Games returning to their roots. Nostalgia or lack of innovation?

[Jackdstripper]

First it was WoW with classic, and then hardcore, now its Fortnite, more will follow im sure.
There is a definite appetite from gamers to go back and play their favourite games as they were at the beginning. I have no shortage of other games id like to see the clock rolled back on. A bit sad when you think about it. Years and years of progress, and people would just rather play it like it was before.

I myself am often caught up in reminiscing about the exciting times of the launch of my favourite games. Sure, everything is exciting when its new. However, most have changed so much that they are almost unrecognizable. I often dont like the changes they do. Expansion, more content, balances, reworkings, new mechanics, fixes, more, more, more…..and yet it seems that so many of them jus end up losing the fun aspect. It all becomes work. The gear grind, the dailies, the dungeons crawls, the gold grind for gold sinks, the vanity items. All recognizable addictive loops of almost every game out there. Its not that games arent improving, it just seems that they do so often at the expense of straight up fun.

Which brings me to wonder if this is simply an ageing gamers demographic that is nostalgic for the “good old exciting days” of their favourite games? or if the general progress and direction of the gaming industry, in their frantic pursuit of churning out ever new and more addictive content, has simply failed to make games actually funner?

 

[Weis]

Nostalgia is addicting what can I say

Which brings me to wonder if this is simply an ageing gamers demographic that is nostalgic for the “good old exciting days” of their favourite games? or if the general progress and direction of the gaming industry, in their frantic pursuit of churning out ever new and more addictive content, has simply failed to make games actually funner?

It seems to me that the gaming industry is suffering from a loss of talent and challenges with generating revenue. A good example of this is with how Halo Infinite was developed. Back in the day you can hop on Halo 3, talk to people in your game lobby, jump into community made maps that were featured content, look at community featured in game photography, and make friends for life. Now, Halo Infinite is missing the ability to communicate with your game lobby, doesn't have community featured content, and doesn't have a way to bring players together in game.

Nowadays AAA studies have far too much bureaucracy and design games to generate revenue instead of generate fun. All of the old school developers are gone. So players young and old are seeking the ways of the past. We played games when we were younger to have fun with our friends.

Diablo 4 is another great example of a game that has no built in features to bring players together. It feels like youre playing the game alone even if you have a guild and see players in game. Youre stuck only typing to local players via Emotes and when you level up or leave an area, you can expect to never see those players again.

This is why I still play a shit game like Mortal Online 2, at the end of the day, its the only game I can play where I feel like a part of a community and can connect with people from around the world. You just dont get that in modern games.

 

[Doom and Gloom]

There are many new really cool single player games with mechanics/graphics that were infeasible before, the issue is mostly in the multiplayer scene and the prevalence of live service monetization pushed everywhere.

And idk, multiplayer games always have issues, many of which come from the need to pay for servers etc.
But some can do differently, for example, the creators of Monster Train released this new game called Inkbound, and actually decided to remove the battle pass and all other micros after launching instead of expanding them like everyone else. And they still have online multiplayer. Haven't played but the news got popular.

But yeah, definitely the AAA-industry has been very fucked for a while, just selling the same old IPs as reskinned copies of themselves, as innovation is risky and expensive, rather make money consistently, or then do a mobile psychological trap.

And in some ways old can be better, like ppl preferring Age of Empires 2 still even though there is 3 and 4 as well.

 

[finegamingconnoisseur]

I think in general the video game industry is in the dumpster at the moment, but things are changing slowly.

Baldur's Gate 3 shook the entire industry with many big-name AAA devs and journalists criticising it for doing the right thing by its customers. Strange, I know.

On the outside, some might say it's nostalgia, but when you have e-sports recently going back to Starcraft from the 1990s and abandoning Starcraft 2, one has to wonder if there's a bigger reason.