games

I have been hearing that same argument for over 10 years about how modern gaming totally doesn't suck now compared with what we had during the 90s because there are more games released now than ever^TM^. This is easily countered by a simple analogy: if I give someone a bag of shit with a gold nugget and each subsequent bag of shit I give them has a smaller and smaller gold nugget inside, the gamer apologia for modern gaming is that person going "uh aktually, the amount of gold I have is ever increasing, so it's good acktually" never mind that the pile of shit is ever increasing and increasing at a faster rate to boot.

Like, the Youtuber more or less summarize what people mean when they say "modern gaming sucks" in his massive comment. If you need to spend an hour of research reading summaries and watching unedited lets plays of the game in question, you're already conceding the point. Back in the day, you could just grab some random game off the shelf like this Genesis port of an arcade game of a bizarre RPG-platformer hybrid and had a good time. Is this game good by modern standards? Not really unless you really like platformers. Still, it's still cool how they tried to (haphazardly) incorporate character progression into a platformer (modern platformers do this by being Metroidvanias), but if you're judging by the standards of the 90s, it's a unique gem. How about the more famous Genesis game Ecco the Dolphin? It's some kind of bizarre puzzle platformer-kinda (its genre as a platformer is disputed since gravity doesn't play a significant role in the game and you mostly stay underwater), not all that dissimilar to a modern indie platformer but a unique gem by the standards of its time.

There's absolutely no modern equivalent of seeing Doom 1 for the first time or seeing Mario64 for the first time or being completely swept in the Gen 1 craze or living during the golden age of RTS. Back in my day, we would play games that give rise or popularize entire genres like Doom or C&C. Something like SFII completely change how the genre looks to the point where pre-SFII fighting games don't register like fighting games for most people. How many new genres have come out since 2010? Trash tier MOBAs? Spiritual successor of Harvest Moon clones? Soullikes?

And don't get me started about the death of arcade games ("uh aktually, arcade tokens are the microtransactions of the 80s and 90s" shut the fuck up and sit in the kiddie table. The death of arcades meant the death of third spaces catered towards gaming and LAN cafes are such a poor alternative) or how the gaming community is filled with reactionaries which G*mergate completely sealed the deal or how most gamers are just addicts, whether it's people playing L*ague despite hating every minute of it or people getting anxiety from their massive Steam backlog that they'll never finish because they keep on compulsively buying Steam deals or whales blowing thousands of dollars on jpg of underage waifus.

Sorry for being so negative. That recent Hexbear post about someone getting anxiety from looking at their Steam backlog set me off. You shouldn't have to feel anxiety or feel angry or do work for a fucking hobby. Anxiety? Anger? I get anxiety and angry from work which I endure for the sake of getting paid. But for my hobbies? Fuck that. Work? Last time I checked, if I'm doing work outside of my normal work schedule, that's called overtime, and if I'm not getting overtime pay, you could kiss my ass.