It’s just like the old “music sucks now, it was best in (insert decade of your late teens, early twenties)” argument. It’s a combination of
Survivorship bias, you only remember the good music, movies, games of the time and forget all the trash and dumb trends happening.
It’s when key parts of your identity are forming and you develop strong bonds with the media of the time.
And for games it’s also when your playing them the most. When you get older and get a job, partner, children and other responsibilities you tend not to have as much time for games . You can’t put hundreds of hours into a game to fully appreciate all the story and content it can provide.
And for games it’s also when your playing them the most. When you get older and get a job, partner, children and other responsibilities you tend not to have as much time for games . You can’t put hundreds of hours into a game to fully appreciate all the story and content it can provide.
I think many people also just generally appreciate entertainment media less as they get older, especially if they pick up some depression along the way. They might remember that they really like a game or music album from their formative years, but they don’t actually enjoy it as much as they did when they were 20. Novelty is a big factor when you’re young that tends to not have as much draw when you’re older, but nostalgia by nature isn’t exciting.
There are definitely great games these days. I’m not saying bias/nostalgia doesn’t factor into it, but legitimately the AAA space is not doing great. Sony spent most of their first party money on free to play games this generation, some of which failed spectacularly. Nintendo has bragged to investors that they are producing fewer games and selling them for higher prices. Xbox has not had significant output since the 360, lately Microsoft has been laying people off at Xbox to move people to AI. The big third parties are… EA and Ubisoft…
There are great games but most of the really interesting stuff is in the indie space and a lot of people don’t want to hunt for that.
The AAA gaming space has been ruined by letting the scope of their games get out of hand. (Does borderlands 4 really look that much better than borderlands 3?) and by greed partially to manage that ballooning scope but also to line the pockets of executives and investors. Which is also the reason for the push to free to play.
It’s just like the old “music sucks now, it was best in (insert decade of your late teens, early twenties)” argument. It’s a combination of
Survivorship bias, you only remember the good music, movies, games of the time and forget all the trash and dumb trends happening.
It’s when key parts of your identity are forming and you develop strong bonds with the media of the time.
And for games it’s also when your playing them the most. When you get older and get a job, partner, children and other responsibilities you tend not to have as much time for games . You can’t put hundreds of hours into a game to fully appreciate all the story and content it can provide.
I think many people also just generally appreciate entertainment media less as they get older, especially if they pick up some depression along the way. They might remember that they really like a game or music album from their formative years, but they don’t actually enjoy it as much as they did when they were 20. Novelty is a big factor when you’re young that tends to not have as much draw when you’re older, but nostalgia by nature isn’t exciting.
I want to be 100% clear that i listen to all the trash from 2010. It’s my favorite genre
There are definitely great games these days. I’m not saying bias/nostalgia doesn’t factor into it, but legitimately the AAA space is not doing great. Sony spent most of their first party money on free to play games this generation, some of which failed spectacularly. Nintendo has bragged to investors that they are producing fewer games and selling them for higher prices. Xbox has not had significant output since the 360, lately Microsoft has been laying people off at Xbox to move people to AI. The big third parties are… EA and Ubisoft…
There are great games but most of the really interesting stuff is in the indie space and a lot of people don’t want to hunt for that.
The AAA gaming space has been ruined by letting the scope of their games get out of hand. (Does borderlands 4 really look that much better than borderlands 3?) and by greed partially to manage that ballooning scope but also to line the pockets of executives and investors. Which is also the reason for the push to free to play.