I play a lot of console games, emulated. I bought a copy of Sword Coast Legends and can’t play it.
This is something to think about, for the future. Which games will you be able to show your children, or spin up real quick to check a reference or get a screenshot, or ya know, play?
At this point, I’m not sure I want to deal with games of a certain complexity. 3D graphics? Well, that’s never played well with my setup. 17GB install? Animal Crossing for GameCube is 1.36GB, and plays as well today as it did 18 years ago.
But you know what? Folks will be racing Tux and battling for Wesnoth well into the future, no question.
I wonder if we should add that as an anti-feature, or if it can be inferred by platform.
I think there is a reason im drawn to the Sega Genesis right now, and considering I was a SNES kid I don’t think its entirely nostalgia. (Though the vnn diagram here still partipcates in some sort of overlapping general 16bit nostalgia.)
One or two newer PC games that intrigued me coming out soon really slappened me hard in terms of the hoops Id have to go through to play it. From system requirements, to DRM, to delivery platforms, to OS. Etc, etc. I have mostly no experience with the current loot crate epidemic, but also don’t know if I could trust the games I was looking at to be immune from that virus either.
Im not tossing my Switch, but im not really interested in any other new or next gen proprietary consoles right now, and PC seems more unwelcoming than ever to me. It feels like that entire industry is getting more toxic and economically top heavy every passing day. (Indie creators asside, though most of the ones that seem to be my jam don’t require gaming rigs either.)
This is one of the refrains from open culture in general no? Proprietary licensing is the easiest way to ensure cultural works have a harder time reaching future generations.
Oh gosh, this has been on my mind the last 3 years especially. I strongly agree with the sentiments shared here. DRM, and/or always connected, and the biggest offender is DLC IMO. I hate that stuff. Make a sequel! Don’t make me spend $100 to get the real game.
I have 3 video game ideas I really want to get on the road soon. I used to have a 4th, but I cancelled it for this reason. It was going to be a browser-based game, and there was just no way I could see it being stable and playable in 10 years.
I think PC gaming has made a big mistake with this idea that all game genres need to have such high quality 3D graphics. A strategy game shouldn’t be 7GB install size; I don’t want or need ultra realistic little trees on my world view.
Huh… wow I think I just unlocked it. Video games and simulators are not the same category, and shouldn’t need the same specs. I think indie games have been more popular recently partly because they have lower system requirements.
Anyway, back to future playability… the ideas of consoles make a lot of sense in regard to future-proofing a game. It’s what is very enticing to me re: fantasy consoles. Your game runs in this fantasy console, and everything is handled in there. You’d only ever need people keeping that fantasy console playable for the future. I haven’t looked around for an open source fantasy console, but I bet they exist.
Just have been thinking about this more. I genuinely feel uncomfortable when I’m playing a RPG or strategy game and I can her my machines fan running full tilt. I’m using this energy for 3Dness that I really don’t care about.
I am much more in tune with low poly 3D, I really hope it takes off more. I’d love an Elder scrolls fantasy world/game in this style. Also, it could run on so many more users hardware!
I’ve been openly speculating with my local gamer friends we might actually be heading towards another videogame crash; or atleast some sort of market implosion.
Studio consolidation under a single publisher is at all time highs. Budgets for videogames are at all time highs, timeline to release are at all time highs. There are disturbing patterns of teams and studios being canned for a single bad game; while simultaneously the entire industry is getting more risk adverse so games are increasingly feeling more and more derivative. For much the same reason hollywood has sequel itis at the moment.
Thatts not a pattern that feels particularly sustainable to me. I suspect at some point we are going to see a couple of high profile studios or a publisher go under before the industry moves to correct. If then.
This in general is why virtual machines have always fascinated me for software deployment. Like im not the biggest fan of Java but I love the write once run anywhere paradigm. I’ve given up on it in recent years, to mostly focus on “compile everywhere” but not because the idea ever lost appeal.
It also proves once again why Infocom was so damn ahead of their time.
They do exist! There is even a Love2d based one. Such that you can export your fantasy console game out of the fantasy console into love2d proper. LIKO-12 by Rami Sabbagh I seem to recall you being interested in Love2d.
I just found my development-edition Ouya. It’s clear plastic!!
The Ouya was another flash in the pan. -_- People were so excited, though. “Bring the indie game explosion to the big screen.” “Every game must have a free to play / trial mode.” “Android.” My old roommates made a game for it. A random stranger on the internet did a let’s play for it and that pleased us all so much.
I have been thinking… I want to put some other software on my Ouya. For the sneakernet!
I depserately like the idea of microconsoles and kinda wish they would take off. The ouya was an interesting experiment. I wish it or something like it had found more success. Its interesting that the whole microconsole thing kind of went dormant for a few years, but is still kinda simmering in the background.
I kind of wish that community would produce a second handheld. There was a lot they did right with the design of that hardware. (Or atleast new runs of the original).
I actually had one for a while. I ended up giving it away in my last move as had to let go of some hardware. I think I did the initial community port of Exult/Ultima 7 to the thing. Though it doesn’t control the best on there.
