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[JWK5]

I also think there is something to be said for the fact that fans of paintings, for example, don't typically spend 60 hours looking at a specific painting before moving on to the next.

Depends on whether or not they've got it it (or a print of it) on their wall. For example, I listen to music much more than I play games so even though I might spend 60 hours overall on one game there is only about 8-10 hours in the day (every day) where I am not listening to music (much of which is spent sleeping). I don't think it is so much the time factor as it is the impact it has on the individual (be it culturally or personally).

[Richard Kain]

The disparity between the early days of video games and the present is incredibly jarring. Painting took centuries to shift through various periods and permutations. Cinema took decades to go from black and white silent films, to talkies, to color, to CGI, and finally to the present state of that industry. Video games have gone from Pong to Skyrim in thirty years.

It is much easier for gamers to pine for "the old days," on account of "the old days" being only a few years ago. We were actually there.

[The Monster King]

because gamers are huge entitled man-children (sometimes woman-children) who barely ever grew up and wish they were still kids

old games reminds them of not having responsibilities other than saving princesses over which they didnt have to feel bad about having crushes on as they were just 16 bit anime pictures and because now there is sexism consciousness or seomthing and women dont like being objects help? i think this female character designs need MORE CLEANVAGE

(japan version: isnt 14 year old a bit too old for a female lead?
 also give her more cleavage)

[JWK5]

Okie dokie.

[Belimoth]

Yes, modern female characters are much too emotionally threatening. I much prefer them in 8-bit where they were less demanding.

The more colors they have the more they remind me of my mother.

[alastair]

When someone thinks a game was done better in the past (i.e., a new game did something worse than what had come before it) and especially when there is a large volume of new games that are worse than previous games, I think that's when nostalgia comes.

[Morroque]

I dedicate my 64th post to this topic.

The standards on mass-market videogames/media held today are really poor. The bar is lower than ever.

Hold on. Could you clarify this? What exactly is meant by "the bar"?

Is this "bar" the "standard expectation of the audience"? Or is this bar "standard expectation of the producer"?

If anything, the bar has been raised because the cost of making a media project has skyrocketed. The first Godfather movie might have given us the blight of the "blockbuster," but even it was filmed for a small 6 million.

Even the old "retro" games of yore were made for fractions of fractions of the cost for a common triple-a game, even considering the people making the same triple-a games now were the ones who made the retro games in the first place.

Is this "bar" just being weary of old starving artists who achieved success and are now a bit too comfortable? Does the "audience" consistent yearn for new things, even though they reject it when it's offered?

[JWK5]

Also, standards in regards to what? Graphical quality? Gameplay quality? Audio quality? etc.

I don't think it is fair to say that any of that is better then than now or vice versa (especially when many of the artists and designers of the past are still at work in the present), but I do think there are more options now.

You can still get your tracking and chiptunes but you've also got full on orchestras, bands, etc. too. You can still get your pixel art but you've also got expansive 3d worlds and motion-captured characters. Even the gameplay can go completely retro or full of modern bells and whistles (and anything in between).

I especially love when the past and present collide, such as with games like Etrian Odyssey and 3D Dot Heroes. I also like the modern curveballs being thrown like Nier and Demon's/Dark Souls where they take everything you've come to expect in a game and turn it on its ear.

[Dragonmaw]

Have you guys forgotten that the stuff that tends to "stand the test of time" in regards to creative media is either really good or hilariously awful? Of course past games appear better, you are playing the games that everyone loved and that were great.

[iffi]

Obligatory TVTropes page

[Blademasterbobo]

how was this topic not started by 1982

[DavidCaruso]

When someone thinks a game was done better in the past (i.e., a new game did something worse than what had come before it) and especially when there is a large volume of new games that are worse than previous games, I think that's when nostalgia comes.

I don't really think of that as nostalgia, being able to compare present games to past games and see where each may fall short is just part of having decent critical ability. I've always thought of nostalgia as blind "games I played in the past are good and the new ones suck," often combined with vague nonsense justifications like "charm,"  "heart," "soul," or god forbid "art." Kind of like how half of phubans' posts on games seem to go. Maybe everyone else is thinking of the word differently or in a different connotation, though.

I also don't deny that "the bar has been lowered," at least on average, and that's inevitable as the floodgates open to any artform and you get more people who don't know any better because they just got into it. But at the same time, a higher number of people can also lead to even better games being made, since developers can afford to invest more money and time into them -- and at the same time, the audience for the older styles will become increasingly more dedicated as they see it disappearing or being diluted. So even if the average is worse, those same processes lead to even better stuff than before being made and it's all good.

[cynicalsandel]

Because we get old and cynical and can't enjoy anything anymore, so we long for the days when we actually felt something.

[Blademasterbobo]

I played Pokemon White. It was ok.

[DavidCaruso]

I played Pokemon White. It was ok.

I remember back when Pokemon had charm, soul and heart...now look at the corporate carbon-copy faux-pocket monster designs we're getting today... ;______; *a single leaf drops from a tree and falls to the ground slowly, moving slightly in the cool breeze*