A dozen random video gaming questions.

Just to prove to myself I wasn't being hyperbolic, I looked up the numbers on Steam releases. Steam releases because that's where the vast majority of indie games are published. This is important, as indie games was the subject I was referring to originally with my "noise floor" comment. The numbers:

I am certain we see exponentially more overall games released in the '10s than we did the '90s or '80s. Even if the vast majority of said games are indie. That said, we also have far better tools now to sort the wheat from the chaff. So it balances out.

I agree most people spend less time researching media as they do consuming it. But qualifying what they consume as a "sure thing" based purely on popular consensus is a short sighted approach. Although it is true; if someone is ignorant of what they're missing, then they certainly won't miss it.


I'll admit to playing through older games that are sometimes mediocre purely due to scholarly interest. On the other hand, plenty of mainstream AAA games I've pushed myself through in recent years were entirely mediocre. Despite receiving extremely high metacritic scores, and having budgets in the millions, they failed to entertain me as much as lesser known old games often do. When a gamer is unshackled to spectacle, instead valuing core design first and foremost, the treasures of yesteryear are legion.

I honestly think I was 2 years old somehow playing SMB1, maybe some Duck Hunt, and NES Golf. The very first NES I played on was supposedly my grandpa's but then they got me my own. Once I was 3-4 the memories are more clear, played a lot of SMB3, Batman, TMNT III, Battletoads, Blaster Master, etc and was constantly getting to rent Mega Man games, usually 2 and 4. For my 4th birthday my family got some of it on tape and I was showing other kids how to properly play SMB3 haha.

I think just sidescrollers in general. As I've always said in other topics, it's not like these styles of games suddenly just got bad overnight somehow, the medium left them behind  as graphics and genres changed. There's been some awesome newer games under the indie banner that fill this craving, though I'm extremely picky about art styles and "retro" throwback graphics. I want classic pixel art and sprites that look like legit 8-32bit titles with limitations.

I work full time but I'm single and solo with no kids, so having free time isn't a struggle.

Outside of refining tech improvements and the garage based dev teams/indie boom (which is a LOT honestly), I'm not sure what else comes to mind. I keep waiting for AI to really rock the medium at some point, for FPS's or whatever. Enemy AI still hasn't changed much since the early 2000's when Halo, FEAR, Half-Life 2 did it really well, back then. I think the majority of Japan was in an identity crisis during the PS3/360 gen 10 or so years ago, gaming blew up with the West becoming the largest marketplace. Not a good time in a lot of ways with people even starting to joke about some legends like Capcom going under just a few years ago, but now here we are with them on top again putting out classics and scooping up awards from Metacritic/Game Awards etc. The AAA bubble definitely popped and we don't see much "AA" B-games anymore compared to last gen, but I think a lot of Japanese developers have been better with the tech and productions this gen, Japanese games just seem way healthier to me again and I like that... because their design roots still fall back on earlier gens that I grew up on, when they dominated the console world. Most of my modern top favorites of the last 10 years stem from Japan.

I can be pretty patient and wait for price drops / "ultimate editions" nowadays, so it does take a lot for me to buy brand new releases lately. But there's still a lot off and on I can't pass up, 2017 was one of the best gaming years ever to me and 2019 seems better than 2018 so far for my tastes. Knowing the developers/director is a huge factor, perhaps the company/publisher if they've got my faith, then the genre, and perhaps aesthetics might win me over from a glance in some rare cases. Branding and long running series' have my loyalty usually too.

Classic gaming wise, it's easy enough to research now and get trusted opinions from people online. I still have a threshold at the $50 price tag though, I have to be seriously interested to consider that and anything higher I believe is too much of a gamble, so I'll resort to emulation to see if I even like it.

It combines so many elements of art in ways that no other medium can. I also frequently enjoy challenging games, mastering them is very rewarding. It's in my DNA, nothing will ever rival gaming for me.

1990's is like using a Game Shark for this question. This decade literally has it all for me, the best of the 8/16bit era and enough time up into the late 1990's for some awesome 3D gems. I'm still discovering chiptunes/OST's from this era and will be forever.

I must have gameplay/combat and skill based action to keep me engaged. It doesn't matter if the story is the best thing in the world, if the gameplay doesn't cut it I'm probably not sticking with it. Planescape Torment is an example.

Well this could fit in with the question above, sometimes I wish I had more patience for genres I don't play much. There is a lot of point/click adventure stuff that looks fascinating to me on paper, but I don't know if they'd hold my demanding attention.

Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Doom. I'd secretly hope to find Mega Man 2-3 and Demon's Souls somewhere...

This answer changes by the day, but what comes to mind for me on the fly here is always wishing we got a really good SNES Blaster Master. In ways I like NES Blaster Master even more than the original Metroid, but the jump from Metroid to Super Metroid is insane. To think if we could have gotten a similar jump in quality with the Blaster Master series evolving to that level on the SNES, man... and don't remind me of that weird Genesis sequel.

I watch a lot of anime and listen to music, but I think my primary hobby would still need to be something more active. Maybe I would have taken web design/programming more seriously. Perhaps playing the guitar and doing some music. Or building things with my hands, though I hate labor work, so I'm talking like computers and small intricate stuff. Very fun putting things together.