Okay, I was watching the Sony press conference yesterday, and I honestly found myself feeling a little depressed. Every game seemed to be yet another knock off of either Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, with some beefy looking dude walking next to a shoulder mounted camera mowing down hoards of dudes. Now, I know that these types of games appeal to the 12 year olds that dominate the gaming market, but I'm not 12 anymore, or even 22 for that matter. Honestly, I almost feel as if I've started to grow out of gaming as we approach the 2020's.

As anybody can tell by looking at my avatar, I'm an old school gamer at heart. The first console I ever played was the NES and the first I ever owned was the SNES. The 8 bit and 16 bit eras of gaming were where I got my start, and I still love both those eras dearly. Same with the early 3D games that dominated the late '90s on PS1 and N64. Even the PS2 era has started to give me some nostalgia as well.

My basic question is, do you feel like I do that gaming was actually better back during the '80s and '90s than it is today? As awesome as games may look graphically today, they don't come anywhere near matching the magic of finding the warp whistle on Super Mario Bros. 3, destroying fools with QB Eagles on Tecmo Super Bowl, and watching Doma get conquered by the Empire on Final Fantasy VI. Am I just an old geezer that cant adapt to the new gaming age, or is gaming truly not as good as it was 20 years ago?

No. Your tied to your era but there's still some truth to what your saying. I didn't even bother to watch E3 because of this.

I have this belief that gaming wasn't supposed to pass a limit, the more realistic the game is, our worlds become too similar. Gaming was obviously better in the 90s compared to now. Video games now are more of a cinematic thing.

I like games less graphical, simple and immense.

I think today's games are a bit better, the graphics have a much more crisper look and sound to it as compared to 20-25 years ago.

No. Your tied to your era but there's still some truth to what your saying. I didn't even bother to watch E3 because of this.

I have this belief that gaming wasn't supposed to pass a limit, the more realistic the game is, our worlds become too similar. Gaming was obviously better in the 90s compared to now. Video games now are more of a cinematic thing.

I like games less graphical, simple and immense.

Graphics are important, but so is gameplay. I'm hesitant to buy a PS4 yet for the reason only one game I've heard of so far appeals to me. I would say the best days of gaming were when PS2 was dominant, and the PS3/360 era. Games were fun in the 90's, but I can't say I prefer side scrolling 2D games to 3D worlds.

Graphics are important, but so is gameplay. I'm hesitant to buy a PS4 yet for the reason only one game I've heard of so far appeals to me. I would say the best days of gaming were when PS2 was dominant, and the PS3/360 era. Games were fun in the 90's, but I can't say I prefer side scrolling 2D games to 3D worlds.


I agree with you to an extend. The PS2, Gamecube and Xbox era is the prime example of graphics I prefer in video games, less realistic, simple and stronger atmosphere. Not so much the PS3/360 era for me.

I agree that gaming as a whole has sort of declined within the last decade. Since the mid 2000's, FPS shooters have been all the rage. It unfortunately led to a decline in access from other genres like RPGs, Platformers, Tactical, Puzzle, etc.

The 90's was probably the golden age of gaming due to the variety in genres, the massive amounts of innovation, the more memorable competition, and overall legacy it presented.

I agree that gaming as a whole has sort of declined within the last decade. Since the mid 2000's, FPS shooters have been all the rage. It unfortunately led to a decline in access from other genres like RPGs, Platformers, Tactical, Puzzle, etc.

The 90's was probably the golden age of gaming due to the variety in genres, the massive amounts of innovation, the more memorable competition, and overall legacy it presented.

FPS are fun and all, but they're not for everyone, that's why there needs to be a variety. I prefer games to be in third person. I think you may have brought up part of the reason for the decline, lack of good variety.


I agree with you to an extend. The PS2, Gamecube and Xbox era is the prime example of graphics I prefer in video games, less realistic, simple and stronger atmosphere. Not so much the PS3/360 era for me.

PS3/360 didn't even get THAT realistic. The problem was that's when FPS were too heavily focused on.

I'd say the golden era of gaming was from about 1996 to 2006

The absolute peak of PC gaming was 2004.  The '90s were great as were the early '00s.  It started to decline after about 2006 when the focus shifted to multiplayer online FPS games like Call of Duty. 

PS3/360 didn't even get THAT realistic. The problem was that's when FPS were too heavily focused on.


