Video Games Are A Cultural Cul-de-sac - Why Even Bother

Bad Gateway

Oops!
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Last week, for some reason, the great YouTube algorithm in the sky decided to put a song from the Spyro 2 OST in my suggested videos. Obviously, I listened to it, because I am a gentleman gamer. Then the prepared rabbit hole opened for me, and I found myself listening to a bunch of old video game songs from the 4-7 generation area. Good times, a lot of memories. It made me realize that as a cultural artifact, video games are a dead end, and there is no point in even attempting to "pass down" the games you liked, even to a significantly younger sibling, never mind any offspring. The basic reason is simple: That gay shit takes too long.

It used to be that you could beat a video game in a couple of hours. SMB takes about 2 hours. SMB3 takes 6. Even Mario 64 only takes about 12 hours to beat all according to this random website which I shall believe to be even remotely accurate. Now, The Retards Who Make Jimette Sterling MATI, Inc. are intentionally pushing for games that take 40, 50, 60 hours at a minimum, with the stated goal being 100s of hours of involvement with their single game, not including the online components, whether tacked-on (RDR2) or actually developed (GTAV in CURRENT YEAR).

Let's use an extreme book as a comparison. If, for some reason, your dad was a Russian Napoleon fetishist, and he really wanted the teenage you to read a comprehensive classic on the subject of Russia's war with Napoleon to expand your interest in the subject or because he knew you were a bastard child, he would probably try and convince you to read War and Peace. This tome would take the average reader about 40 hours to read. But what if you wanted to get your kid into, say, The Elder Scrolls series? Morrowind reportedly takes about 45 hours for the main story alone, 110 with the sidequests, which is the way you would want anyone to play the game. Oblivion, where the best meat is in the sidequests, takes an average of 93 hours to do the main and sides, and Skyrim supposedly takes about 108 hours with the sidequests, the only parts of any merit. 311 total estimated hours.

"Series vs single book", you say? Well, the Harry Potter series is estimated to take about 60 hours to read in full. Games in this hour range would be Gen 4+ Final Fantasy games, the new Fallouts, the DS and most DS-alike games, GTAIV, a handful of Tales games, stuff like that...but only one of them. An entire book series or 1 video game.

What about movies as a comparison? My dad loved the Godfather movies. All 3 take about 7 hours to watch. Easy. You can accidentally watch 7 hours of assorted Netflix shit twice in a day and still get some cooming done, and get a good night's sleep on top of it. 25 hours will get you through all the live-action Star Wars films including Rogue One and the one that nobody saw. KOTOR takes 36 hours (and is arguably time better spent, but try and get anyone to play that fucking UI nightmare game without hefty universe investment directly from the movies).

What if you wanted to get your kid in the MMOs you played when you were their age? You're mad. As mad as a drunken whale shark in Oklahoma. Even if the game servers still happen to be online then. Guild Wars? 300+ hours. Runescape? 2000 hours. WoW? 2500 hours.

Even a series that you might actually want to share with someone, because you connected with it and grew with it, something like the Mass Effect trilogy, takes about 100 hours. I'll never be able to share with anyone who isn't my age the reasons why I like Spyro 2 so much, especially if their introduction to the game was that shitmaxxing remake, for which I am still owed at least 4 high-profile public executions. Ditto Crash. Ditto Mario Sunshine. Ditto fucking Pokemon Silver and Gold. They're already all gone, and all that will remain is YouTube Let's Plays narrated by some SJW faggot cuck who troons out as s/he gets to fucking Goldenrod City. There is zero chance that any of it survives in a meaningful way. So, enjoy it while you can, I guess, because nobody else will ever care.
 

Rusty Crab

and it kept getting worse...
kiwifarms.net
I don't really think games are different than songs, books or shows in that regard. A tiny, tiny percentage of media from previous generations makes it to the current one with any form of popularity. The "gems" of the era are still played a lot today like MGS, Resident Evil or Half Life 1, Morrowind, System Shock. Those are all pretty long assuming you're not just speed running.

Also get back to me when Skyrim is on it's 20th release and your grandkids are still buying it.
 

KimCoppolaAficionado

The most underrated actor of the 21st century
kiwifarms.net
I don't really think games are different than songs, books or shows in that regard. A tiny, tiny percentage of media from previous generations makes it to the current one with any form of popularity. The "gems" of the era are still played a lot today like MGS, Resident Evil or Half Life 1, Morrowind, System Shock. Those are all pretty long assuming you're not just speed running.

