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Actually owning games this days

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Antypodish, Nov 12, 2018.

  1. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Game mechanics are dumbed down yes, atleast in the AAA sector, doesn't mean complexity is less than in the old days. Sure complex mwchanics Vs modern dumb down mechanics offcourse means less complexity, but there is also passive and secondary systems in the background that are much more complex today, third player cameras, animated physics, open world streaming, etc,etc
     
  2. This isn't true. Years ago GTFO wouldn't be possible. Neither Harold Halibut. Or take a look at the botched indie project: we happy few. Same thing happened, studio made a game which was slightly bigger than the studio's size would allow it under the time they chose.

    Messing up and/or making complex games isn't the privilege of big studios anymore. It comes with the technology and with the desire to always do (and get -> the audience isn't innocent either) bigger, better, flashier, more complex games.
     
  3. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I don't think my and your statements are conflicting.
    Yes something wouldn't be possible, if tools wasn't available. But as I said, as we got more advanced tools, we can make more advanced, or complex games. Depending how reliable tools are of course.

    While I think here is a good point, regarding big studios hitting wall, with complexity in game mechanics, while quite opposite with utilizing advanced tools, to make "beauty rules" :)

    So wonder where we will end up? Complex mechanics wise games for indie, and nice and shiny games for big studios? :rolleyes:
     
  4. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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    Chances are the issue did not get past QA. More than likely any obvious bugs were reported by QA, but the call was made to release without the fix and patch it later.
     
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  5. Maybe I misunderstood you, sorry about that.

    Well, I don't think they are hitting the wall. It's not like they can't make better mechanics. They're aiming to the biggest mass they can reach. And on average people wants this. They don't want complex mechanics. They want movie with controller shake and button-mashing.
    It is weird to us, because we grew up with other games and other mechanics.

    And we can kick AAA studios about it, but I think it's understandable that they're doing this way. And there are some positive effect of it as well, it encourages indies to come up with the rest of the games, the niche games we like. Having considerably smaller budget they can make games for smaller crowd with more specific taste. It's simple like that.
     
  6. aer0ace

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    I keep my old PC game boxes, but I don't even know if the jewel cases are with them. I honestly wouldn't want to spend the time to get them up and running again if some other service like gog already DOSbox'd it, and I have the certain urge to play it again. The boxes just serve as reminders of my past experiences. If I could, I'd display them on a wall, if I had a wall big enough.

    I have the original Grim Fandango CD. I played it for the first time about 8 years ago and loved it. I also bought the remastered version on PS4 a few months ago. The controls are so much better, but I still couldn't bring myself to set aside time to play through it again. It just fell way low on the priority ladder. But I didn't regret my purchase. The physical Grim Fandango CD and box was enough to hold my nostalgia and remind me of the experience of playing it the first time.

    As far as new games, most new games don't hold my interest much. There are a few standouts, in which I would go all-out, fully invested, and get multiple platform versions, and even go so far as purchasing extended merchandise, like shirts, mugs, and FunkoPop figurines (they've got one for anything nowadays!). That's when I know I've found a game I identify with, and all that extra merch is enough to remind me of the gameplay experience.

    I don't think there's really any fear of the more popular game portals shutting down, because if it ever came to that point, someone else would be interested to keep it going. I'm looking at you, Torque Game Engine. I mean, yeah, you have your "Desura's", but has anyone really lost anything that they've been emotionally attached to on Desura? Well, now that I mention it, it would kinda suck if itch.io shut down, but if I really wanted a "physical copy" of a game on itch, I would have made one by now.

    Going back to the "clutter" thing, I've gotten to a point where those old PC game boxes needed to be flattened, and I've "come to terms with that". Soon enough, I'll go through another pass, and just collect the images online, and finally be done with the physical boxes! Clutter is a serious issue in our household too, and generally speaking, moving everything to the digital format is reducing a lot of it. You can even make backups of backups of backups, and it STILL wouldn't hog as much space as the physical equivalents.
     
  7. ChazBass

    ChazBass

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    Older gamer here. I like the tradeoff of Steam. Have a whole basement of old games (and DVDs for that matter), but love the convenience of the Steam library (and the updates). Weighing the pluses and minuses, for me, it's not even close.
     
  8. Antypodish

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    Of course, not everyone like to make an antique museum store in their house, by keeping "junk yard" ;)
    Good we have many alternatives.
     