It all comes down to perspective at the end of the day. I enjoyed Saints Row 3 and Skyrim. Street Fighter X Tekken had my attention due to its magical resemblance. I liked the Reapers from Mass Effect 3. That's all I can remember.

I would say video games were really cool during the 80s, 90s, and early to mid 2000s. By 2008, it started to become repetitive and give out a lot of similar games (especially from Nintendo). Even as a kid, I would play SNES and N64 games on emulators because playing modern games (aside from a few exceptions) wasn't up to me.

I wouldn't say so. Well to me the best era for gaming was during the 4th to 6th gen (late 1980s - mid 2000s) as the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, Playstation 2, Xbox, Dreamcast, and Gamecube were all excellent. I have problems with the 8th console gen (although we're somewhat in the 9th console gen because of the Nintendo Switch), but lately I think that gaming these days are alright. There has been somewhat of a decline in terms of games, but we're nowhere near a "dark age of gaming". Rather I think my tastes of games just aren't being satisfied. I'm like a ton of variety with my games when it comes to graphics, story, gameplay, music etc. For example people love the Playstation 2 due to just how much variety in had from platformers, racers, fighters, RPGs, and even games that don't fit into any one genre.

At the latest E3 events it's been mostly shooters that keep getting announced. Although I am excited for some announced games like Kingdom Hearts 3, Cuphead, Darwin Project, Shenmue 3, Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania, Sea of Thieves, Super Mario Odyssey, Beyond good and Evil 2 and a few other games that were announced within the past few events.

Actually the problem isn't the quality of modern games. Rather I think it's just variety. For example I sometimes don't care for early 90s gaming due to all the bad platformer games that were made that were just trying to cashin on the success that Mario and Sonic had. But even then there was still variety. Nowadays a platformer from a big developer is pipe dream. RPGs are a rarity while on consoles like the PS1 and PS2 we had an overabundance of them. Games tend to go for a more realistic style which isn't bad in itself, but it's annoying how 90% of big games all have to be realistic looking. I play games for escapism and not to be in a world that looks like my own.

In the end it's mainly just a less amount of variety that is the problem. Before in the 3rd to 6th console gens you'd get all kinds of games on just one platform. Now if you want variety you need to own multiple gaming systems.

I guess we can all agree then that the late 80s to mid 2000s will forever remain the peak age of gaming. Haha

I guess we can all agree then that the late 80s to mid 2000s will forever remain the peak age of gaming. Haha


Anyone who says otherwise will be kidnapped and lit on fire.
>:(

It's funny as the late 80s to mid 00s is agree on a good era of gaming. A ton of forums, youtube videos etc saying that the 4th, 5th, and 6th gens were when gaming was at its peak in terms of quality and variety. Some saying that gaming declined around 2008 or so.

This thread was premature, just like my ejaculations. Nintendo came and I had not recovered in time! That Mario Odyssey trailer was H O T! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/korn0818/ATRL_Smilies_All/atrlers/jonny_zpsc73391c5.png

Okay, on a more serious note, I do strongly agree with the thread premise. Gaming was still relatively young in the 1990s, and it feels like developers actually tried to be experimental and try out new things, and it shows in the diversity of games and styles of gameplay. Nowadays, it feels like games are going after the same audience and playing it safe, I'm guessing because of the extremely high development costs, and it really shows. All the games at E3 felt clones of each other or felt like they had already been done before (sequels or not) and it was rather depressing. I'm often more excited to buy a retro Genesis game than games for modern consoles and that's pretty sad.

BUT 2017 had been a decent year for vidya games in my opinion. Breath of the Wild, Persona 5, Yakuza 0, Injustice 2, Nioh, NieR Automata etc. And we're not even through half the year. It's not as fun as in the '90s hut it's still a decent hobby overall, and there are still developers churning out ground breaking games.

It's such an expensive hobby though. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/korn0818/ATRL_Smilies_All/atrlers/jonny_zpsc73391c5.png

I grew up with the 6th generation (Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) and 7th generation (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) and I loved the games from that era. I even like games all the way back to 1987 (and few before that).

Video games in 2017 is a tricky story. I'm not as excited for games as I used to be and the I wish that there was a company dedicated to making games similar to how they were from 1990-2007. I mean wouldn't that be cool? However, that company would probably fail as only & primarily nostalgic people like us would buy those games and not gamers in a broad sense/in general.

