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LegitHyperbole on 19 October 2024
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SvennoJ said:
LegitHyperbole said:

Not everyone was middle class or grown at the time. I remember getting a game every few months or at Birthdays/Christmas and the like and in the mean time renting games for weekends, buying magazines to read about all the games the I wanted to buy.

I have fond memories of it indeed but sending that game back on a Sunday evening was brutal and I don't regret buying the magazines which I'd put on hold for a while if I needed to save for a really big game like MGS.

I'm not even sure how I managed to grow my ps2 library as a teenager, I have no idea how it ballooned to over 150 games. My ps1 library was no more than 30-40 of the games in the space of 5 years before ps2 which is mostly because really big sales started to happen when the ps2 released and up til release and I snatched up most of my favourites but the ps2, I have no idea how that library grew because I could barely afford my magazine addiction at that point which I had stacks and stacks of, I think I done more reading magazines than playing ps2 tbh. 

Also, some people talking about extra expenses. There were memory cards, magazines for reviews and the like, stuff we have for free now. 

Now you have external HDDs, SSD upgrades, Internet subscription to manage your games and saves instead of a memory card.
Memory card you could simply take along to friends, now you need cloud saves which require paid online. (Or use a USB stick, same thing as memory card)

Wired controllers also needed no batteries, no replacements (still have my original PS2 controllers, PS1 left behind when I moved) No charging, can play for as long as you want! Now with wireless controllers I often have to look for them, make sure I charge them or get interrupted while playing. And with only one pair of Sense controllers (can't buy more) it's simply game over when they run low. (I've actually played VR1 with both Move controllers on charge cables lol, playing like a Pinocchio puppet, double PSVR1 cable, headphone cable, 2 move charge cables and still having fun!)

Paid magazines at least gave more honest reviews. Reviews today are all made for clicks, highlighting controversies, trashing the game or glossing over problems like with CP2077 just to stay on the good side of the publisher and get reviews out before the game launches.
The magazines also gave you demos and other stuff.


As a teenager I didn't buy games, only the empty media to copy them on. There was no real DRM on PC games and piracy was the norm :/ But I could still afford games while going to university, which is when I bought my first console. Except Nintendo cartridges, most were just out of my budget. My first Nintendo console was the N64 after I got a job.

So sure, my kids have more (legitimate) access to games nowadays with all the F2P stuff and Roblox. (And a dad who is easily swayed to buy games for them lol) The difference I see between my childhood and my kid's is that I played many more different games when I grew up. My kids mostly stick to the same online games, playing together with friends.

We had a few go to games as well to play together, yet far more trying out all kinds of different games. Once in a while there were arranged copy parties (in community centers) where kids all exchanged games (PC/Amiga 500) and then we spend months trying them all out. Also my dad brought home games copied at work, mostly Sierra adventures he got from his colleagues. He also bought us some MSX game cartridges, but most of my MSX games came from duplicating cassette tapes with whole bunch of games on 60 minute tapes. Index card where the next game started. But I also got a book for Christmas about programming BASIC with a bunch of listings for simple games to type in. That's how I learned programming at an early age. I made my first solo game (pac-man clone) at age 12.

After school either a friend cycled home with me to play on PC or I cycled home with a friend to play on C64/Amiga 500/MSX-2. Only my nephews had a SNES and Mega Drive but they lived on the other side of the country. So I only played Mario/Sonic when we were over there.


Anyway is it better now, I don't know. I don't remember getting frustrated with games as a kid. Sure they were harder, but always fun and I never cared about having to start over. Always see how far you could get in Jet Set Willy or Lazy Jones for example. With my kids I have to step in now and then when their online gaming turns into a shouting match :/ Calm my kid down when he gets frustrated with his friends doing stupid stuff online or when they get targeted by malicious other players. Managing their online play is something my dad never had to do.

Plus all the hoops to jump through now, all the accounts with secondary confirmation. I lost count of how many times I have to help them with passwords, alternate emails just to be able to start a game. I mentioned GTA5 before. First we couldn't get family sharing to work, turns out you can't share GTA5 due to required R* login. So had to log myself in on his computer, go back for the confirmation code, log him in on my R* account, go back for the confirmation code and then he can screw up my save lol. Was so much easier back then, here's the disc, enjoy.

My arse were magazine more honest, the amount of games they got me burnt on and money wasted is criminal like the Driver sequels or Metal Gear acid and many PSP games come to mind. If you were only on one magazine you'd have severe bias like OPM. They were about as shite as IGN is today but we didn't know any better. Now you can connect with gamers who you can follow and begin to know their likes and dislikes and read into their reviews in much more of a transparent way. Like Skill Up suggested Watch Dogs legion as a good immersive sim and I wasn't having it cause I knew him and where he was coming from but I know it wouldn't have landed with me. I so rarely get burned now and the money saved is so much better than years past. Picking up a ps1 game cause the cover art looked cool or a ps2 game cause some magazine previewed it in a really positive light only to be disappointed. 

You're wearing rose tinted glasses and blinded by nostalgia. Sure everything is fun as a kid, you can play with a stick for hours and it's a great time. Ya gotta look past the mostalgia and compare things on an even keel. 

You can still play in the past now, many do and build the entire hobby around retro experiences. In fact now is the best time to do that cause you can collect the entirety of it and immerse yourself in all gaming had to offer back then. A mighty expensive task but one you can pursue and you have the benefit of modern technology to help you with this, loads of emulation devices to make it easier qith loads of QoL improvements. 

You know how I know it's all bullshit? Cause I have access to all the Nintendo games from that era, or I had for a year until I quit the service and nothing gave me the enjoyment I had as a kid nor did any of the games I was dreaming of back then live up to it in today. Same with PS+ premium titles, I keep meaning to turn it down to essentials cause I'm disappointed month after month and everytime I download a title yet nostalgia keeps me trying. Most recently I played Time splitters and Future perfect, Time splitters is absolute trash now and future perfect isn't nearly as perfect ot a fraction of the games as I remember it. I much rather when they remake them like Crash, crash team racing, REmake 2 and they actually feel the same as I remember them back then even though they are substantially improved. 

Today's games are just better.