Every so often, I think back to how it was in pre-Internet days. How peaceful things were in gaming.
There wasn’t much hype. Almost all the information on games came from the magazines, and there’s only so much space in print for any product. Of course, there were previews, but most of the mags covered current games more than anything else.
You could learn about a new game without knowing everything. Unlike today, when PR starts two years or more ahead of time, and reaches fever pitch just before release.
Fallout 3 is the current example, and Blizzard is doing plenty with Diablo 3, although that one is at least a year away. You can’t visit a major website without seeing “interview this”, “preview that”, “screenshots here”, “trailers there”. As I said here somewhere before, you hardly need to play the game you know so much about it.
I doubt that it’s all really necessary. As I pointed out long ago in On Reviewing, most gamers don’t wait for a review; they’re going to buy as soon as the product shows up in the store. And that was long before today’s “hype machine” started up.
People weren’t so crazed about games, either. You know what I mean: the fanboys. Just mention on a forum you thought “game X” was terrible, and they’re all over you.
They don’t merely disagree, they post vituperative comments of a highly-personal nature. They may even send nasty emails. Fanboys just can’t seem to separate themselves from the games they like; every negative remark about the game becomes a personal insult.
It wasn’t like that back in the time when I ran gaming areas on proprietary networks. Sure, occasionally tempers might flare, but those were rare incidents, and usually passed quickly (I ensured they did ;).
And there wasn’t a lot of controversy back then, either. The mainstream press, thankfully, pretty much ignored games. Shucks, we didn’t even have a ratings board.
Yeah, the peaceful time. Before the hype, the fanboys, the ratings controversies, and yes, the lawsuits that have become so common. How I miss it. And how sad gaming is what it has become now.
I know when I was using your gaming area on GEnie I never saw that type of behavior. However I did see it more on BBSes. I remember one that I frequented where the people were amazed that I had both the Atari ST and Amiga, that I hadn’t picked a side. Even before that I can remember some Apple II vs Atari 800 vs C64 discussions, and let’s not forget the Tandy crowd. Even today I am platform neutral with a PC and Mac.
I think the fanboys have always been with us, it’s the Internet that has gave them an outlet and made them more vocal (or is that verbal). I find most of the arguments childish, and many are over minor points. It seems much worse among the console crowd.
Hey, Scorpia, did you hear about this one?
First, the belt story. I found a belt! This was excellent news, as armour for my main character is rare and expensive. Better yet, the belt, apparently, could be upgraded. Right-click to upgrade, it said. So I did. I expected the game to tell me I was lacking Rare Crystal X or something, but I was surprised. “Are you sure you want to fight the keepers?â€, it asked. “Er,†I said. “Yes? But I thought I was upgrading my be…â€
I’m fighting inside my belt, at war with mystic guardians for the right to build a better belt. Unfortunately, it turned out said mystic guardians outnumbered my own meagre, low-level army by 10 to 1, so I was roundly thrashed within seconds. Now, in any other fight in the game, if all your troops get knobbled, you continue - respawning at the main town and receiving some sympathy cash to go hire some new guys with. This time, I got a game over screen. I was perma-killed by my own belt. Man! That’s never happened to me before. The lesson here: never upgrade your belt.
(Inevitably, I tried again later, when I was several levels higher. And I won! Hundreds of my troops were killed, but my belt is now 1 better at defence. And really, that’s all that matters.)
less hype pre internet. can you spell PREVIEW?
you may have a valid point on the poundage of hype on the internet, but i think it’s compound by the number of sites that are posting the same material. Internet thousands of site if not more, pre internet a handful of magazines.
also get the impression pre internet there were actually more games available to play.
In the pre-internet days I used to look forward to previews of games I was interested in. There were so few previews in those days.
Now there are far to many previews, plus I’ve learned that previews tell you almost nothing about how a game is going to turn out. Seems like criticizing a game in a preview is not good form. I can sort of understand this - you’ve got to give the developer a chance to fix the problems. But it also makes the preview pretty much useless to me - it’s just a puff piece.
Scorp if your brilliance and insight isn’t complemented daily by your friends and coworkers they are doing you a great disservice! Bootlicking aside I truly thought I was the only one who longed for the pre internet days. There was real risk in purchasing a pc game that you had no way of knowing would work. But when it did work, boot disk and all, the reward was sweeter.
Back then, you could actually WAIT for the review to come out before deciding whether or not to buy the game. Nowadays, by the time the review appears in print, it feels like the game is no longer on the shelves. Or at least, nobody is talking about it anymore. Back then, people would still be playing Ultima VII six months after its release. Long enough for Scorpia to include hints and clues in later issues of CGW. Nowadays, it’s embarrassing to be playing the same game a month later….
Ag, yes, the proliferation of websites with the same material is part of the problem. It does serve to whip up the masses, though. Which is what the companies want.
malcolm, there weren’t many previews in the “old days”. Lack of space was one reason; mags tended to focus on current product. Also, most games didn’t take so long or cost so much to make.
grayson, you’re far from alone. Although we make up a small minority ;) Actually, most games could be made to work, though sometimes it required a fair amount of tweaking.
Coyote, yes it was possible to wait for a review, though such were usually out well after the game. My own experience is that the majority didn’t wait, as noted above. However, the games did have a much longer shelf life, as I saw from the mail that came in.
There didn’t seem to be that “gotta buy the next hot title” craze that infects so many today.
Scorpia,
You’re also forgeting some important points as well:
1) There were fewer companies making games in the 80’s and 90’s.
2) After the console meltdown of Atari in the 80’s, only the PC’s were around (mainly Atari, IBM, Commadore, and Apple).
3) Most of the games were also being ported over from one PC to another.
4) And thus, a lot less games were released than today.
Also, didn’t Lord british (Richard G.) indicate that Ultima I and II were primarly programed by him? many games back then were a one man or so affairs. Not the huge teams it take now to produce games.
Finally, many games were produced out of many programmers homes. and not the huge office buildings like now.
Ah Presto, that wasn’t quite the case. I posted about that last year in The Game Glut.
But yeah, once the IBM-PC and clones took over, and the 8-bit machines disappeared, fewer titles started coming along.