Better Games Today?

[Bolivar]

Kotaku & Gamespy inspired thread...

So reading these two articles made me want to throw up. Basically there's a part in the original Gamespy article that posits that not only were fewer games released back in the day, but fewer good games were released.

And the example he gives is that the 10th best game of 1994 was Boogerman...

A stunning, shining example of why some people shouldn't be allowed to use the internet. Mostly, and ironically, because a simple Google search of "Top 10 Games of 1994" unleashed a wonderful sensation of nostalgia for me. For the SEGA Genesis there were timeless classics like Sonic 3, Streets of Rage III, Virtua Racer, Super smurfing Street Figher II (console), Mortal Kombat II, and SHINING FORCE II. A PC 1994 list reveals Sim City 2000, Theme Park, Doom II, Star Wars: Tie Fighter, and WARCRAFT: ORCS & HUMANS. The only thing I really need to say to represent other consoles is Super Metroid, anything else would be redundant.

I think it's safe to say most of us would agree 1994 was a far better year for gaming than 2009.

Now, maybe I'm getting worked up too much because after all, the guy who wrote this is a comedian. But if he was jesting with Boogerman, Stephen Totilo of Kotaku didn't get the joke. There's absolutely a growing number of journalists who feel this way, and not only does it nauseate me, it starkly contrasts an emergent conclusion we had here in one of our recap threads looking back on the last decade of gaming. I'm of the mind (and some of you are here) that there was far more crap, truly bad games in every sense of standards, back then that were utterly unplayable and an insult to the medium.

However, there's far more mediocre games that we have to sort through today. It seems like there's more good games because we currently have a Cartel of publishers, journalists, and retailers, congruently working their utter hardest to convince us that (x) or (y) game will be a big event that we all need to play.

But that can't be the only explanation, and reading these two articles I've found the other. Stephen Totilo, Michael McWhertor, and whoever else at Kotaku have a very valid and real reason for honestly believing in their hearts that Modern Warfare 2 is a top class game:

They simply didn't play any good games back in the day. And they, and many of these other clowns on top gaming sites shouldn't be game journalists for it.

For those with attention deficiency disorders, here is a summarized snippet of the general ramblings for you to ponder over - (I love our sites replacement for "Too Long; Didn't Read):

They're trying to rewrite history. Our history, yours and mine.