21st-Century Shooters Are No Country for Old Men

[Rocko]

Repost maybe... Can you relate?

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/02/no-country-for-old-men/

 

[TonK]

Repost maybe... Can you relate?

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/02/no-country-for-old-men/

I was only good at Goldeneye - I mean, I was REAL good at it.

I played the likes of Duke Nukem, Hexen and Doom - but all 1P.

Jumping into Halo, I was torn apart.

My brother plays Halo and shit like that, and he can enter a deathmatch and go on a rampage. He's pretty good at them.

Recently, I rediscovered my talent for shmups - I always had the skill for these types of games from the Lifeforce days on the NES to kicking it at the bar with my dad after his baseball games and ripping older guys apart on the Galaga machine - I just never thought I'd own arcade machines with the games I currently play.

I don't think it has much to do with age - its just that these kids are really wired differently.

The majority of us are wired for 2D gaming.

I basically gave up gaming after Final Fantasy VII - in the past 10 years, I've beaten maybe 7 total games?

I just dont find 3D games fun.

I'll play em for a little bit - like GTA, all I did was drive around and kill people.

Halo?

I'd take 2 steps and get sniped.

Now I see all this talk about Bayonetta, Yakuza, and whatever else.

I think its the same shit with different mapping.

My "glory days" and skill level are still 2D, and will always be.

Fuck more than 6 buttons.

 

[Neo Pocky]

I like Lost Planet because it's fun to run around, get in mechs, attach to buildings with the cable. But other shooters are a bit too harsh with the ease of sniping. It's frustrating. It depends more on who plays the game too. Lost Planet seems to have an older crowd than say Halo 3.

 

[jro]

Yeah, article seems right on.

I could play Halo when I was in my early 20's, now when I play it online I have to play it every night for a couple weeks straight before I can even move out of last place in every match, and it's hard to want to do that when the curve is so brutal and unfun.

I tend to get mauled in most other online shooters, too, with the only one I can remember not being overly terrible at (and actually really enjoying, in turn) being Team Fortress 2. And damned if that game doesn't require a pretty high amount of tactical work amongst the team to succeed at, which I admit was probably the biggest reason I was better at it than other online FPSes- wasn't just about twitching the shit out of everyone else.

Some damn good points in that article, I think, real good read there.

 

[Ghost-Dog]

I'm 33, and I definitely don't have the reflexes that I used to.

I still manage to do alright in shooters once I learn the game and maps, and my playstyle is probably a little different. I don't rush in. I try to think things out more. I'm not above hiding near a choke point. And I always play for the team.

I've noticed that many young (teenaged) folk don't seem to utilize teamwork all that well, which is why I prefer playing team oriented games. Good teamwork and experience will often win the day over sheer reflexes and individual skill.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be playing any of these games online though. They just require a lot of time to get good at, and I think they're definitely geared for younger people.

Maybe when I hit 35.. I'm not ready to retire to stuffy old railroad sims yet..

 

[SetaSouji??]

I feel alot better knowing that I'm not the only one that sucks at FPS games. I really have had no desire to play any other than the Goldeneye and the original UT (which in college I fucking destroyed everyone at LAN parties on that game.) However, when I tried Modern Warfare 2, within an hour or so... 15 kills to 140 deaths.

 

[Ghost-Dog]

I feel alot better knowing that I'm not the only one that sucks at FPS games. I really have had no desire to play any other than the Goldeneye and the original UT (which in college I fucking destroyed everyone at LAN parties on that game.) However, when I tried Modern Warfare 2, within an hour or so... 15 kills to 140 deaths.

MW2 takes some time to get into. I got destroyed for my first couple of hours of play. Once you unlock some better weapons and learn the choke points, things get better. Still, I know how you feel. I used to destroy people in the old Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic, but these days I'm lucky to maintain a positive kill to death ratio.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

My dad is in his early 50's and he's still a dominant force and a monster in FPS and he played them from the very first moment. Maybe some old mofos can't let go of the old days. Look at Fighting Games, most of the badasses are people who have been in the scene for a while.

 

[smokehouse]

I have to say...I bored of them long ago.

I know they look better and offer more features but they are still FPS titles to me and I'm sick of them.

FPS titles of today are no different than the flood of one-on-one fighters in the 90's, one after another and most were all the same...*YAWN*...man, getting bored just talking about it...

 

[IsamuBlue]

Really good and well written article.

I agree with TonK. I used to be pretty good at GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Half-Life and it's expansions, Counter-Strike, and Unreal Tournament. But yea, nowadays, when going into a game of MW2, Halo, or more recently, AvP, I can't even find a decent weapon before getting sniped or getting knifed from behind.

