I think I've finally figured it out. Games were a lot better when they were more influenced by arcade games...

I think I've finally figured it out. Games were a lot better when they were more influenced by arcade games. We need arcades to come back.

How did you come to that conclusion

I agree, the market for hardcore simulators and the like was clearly pcs back then, console game where either ports or at least exemplified arcade principles.

The games where built to be fun, to be mastered, not as vechiles for a storyline. Not as a way for the developer to send you trotting around on some sort of obscure fetch quest. The golden age of the 90s was very much in large part because of the arcade market, it influnced a lot.

What a great era.

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They were good because by virtue of being hard they kept cashuls and wymen away.

Just by the basis of games having the arcade background, companies having it, we got games that where more exciting, with tighter mechanics. The whole fact of the matter remains that it was a lot more fun to play games that where designed solely around gameplay rather than story, and all the other shit games go for now. I fucking hate cinematic expirences and hope they die in a fire. I also really dig the arcade era. I wish it would come back.

Arcade games were no where near as good as PC games through the 90s.
The reason it all went to shit has nothing to do with arcades dying and everything to do with casuals becoming the majority of the market.

Games were a lot better when they were using a modified version of the Quake engine.

Who the hell said anything about the 90s? Its a large stretch to cover the entire decade when a lot of change happened. And aside from Doom, UU and some other shit, PC gaming during the early 90s was nothing to write home about.

This is truth. Bring back flight and sub sims!

THIS SO MUCH!

At least I 1cc'd a fighting game.

Arcade emulators exist now, user. You can keep all those loose shekels in your pocket.

nah

No. They were shit and should stay dead.

Do you always insist on confusing arbitrary, grindy difficulty with legitimate skills-based gameplay?

PC also introduced the adventure game thing where non-game developers could make realize their aspirations through making "games" with silly animation where guy walks around talking to people and trying to find an item of the size of a single pixel, with their legacy carrying on with walking simulators

Drink acid, TB, you cancerous hack.

Late 90s/Early 2000s PC era was the golden age. Jagged Alliance 2, XCOM, Freespace 2, Homeworld, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate 2, Half Life 1, Quake 3 , UT2004, Freelancer, Total Annihilation, SWAT 4, Max Payne, SHOGO, Soldier of Fortune, Divine Divinity, Fallout, Arcanum, Red Faction, Gothic 2 and more.

I pretty much disagree with everyone in this thread and think you're all a bunch of idiots.
None of you actually love video games, you're clouded by a mix of nostalgia and personal agendas to direct video games towards a specific direction you approve of, rather than pushing objective quality.

As far as i'm concerned, every single one of you would only make video games worse.
You're all part of the problem, in order for vidya to be saved we need a third solution.
Not you, not the casuals, but something else.

VIDEO GAMES DEVELOPED BY ALIENS

All we need is for gamers not to go hyper over graphics. And actually care about gameplay, its not a movie its a game. What you can do in it matters most. That's all that's needed.

What's your proposed solution or direction then?

At least I'm not virtue signalling by using a popular character from a show I was too young to watch when it was on TV but caught up on via Netflix.

DLC is basically a return to the Arcade mindset. You don't seriously think they made arcade games harder than otherwise because they genuinely wanted to challenge the player, right?

this

So why are gook arcades filled with normalfags and autists ? Yes even girls.

They come for the Ufo catchers and photo booths just like in my animays.

Casuals were always the majority of the market. Arcades merely staved off the inevitable by making skill-based games a viable revenue stream. The audience was casual, but it was profitable for the games not to be.

My GOG collection has most games from the 1989-1994 time period.
To start things off: The PC VGA port of Prince of Persia was glorious and available years before the SNES version.

What I really liked about arcades back then is that they outperformed PCs back then with experimental and obviously expensive technology. It blew my mind coming from Mechwarrior and then playing a game like Daytona back in the day.

Fucking genius

Arcades were great fun, but they're gone. Like OP.

arcade games are high quality since they were tied to an expensive piece of hardware. The developers had to be fully invested because of the high cost, otherwise no one would put coins into their game.

Video games have been stagnant since the Xbox360. Developers don't make any sort of leap in hardware or technology because they want to keep the hardware cheap and accessible so they can get maximum shekels.

I DEARLY miss the leaps of tech from the 80's-to the 00'. I used to get excited seeing previews of games. Nowadays, all previews are fake movies meant to trick casuals to thinking that games have progressed.

