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Why old games never die, but new ones do

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31–40 of 335 posts

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#31

"Far more people are playing UT99 than in the past as you just need to download it there and play it." This is laughably untrue. But mostly this article just says "old good games are old and good". It's nice that they run on anything, but comparing the current slate of new-ish games against... the entire history of PC gaming, I actually think new games are doing just fine: - Fortnite - Apex Legends - Valorant - Overw…

At first I did a double take because I thought you said there are still people playing Phantasmagoria.

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#32
post #17

How am I supposed to take an article seriously that starts like this, clearly betraying the author's unfamiliarity with the reality of gaming? > It’s well known that video games today are disposable pieces of slop. Modern multiplayer games tend to fall into one of two categories: they’re abandoned after a while and the servers are pulled (sometimes comically fast, like with Concord), while other games are endlessly c…

>Just like how arcade gaming died in favor of “redemption games” There are still a lot of racing and rhythm games at arcades.

This is probably a regional thing, but in my experience they're in decline.

The arcades near me, which have all opened within the last 5 years typically have one car racing game, maybe one motorcycle game, one dance game, and the other 50 or so games are just slot machines for kids.

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#33

We're lacking a middle ground in copyright law that would allow people to play Mario Bros 3 on the NES for free, but doesn't give everyone the right to use the Mario IP, or to resell it en masse. (It's only possible right now because of incomplete law enforcement.) The purpose of copyright is to encourage creation, but rent-seeking on a decades old game is not it. Copyright and patents encourage creation and inventio…

Why should everyone have the right to play NES games for free?

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#34

This is an article about survivor bias in the end. It has a lot of explanation for reasons old games never die and new games come and fade out. The truth is a lot of old games disappeared we just don’t really remember them. It was also a much much smaller market. As a percentage more survived because there were more as a ratio of paying players. Certainly some of these reasons matter but maybe not as much as simply s…

From the article:

"Many new games come and go, and oftentimes nowadays the servers are pulled leaving the games unplayable or crippled. Most notably, this has led to a “stop killing games” campaign in the EU and other countries; where people get tired of buying games only for them to be unplayable when the developer yanks the servers leaving no way to play this game anymore."

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#35

"Far more people are playing UT99 than in the past as you just need to download it there and play it." This is laughably untrue. But mostly this article just says "old good games are old and good". It's nice that they run on anything, but comparing the current slate of new-ish games against... the entire history of PC gaming, I actually think new games are doing just fine: - Fortnite - Apex Legends - Valorant - Overw…

Not agreeing or disagreeing with your point, just adding info for context:

Fortnite: July 25, 2017 (Battle Royale mode launched September 26, 2017)

Apex Legends: February 4, 2019

Valorant: June 2, 2020

Overwatch: May 24, 2016

Call of Duty: 2003, Annual release

League of Legends: October 27, 2009

Dota 2: July 9, 2013

Roblox: 2006 (initially as DynaBlocks, rebranded to Roblox the same year)

Blame Claude 4 if any date is wrong...

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#39

"Far more people are playing UT99 than in the past as you just need to download it there and play it." This is laughably untrue. But mostly this article just says "old good games are old and good". It's nice that they run on anything, but comparing the current slate of new-ish games against... the entire history of PC gaming, I actually think new games are doing just fine: - Fortnite - Apex Legends - Valorant - Overw…

Very few of those games you've listed are new games.

Newer than cs 1.6, sure, but very few of them are under 5 years old.

    Fortnite: 2017
    Apex legends: 2019
    Valorant: 2020
    Overwatch 2016 
    COD: Not sure which version you're talking about.
    League: 2009
    Dota 2: 2013
    Roblox: 2006
So from your list, only COD is under 5 years old, and even that might not be depending which version you're talking about!

Re: Why old games never die, but new ones do

#40

The article kinda dances around this point, but I think the largest reason "old games never die" is simply the old games mentioned were the good ones of their generation. Similar to the lindy effect[0] where shows that had been around a while were likely to stay around a while longer. The are the games good enough for people to host fan servers and make mods, and behind each good game there is a lot of forgotten stuf…

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