-99.9% of games are shit nowadays and, believe me, I’m not simply the victim of 20/20 hindsight. Every now and then I go back and play all the old nes and snes games that once captured my interest and sure, it’s true that some haven’t aged as well as others, but I think it’s telling that despite being so technically antiquated, they still have that intangible x-factor that’s missing from almost all titles today.
-I absolutely despise the trend of mainstream gaming. Hell, I hate the fucking term “gamer” and all the connotations associated with it. It’s a fucking industry buzzword meant to encapsulate every “videogame enthusiast” into an easily identifiable demographic. It sounds like a fucking job. Way back when, you just played games. No one was a fucking “gamer.” You were a dork for playing games and you didn’t give a shit. So much was new and innovative when gaming was in its infancy, but now we’re plagued with this sickeningly prevalent attitude that “everything’s been done” so rarely does anyone try anything new and when some random gimmick from game x catches on, it’s milked by everyone else until no one gives 2 shits anymore. Bull-fucking shit is all I have to say, the only real problem is that the people who control the direction of gaming (that’s us for all you fucking dullards) are content to play the same old turd year after year. Studios pander to idiots by concentrating on all the superficial aspects of a game because that’s how you make the most money. Developers have a much larger target audience to pander to which means everything is (misguidedly) simplified. Somebody needs to realize that playabilty does not need to come at the expense of substance. Like a good book or movie, a game should be enjoyable on different levels.
Apart from that second point being the dumbest fucking idea ever, I’d like to hear your opinion on why you didn’t like Planescape.
Just curious, that’s all.
-I’ve always seen it as one of the undeniable high points in computer/console rpgs over the last decade. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s really played and understood it that didn’t rave about it afterwards.
What other game has writing that even comes close to it? How many games have such endearing characters with such amazing voice acting(Nordom is bar-none the funniest character in an RPG)? How many games touch on so many themes like redemption, guilt, nature vs nurture, mind/body duality, love(and not in the usual insipid fashion we’re used to), death, the fear of something worse than death and what it could drive someone to do, christian doctrine, fatalism, existentialism, servitude, penitance, guilt etc. All these ideas are presented effectively and subtly without beating you over the head with pedantic, overwrought bullshit. You can read deeper into the game if you like because it’s quite obvious the developers did their homework and the game is just rife with subtext, or you can play through it quickly and still enjoy the basic plot.
Conversely you have the average J-rpg with its pseudo-intellectual dimestore philosophy horseshit(Xenogears being the king of this crap), paper-thin plot, uninteresting and derivative characters topped off with the ubiquitous mind-numbingly shallow gameplay. Here’s the thing most people fail to realize(or more likely refuse to accept). There is no sense to be made out of this shit. It’s meant to be confusing, because there is no real point to the meandering narrative other that to keep people playing. Stop buying this drivvel please!!!
Sure, I’m vocal about these things, but only because I genuinely loved videogames in my childhood and, yes, I feel like I’ve been robbed somewhere along the way by some money grubbing dickhead in a suit who never shared the same passion for the medium, never understood it and never cared to understand it. Sure I realize it’s not that simple, but at least these glib oversimplifications offer somewhere to point the finger. As far as I’m concerned, gaming as an artform is stillborn.