  9. MD_Reptile

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    I wouldn't think the people collecting it think of it as a "junk yard" :p

    In fact, I'd say they are doing the world a great service, keeping those antique games around, so that in many moons from now, perhaps there will still be copies that can be used to create roms, put in museums... games are an art form right? So saving them is important! :)
     
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  10. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Don't get me wrong, I keep my own "junk yard" in my parents home :p
    For me is not. But for others maybe a junk.
    I tend to keep older hardware and devices, mostly as for spare parts.
    Or to dismantle, when was crafting something.

    I would like to think about them like that.
    This is a big topic on its own.
     
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  11. Ony

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    PM me if they are "big boxes" and you're getting rid of them.

    A few years ago I tossed out the flattened boxes I'd been keeping from my collection, thinking I'd never need them (still have all the games and manuals) and now I kick myself every day for throwing them out. I kept my original release "Half Life" box and some others, but most are gone gone gone. Roughly 70-100 boxes. :(

    So yeah, if you get to that point, and you feel like it, please PM me with what you have and how much you'd ship them for. I'm interested.
     
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  12. bobisgod234

    bobisgod234

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    Nothing beats having a physical device and game, but these things don't last forever. It's easy to replace capacitors and linear regulators when they inevitably go, but when the PCB's start delaminating...
     
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  13. Ony

    Ony

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    everything goes away eventually.
     
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  14. Ryiah

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    Early home computer PCBs are relatively easy to replace too. The Commodore 64, for example, is just a basic two-layer board which you can make in your home. There are numerous articles and videos showing the process.
     
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  15. orb

    orb

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    Everything must perish, but there are soon enough remakes of this for a museum:
     
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  16. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Ohh FFVII. Such good memory on Playstation 1.
    While don't have original P1 disks, I have working PC version, for years.
    Such great story.
     
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  17. eneroth3

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    I've thinking about this quite a lot, but not specifically related to gaming. My favorite software of all times, SketchUp, has recently (well 2 years ago) moved their free hobby version to the cloud to run in a web browser.

    While I'm impressed it can at all be achieved i am not happy with this development. What happens when there's a power outtake between the user and the ? What happens when there is natural catastrophes, taking out our infrastructure. What happens when there are human made catastrophes like war?

    It's quite ironic because in architecture field we discuss reliance all the time. It's a real buzz word. Rain water should be handled locally so we don't need to rely on a functioning sewage system, electricity should be locally generated so we aren't dependent on the power grid etc etc. Mention resilience and you earn point!

    The software industry moves in a complete opposite direction though. I think this is a development that makes our society as a whole more fragile and make us all more vulnerable.
     
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  18. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I see your point. And in general I very dislike most of clouds centralized business.
    For example when skype went cloud with new UI, became complete unusable on my mobile.

    Bur regarding war, or catastrophe, or other "will of god" what is called, it doesn't matter if owning physical copy, or app is in cloud, if any of bad things happen to us, rather to the company. Not to mention most of countries are in state of war anyway.

    All software / games centralization happens, for reason of data mining and monetization. With few exceptions probably.
    Also you can shut down the server and make new game to sell (calling dirty tricks).
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
  19. orb

    orb

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    Smaller publishers often use Steam only as a distribution platform. What this means is that they aren't hard-tied to the Steam functionality, so the games run just fine without Steam. Darkest Dungeon includes a separate binary for a non-Steam version, other games load the dynamic libraries manually and let you just play if Steam is closed. Some games don't even use them with the default binary.

    So there are still lots of games you can play if Steam goes down. But if that happens I'm pretty sure the alien invasion causing it also puts your mind off gaming.
     
  20. Kiwasi

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    Its a nice buzz word. But the general facts are that centralization and specialization is just more efficient. Especially on the big ticket items.
     
  21. tiggus

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    I fully blame this thread for purchasing a C64 Mini and guide to 6502 assembler right after I said I was not the nostalgic type.
     
  22. Antypodish

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    Well done. Now I will feel responsible your doing ;)
     
  23. Deleted User

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    That alien invasion would sure take my mind off blasting baddies in video games and want to blast some aliens in reality :p Open season!
     
  24. orb

    orb

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    If you're paranoid enough you already have it all planned out :)
     
  25. Murgilod

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    I kinda wish they'd make a C64... Maxi.

    I just want a C64 but with a less spongey keyboard and a better frontend than defaulting to basic.
     
  26. Deleted User

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    Actually owning games these days??

