We see the words "golden age" define a lot of rises in inventive years or decades of certain genres, such as the golden age of music or even the golden age of porn. However, what does one consider the golden age of video games?
Personally, I believe this concept exists within the early 2000s. Graphics were less of a priority than they are today, and many focused more on the idea of gameplay than "cinematic-like visuals". I'll base my argument on a few games I've been lucky to experience, mainly first person shooters:
1. Tribes 2
This was a sequel to the original Tribes, and while many people would argue the original Tribes was a greater game, I believe it deserves a seat here. This game took full advantage of the Torque engine at the time, notable for its revolutionary ability to make massive landscapes to bound across on jetpacks. It balanced this fast-paced movement with rather slow and calculated fighting, relying on mostly on slow-moving slugs and machine gunnery, which caused users to take more time to reflect on their reflexes rather than "run and gun". Not to mention, the Torque engine was easily modable, and gave birth to many great modifications...one being the "Construction Mod", a gametype that could easily be argued as an indirect precursor to many sandbox games today.
2. UT2k3/UT2k4
People may argue against this, but I believe this game series was truly revolutionary in the FPS genre. Unlike Tribes, this took both fast-paced movement and fast-paced shooting and made a deadly combination of the two. While most purely good "twitch shooters" nowadays are hard to come by, this was a highly acrobatic game that was popular to many people. Quake III could also be arguably in this list, being released extremely late in 1999.
3. Red Faction
Boy, this as a series went down the shitter. But the original game was extremely inventive, regardless of the question wondering if GeoMod was a gimmick or not. For those that don't know, the original Geomod was an engine that allowed for COMPLETELY destructable terrain, not just the specific buildings you see in modern gaming. You could drop entire bridges on enemies, dig tunnels to their base, or simply lay trap pits for unsuspecting players. It was a great concept until cheaters took advantage and created massive holes in the environment, effectively destroying the map.
Of course there are many other games worth mentioning, such as HL2's popularization of physics, but all-in-all I feel that the the early 2000s were the golden age of gaming, as they focused more on intuitive gameplay than cinematic flair. But that's just my opinion, let's hear yours.
I consider 1985-to-2001 the Golden Age of gaming.
At the start of the era, game visuals for home consoles began being more recognizable as characters than as just pixels. By 1989, not only had lush, 16-bit graphics emerged at a viable price with the Sega Master System/Genesis, but the Game Boy came out and completely revolutionized portable gaming. During the early 90s, the Sega vs. Nintendo (and to a lesser extent, Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Sega) rivalry was arguably the fiercest in the industry. Plus, the radical conversion from floppies and cartridges to discs began to unfold. Although it was at first only really viable on PCs at first, between 1993 and 1997 the ratio of 2D games to 3D games swayed wildly from the former to the latter. This caused a rapid transition involving gameplay archetype changes more radical than before will exist after it. Though the Sega Genesis and SNES had a handful of 3D games, the PS1 and N64 (and Saturn) showed the true potential of 3D gaming. While the SNES and Genesis' 3D games were mostly on-rails or racing, platforming was finally viable in morre than a 2D plane, resulting in a multitude of new genres and sub-genres. By the end, even newer tech was expanding on the possibilities of 3D, such as the Dreamcast, but as budgets went up, unique and independent games started to either remain in the shadows of PC games or reduced in prominence on consoles. This trend, starting from 2001 onward with the release of the Gamecube, PS2, Dreamcast and Xbox, set the dominoes to fall that caused the stagnation that began 5 years later. It would be nearly a decade before the beginning of the 6th generation before indie games would re-emerge in full force, thanks to the benefits of commonplace internet and therefore digital distribution becoming viable.
That is why I consider 1985-2001 (the 3rd generation, 4th generation, 5th and transition into the 6th) to be the Golden Age of gaming. Graphics might be getting better, but in my opinion the originality and diversity that occurred in those 17 years will always be the greatest strides for gaming.
