17 June 2010

Video Games FTW

Technology has advanced to a point where video game makers can create games that are more philosophical like "Dante's Inferno". Video games is the only art form that is advancing the way that it is. Take music, for an example. No one will choose a song of a certain era and say, "This is the best music; all the music of the past was worse." In literature, no one ever says that. In film, no one ever says that, even tho the technology is unarguably better, no one will ever say Avatar is one-hundred percent better than Star Wars because of the new effects.
But in video games, its pretty much impossible to say the old games are better than the new games. The look, the feel of the games, the logic behind them, the complexity in story and in every other way... No one will name the best game ever and then choose a game that pre-dates their experience. Even if they had played games like "Elevator Action" or "PaperBoy", they won't choose an older game unless there's a nostalgic reason. People may choose the first game they played as their favourite, but no one will be able to name a golden age of video games—that time is now, if ever.
The old games, especially if you've never played before and have no nostalgic memories, feel kind of 2D and boring. A lot of them are actually not fun. They're really slow, limited and very repetitive. I mean, there's always going to be one point where you're going to have to fight the same guy, and he may have a weakness and you may have to do the same thing over and over again until you figure out how to do it. But today's games have figured out at what level a gamer is willing to spend three days doing something versus an hour. In the old games, it just took a really long time to advance to any next level. The old games also had something like 800 kb of space, whereas today a game can take up an entire BluRay.
Also, there's casual nudity. It's not meant to shock or offend, it just shows the different audience. Video games can easily cater to adults, when before, they were a children's market. It's constantly improving and I don't think it will have a Golden Age followed by a decline.
I don't really have a smooth way to rap this up, so I'll just post it.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous22.6.10

    I remember you telling me this a while ago. The points that you make in this are absolutely true.

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