Also get back to me when Skyrim is on it's 20th release and your grandkids are still buying it.
This guy said it better than me, so I'll just add on: yeah, the midlife crisis sucks, buddy.
 

Totally Awesome

kiwifarms.net
Last week, for some reason, the great YouTube algorithm in the sky decided to put a song from the Spyro 2 OST in my suggested videos. Obviously, I listened to it, because I am a gentleman gamer. Then the prepared rabbit hole opened for me, and I found myself listening to a bunch of old video game songs from the 4-7 generation area. Good times, a lot of memories. It made me realize that as a cultural artifact, video games are a dead end, and there is no point in even attempting to "pass down" the games you liked, even to a significantly younger sibling, never mind any offspring. The basic reason is simple: That gay shit takes too long.

It used to be that you could beat a video game in a couple of hours. SMB takes about 2 hours. SMB3 takes 6. Even Mario 64 only takes about 12 hours to beat all according to this random website which I shall believe to be even remotely accurate. Now, The Retards Who Make Jimette Sterling MATI, Inc. are intentionally pushing for games that take 40, 50, 60 hours at a minimum, with the stated goal being 100s of hours of involvement with their single game, not including the online components, whether tacked-on (RDR2) or actually developed (GTAV in CURRENT YEAR).

Let's use an extreme book as a comparison. If, for some reason, your dad was a Russian Napoleon fetishist, and he really wanted the teenage you to read a comprehensive classic on the subject of Russia's war with Napoleon to expand your interest in the subject or because he knew you were a bastard child, he would probably try and convince you to read War and Peace. This tome would take the average reader about 40 hours to read. But what if you wanted to get your kid into, say, The Elder Scrolls series? Morrowind reportedly takes about 45 hours for the main story alone, 110 with the sidequests, which is the way you would want anyone to play the game. Oblivion, where the best meat is in the sidequests, takes an average of 93 hours to do the main and sides, and Skyrim supposedly takes about 108 hours with the sidequests, the only parts of any merit. 311 total estimated hours.

"Series vs single book", you say? Well, the Harry Potter series is estimated to take about 60 hours to read in full. Games in this hour range would be Gen 4+ Final Fantasy games, the new Fallouts, the DS and most DS-alike games, GTAIV, a handful of Tales games, stuff like that...but only one of them. An entire book series or 1 video game.

What about movies as a comparison? My dad loved the Godfather movies. All 3 take about 7 hours to watch. Easy. You can accidentally watch 7 hours of assorted Netflix shit twice in a day and still get some cooming done, and get a good night's sleep on top of it. 25 hours will get you through all the live-action Star Wars films including Rogue One and the one that nobody saw. KOTOR takes 36 hours (and is arguably time better spent, but try and get anyone to play that fucking UI nightmare game without hefty universe investment directly from the movies).

What if you wanted to get your kid in the MMOs you played when you were their age? You're mad. As mad as a drunken whale shark in Oklahoma. Even if the game servers still happen to be online then. Guild Wars? 300+ hours. Runescape? 2000 hours. WoW? 2500 hours.

Even a series that you might actually want to share with someone, because you connected with it and grew with it, something like the Mass Effect trilogy, takes about 100 hours. I'll never be able to share with anyone who isn't my age the reasons why I like Spyro 2 so much, especially if their introduction to the game was that shitmaxxing remake, for which I am still owed at least 4 high-profile public executions. Ditto Crash. Ditto Mario Sunshine. Ditto fucking Pokemon Silver and Gold. They're already all gone, and all that will remain is YouTube Let's Plays narrated by some SJW faggot cuck who troons out as s/he gets to fucking Goldenrod City. There is zero chance that any of it survives in a meaningful way. So, enjoy it while you can, I guess, because nobody else will ever care.
Most of these games aren't nearly as long as you say. Nobody is stopping you from playing the games instead of watching a Let's Play. Many of these games are playable on newer systems, and if not then you can just emulate or buy the older versions for cheap.
 

Rusty Crab

and it kept getting worse...
kiwifarms.net
Most of these games aren't nearly as long as you say. Nobody is stopping you from playing the games instead of watching a Let's Play. Many of these games are playable on newer systems, and if not then you can just emulate or buy the older versions for cheap.
I think more or less everything has emulators now. The only cases I can think of are the really, *really* old computers that would barely even qualify to be called "PC"s. I think even the Commodore PET has one.
 

