When looking back at how developers behaved back in the day vs. now, the clear parallel line between these things is that before, the developers were incompetent and nowadays (I'm mostly referring to AAA developers) they are mostly liars, but before you all start pouring the hate on me, let me explain...
Then (Incompetence)
Game developers back in the day didn't really know how to develop games to cater towards a certain audience. Not to mention the fact that they didn't really have any data for reference in terms of what genres were popular or not, essentially, they were - no shit - the pioneers of game development. So when I say that they were incompetent, I don't mean that in a derogatory way. What's even more incredible, in my opinion, is the fact that in many cases they used the limitations of the hardware itself to their advantage. A prime example of this is Castelvania for NES but with the risk of me rambling on to the point where I accidentally rip off Arin Hanson a.k.a Egoraptor, I'd rather recommend that you watch his Sequelitis episode on Castelvania.
Now (Lies)
The disturbing trend nowadays is the fact that all these developers have all the data they could ever need... yet they still manage to fuck things up for themselves. Now, before I continue, I wanna clarify that I'm aware of the fact that game development as a whole is a "living thing", developers see what the consumers enjoy the most and therefore meets the demands and create more games that are in line with the most/more popular genre/genres, if your really think about it, to do anything else would be stupid as seen from a business standpoint. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that every so often developers promise all these awesome features, mechanics, graphics, etc. which hypes up their demographic for the release of a certain game. A couple of the more infamous ones are Spore, Alien: Colonial Marines, and the most recent one, No Man's Sky. I'm not gonna go into detail about how the developers lied to us with these games as there are so many reviewers and overall gamers alike who have already given their thoughts on these things and I would probably just end up unintentionally quoting these people even if I tried to give my own thoughts and opinions on the matter.
Even though I might rag a little bit on today's developers I'm not saying that there aren't any good video games nowadays and/or only retro-games are worth your time... no!! But if you're looking for unbroken and actually finished and innovative games today, your best bet is to look for them in the Indie section. Indies, otherwise known as independent developers, doesn't have the pressure of previous owned fans in the same way as AAA developers have. I mean, why do you think that Activision always release a new Call of Duty game every year without really changing too much of it's formula?? From what I've seen and read, it's most likely due to the fact that their fanbase doesn't want too much change. Now compare this to something of the likes of - what probably will go down in history as the biggest game changer in game development history - Undertale. Toby Fox didn't have a huge fanbase before Undertale, granted that he did have a certain fanbase due to his Earthbound mod, but there weren't any real backlash when he released Undertale, it was the complete opposite.
Why am I being this unoriginal and bringing up Undertale?? Because it's the finest example of what I mean (NOT the finest overall game)... For those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about, here's a quick little rundown of what I'm trying to refer to: It's a mix between RPG/action/top-down-shooter/platform (and probably several more that I can't think of as of writing this) genres and it switches between these in a great, almost seamless, way. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't simply break the 4th wall... It completely fucking obliterates it!! I'm not gonna say anymore because if I would, it would ruin the experience for those of you who wind up playing it.
There's many more examples of great games from this generation but I think this post has dragged on long enough so I'll leave that list out for the time being. I only hope that AAA developers would try something different every once in a while, not just adding in something like jetpacks, or something along those lines, and instead try to put in some type of completely new mechanics - yes, the fact that you have a jetpack and can fly is in itself a mechanic, but what I'm talking about is to try some new genre all together. But, only time will tell...
Remember to stay awesome, TAG signing out!! :)
Why am I being this unoriginal and bringing up Undertale?? Because it's the finest example of what I mean (NOT the finest overall game)... For those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about, here's a quick little rundown of what I'm trying to refer to: It's a mix between RPG/action/top-down-shooter/platform (and probably several more that I can't think of as of writing this) genres and it switches between these in a great, almost seamless, way. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't simply break the 4th wall... It completely fucking obliterates it!! I'm not gonna say anymore because if I would, it would ruin the experience for those of you who wind up playing it.
There's many more examples of great games from this generation but I think this post has dragged on long enough so I'll leave that list out for the time being. I only hope that AAA developers would try something different every once in a while, not just adding in something like jetpacks, or something along those lines, and instead try to put in some type of completely new mechanics - yes, the fact that you have a jetpack and can fly is in itself a mechanic, but what I'm talking about is to try some new genre all together. But, only time will tell...
Remember to stay awesome, TAG signing out!! :)
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