Hmmm, I don’t think that I can agree with the point about older games having fewer bugs. In my experience, 2000s 3D games are riddled with bugs to the point of becoming unplayable in many instances.
Comment on Gameplay mechanics were also a lot better with more replayability.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 7 months ago
A couple of points.
We didn’t need online access back then, we had LAN parties.
Most of the time you didn’t need updates, because back then they were much more diligent about making sure a game released without bugs. Yes a few existed, but much less than what you see in today’s game. A showstopper bug was death for sales, since it couldn’t be fixed inexpensively.
And those instruction books, especially you are into artistry, that they put into them, is sorely missed, truly.
ricdeh@lemmy.world 7 months ago
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yeah I always get pushed back on that, but honestly, I’ll “die on that hill”.
Back then corporations had to sell cartridges and ship them, and if they shipped with any bugs, that was the death of the game.
At the end of the day, usually when I’m debating this topic with someone, they can only point to a few examples of bugs in cartridge games or in PC games back then, which was a very small ratio to all the ones that shipped correctly.
My point is basically the ratio of good games to buggy games was a lot less/better back in the day than it is today, because developers are time-pressed and semi-lazy, and they just figured they could fix bugs in post-production.
And funny enough, the pushback I usually get seems to be from astroturfers trying to hide that fact, of not doing as much due diligence before shipping, because it could just be fixed after the fact, regardless if the customer gets a worse product at first or not (not saying that of you, just generally).
TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 7 months ago
There were some pretty bad bargain bin releases, and a lot of games had glitches but I can’t remember any game from a big company that released with a critical bug. I do think today companies are much more blasé about releasing games with serious issues and patching it later.
Mikelius@lemmy.world 7 months ago
And you had to scour forums with dubious links to find official or unofficial patches.
TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Couch multiplayer and LAN parties had a sort of friendly atmosphere that is sorely lacking from most online multiplayer today. Folks are all business, no fun. Even in casual modes people get mad if you fool around.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I miss open server browsers. I had a few servers I would frequent for UT2k4. It was nice just bouncing in for a few rounds. People were there to win, but between teams being shuffled between games and no real ranking system, no one was really a tryhard.