I used to be a passionate gamer, and I often find myself nostalgic for the golden era of video games when there were new ideas popping left and right.
Now, it feels like we’re caught between long-delayed triple-A titles and a constant stream of indie platformers. Originality seems to have taken a backseat, with many games regurgitating the same concepts.
What do you think defined the golden era of gaming? Are we currently in a rut, or is there a chance for fresh ideas to emerge again?
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It’s right now. Indies everywhere, and we’ve successfully gotten past the worst of the always-online bullshit and PTW that plagued the early part of the millennium. More than half of my “all time favorite” games are still in active production today (sometimes continued by fans), and I’m not a young guy.
I’d say cuein up the joystick from an atari 2600 and settle in for a day of Pitfall was fairly golden for me…
Which is why now is the best time. I can turn on my 2600 right now and play. Or emulate every atari game ever made on a $20 computer (i prefer real hardware though)
I have 2600/7800/nes/SNES/n64/ps1/ps2/Dreamcast/360/switch and PC. There’s few games I can’t play.
Now in 20 years a lot of those systems will be unfixable and rare. So I’d say we are in the golden age now, start playing!!
The holy trinity for me is SNES, PSX, PS2. I know this is massively colored by when you grew up and what you had access to, but nothing since has outshined these in terms of actual fun for me.
I’m inclined to agree, though I’d include the competing consoles of the era as well as the PC games available at the time. So roughly everything from 1990 to 2006.
My golden era was PS2/Xbox 360. The games I have fond memories of playing are the first three Harry Potter games, Gunbound, Lineage 2, Battlefield 2, COD MW 1&2. Since then, I’ve only played Batman: Arkham Asylum, Tomb Raider (2013), Witcher 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
I think there are a lot of great games out now, they just tend not to be AAA titles. Those kinds of graphics require a huge amount of manpower, which means a huge amount of investment seeking profit, which means people in business suits calling the shots. Frankly, I think the answer is that games devs need to unionize, both to push back against crunch and to protect their creative freedom. I think that might result in AAA games worth playing.
