4 ms·

I think for the starkest contrast, play games from 10-20 years ago. If the difference in graphics, animation, physics and world size doesn't amaze you, then the

by daemin 9y ago

I think for the starkest contrast, play games from 10-20 years ago. If the difference in graphics, animation, physics and world size doesn't amaze you, then the changes in user interface should. It is so much easier to play modern games, especially for the disabled.

JoachimSchipper 9y ago
For fancy modern games, it's pretty clear where the increased hardware power went - indeed, "graphics, animation, physics and world size". But people complaining about the poor use that today's software makes of today's hardware are usually not talking about games.
tome 9y ago
> the changes in user interface should Yeah, but that's not a consequence of better software!
- jaggederest 9y ago
  What would you call the exact same functional piece of software with a more effective user interface besides better software?
sametmax 9y ago
Yeah but the level design sucks, the writing is terrible, open worlds are bloated with useless details and not much gaming, gameplay are repetitive and lack innovations, atmosphere and personal touch has been traded for myriad of pixels. Those games are big fat short interactive movies and without souls. The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine.
- jerf 9y ago
  "The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine." If you try it, you may discover that's not the case. A lot of indie stuff is taking advantage of faster computers to use things with higher levels of abstraction, and indie games often have really quite terrible levels of performance relative to the complexity of the game as compared to a AAA title. They run at 60fps because they're net simpler, and a lot of times you may find they're barely running at 60fps on a medium-class machine. I'm not complaining, because the alternative is often that the game simply wouldn't exist if the only choice the developers had was to drop straight into C++ and start bashing away with OpenGL directly.
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    I think this is a really good point. It's true that indie games are often simple, and don't use complex graphical features. But it's also true that a lot of them are startlingly memory-heavy and poorly implemented - they're comparable to AAA performance, but for a vastly simpler task. Every so often something like Dungeons of Dredmor will bog down on me despite being a very basic task on a high-end machine. I don't object to that, either. People are knocking out games in high-level languages or using extremely rich frameworks. You can put out an Android game and barely touch a single Android feature because your environment is so extensive. We do pay a price in speed and memory usage, but the upside is that people get to release all kinds of wild projects without learning the arcana of their environment. It's fantastic that a team of <5 people with limited software expertise can put out a genuinely brilliant game. I'm less happy with it outside of gaming, where people often have to standardize on a single product. But video games are moving steadily closer to boardgames, novels, and other art forms where the tools of the trade aren't a limiting factor.
- KingMob 9y ago
  > Those games are big fat short interactive movies and without souls. Oh, I dunno, I'm pretty sure the actual full-motion, "interactive" movies from the 90s were more soulless: http://listverse.com/2011/12/24/10-notorious-full-motion-video-titles/ http://listverse.com/2011/12/24/10-notorious-full-motion-vid...
- lmm 9y ago
  > The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine. Often you couldn't. FTL or Child of Light (as examples of games I've enjoyed fairly recently) look like they would be fine on an older machine, but actually made my modern laptop fans run pretty hard. Modern hardware meant the developers could used frameworks to save them time, and focus on making a good game rather than microoptimizing performance.
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    FTL will definitely make a high-end Macbook Pro break a sweat. It's not that it couldn't have been written a decade ago, but it would have taken far more man-hours on the implementation side of things.
pjc50 9y ago
I'd be interested in hearing more about the accessibility changes? But I think the popularity of "retro" aesthetics and mechanics signals that progress in games is not at all linear.
- daemin 9y ago
  Watch "Halfcoordinated" speedrun NieR: Automata at the summer GamesDoneQuick event that just happened. Because the game allowed remapping of inputs (even on the controller) it meant that he could play the console game using only one hand. I would think that some more specialist peripherals could also be used for people with even less mobility, so they could also play these games to some degree and enjoy them.

by daemin 9y ago

JoachimSchipper 9y ago

For fancy modern games, it's pretty clear where the increased hardware power went - indeed, "graphics, animation, physics and world size". But people complaining about the poor use that today's software makes of today's hardware are usually not talking about games.

tome 9y ago

> the changes in user interface should Yeah, but that's not a consequence of better software!

jaggederest 9y ago
What would you call the exact same functional piece of software with a more effective user interface besides better software?

sametmax 9y ago

Yeah but the level design sucks, the writing is terrible, open worlds are bloated with useless details and not much gaming, gameplay are repetitive and lack innovations, atmosphere and personal touch has been traded for myriad of pixels. Those games are big fat short interactive movies and without souls. The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine.

jerf 9y ago
"The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine." If you try it, you may discover that's not the case. A lot of indie stuff is taking advantage of faster computers to use things with higher levels of abstraction, and indie games often have really quite terrible levels of performance relative to the complexity of the game as compared to a AAA title. They run at 60fps because they're net simpler, and a lot of times you may find they're barely running at 60fps on a medium-class machine. I'm not complaining, because the alternative is often that the game simply wouldn't exist if the only choice the developers had was to drop straight into C++ and start bashing away with OpenGL directly.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  I think this is a really good point. It's true that indie games are often simple, and don't use complex graphical features. But it's also true that a lot of them are startlingly memory-heavy and poorly implemented - they're comparable to AAA performance, but for a vastly simpler task. Every so often something like Dungeons of Dredmor will bog down on me despite being a very basic task on a high-end machine. I don't object to that, either. People are knocking out games in high-level languages or using extremely rich frameworks. You can put out an Android game and barely touch a single Android feature because your environment is so extensive. We do pay a price in speed and memory usage, but the upside is that people get to release all kinds of wild projects without learning the arcana of their environment. It's fantastic that a team of <5 people with limited software expertise can put out a genuinely brilliant game. I'm less happy with it outside of gaming, where people often have to standardize on a single product. But video games are moving steadily closer to boardgames, novels, and other art forms where the tools of the trade aren't a limiting factor.
KingMob 9y ago
> Those games are big fat short interactive movies and without souls. Oh, I dunno, I'm pretty sure the actual full-motion, "interactive" movies from the 90s were more soulless: http://listverse.com/2011/12/24/10-notorious-full-motion-video-titles/ http://listverse.com/2011/12/24/10-notorious-full-motion-vid...
lmm 9y ago
> The best games I played recently are all indie stuff that I could have played on a much older machine. Often you couldn't. FTL or Child of Light (as examples of games I've enjoyed fairly recently) look like they would be fine on an older machine, but actually made my modern laptop fans run pretty hard. Modern hardware meant the developers could used frameworks to save them time, and focus on making a good game rather than microoptimizing performance.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  FTL will definitely make a high-end Macbook Pro break a sweat. It's not that it couldn't have been written a decade ago, but it would have taken far more man-hours on the implementation side of things.

pjc50 9y ago

I'd be interested in hearing more about the accessibility changes? But I think the popularity of "retro" aesthetics and mechanics signals that progress in games is not at all linear.

daemin 9y ago
Watch "Halfcoordinated" speedrun NieR: Automata at the summer GamesDoneQuick event that just happened. Because the game allowed remapping of inputs (even on the controller) it meant that he could play the console game using only one hand. I would think that some more specialist peripherals could also be used for people with even less mobility, so they could also play these games to some degree and enjoy them.