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Video Gaming Will Take Over

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Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#101

Post by agumonkey »

sgarman wrote: post #98
amiantos wrote: post #92

Article seems to forget that there are vast swaths of the population that do not play games. They do not have the patience to learn how to play games, not even console games with simpler controls. Even casual games require some level of skill to play, or they're not any fun, and the joy of television is that you do not need any special skill to enjoy it. This isn't even getting into people who view games as a waste o…

Get in line. People have been making that argument since the dawn of time. Even "writing" was heavily criticized over memorization and oral story telling. Each criticism declaring the end and ruin of civilization. If I had to pick one of them to actually make this complaint against it would be computer (AI) generated content optimized for clicks on video websites (think kids videos on youtube).

> Even "writing" was heavily criticized over memorization and oral story telling.

do you have articles to read about that ?

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#102

Post by troutwine »

navs wrote: post #80
Aaronstotle wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the major difference is a lot of games/apps are tailor made to produce dopamine/cause addiction. While a good book _can_ be addicting, it's not inherently stimulating.

At the time the medium didn't allow for unlockable episodes/chapters ;)

Serialized novels did.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#103

Post by asdf21 »

xmonkee wrote: post #57

This analysis is completely missing out on the auteur angle of media production. Games Are Not Art (Yet). Even if they get immensely popular, they will not be as culturally relevant as movies or books. A mind like Orson Welles will never be compelled to make the Citizen Kane of games. I think at some point cookie cutter cinema like Marvel will seamlessly blend into the cultural domain of video games. Movies like that…

>A mind like Orson Welles will never be compelled to make the Citizen Kane of games.

How would you know something like that?

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#104

Post by panopticon »

mrspeaker wrote: post #78
danbolt wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have cross-play, but as far as I know it's opt-in when playing with friends. Matchmaking will usually group you with others playing in a similar way.

Fortnite is now "Skilled-based match making, with forced cross-play". Doesn't matter what platform you are on, you are matched by your relative skill level. High-level 6-finger-claw iPad players (and some of them are really incredible!) will be in lobbies with medium-level console and PC players.

I'm curious: is the "skill" per device? Or does being decent on the PC spell death for any chances when I switch to my phone?

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#105

Post by henrikschroder »

agumonkey wrote: post #82
cookie_monsta wrote: post #76

There's a point that the article only brushes on that seems important. My generation (born in early 70's) was the first to really come up with access to video games pretty much as a given. We had space invaders etc in the arcades (or wherever else they could fit a cabinet), hand-held Nintendo and basic home consoles in primary school and then of course came the boom with PC, PS, X-Box and all that followed. But a lot…

I'm a tad younger than you and I'd like your opinion. I stopped caring about the gaming industry because 1) even if it's entertainment, I think the deep value is .. as a kid thing. It's not dismissive, I just think that gaming value has limits. It's a dreamy world you interact with and that fits the younger brain. As adults you'd rather master the real world more. 2) I find games today not much more original than in…

> Do you really think a PS5 game will be that much more enjoyable than a PS2 game

Can be, absolutely.

I played Read Dead Redemption 2 last year. There's a wild west cowboy outlaw game in there somewhere with a storyline that you can finish, but what completely blew my mind is how stunningly beautiful it is, how beautiful the world you're riding around in is, and how ugly human encroachment on nature is. Because as time progresses in the game, the frontier moves a little bit further, more trees are felled, more clearings made, more houses built, more railway tracks are laid, more humans, more civilization, more stinking cities.

You absolutely could not make a game like that on a PS2. You need a 4K screen and hi-res textures and HDR lighting to really make the world pretty, to really make you care about that world.

I played Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch as well. It's also an open-world game, and because it has infinite draw distance, they've managed to craft a world where no matter where you stand, you can see something interesting in the distance. I have never played a game that made me be so excited to explore and to get sidetracked as that game. The actual gameplay is also expertly bite-sized, so it doesn't matter if you play for 15 minutes or 15 hours, you still have the same sense of progression.

You absolutely could not make a game like that on a GameCube. You need hardware enough to do a seamless open world with infinite draw distance and no loading screens, otherwise the experience just doesn't work, just wouldn't be able to show you all it has to offer all at once.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#107

Post by troutwine »

agumonkey wrote: post #101
sgarman wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get in line. People have been making that argument since the dawn of time. Even "writing" was heavily criticized over memorization and oral story telling. Each criticism declaring the end and ruin of civilization. If I had to pick one of them to actually make this complaint against it would be computer (AI) generated content optimized for clicks on video websites (think kids videos on youtube).

> Even "writing" was heavily criticized over memorization and oral story telling. do you have articles to read about that ?

https://www.ancientgreekphilosopher.com/tag/critique-of-writ...

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#108

Post by pixelrevision »

georgeecollins wrote: post #42
sethammons wrote: post #10

While I think games are an underused medium for advertising and promoting, I'm not sure about any claim of it "taking over." Mobile games on the rise and all that, blah blah. From my own experience, as my purchasing power has grown, my gaming time has declined. I did play a lot of Breath of the Wild. However, I have another couple of games I'd like to play, but I just don't have the time.

Most people play less games as their income goes up, but they also watch less TV. They have less time. TV was mostly watched by kids and is watched by the elderly (Fox News / CBS). When you are old you may find yourself watching less Fox News and playing more Nintendo?

I know I sure as hell will :)

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#109

Post by kromem »

No, it won't.

While there are outstanding single player narrative experiences leveraging the format to further the narrative, there's nothing like a good TV show or movie for joint attention.

When enjoying a narrative with friends or a loved one many people will not want to pause to argue furiously over what dialogue choice to make or how to deal with a moral dilemma.

Games are a fantastic medium. But there have limitations, just as every other medium does.

Remember when radio was going to make the written word obsolete? Or TV kill off sound-only formats and movie theaters?

The medium is an integral part of the message. Video games are a new medium that will be added to the mix, not replace it, just as every media before it.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#110

Post by mntmoss »

xmonkee wrote: post #57

This analysis is completely missing out on the auteur angle of media production. Games Are Not Art (Yet). Even if they get immensely popular, they will not be as culturally relevant as movies or books. A mind like Orson Welles will never be compelled to make the Citizen Kane of games. I think at some point cookie cutter cinema like Marvel will seamlessly blend into the cultural domain of video games. Movies like that…

"Citizen Kane of gaming" is a memetic joke in game criticism. Go check out Critical Distance if you want to see an aggregation of lengthy deep thoughts about games.

All art is borne of appreciation - and thus literacy.

Games are still in a place where literacy is relatively low and the popular vernacular changes with every incoming freshman class and generation of consoles. That doesn't mean that the art does not exist, it means that most people can only temporarily agree upon the most recent instances of it; the others are "not real games".

But on the design and development end of things, the vocabulary is gradually establishing itself. Colleges are churning out fresh blood for the industry at a torrid rate now. There are bonafide career veterans with decades of experience guiding them and offering words of wisdom. The industry often gets in the way of the learning by putting so much focus on product(and the subsequent disposability of that product in turn creates a vast catalogue of attempts that go unstudied), but the learning is taking place regardless.

I don't think the predictions the article makes are exactly what will happen, regardless. The increasing emphasis on customization is atomizing the production process into ready-made software and assets; in so doing, that inches everyone slightly closer to being developers. It's a gradual philosophical shift that's in motion, here.

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