Bad Gateway

Oops!
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
I don't really think games are different than songs, books or shows in that regard. A tiny, tiny percentage of media from previous generations makes it to the current one with any form of popularity. The "gems" of the era are still played a lot today like MGS, Resident Evil or Half Life 1, Morrowind, System Shock. Those are all pretty long assuming you're not just speed running.

Also get back to me when Skyrim is on it's 20th release and your grandkids are still buying it.
The main difference is time was exactly my point. All of those games have been remade or re-released up to the last generation, except for System Shock which is far less popular than you're thinking. Anyway, it still has at least one kickstarter. no? An Attempt Was Made, I think is the meme.

Shit, Black Mesa was just finally "released" this month, which is just a HL1 remake. You could definitely be right, but I doubt it. Remakes aren't really the same thing as the first game anymore though, are they? Look at the FF7 """"remake"""". That's basically its whole own shit, nothing to do with FF7 really. Does that still count?

ETA: Knock it off, nobody plays ROMS or uses EMUs you fucking melvins. Even the soyboy's champion, the SNES Classic sits on shelves, gathering dust.
 

Dick Justice

If you say "normie" you are that which you condemn
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
OP is a faggot. It takes what, an hour to find out you like a game, two if it's a slow burn. If you enjoy your first hour, you're going to stick around for your tenth, hundredth, thousandth if the game's long or replayable enough. If you want a problem that actually exists look up Ross Scott's videos on the Games as a """"""Service""""""" maymay.
 

Bad Gateway

Oops!
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
OP is a faggot. It takes what, an hour to find out you like a game, two if it's a slow burn. If you enjoy your first hour, you're going to stick around for your tenth, hundredth, thousandth if the game's long or replayable enough. If you want a problem that actually exists look up Ross Scott's videos on the Games as a """"""Service""""""" maymay.
What could you be talking about?
 

Imperial Citizen

For the Empire!
kiwifarms.net
The value of games is not just the content that the game provides for you, but also your interaction with said content. It probably took me 50+ hours to beat Dark Souls in my first run while years later I can complete a quarter of the game in less than 2 hours. Yet the intent of the game is the long struggle to beat it and the satisfaction of overcoming such a challenge. The story and message of the game requires that interactivity in order to understand it.
 

Agent Abe Caprine

Is being stupid again
kiwifarms.net
Ditto fucking Pokemon Silver and Gold. They're already all gone, and all that will remain is YouTube Let's Plays narrated by some SJW faggot cuck who troons out as s/he gets to fucking Goldenrod City. There is zero chance that any of it survives in a meaningful way. So, enjoy it while you can, I guess, because nobody else will ever care.
You can find ROMs of games like Totally Rad. No one cares about Totally Rad but the ROM is still possible to find.
 

Bad Gateway

Oops!
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
The value of games is not just the content that the game provides for you, but also your interaction with said content. It probably took me 50+ hours to beat Dark Souls in my first run while years later I can complete a quarter of the game in less than 2 hours. Yet the intent of the game is the long struggle to beat it and the satisfaction of overcoming such a challenge. The story and message of the game requires that interactivity in order to understand it.
I agree with this. Which is why - largely unlike books and movies - you can't really put a video game in front of someone who doesn't "do" video games and be like "I LIKE THIS SHARE IT WITH ME", because it doesn't work the same way. Pretty much every gamer stereotypes comes out of sperg gamers trying to do exactly this thing in some way with the games they like. A 2 hour commitment vs a 50 hour one, in each case there's no guarantee the other person gets anything out of the other end. But a normal person will wait 2 hours to find out, they won't wait 50.
 
You've stumbled across half the reason to read novels. I realized a while back that in the time it took me to play the kind of games I like I could read several books or watch dozens of movies. The moment-to-moment engagement is the same, maybe even stronger in the video game, but when you're all done with it you've been exposed to dozens of stories on one hand and one on the other, and the story is usually schlock.

Video games are money efficient forms of entertainment, but very, very time inefficient.
 

Grey Donovan

kiwifarms.net
Companies want to charge $60/70 for everything even though it’s been proven countless times that people are welcome to $30/40 games with most of the fat trimmed off.

If you’re not making an RPG with a respectable narrative, then your AAA game should not take more than ~25 hours to play through.
 

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