Stilton: Market pressures can unfortunately warp people's sensibilities (developers as well as buyers) to the point that what was good about a great many older titles, in a word, heart, has been replaced by formulaic horse-sh!t and slick visuals. There seems to be too much care these days about form instead of content. The indies are doing their bit (some, at least) to counter this, but what game makers generally rarely, if ever, find is what they probably can't, and that is nostalgia. They can maybe produce a pastiche, but what most if not all of us here love is that sense and look of old. And that is something which can be kept alive only by enthusiasts. Unfortunately, its called progress.
CarrionCrow: Indeed. That links back to what I've been saying with infinityeight. It's the difference between a construct and an experience, going through the motions versus actually giving a damn.
And yes, marketing is definitely a big factor in the perpetuation of a "we aren't going to make anything real, and the customers should be content with the insanely hollow, repetitively presented shooty-shooty-bang-bang flashing lights/glittering hi-def set pieces we charge them out the nose for" attitude. Marketing tells the masses that Call of Mediocrity version 14.0.1 is the very best they can get, people don't look for anything more, the publishers get paid by the truckload, the corporations (demonstrating all the imagination and creativity of a puddle of rapidly drying dog urine) set plans in motion for the next ten sequels, all of them virtually identical, while allocating another 50 million for the marketing campaign, and on and on it goes.
One person's progress is another person's devolution.
As for the indies, a lot of them are guilty of the same thing, only in a different direction. They build constructs out of the pieces of the past, and it turns into one long series of "Hey, hey, see what we did there? Doesn't that remind you of what you played when you were a kid/teenager/whatever? It's just like what you used to like! That makes it great by default!"
I agree, and it makes me think of one of the things in gaming that I most dread, and that is the latest 'wow-gotta-have-it-now!" update on Gamespot or IGN about some forthcoming blockbuster that'll run about 20,000 G, have visuals more real than reality and blow your mind with its total and utter vacuity. I was going to say I don't know where that kind of mindset comes from, its so alien to me, but in all honesty I don't care. I played Nox the other day and it was so filled with humour, fun, good ideas, simplicity and warm character that the chumps who make these big in your face money burners that destroy too much of what could happen (and be better) can go on till the end of time, I'll always have the games I buy here to keep me happy and content.
