What was it like to play video games in an era with so much optimism for the future? What did you guys expect video games to be like in 20 years, back then?
>>725933089When they released the first AC it was mindblowing. The graphics were amazing BUT that was when i learned "better graphics" means less gameplay, the game had 6 unique missions and everything else was the same mission over and over.
>>725933089>optimism for the futurewe played video games because the world sucked back then too.
People just looked forward to birthdays and Christmas as well as weekends to rent a new game and enjoy it, and there were no worries about the future, just enjoying the plethora of games, shows, movies, the growing internet etc.
>mods regularly leave up super obvious political bait threads>the one time anon happened to use a political figure in the OP by chance and without intent to make it political, it got nukedat this point i'm CONVINCED mods are not stupid, just awful, they have a perfect disingenuousness radar and they just choose to use it in reverse
>>725933089video game graphics always felt too real to me and then they would come out with a new console that pushes it even closer to realityit's kinda silly to look back at stuff like the PS2 and think that I found that to be "real" but I really didas far as optimism for the future goes, there's always going to be doomers that say that the world was fucked up back then too but I think people generally didn't have so many things to worry about. My dream as a kid is still the same dream I have now, I want to live inside a game.
>>725933581I meant optimism for the future of gaming? This isn't a /vpol/ thread. I just wanted to know what it was like when the go-to reaction to happenings in the industry wasn't "please just end my life" like it is now.
i think 911 despise being a meme now changed a lot of what we expected from the world. Until that point we all had expectations for a better tomorrow and all that shit. 911 happens and there is this cultural shift that spread around the globe of hopeless and misery. Look games from the late 90's and early 2000's and compare with the shit we have today.
>>725933089Video games used to be so exciting, people were genuinely optimistic and excited for the future. We don't seem to have that magic anymore.
>>725933717The 'optimism' was that everyone expected great games to keep coming out and somehow get even better. About halfway through the PS3 era some people started to realize that wasn't happening and halfway through the PS4 era the majority started noticing.
>>725933089my excitement for the future of vidya was diminshed by the ps360 generation being such a let down, but then it was rekindled a bit in the ps4 generation with the resurgence of good japanese games/rpgs and indies.
>>725933089Video games went to shit when they stopped being predominately aimed at people who grew up with arcades and the 8bit systems upwards.First signs of this was stupid fake shit bro gamer crap and hate boners against certain type of games. A few years later mumbo jumbo fake reports such as "DID YOU KNOW THAT 45% of gamers are females?" started being spammed in media outlets.
E3 06 and wagglan blackpilled me for these 2 entire decades
>>725933089The jump from MGS1 to MGS2 was the equivalent of a caveman seeing a fighter jet. The graphical jump was insane, and why most oldfags probably feel so disillusioned with modern video games demanding higher and higher specs, more and more expensive hardware, to run games that barely look better than titles released ten years ago.
>>725936364>wagglanwhy?
>>725934812What came after PS3 and 360 is what killed optimism in video games, poser.
>>725936813Everytime i think of the wii i picture that drummer guy and reggie shilling a heartbeat sensor, i totally clocked out that entire generation and stuck playing demon souls the entire time
>>725933089We were actually happy with the graphics we had
>>725933089>What did you guys expect video games to be like in 20 years, back then?Not even joking, people had the societal expectation on video games/VR as a paradigm shifter, it was supposed to change the world on the level of the iPhone. Now I'm a bit biased because I grew up in Silicon Valley basically but it was still a prevailing thought, that video games were going to change the world massively.
>>725937054Wii and Wiiu had shovelware but still mog the shit out of current gens with the actually good games. The Wiiu gimmick actually had a ton of potential but it ended before they had the chance to explore it.>>725938775Back then people expected tech to make games better, now people suspect tech will only lead to games getting shittier.
>>725933325>ACYou need to specify, did you mean Ace Combat, Armored Core or Ass Creed?
>>725933089Being 14 watching Cinematech game cutscenes and and rubbing my peepee when DOA clips comes
>>725936632I remember restarting the game over and over to see the Tanker intro cutscene. In my mind's eye, the cutscene still has the lifelike graphics I saw it as back then.I think an important part is how many classics came out in a row back then. Just look at this, and it happened every year because games just took a lot less time to make back then.Ironically, this year has felt the same as back then. 2025 has been packed with great releases and updates.