(It's usually more common to consider the emergence of video games in the 70s to the crash of 1983 as the actual Golden Age, with the above being a Platinum/Renaissance, but in my opinion that was more-or-less a Bronze Age in terms of quality [control].)
i feel it's around 2001-2005, for the same reason as OP: more focus was on the gameplay, rather than the visual experience.
I have no idea, you can probably find a good game from all years.. I'm very critical towards most games, and very very picky about my video game purchases.
But I have to say in the older days, not even too old days, but the developers actually put their ass into creating a game to be shipped as is and there was absolutely NONE of that early-access bullshit, development and fixing things after the game was put out.. which is also actually a fine approach as long as the developers know what they're doing. Although it could be the economy that drives a lot of developers into this.. but then again shit like BF4? Absolutely no excuse.
I don't think there is a single golden age for gaming. Games are a wildly subjective topic and what one person considers the pinnacle of gaming another will consider the worst thing to ever grace a cartridge. I, for one, couldn't care less about games older than 1998 or so, because I just don't find enjoyment in 2D games or platformers...which comprise the vast majority of games older than 1998. But other people feel the SNES was the best gaming platform to ever exist because that's the type of gaming they enjoy. Which is fine.
I will say, however, that there have been times when things were better. The era between 1998 and 2004, for example, was far better than the era of the boring grey MMS that followed shortly after. The SNES era was far better for players than the Atari era. And right now we're entering an era where indie games are actually [i]good.[/i] For the most part. I suppose you could call these eras golden ages if you wanted.
I wouldn't say that there is a single "golden age" for gaming as a whole, but for systems and genres. The past few years have shown a huge surge in actually [I]good[/I] indie games, but a huge surge in broken high-profile releases (X Rebirth, Battlefield 4, etc) and stagnation from AAA developers (Call of Duty, primarily).
The mid 1990s and onwards could be considered a golden age for RTSes, for example - BattleZone, Starcraft, Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander, etc. All had their own unique take on the RTS concept and had their own charm.
[QUOTE=Water-Marine;43638812]We see the words "golden age" define a lot of rises in inventive years or decades of certain genres, such as the golden age of music or even the golden age of porn. However, what does one consider the golden age of video games?
Personally, I believe this concept exists within the early 2000s. Graphics were less of a priority than they are today, and many focused more on the idea of gameplay than "cinematic-like visuals". I'll base my argument on a few games I've been lucky to experience, mainly first person shooters:
1. Tribes 2
This was a sequel to the original Tribes, and while many people would argue the original Tribes was a greater game, I believe it deserves a seat here. This game took full advantage of the Torque engine at the time, notable for its revolutionary ability to make massive landscapes to bound across on jetpacks. It balanced this fast-paced movement with rather slow and calculated fighting, relying on mostly on slow-moving slugs and machine gunnery, which caused users to take more time to reflect on their reflexes rather than "run and gun". Not to mention, the Torque engine was easily modable, and gave birth to many great modifications...one being the "Construction Mod", a gametype that could easily be argued as an indirect precursor to many sandbox games today.
[/QUOTE]
Strictly speaking, Torque evolved [I]from[/I] Tribes 2. :v:
T2 ran on its own purpose-built engine, Dynamix / Garage Games polished it up and such then sold it as the Torque engine.
[QUOTE=Saber15;43661144]Strictly speaking, Torque evolved [I]from[/I] Tribes 2. :v:
T2 ran on its own purpose-built engine, Dynamix / Garage Games polished it up and such then sold it as the Torque engine.[/QUOTE]
Damn, I didn't know that. But it makes me love the game even more :v:
[QUOTE=Saber15;43661144]I wouldn't say that there is a single "golden age" for gaming as a whole, but for systems and genres. The past few years have shown a huge surge in actually [I]good[/I] indie games, but a huge surge in broken high-profile releases (X Rebirth, Battlefield 4, etc) and stagnation from AAA developers (Call of Duty, primarily).
