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[phi2008]

I grew up at the start of the microcomputer games industry and as a kid spent much of my spare time hanging out at computer stores, arcades, reading about games and the games industry, programming games, going to computer fairs(attempting to be obnoxious to Jeff Minter - my friend had better luck chatting about coding to Matthew Smith - programmer of legendary Manic Miner).

At the time the gaming concepts and hardware(especially arcade machines) were new and exciting but as the decades have rolled past it seems to me gaming has largely run out of ideas - yet instead of dying it is still very popular and extremely tribal. At what point do people stop listening to a broken record, buying variations on a theme that hasn't changed for many years?

I understand why people might initially find computer games interesting, but not how they manage to sustain that interest beyond a few - typically teenage - years. 

[sevenlayermuddle]

You might as well ask, why are crossword puzzles still popular, a few centuries after the novelty has worn off?

Ref computer games I suspect in the early days, people were smitten by games that were really rather naff, but exhibited graphics that (while still naff) amazed their audience.   They'd buy and play just because the graphics looked great for their day, even though in reallity the graphics were rubbish.

I like to think the pendulum is swinging back.   Good graphics is now trivially easy to achieve, graphics alone won't do the trick, so the designers need to come up with genuinely interesting intellectual twists to make a good game.

But games and puzzles, computer or otherwise will hopefully continue.    Pleased to boast I finished the Saturday Guardian's Sudoku this week, before my coffee had gone cold.

Edit, changes spelling of 'sudoku'. 

[jelv]

I've got bored with standard Sudoku - I much prefer Killer Sudoku as found in the Times puzzle section. Far more logic and less slog.

If anyone doesn't know what I mean there's plenty to try here: http://krazydad.com/killersudoku/

If you don't know how to tackle these the answer to everything is not 42, it's 45.

[phi2008]

Ref computer games I suspect in the early days, people were smitten by games that were really rather naff, but exhibited graphics that (while still naff) amazed their audience.   They'd buy and play just because the graphics looked great for their day, even though in reallity the graphics were rubbish.

Not sure whether I'd compare a loose framework of a crossword puzzle to a typical computer game - or the possible benefits of doing one.

I mentioned concepts and hardware, remove the following early computer gaming concepts - shooting, driving, beat'em up, platforming, flight simulator, 3D environment, adventure/roleplaying - I could probably list more, from modern games. How many popular modern games would survive the loss of those concepts?

I've played games from all eras and graphics aren't the issue, ideas are, and the games industry is, in some respect, surviving on the 1980s.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I've played games from all eras and graphics aren't the issue, ideas are, and the games industry is, in some respect, surviving on the 1980s.

Perhaps.   But on a recent long journey train ride with a few friends somebody pulled an iPad out of their luggage, with an iOS App version of the Carcassonne board game.  Passing the iPad from one person to another made the time pass, especially towards the end, with risk that than might reach Edinburgh before last move had been played.  We eventually set a 30 second limit on play, to ensure a winner would emerge.  It wasn't me.

Really very different to early computer games, no attempt at graphics other than 2D snapshots of the physical board game's tiles.   Bit still a computer, and still a game, and still great fun.

[Bowdon]

You make a good point about a lack of ideas in modern gaming. I think one of the reasons for that is its become easier to make a game. There are even game making tools, or programmes that don't require you to actually write gaming code. Gaming as become more dialuted over the years as the casual gamer as taken over the gaming audience.

There is also a cultural shift in gamers attitudes too. Back in the day we wanted to set the highscore on a game. Get all the trophy's. Though there are still people like that, the vast majority these days seem to want to cheat games by hacking them.

I play the Grand Theft Auto series. I've played it from GTA 1. I regularly play online with GTA 5, and like the racing part of the game. I'm mostly playing against random people. I've found most people will try and bump me off the road than try and win the race properly. Some even will start driving backwards on the course just to cause as much mayhem as possible. It is a rare thing when I notice someone in the race who is going out of his way to NOT crash in to me.

I think another shift in gamers is age too. When we were gaming we weren't babies. I'm 38 now and got my first computer at 12 years old. But starting in the 90s 2 and 3 year olds have been playing games. I remember years ago a friend was looking after his grandson and he was letting him play Doom, and the kid, who was only about 4 or 5 was killing everything!.. thats another thing, in these deathmatches you can get your butt handed to you by a 'a squeaker'.

Urban dictionary.

A squeaker is a child on an online voice chat that has not yet reached puberty. The squeaker will talk in an extremely loud voice, to the point of the audio level needing to be turned down for the comfort of the listener. The squeaker is infamous for using execcive profaity on voice chat, inserting a swear word in nearly every sentence, as they think it will make the older boys think he is cool. The other kind of squeaker is the sex obsessed squeaker who is in the middle of puberty, and will constantly talk about sexual acts that he has ever done, and will use nothing but sexual terms to insult other players.

Most of the new and original ideas come from smaller games programmers. The big companies rarely introduce new ideas. They will churn out similar games in series, Battlefield, Call of Duty etc.

[Weaver]

Any other professional games programmers out there, former or current, btw? My first job was as a games programmer, Z80, for just a year though. Before I went all serious=boring. I did many years of assembler language, various processors.

[andyfitter]

Any other professional games programmers out there, former or current, btw? My first job was as a games programmer, Z80, for just a year though. Before I went all serious=boring. I did many years of assembler language, various processors.

I started on Z80 too, writing games for Spectrum and Amstrad for Palace software. Moved onto the Enterprise, Atari ST, Philips Cdi, PlayStation, GBC, GBA, and most recently Apple iOS devices for the last 7 or 8 years. Don't really get involved in the games industry much these days though - most of my iOS coding is corporate.

Andy   

[sevenlayermuddle]

Any other professional games programmers out there, former or current, btw? My first job was as a games programmer, Z80, for just a year though. Before I went all serious=boring. I did many years of assembler language, various processors.

It's exactly what I do, from dawn till dusk each day, as retirement passtime for iOS.   Thankfully, I also have a pension to fall back upon as App development is worth absolutely zero unless you are very lucky or can afford big bucks for promotion.