I’m thinking about the AVGN and how Nintendo makes you pay to play shitty emulator games from like 50 years ago.
Especially for the very old games like atari lol
I think it’s just for us nostalgia driven millennials. I don’t hang out with zoomers though so idk
There’s a lot to recommend classic video games, in terms of design and playability.
You have to remember that the original NES/Sega/Neo-Geo line of games were originally designed as cabinet quarter-eater machines. All the economic drivers in the game were different. Games were necessarily intended to have replay value. “Secrets” embedded in games encouraged players to develope a sophisticated understanding of particular titles and to cultivate certain rarified skills as a means of outperforming. Games were longer and more difficult to encourage you to keep feeding the machine.
Once the games migrated to console, you could explore and refine your skill at the game without emptying your wallet. So the replay value aspect no longer carried an economic penalty.
Modern games no longer play well as arcade cabinet games. They’re more cinematic, so they have less replay value. Or they’re “always online” to force you to buy subscriptions. Or they’re F2P, with lots of soft ceiling you have to effectively pay your way past.
Older games never needed those mechanics to extract people’s money. So, despite worse graphics and more archaic systems of play, they can still capture an audience fascinated by a design style that no longer really exists.
New games are also quarter-eaters. If Space Invaders was made today it would be free but you would pay for random chance boxes to get the ship that is your favorite color.
Am an older zoomer, can’t really get into anything older than PS1/N64 games. Love the PS2 and early PS3/Xbox 360 era though.
Understandable, am dead-center millennial and my limit tends to be late NES.
Also >PS2 >retro :walter-breakdown: :yes-honey-left:
Understandable, am dead-center millennial and my limit tends to be late NES.
This definitely depends on the type of older game. Text adventures can still be very playable and Monkey Island is amazing for a game that was available on the Atari.
Asteroids and Pacman on the other hand get boring in like 5 minutes. Space Invaders on the other hand for some reason has staying power for like 20 - 30minutes.
Oh for sure, especially text and good writing don’t get dragged down by the growing pains graphics were going through at the time. I’m much more of a mechanics and “gamefeel”-minded person so I can’t quite cheat the technology like that, there’s this stretch of time between late arcade and SNES where it feels like devs were still getting a grasp on the changing tech and there’s a certain stiffness to everything.
I mean that’s hit or miss with people in general. I have a 19 year old coworker who’s really into the SNES, and I know a 37 year old who refuses to play anything that isn’t Call of Duty.
Retro gaming is already a niche hobby, but I don’t think it’s entirely driven by nostalgia, because to say that implies retro games are somehow less valid or less engaging than modern games, which isn’t true. Older games have different design decisions that can hook different people. Like if your favorite type of game is a 2D platformer, you’re gonna be into retro games by default.
The biggest hurdle for some people seems to be when graphics aren’t what they’re used to, like I have relatives who can’t visually interpret 2D sprite graphics or early 3D games, but can see what’s going on in a modern realistic HD game like RDR2.
But yeah, lots of retro games are enjoyable on their own terms, so I’ve met people of all ages who still like them.
Ludology has advanced by leaps and bounds since back then. Games today are far better, because we know what people like to do. Games used to be hard as fuck for no reason, but now they’re easier because it turns out people don’t want to feel bad when they play. They like games that give them good feelings. So work backwards and end up with a game state that gives the player a good feeling instead of a bad feeling.
I will note that: “Games used to be hard as fuck for no reason, but now they’re easier because it turns out people don’t want to feel bad when they play. They like games that give them good feelings.” definitely is generally true, in that you’ll get more game sales. But there absolutely is a market for ‘hard games’. Dark Souls is the obvious jerk, but a lot of indie games with cult followings have that too: Enter the Gungeon, La-Mulana, Spelunky.
And like, yeah, those games will always be niche. But for those who like them, there’s nothing else on the market quite like it.
Here’s what it’s like to play a hard game.
Games changed to easy for a reason. Turns out, when people have some spare time, they don’t want to spend it feeling frustrated and angry.
they weren’t hard for no reason, they were sucking quarters in arcades and spiking difficulty to mess with renting
I mean in general sure, there’s more quality of life stuff in most modern games. There’s a lot less cryptic puzzles that make no sense, and a lot fewer situations of getting lost. But you I could say Cookie Clicker and Genshin Impact are the epitome of modern games then, because they offer quick and consistent satisfaction to more people. They hit the nervous system right and keep people playing in ways that games 30 years ago perhaps didn’t.
People are different too. A lot of people like hard as fuck games, even if they didn’t grow up with them. The popularity of Dark Souls should show that at least. Some people might latch onto how a game like a 2D Castlevania feels. Also most people I meet aren’t even into games in general, they’re into specific types of games, like there’s fighting game communities, there’s people who prefer FPS, there are some people I know who only get interested in VR. And so I’ve met people who only get interested in retro or retro style games.
half the games you can buy for switch are in a retro style. so many platformers too which is the retro bread and butter.