Videogames have changed.

oldschool RPGs are shit. What kind of slack jawed retard would want to play a severely restricted version of DnD with only one player and one scenario? gookclicks are a terrible genre more about cookie cutter build orders and click speed than any kind of strategy. Grand Strategy is easily the most boring, time consuming and unsatisfying genre out there, it lacks any kind of great visual feedback and it feels like the devs cut out tons of gameplay and replaced it with dull number crunching. at least Total War actually gives you some control over the battles though.

Point and click Adventures could have been a great genre but Tim Schafer poisoned the well and now every P&C needs to have retarded nonsensical abstract as fuck puzzles and awful lol so randumb humor.

Doesn't look that great.

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Absolutely agree OP, arcades is where gamers were born. You were never supposed to rot in front of a lonely screen. And there was even a spot for poorfags to look at Let's Plays without playing themselves.

The one diamond in the rough who actually gets it. Arcades were cool and all, but so many games took a shit on their own design in favor of "fuck you, you die so you have to pay". In other words, this:

That being said, OP has a point too: at their core, they're still games. Some of them are shitty, with the "fuck you, you die" mentality being similar to today's "WANT MORE? BUY 50 GEMS for $4.99!", replacing a bait and switch with a skinner box. Thing is, the ones that actually weren't scummy hit the nail on the head. A game doesn't need to tell a narrative; that's kind of missing the point of a game. Some people dig it, sure, but we already have way better (i.e. visually, plot-/character-wise) ways to tell a story. They're called movies, TV shows, and even plays. Even books are better because the author is dedicated to writing a story and doesn't need a bunch of funding or technical skills beyond using a keyboard or typewriter. Or a goddamn pen. A game provides something that none of these things can: it takes the fun of a board game or a sport and plants it in a world where you can take the rules a lot further. You can do shit like playing Quidditch or Kung Fu Chess because the computer can simulate a thing like that and referee at the same time. You can even have single-player challenges that aren't strictly puzzles, trivia, or boring RNG shit like Solitaire. You can even enforce scorekeeping on that so people can compare scores, i.e. performance. Long story short, keep it simple, stupid. A game's a game, not a theatre performance.

Games were better when developers knew that the MOUTH TO MOUTH publicity was crucial for a game to become successful. Nowadays, with enough marketing, any mediocre game can be a success.

And how does a person become 'skilled enough' (via memorizing the attack and spawn patterns of enemies and bosses) to 1cc a game?
By burning through more quarters!

X-COM. It's simple to remember: the more complex games have more complex names. Only posting because you have great taste overall.

I agree, on an aesthetic level, that arcades should be the only place to play games.
Now I've had years of great fun playing PC games on my own, even multi-player, but something about it is dehumanizing.

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Sega SM2 and SM3 games were, you fuckin retard.

games were built to suck quarters out of you. We've come full circle.

no thats not it, you nostalgic oaf.

Sadly, they never will. The business model only made sense as long as arcades were able to deliver something significant that couldn't be had at home. The technology has progressed to the point where home games and machines are just too affordable for arcades to have their own niche.

Japanese culture is not the same as here. Also anime is not real life, girls aren't actually good at vidya.

The arcade environment pressures game developers to strike the fine balance between immediate casual appeal (ie: flashy SFX and direct, intuitive controls) and hardcore longevity (ie: enough gameplay depth and challenge to keep the player coming back for more).

Successful arcade game design is lean, mean, and straight to the point. Needless shit like lengthy cinematic scenes "pads out" per-player machine usage and reduces profit margin, because each played game takes too long. Frustrating controls and unfair difficulty leaves the player feeling powerless and means less repeat customers. If the game is too easy, it will suffer from both "padding out" profit losses (takes too long to die and pay for new games) and poor player retention rates (too boring to warrant repeated plays).

While it certainly wasn't perfect due to the blatant money-grubbing nature, old-school arcades did offer many harsh yet positive lessons in game design that unfortunately are now being more and more ignored.

You must love modern games then you cuck

Way I see it, Sega always tried to bring some of the arcade experiance home with their consoles. For better or for worst. If I'm ever in an aracedy mood I can bring out my Saturn or Dreamcast and play some Daytona or other arcadey games.

I don't think arcade games at home are the solution but I do think arcades need to come back. Look at how far the arcade scene in Japan advanced.

No

Emulation is cool, but nothing beats playing the game on a well-maintained, original cabinet.

Anyone own a PointBlank or TimeCrisis?