>>725933089The hype for the future slowly died down as the tech for video games slowly got stagnantIt's not all bad though, we at least got past the piss-filter era where every shooter had 5 hour railroad singleplayer, and tacked-on multiplayer mode
>>725938775congress had to have hearings about games being used to radicalize kids into real life violent acts after Columbine nobody takes video games seriously anymore
Nintendo ruined the progress of the entire industry by repackaging the Gamecube as a Wii and sacrificing actual graphical improvement and progress for gimmicky waggling
Getting an HD TV and playing Uncharted 2 felt like the future
>>725933089You dont know what it was like to be a child and enjoy video games for the first time? I hate these faggot threads
>>725933089The leap from one generation to the next was huge. Even if you're a "graphics don't matter" fag they actually did from a gameplay perspective because you aren't going to be playing Super Mario 64 on an Atari 2600.
>>725933089It was incredible because communities still existed and every major release had literally everyone talking about it. You'd go to the store and talk to random people about how excited you were for the game, how good the first game was, etc. All of your friends would come over to your house to see the new game for the first time, and everyone would sit on the couch and laugh and take turns passing the controller around while having fun. It was incredible.
>>725933089For me it was great. Like most hobbies, video games were just a sprinkle of sugar that add to our time hanging out with me and my friends. Every game was just fun and even the single player games we would switch turns to play. We had stories we would remember about stupid jokes made based off the games we played.Overall, game devs (for the most part) wanted to make something that would connect with people. You bought a game, complete. You owned your copy, no take backs or day one DLC. The story was minimal at best and the tech for the large part supported gameplay experiences.Then of course like most niche hobbies, it got big and bland. Focused on having something look cool as an add rather than fun. The homogenisation of the industry then brought corruption and games had to be about some gay social issue that wasn't a problem.I miss just installing a game, pressing a couple of menu options and playing a game. I also miss not having to sit through more in engine cutscenes than gameplay.
>play some of the best games ever made without knowing it, just from happenstance, you heard friends talking about, or saw ads online or in magazines, and that created fomo, or you yourself just discovered it on a shelf and thought it looked interesting>try out games that were vaguely similar to those and also of the same genre>they're the worst games you've ever playedit was always a gamble
>>725933089I know I'll sound like a ranting boomer, but yeah things felt so much better anecdotally. 360/ps3 was the last great era. Back when the big guys were releasing games every 3-4 years rather than every 10+. Also I remember just a constant stream of AA and original IPs coming out, a concept that has largely died in the past 10 years. Games used to cater to a male audience rather than the dreaded general audiences. Also I used to system link Xboxes with my friends to play Tom Clancy games or Halo campaigns in the same room. That shit was so good. The Xbone era was where I noticed things take a turn for the worse. One silver lining is I feel like indies are arguably better than ever, though it's annoying to have to sift through the mountains of low effort slop.
>>725933089Well, 20 years ago, 20 years was the difference between the release of the NES and the release of the Xbox 360. Technology was developing so fast compared to the diminishing returns that we see today and studios were still putting out classics every 2 to 3 years. I don't know what to say that I expected for the future, because frankly I didn't know how good I had it at the time.
>>725933089There was a time where you thought, "Wow, imagine how great games will be in the future when there's more computing power. All the destructible environments, large-scale maps and levels, and advanced AI". Then you realize that none of that matters when it comes to the bottom line, and all you have to do is appeal to normies and watch the cash flow in. Budgets increased dramatically, but instead of it going toward gameplay elements, it went to hiring big name voice actors and increasing the graphical fidelity of a hair on someone's arm instead. Instead of longer games, you get shorter games with more cinematic focus. After a while, you look around like, "Who does this appeal to? What is going on? I feel like an alien in my own hobby". Now, instead of heartbreak, it's just total apathy and acceptance as every other entertainment medium suffers the same fate.