    According to this EULA I don't own anything. :)
     
  27. Antypodish

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    Can you precise please, which EULA you are referring to specifically?
     
  28. Deleted User

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    Its a joke :p since most software license agreements require you to acknowledge that you don't own anything you've purchased, you've simply licensed the software.
     
  29. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Ah yes, that is fine and true.
    But we all know what title message means.
    Lets not be picky about the semantics ;)
     
  30. Antypodish

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    What just made me think a bit, it is interesting, that back days raw light gray color was trending, rather than todays variety of color options. However, black seams dominant.


    Similar to C64, Amiga had pretty much same raw colors.


    And old PC cases
     
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  31. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Nice finding. Interesting vid, with actually backup source of explanation.

    And yes, nice to see apple black too ;p
     
  32. Ony

    Ony

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    That's funny, I'm pretty much the opposite. I've always lamented the switch from having to do something with the computer to the computer doing everything for you. I miss the days when to get it to do anything you had to know what you were doing. That's just me, though, and relates to my personal time frame. If someone back then when I was using BASIC had said, "I miss the days when we used punch cards," I would have been like, "yeah... no."
     
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  33. Murgilod

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    I don't disagree, but I wouldn't give up a competent UI for all the burritos in the world.

    Windows, every Linux distro ever, and MacOS all have terrible UIs to me though.
     
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  34. Antypodish

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    Wonder, how perfect UI for you would look like?
    But speaking realistically, not Iron Man like, with wave-hand like based UI :p
     
  35. Deleted User

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    What exactly do you use if those all have awful UI's?

    I love my windows 10 and linux.
     
  36. Murgilod

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    I use all of them and I suffer all day because of it. We're still using OS conventions from 1994 and it's gross.
     
  37. BrewNCode

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    Nope, I do not concerve any PC game boxes anymore. They are a a waste of space now. The last one that I got was actually Diablo 1 that I caught ina flees store 9 years ago. I'm planning on giving away my books (also programming books) I believe e-books are now an essential path that we need to strive on more even by fabricating paper-based products that are actually helpful like toilet paper or other things.
     
  38. Antypodish

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    Technically I got quite large desk, with plenty space. Providing is not cluttered with random stuff. But even I would have a relevant book on it, to what I do, I probably would use internet, to quick search for answers. Mostly they are there anyway. So book would only play role, of the subject reminder. And maybe holder for other book :p
    So yes, I see your point.

    I most likely I would read scientific paper magazine, than book with relevant info.
     
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  39. Deleted User

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    What are you smoking?
     
  40. Antypodish

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    I am sure, it must be C64, or older ;)
     
  41. Murgilod

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    Nothing? The way we engage with the operating system has remained fundamentally unchanged for over two decades with only the most minor of tweaks being added.
     
  42. Antypodish

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    @Murgilod, but you haven't answer my question.

     
  43. Murgilod

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    I don't know? You're literally asking me to design an entire operating system paradigm to replace the garbage we currently have when I'm already working on that for games.
     
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  44. Antypodish

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    Is no point of complaining, if you can not suggest an improvement.
    Is like saying something in Unity is broken and go home, without giving feedback, what is actually wrong.
    Hence not giving chance, to get any better.

    If you truly work that for a game, surly you would have in mind, what solution would be better.
    Otherwise, I can not take your complain serious.

    Linux systems had best example of UI evolution, since number of people had an opportunity to test their ideas. For which, some were accepted, other scrapped.

    From other side, Steve Jobs was focused on apple mobile devices UI perfectionism. For which evolution took years.
     
  45. Deleted User

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    I just don't understand why anyone would think the current way of doing things has anything wrong with it. OSes are not easy to create. Last I heard Windows 98' had 11 million lines of code. In 1998!

    I don't believe in doing everything in novel ways, because eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns (ie. fewer and fewer new ideas) and at that point people resort to bad ideas. Tried and True ideas make for solid implementations.
     
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  46. Well, yeah, they needed years to implement copy and paste, so iOS and Apple maybe not the best examples of user-friendly mobile OS-design. ;)
     
  47. Antypodish

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    But we all do copy paste many stuff, creating for example games.
    I am not a fan of iOS implemented restrictions Neither really fan of iOS in general, but not because of its UI. (leaving for different topic). Apparently, from what I gather, people are quite happy to use them, once they own them. (Ignoring hyper fan base) Or at least, because would be looking daft saying otherwise ;)
     
  48. neoshaman

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    OS UI has evolved, it's call android and mobile crap