i think the biggest problem is AGE. im 24 but only played 1 SNES game FF6 on my older brothers game system.. I started gaming when the PS1 came out. i did backtrack but found the games not as much fun because i was spoiled by the PS1 graphics. looking back , its that we are becoming more picky with stories, games and content. Graphics naturally over time will improve but matching incorrect visuals with game play sometime can make you get out of the game. before we were limited in graphics. Also the older we get things start feeling as we have played this type of game before or heard this type of story etc..which is true. games start becoming repetitive. Thats when we become more picky and judgmental of games because we have experienced this. Very few games have new concepts. Visuals keep improving because of technology and story telling becomes all the same. The problem is that designers need to implement the story better or come up with new ways of telling a story or perspective. growth seams to be more on Visuals but thats not the designers fault thats time..with time visuals will improve but story tends to be the same.

(A similar thing can be said for the Nintendo DS, but I find myself playing the Wii more, probably because I like gaming with a big-screen TV)

Video games are like dining; sometimes you want a big ten-course dinner with a glass of wine, but often you just want a burger and fries. Fortunately, the Wii supports both equally well.

–R.J.

Older games were fine without elaborate stories, but nowadays people can’t even play shoot ‘em ups unless there’s a plot! For that, I blame the two games you cite as personal favourites (Final Fantasy 7 & 8). Ever since the success of FFVII, every game is expected to have an epic story whether it needs it or not. Fact is, there is a time and a place for grand stories, but not all games need them. Gameplay is first and foremost, as without it, you don’t even have a game.

But I don’t know if it’s just a focus over graphics thing; you mention Final Fantasy VIII as thriving “without the need for beautiful in game graphics” but, at the time of its release, it was a graphics powerhouse for the PlayStation.

I think one of the problems of most “character-based” games, if you will (action adventure, RPG, FPS…), is that they’re trying to be so much more than games. They want to tell a traditional, three-act structure story. They want to feel like a movie. And to that end, the gameplay designs have gotten standardized so the makers could focus on everything else. My main beef with action games nowadays is that it feels like playing the same game everytime, with a different theme.

I find enjoyment in so-called “casual games” and in the classics not because they’re simpler, but because they’re humbler in their goals. They seem content to be “just” games, entertaining little time wasters, or exciting roller-coaster rides. That modesty is what I miss the most from the current crop of action games.

I bet that kids who are now 12 are playing games with the same enthusiam now as you were at that age… and years from now will look back and say exactly what you just said?