The mid 1990s and onwards could be considered a golden age for RTSes, for example - BattleZone, Starcraft, Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander, etc. All had their own unique take on the RTS concept and had their own charm.
Strictly speaking, Torque evolved [I]from[/I] Tribes 2. :v:
T2 ran on its own purpose-built engine, Dynamix / Garage Games polished it up and such then sold it as the Torque engine.[/QUOTE]
My personal favorite RTS is Wargame: Airland Battle. It's the pinnacle of strategy imo.
Each age of gaming is golden in its own way.
[QUOTE=maximizer39v2;43672865]My personal favorite RTS is Wargame: Airland Battle. It's the pinnacle of strategy imo.[/QUOTE]
eh the way i see it theres like 4 types of RTS's,
there's your global RTS like planetary anihalation
local quick base-builders like Command and Conquer
the long-game like starcraft or warcraft III
then there's pure combat games like wargames which are very tactic oriented
none are immediatly better than the rest
id say though the golden age of gaming is probably from around 1995-2004ish durring that time the industry was swarmed with publishers, but studios like EA hadn't gobbled up everyone yet, many innovative games came along or very creative games. fallout,CnC,WCIII,Starcraft,CalloDuty,Halo.... the list goes on and on, many of the major franchises that are AAA games today got their start durring that period, and many early 3D games had innovative gameplay like battlezone commander which was a hybrid fps/rts
today i think we are in a renasance of gaming, now the technology exists to make high quality games without the thousands of man-hours and dozens of programmers as well as a solid distribution system which lets them get into the market. Also game engines like source exist and allow for relatively easy game creation, something which didn't exist back in the 90s or even 10 years ago
I'd put my vote down on the 96-03 era. Multiple genres reached their apex, and a number of others firmly established themselves (while also reaching a fairly interesting height).
The story driven RPGs pretty much ruled over this period. Baldur's gate, planescape, fallout 1+2, lionhearth mny others.
The RPG shooter hybrids established themselves as a possible genre while also putting strong focus on gameplay and story telling. System shock 2, Deus ex1, thiefs.
It was the crown age of the RTS, while also showing some of the genre kings whcih exist to this day. Starcraft, total annihilation, dune, command and conquers and near the end of the era you had Generals, BFME and others.
The tactical shooter was present
The arcade shooter had some memorable entrants like UT99, Q3a, tribes
Perhaps the most absent genre was the arcade holiday shooter which began to appear only later on and even old "army" arcade shooters were somewhat less based on scripted, player robbed of agency moments like the old MOH and CODs.
The story driven shooter pretty much gestated as well, with HL1.
After that, you had a pretty big lul imho for a few years.
EDIT
One can't also forget the fact the handheld market boomed under nintendo, metroid 2, pokemon and others.
EDIT2
In terms of generations I'm not entirely sure. It would probably be the PSx into Xbox|Ps2 era. But I've mostly hung around the PC so any kind of strict generation delimitation doesn't make much sense. One merely can observe the increasing influence the console controller had over PC genres. Mostly in two aspects.
Simplified level design - less vertical differentiation as well as a removal of side paths in levels and a slow enforcing of straight pathways.
Simplified control schema. A single key might often do multiple functions, which was fairly new.
[QUOTE=The Duke;43645394]I consider 1985-to-2001 the Golden Age of gaming.
