I just don't understand it. If you want creativity go Indie, that's where the creativity went. It's like people aren't diving into the indie scene. I made a thread on the best Indie games at around 5 euro that are widely reviewed above 90 and the list is growing massively. Then there's the expensive Indie that is basically AA games these days. You can spend 15 euro and have a month of access to hundreds of games on a few different services. You can so easily never be fooled about wheter a game is good or not because of the internet. You can spend all your time on one game if you choose on a MP or a GOOD GaaS game or MMO and many people do and not have to spend a dime. We have MP games that work across time and space with anyone anywhere in the world. We have dev support for games post release so if you buy a shit game (No man's sky and the like) perhaps it's best to check in later and you might regain your value for money even though you shouldn't fall for a shit game with the internet. We have sales that are absolutely insane, ones you'd never find in a brick and mortor store and to that matter we are no longer at gamestops whim for better or worse, I say better. We have VR which is some of the coolest gaming tech ever made and so many great games if you choose or can buy in.... you can spend all your time there for that matter there's so much content. We have Hanheld PC's now, which alone you can pretty much play any game from the past or buy a cheap laptop and emulate anything you want. We have more games than there ever has been in the history of gaming to choose from. I'm only taking part in a small section of this content at the moment on PS4 and sometimes Switch for the most part and sometimes VR on Quest 2 and PSVR1 and I'm so well fed I can't even see the reason for upgrading to ps5 and probably wouldn't if my pro wasn't overheating but soon, in less than a month I'll have the ps5 catalogue to browse and choose what to play on good sales as I make my way through everything that I've missed out on with the odd full release here and there like GTA6.

I can't understand why now is not the best time apart from life circumstances that only give you so much time or energy to play games and take advantage of the tech you own. Like I get working a 10 hour shift, you aren't going to want to put on the VR headset or continue a long RPG or maybe even play a mindless game like Vampire survivors and this could skew your view of gaming bit aside from that you just have to look for the games, they may be floating around in massive amounts of sewage but they are there, they do exist and that's coming from someone who really tries to stay away from steam as much as I can.

I see that argument made a lot in this thread. Yet that's bypassing the question.

Otherwise the best time to be a reader is now, best time to be a movie watcher is now, best time to be an art lover is now, best time to be a music lover is now, best time to be a collector is now. Every creative industry you have access to all older created stuff. That doesn't make now the golden age for any of those creative industries.

So that argument just renders the question moot.


As far as excitement for gaming, late 90's early 2000s had the biggest dreams come true. Rapid advancements, new genres and IPs springing up monthly. Exciting new hardware coming out and new ways to play. Real competition driving creativity and keeping prices stable.

Today that excitement is mostly gone. Lot of talk about diminishing returns, price of HW, price of games, invasive practices, people getting fired all over the place, studios closing, games taking many years to develop, UE5 woes, and so on.

I see that argument made a lot in this thread. Yet that's bypassing the question.

Otherwise the best time to be a reader is now, best time to be a movie watcher is now, best time to be an art lover is now, best time to be a music lover is now, best time to be a collector is now. Every creative industry you have access to all older created stuff. That doesn't make now the golden age for any of those creative industries.

So that argument just renders the question moot.


As far as excitement for gaming, late 90's early 2000s had the biggest dreams come true. Rapid advancements, new genres and IPs springing up monthly. Exciting new hardware coming out and new ways to play. Real competition driving creativity and keeping prices stable.

Today that excitement is mostly gone. Lot of talk about diminishing returns, price of HW, price of games, invasive practices, people getting fired all over the place, studios closing, games taking many years to develop, UE5 woes, and so on.

You're a VR user though, how did the VR train not give you the excitement of those times and more? And you mention creativity, some of the most creative games are in that space... that one time based puzzle game where you play with previous versions of yourself to complete puzzles as one example. There was never anything as creative as that before it. 

People love to live in the past and dont want to let go of their favorites. They are upset because they cant do their console warring because the lines between all platforms is thinner than it has been in the previous generations.

For years I was like that too and held the SNES and its games as the best platform - its one of the best but not the best or only best.

Its the perfect time to get into gaming as a new consumer, a person who wants to get back into gaming but left or a person who has been consuming video games for years.

There's plenty of games coming out, both new and old, and most important of all the availability on the number of platforms.

Playstation, Nintendo, Xbox, iOS, android, PC and on top of that all the extra hardware out there you can get into that fits your needs whether if you want to stream a game, play a game digitally, physically , on a portable device or play on a high premium powered device.

On top of that, yes games have been more expensive at the price of $70 but majority of games go down in price fairly quick, you just need to know where to look  and thankfully there are tools out there you can use to find great deals of which none existed in the 1990s or 2000s.

There's just so many different options out there, I wish we had these options in the 1990s and 2000s. (Kinda like how I wish I had my smartphone while growing up in the late 90s or 2000s lol).

Edit: Its also a great time to be a movie/tv show viewer and a music consumer. There's enough games, music, movies, tv shows, etc to last multiple lifetimes.

It did. PSVR1 made me feel like I was back in the late 90s again. So many fun experimental games, developers trying to figure out what was all possible with the HW. Many studios giving VR a try with extra modes or short experiences, like Tomb Raider, Star Wars, The Last Guardian, LA Noire, next to lots of creative new games and experiences. The Joshua Bell experience looked extremely promising for VR video, so well done. VR video with parallax. It was one of a kind :/

That was 2016-2019 though. Today VR is still great but ignored by most established studios as well as the mainstream game press. PSVR2 looks like it will sell less than PSVR1 and any hype is mostly negative towards it.

PSVR1 days were more creative while today eg Astrobot snubbed VR entirely. If it weren't for many Quest ports, the PSVR2 library would also look quite bare.


And as great as the early days of the revival of VR were, the excitement was still far greater in the naughties. Halo 3 launching was an event. Midnight launches with people lining up around the block. Camping out in line to get their hands on new HW or high profile releases. Now we have to deal with scalpers snatching up inventory before it even gets to stores.

And more and more game stores are closing, how can now be the best time to be a gamer? Access to older hardware and pre-played games is going down. The second hand market is getting squeezed out.



Not to piss on PSVR2, there are still plenty creative games. 7th Guest adding volumetric video for characters is very cool in VR. And indeed The last clock winder using copies of your own motions to complete puzzles is very creative and fun. Yet with PSVR1 these kind of new ideas and releases happened on a monthly basis.

PSVR1 was simply better game wise. More people put up with the insane mess setting up and keeping PSVR1 going was with the breakout box, camera placement, ambient light issues, infernal move controllers. The mood was anything is possible, a new era of gaming has started. The mood today is, Sony has abandoned PSVR2, where are the hybrid games, just play wonky PCVR VR mods.

Personal opinion, today is still the most exciting.  More games being released than ever before.  Great mix of AAA and indie.  Tons of great titles to enjoy.   Tons of creative games with indies such as Cocoon.  

Edit

And Nintendo has never been better.  The switch is loaded with amazing titles.

I think gaming is at its Apex.  The 90s had major droughts between releases and I think people forget how broken older games were.  

Many, IMO, seem down on gaming, because exclusives died.  I think people took a lot of pride in exclusives.  

Metaphor and Unicorn Overlord both look amazing, but I haven't found the time.  

I see that argument made a lot in this thread. Yet that's bypassing the question.

Otherwise the best time to be a reader is now, best time to be a movie watcher is now, best time to be an art lover is now, best time to be a music lover is now, best time to be a collector is now. Every creative industry you have access to all older created stuff. That doesn't make now the golden age for any of those creative industries.

So that argument just renders the question moot.

.