What games of today will be remembered in 20 years?

[Immortal]

RageBot said:

Immortal said:

1) Let's stick to video games for now, all right, :P? Honestly, just look at Super Mario Bros., pretty much the only other instance something like this has happened, it's phenomenonal, even now, like a quarter of a century later.

2) Honestly, if you're speaking of impact, Wii Sports pretty much turned the entire market around. It turned a console that was likely to sell 10m into a "you see, I was right, it only sold 100m LT, take that, Nintendo fanboy!" It most likely added more gamers to the market than the entire shooter genre. Also, please consider Sports Champions and Kinect Sports, high-profile attempts by competitors to try to save some market share for themselves. Move and Kinect would not have had a sports game as (one of) their killer apps had it not been for this monster right here.

3) I thought I might have on that one, xD. Could you please explain it then?

1. I actually think that it's good to diverse the discussion, because games are just another form of entertainment, and a lot of times it goes by similar trends as music.
About SMB - It isn't remembered just because it sold well (check Duck Hunt), this one, single game, created so many of the basic fundementals of today's game design that it pretty much created modern gaming, withour SMB gaming just wouldn't exist, so it is remembered not only for how it was as a game (and a damn fine one I might add, played it for the first time this year XD), but because it is a landmark in gaming history.

2. But, again, I didn't say that Wii Sports didn't have an impact, because it did, I say that:
a: We really can't tell what will be five years from now, how can we say what will happen in twenty? We don't even know if the market that the Wii created will still be around five years from now.
b: We still don't know how many units Kinect and Move will sell, so far they can be a short term trend that will end before next christmas.
c: CoDs impact was on an existing market, and had a very big impact on it, from that aspect, it had an effect on online multiplayer gaming to the extent of SM64 on 3D gaming, it got a lot of things right, and a lot of companies just strated creating ripoffs of it.

3. Okay, I just wanna say first that it's nice to have a rational conversation with someone on the internet, doesn't happen a lot :P

What I said that the things that were considered "one of a kind", and are still remembered, are either remembered for being very influencial (like SMB in gaming), involving pepole emotionally (like Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd in music) or, simply because they sold a lot (like Titanic in cinema).

In relation to our discussion, if Wii Sports or CoD4 will be remembered as "one of a kind", it will be either because of influence, or simply because of selling a lot, but if you take a game like MGS4 for example, it didn't sell that much, but I know enough grown men who cried at certain points while playing this game, this is the sort of "one of a kind" emotional impact I was talking about, that pepole can be talking about years from now.

I hope I made everything clearer now :)

1) I doubt that the industry hasn't been around for long enough to be compared to other forms of entertainment so we really can't argue for or against such a comparison. Anyway, I'm not arguing that people will remember WS forever because it sold well. Motion controls I'd say are quite undeniably the most significant development in video games in a few generations and Wii Sports will most likely always be remembered as the game that started it all. A landmark in gaming history, as you said.

2) a - Well, yeah, obviously not, we're just making ridiculous, unrealistic predictions here. What the heck else is this site for, :P?

b - We don't, but just getting competitors to make such a move is quite the impact honestly.

c - It may have done so, but you compared it to SM64, a game which in itself is never considered the biggest thing since sliced bread. None of the new gamers from this generation know what the game was like, even if they know it existed. On the other hand, Super Mario Bros. always rings a bell, if only a faint one. If you give somebody who's never played video games before a controller, tell them that the d-pad is for moving around and open Super Mario Bros., if nothing else they'll know to approach the ?-block from below, not above.

3) Thanks, :D.

Anyway, with your "for selling a lot" point, aren't you basically saying that WS will be remembered? It makes sense, too, since if 100m people played a game that was quite a new experience at a time, it will most likely be remembered more than a game that sold 20m and was a great experience. Besides, MGS would have to rely on a pretty tiny base to be remembered and most likely would not be very remembered at all even if it emotionally connected with almost all of its audience.

 

...I can't believe we're seriously arguing something as subjective as "will be remembered" this thoroughly.