At the start of the era, game visuals for home consoles began being more recognizable as characters than as just pixels. By 1989, not only had lush, 16-bit graphics emerged at a viable price with the Sega Master System/Genesis, but the Game Boy came out and completely revolutionized portable gaming. During the early 90s, the Sega vs. Nintendo (and to a lesser extent, Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Sega) rivalry was arguably the fiercest in the industry. Plus, the radical conversion from floppies and cartridges to discs began to unfold. Although it was at first only really viable on PCs at first, between 1993 and 1997 the ratio of 2D games to 3D games swayed wildly from the former to the latter. This caused a rapid transition involving gameplay archetype changes more radical than before will exist after it. Though the Sega Genesis and SNES had a handful of 3D games, the PS1 and N64 (and Saturn) showed the true potential of 3D gaming. While the SNES and Genesis' 3D games were mostly on-rails or racing, platforming was finally viable in morre than a 2D plane, resulting in a multitude of new genres and sub-genres. By the end, even newer tech was expanding on the possibilities of 3D, such as the Dreamcast, but as budgets went up, unique and independent games started to either remain in the shadows of PC games or reduced in prominence on consoles. This trend, starting from 2001 onward with the release of the Gamecube, PS2, Dreamcast and Xbox, set the dominoes to fall that caused the stagnation that began 5 years later. It would be nearly a decade before the beginning of the 6th generation before indie games would re-emerge in full force, thanks to the benefits of commonplace internet and therefore digital distribution becoming viable.
That is why I consider 1985-2001 (the 3rd generation, 4th generation, 5th and transition into the 6th) to be the Golden Age of gaming. Graphics might be getting better, but in my opinion the originality and diversity that occurred in those 17 years will always be the greatest strides for gaming.
(It's usually more common to consider the emergence of video games in the 70s to the crash of 1983 as the actual Golden Age, with the above being a Platinum/Renaissance, but in my opinion that was more-or-less a Bronze Age in terms of quality [control].)[/QUOTE]
Shit man, where were you when I had to get good marks on essays in highschool
The late 1990's and early 2000's were when a ton of unique IP's started being invented and high quality games in all genres were being produced. Or maybe I'm just nostalgic, iunno.
The late 1980's and early 1990's were full of shitty games if any popular youtuber is to be trusted.
From what I can tell, that era was full of people developing games with the soul intention of profit, as there was no real criticism back then to keep them in check.
The late 2000's lead to similar stagnation, where we mostly have generic games or the same few franchises releasing games year after year.
Sure, graphics and technology have improved, but the actual [I]quality[/I] of the games has not, if anything its gone downwards.
Though at least the next gen is promising some new franchises.
Depending on your age, any decade can be seen as the golden age for gaming.
I would say that we have simply not reached it yet. The golden age will probably start to take shape at the time we start integrating our minds with technology.
personaly i think the golden age of gaming is between third and the fifth generation.
Because many IPs has been maked and later recived sequels, and also on every generation there was a technological "gap", like a massive improvment on every generation in every single aspect.
I'd say late 90s/early 2000s was a golden age because we achieved quality 3d graphics and had a great output of innovative titles. You had stuff like Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Half-Life, Fallout, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, GTA III, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy VII.
I'd say right now, gaming is in a silver age. Indies are becoming more prominent Steam store proves PC gaming is perfectly viable.
Games from the early 2000's were amazing. I was too young at the time to fully appreciate the games I played and I barely remember most of them. The only three games I can remember are Blinx, AvP2 and UT2004.
I agree that we're in a silver age of gaming right now, lots of good games being released. With any luck, we can enter another golden age (or a bronze age of F2Ps)
When you think about it the golden age is either now or it hasn't come yet, there are more gamers than ever before and people play loads of different games, indie developers are on the rise and it's a biiig industry
[QUOTE=Water-Marine;43638812]
Personally, I believe this concept exists within the early 2000s. Graphics were less of a priority than they are today, and many focused more on the idea of gameplay than "cinematic-like visuals". I'll base my argument on a few games I've been lucky to experience, mainly first person shooters[/QUOTE]
Graphics were a huge priority for AAA industry games and still are. Not much has changed and there has always been exceptions.
I think we're entering into that age right now. Indie developers have exploded in popularity, competitive gaming is actually getting televised and we have more genre's than ever.
Different genre's and types of games all have their own golden ages though and it really all comes down to personal preference.
I don't think there's a golden age of gaming, because we have always had games that are worthless, and games that are amazing.