The old days:  Pop in a cartridge, turn on the power and you're playing the game in mere seconds.

Today:  Put the disc in, wait for the game/updates to install, launch the game, wait for the game to load, then watch the cinematic storyline before you can start playing.

It may take a while to play a game in today's world, but that's not a bad thing.  I like a game that takes weeks or a month to finish.  The average game of yesterday, you can beat in 1 hour, and that's not a bad thing either. 

The old days:  Pop in a cartridge, turn on the power and you're playing the game in mere seconds.

Today:  Put the disc in, wait for the game/updates to install, launch the game, wait for the game to load, then watch the cinematic storyline before you can start playing.

It may take a while to play a game in today's world, but that's not a bad thing.  I like a game that takes weeks or a month to finish.  The average game of yesterday, you can beat in 1 hour, and that's not a bad thing either.



I agree, today's games you would pop in the console and wait a few minutes for the darn thing to load, back then you played in mere moments.

The old days:  Pop in a cartridge, turn on the power and you're playing the game in mere seconds.

Today:  Put the disc in, wait for the game/updates to install, launch the game, wait for the game to load, then watch the cinematic storyline before you can start playing.

It may take a while to play a game in today's world, but that's not a bad thing.  I like a game that takes weeks or a month to finish.  The average game of yesterday, you can beat in 1 hour, and that's not a bad thing either.


1980s-1990s (NES, SNES, Genesis, N64):
- Pop in cartridge
- Turn on console
- Playing the game

late 1990s-2000s  (PS1, DC, PS2, NGC, Xbox)
- Pop in disc
- Turn on console
- Playing games

late 2000s - 2010s (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
- Pop in disc
- Turn on console
- Update console if it's outdated in firmare
- Start game
- Wait to install
- Wait to update
- Start playing game

The hell happened?  ??? Nowadays it could potentially cost you to wait hours just to play a game.

What I also don't like is that during the first few months that a modern console release people are already reporting console bugs and glitches. We all remember when the Xbox 360 had the red ring and the PS3 was dealing with odd hardware bugs. Meanwhile the OG Xbox and PS2 didn't have much of a history with these.

Yeah, I would say it was absolutely better in the 90s than today for sure. Not only there was diversity in gaming, but as some people mentioned, the developers took risks to create the best games ever that would become a classic. I'm still a gamer currently, but there isn't much that interests me so far especially because there's less variety in games.

For me, the pinnacle for gaming was the 2000s, where games were in 3D, took on an open world and had a ton of features, which felt way more complete than the PS1 games I played. Saints Row 2 has in game features that requires a connection or modding in GTA V to achieve some of the same stuff, and even then a few features are absent altogether in GTA V compared to Saints Row 2.


The multiplayer experience in the 2010s is isolating, because it's almost exclusively online, and expensive on consoles since the PS4 release (only PC gaming and Nintendo offer free online gaming to the best of my knowledge). In the 2000s and a bit in the 2010s, I would still come across people who come round each other's houses to play with each other on console. Now they'd only do this if they don't have certain games, or on occasion.


I'd probably be inclined to say that 90s games were better, but I have no 90s nostalgia. Even if I did, it would purely be for the multiplayer experience.

1980s-1990s (NES, SNES, Genesis, N64):
- Pop in cartridge
- Turn on console
- Playing the game

late 1990s-2000s  (PS1, DC, PS2, NGC, Xbox)
- Pop in disc
- Turn on console
- Playing games

late 2000s - 2010s (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
- Pop in disc
- Turn on console
- Update console if it's outdated in firmare
- Start game
- Wait to install
- Wait to update
- Start playing game

The hell happened?  ??? Nowadays it could potentially cost you to wait hours just to play a game.

What I also don't like is that during the first few months that a modern console release people are already reporting console bugs and glitches. We all remember when the Xbox 360 had the red ring and the PS3 was dealing with odd hardware bugs. Meanwhile the OG Xbox and PS2 didn't have much of a history with these.


the same goes with my game, I have to wait a few minutes to play mine. ::)

the same goes with my game, I have to wait a few minutes to play mine. ::)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/1b97db721854ab97d94091022d78175b/tumblr_inline_n6b0tijyzp1snqo8m.gif

I think video games were better during the 80's.