre you implying that gaming was not an industry in the times of Amiga? The whole point of insane difficulty of many 8bit coin-op games, which was mindlessly translated to home consoles, was precisely to get as many nickels out of the player as possible. Back then, pay to win was the main monetization scheme, and everybody's having nostalgia for those games now.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoGaming was an industry at the time, but the PC scene was much less industrialized, full of bedroom programmers and demoscene hackers who could compete with the big companies due to the limits of the platform.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago> ... took 4 hours became 150 hours of boring side-questing ... There's a lot of lifestyle gamers who get angry if games are 'too short'.
- edem 10y agoShort is better than "noisy" for me. If i have to grind 80% of the time to play 20% of the time (I look at you EVE) it is just a waste of time.
- stcredzero 10y ago> What I would really love to see is something like Dwarf Fortress which is __very__ deep but combersome in a neat package Have you looked at Terraria? Also, you mentioned Freespace 2. I'm doing a self-funded project where I'm building an MMO space game aimed at deeply emergent gameplay. http://www.emergencevector.com http://www.emergencevector.com
- edem 10y agoYes I actually bought it but it didn't cut it for me. :(