The golden age of gaming is yet to come, here's why.
We're going to reach a plateu soon, where console companies won't have the resources to get better graphics for new systems, and, much like the film industries, a game getting good marks will rely on Gameplay and Story, instead of "OMG GRAFIX? 10 OTTA 10". And that's when Nintendo will again prevail.
[QUOTE=Pizzabeard;43785130]The golden age of gaming is yet to come, here's why.
We're going to reach a plateu soon, where console companies won't have the resources to get better graphics for new systems, and, much like the film industries, a game getting good marks will rely on Gameplay and Story, instead of "OMG GRAFIX? 10 OTTA 10". And that's when Nintendo will again prevail.[/QUOTE]
I hope you're right about that
The 1990s 16Bit era gaming is what i considered the golden age of Gaming. Back when Sonic the Hedgehog and Megaman X was great. SEGA and Nintendo was in the pinnicle of innovation. Mortal Kombat was the earliest games to start controversy of videogame violence.
EA and Activision was good back in the 90s before they become money grabbing pigs. Videogames was much more fun and harder in the early 90s. The SEGA Genesis/Megadrive was what led to the 16bit wars with the Nintendo SNES.
I try to think back of the most memorable moments in gaming. I'd say the n64/ps1-gamecube/ps2/xbox era. Although I started with the SNES I remember playing Super Mario 64, Smash Bros, Yoshis Story, Crash Bandicoot, Digimon World, Sonic Adventure, Jak and Daxter, God of War, Devil May Cry, Ratchet and Clank, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 2, and Halo as some of my most memorable gaming moments.
1991-2003 for sure we had great consoles then, awesome pc community, It was amazing, too bad I was born late in that era
Right now.
Any older title you want to play can most likely be run through an emulator or bought on the cheap.
We've also just ended an extended generation with the most new IP's in history for a single gen, which can also be bought cheap.
And then every other 10 years or so there will be another point in time just like today.
[QUOTE=Super Muffin;43860905]Right now.
Any older title you want to play can most likely be run through an emulator or bought on the cheap.
And then every other 10 years or so there will be another point in time just like today.[/QUOTE]
I disagree with this mentality because fifty years from now you could still use the same logic to state "Oh you can still play the older and better games, just get an emulator".
What matters is the quality of games being put out today, not how accessible old games are.
[quote]We've also just ended an extended generation with the most new IP's in history for a single gen, which can also be bought cheap.[/quote]
This is valid but personally I'm not too interested in the new IP's.
Personally for me as an FPS addict it's the mid 90's to mid-ish 00.
Big things started to happen in that time and we got to see the evolution of gaming and it wasn't at the expense of everything else. CoD was a great new franchise, Medal of honour was in it's prime and Battlefield was doing it's own thing on bigger scale and you know what, despite being all WW2 games they all had their own identity. Now when i play any of those 3 titles it just feels like exactly the same experience.
CS got a new lick of paint, RTCW was still around and lead onto quake wars. Planet side was massive, Deus Ex / Half life/ System Shock 2 were all fantastic, Unreal Tournament added vehicles.
Theif deadly Shadows was great.
If you look at now, most of the big games on the market are either
watered down sequels,
Clones
failed to push on and just stayed nearly the same.
Or they just straight up died.
Obviously i do enjoy new games but back then, there simply was too many good games coming out that i couldn't buy them all, now new games that I'm interested in are few and far between.
i feel as if the pixellated era(i dunno what years it was) was the golden age, because as of right now we're going through a "renaissance" of retro style'd arcade games, not in the mainstream but if you look at the indie developers which make up a really really large population, they're all going for a retro style of video games and platformers
to me it felt like 1998 - 2007
[editline]12th February 2014[/editline]
brought stuff like
gta: vice city
metal gear solid
half-life 1/2
counter strike 1.6/source
age of empires II
Simcity 4
quake III arena
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