I think the best example is you bought a console at launch because you knew there would be gamesnow you buy a console at the end of life if it has games
>>725933325Yes. The first Asscreed was a mind blowing tech demo. In my opinion the sequel delivered. >>725933089Personally I got jaded pretty early. I was and am a huge CRPG fan, but every franchise got either killed or turned into action slop during the 2000's. Consoles reigned supreme.
I distinctly remember some of the future of video games that I imaginedThe new Dynasty Warriors games lmaoI imagined massive online battles in shooters, like 1000 people going at it on one mapI imagine photo realism in graphicsMaybe some more.
>>725939921Ass Core CombatNot to be confused with DC
>>725933089I remember being excited around the time Mass Effect came out. I've said this a few times on /v/ but I think that was the last time I felt like I was seeing something next gen. Very optimistic for the future. I was also weirdly excited for bluray. At the time the idea of having 50gb on one disc made me think of how we'd see bigger and better games because of it. I didn't know what to expect in the future other than a sense of thinking I'd be wowed as technology continued to improve.
>>725933089I was of two minds.1) It will become mundane, nothing special. That is to say, no longer the hypemachine that made my spirit rise and delivered euphoria to my brain.2) I will live forever in the machine, called upon in the future to serve in forever wars that look different to each soldier based on their preference. I would have a digital life with a digital wife and a digital dog and digital lineage.The truth is, I am too poor and being priced out of my fun.
I can't express it. you should have sent a poet.
I would try to imagine the future in which in game graphics would finally catch up to cutscene CGI and I'd get all giddy and restless. A lot like looking forward to growing up and being an adult as a child, similar outcomes.
GTA 3 seemed like alien tech
>>725933089How are we feeling about Tommy in 11/15/2025 /b/ros?
>>725948024what happened to world destruction games anyway? red faction franchise shit the bed and the only other recent game i can think of is teardown, which isn't meant to look realistic and doesn't run well on any computer.
>>725933089Exciting because every company was trying to out-wow each other, which is why you had such a massive sprint forwards compared to the later parts of the 2000, a good example I often see brought up is that between Tales of Phantasia and Sonic Adventure's release, there's only a 3 years gap and both were considered to have beautiful graphics in their time. The problem is that the console wars and football club-like mentality of "us vs them" was also way more fierce because of a simple reason, unlike now, every new console was an investment that had a real risk of being abandoned mere months after its release so every "faction" was in full proselytizing-mode to convert other people into buying their console to make sure it wouldn't get abandoned right after its release.Now, this fear doesn't really exist anymore, even if a console fails like the WiiU, you have at least 3 or more years of support.Pic very related for what it felt like to buy a new console, sometimes it really was a coin toss.
>>725948283>the sequel deliveredInto immediately handholding the player and waymarking every single spot at every single turn and the templars are turned into cartoon villains.Your opinion is trash.
>>725933089I thought if they put halo 3 on pc it would be the only game I would every play for the rest of my life Then ten years later it came out and I didn't even fucking blink
>>725933089>What was it like to play video games in an era with so much optimism for the future?Normal.>What did you guys expect video games to be like in 20 years, back then?Even better. Didn't happen so I rarely buy or play anything new
>>725936983No, he's right. The 7th gen was the point of no return for gaming; everything after is heavily influenced and affected by that specific generation.
>>725933089The restricted access to vidya – restricted as in moving your fat ass to a location to buy or rent a physical copy of a game – kept you engaged with games way longer than today. You actively chose what games to get based on your taste and influence from your immediate environment. You could also guess and expect what a game is like by simply looking at its back cover or demo. That in all is why most games you played didn’t suck back then. There were visible barriers or thresholds that showed the games’ and hardware’s limits and everytime one of the barriers were broken – from 2D to 3D or shader evolution Direct3D and OpenGL - it made you anticipate the next breach and sometimes made you envision “what if..”-scenarios. >IMAGINE two cores in one PC! Just how many enemies do you think we could kill on screen?!>some day we might even see graphics cards with 512 MB VRAMVidya was as much of a hobby as it is today, but it was just more honest and local.
>buying a game>reading the instruction manual 10x over on the ride homeI don't think anything else can match that level of excitement and anticipation
>>725933490This. I don't understand why zoomers idolize the past so much.
>It's a Tommy hates a perfectly fine game cause he hates how loud the footsteps sounds are episode