I don't think it's so much a matter of young vs. old, but of responsibilities. As we get older, we have jobs, wives/girlfriends, children, worrying about bills, and other obligations. Kids don't have these responsibilities and as sad as it sounds, today we live in a society where children rather play with the latest and greatest electronic entertainment than say, go outside and play football, climb a tree, or build a fort. That, and a lot of parents use TV and video games as an electronic babysitter. I know my sister does with my nephew. So yea, they have all the free time to play for hours on end and get good and climb up the ladder, while most adults may be lucky to get an hour or two of gaming a night.

On the other side though, I agree with the writer of the article. Too many times I try to play a deathmatch and run into a group of youngsters shit talking and throwing around every high school insult in the book, and questioning everyone's sexuality and and the weight and fornication of their mothers. At that point, I'd just as soon turn off my console, or hopefully try to find another game.

 

[lithy]

I suck at all games.

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

They got it down pat on the lack of available gameplay time. I'm lucky if I can fit in an hour every couple of days and with FPS games nowadays it's all about repetition to become better prepared, remember the spawn spots, and just get your practice shooting. I guess that's why I don't really play online either, I'd rather enjoy the game for my own pleasure instead of having to compete against youngsters and their KRDs.

 

[Mike Shagohod]

They got it down pat on the lack of available gameplay time. I'm lucky if I can fit in an hour every couple of days and with FPS games nowadays it's all about repetition to become better prepared, remember the spawn spots, and just get your practice shooting. I guess that's why I don't really play online either, I'd rather enjoy the game for my own pleasure instead of having to compete against youngsters and their KRDs.

WORD.

The other thing concerning this though is the game program themselves. No matter how much they tout it (whatever the company or IP) is going to be "Realistic" it never is. It turns into a frag fest of idiots running around no different than in the QUAKE II days back in '96/'97. Clans does not equate proper tactical operations, and furthermore "The Sniper" role in all of these games, really is a joke. It's little more than a glorified SDM. Not once save (Sniper Elite, now OoP) have I seen online multiplayer games where the designated Snipers actually are protected by a fire team as everyone begins at a spawn point, long enough to disappear, or even better, if someone picks that class, their into-game-spawn insertion point is different from the others, and one has to navigate at distance properly using micro terrain to assist the assault teams, while counter sniping other snipers, taking into account windage, bullet drop, knowing when to dial up and down in elevation, etc.

Yes that's what I look for, and I've yet to see it implemented. This is why I laugh when I see *Sniper* classifications in modern gaming. A man with a telescopic sighted rifle is not a sniper, and these games never allow one to properly assist and even join in with a sniper team who's objectives are particular targets within the bigger battle going on who have to be killed within a certain time schedule, or risk then having to escape out of a friendly aerial bombardment or enemy shelling.

But I guess if that kind of thought went into these kinds of games, the youngsters would cry "This is bullshit!"

 

[Average Joe]

We all play games just as much as 14-year-old kids these days do so don't try to say you don't.

 

[Phyeir]

That was an excellent article (figures it would come from a non-gaming dedicated publication).

I definitely agree with the point on what you are raised on. A lot of those more twitch ready Halo heads I'd bet a good few of us could just into a Mario game and show them a thing or two, but it's what we are used to. Cleared Super Mario Wii so damn fast, those games even 3D are like second nature.

 

[Mike Shagohod]

We all play games just as much as 14-year-old kids these days do so don't try to say you don't.

Yes but who here plays 6 to 18 hours a day, probably 5 days out of a Biblical 7 day week? That's what we did growing up on the NES/Famicom, Mega Drive, etc. And that's what these tweens and teens are doing now. That does make a difference! Hell my 1 year old son can already turn on our computer and open Firefox to the homepage on his own. My 4 year old daughter was doing the same thing at 2, and still hits buttons and shit that brings up menus and stuff I've never seen before.

It's like kids today come out the womb knowing how to interface the Internet, use cell phones and more. We (kind of like our parents with Television itself being invented) evolved with each step of the technology, so while we have a better understanding of it, and have both life and gaming experience over the younger players... THEY have more disposable time and seemingly came into a world already laid out for them where "They just know" how to do it.

I'd love to see more than half of these idiots outside on tactical paintball and/or Airsoft maneuvers preparing for the real thing though. Out there, there isn't any respawn points, no controllers, just your whits, whatever training you have under your belt, what you can carry and LUCK. Skill comes later. Hell I'm rusty on that note but I'd probably count coup on a shitload of them before they got me.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

WORD.

The other thing concerning this though is the game program themselves. No matter how much they tout it (whatever the company or IP) is going to be "Realistic" it never is. It turns into a frag fest of idiots running around no different than in the QUAKE II days back in '96/'97. Clans does not equate proper tactical operations, and furthermore "The Sniper" role in all of these games, really is a joke. It's little more than a glorified SDM. Not once save (Sniper Elite, now OoP) have I seen online multiplayer games where the designated Snipers actually are protected by a fire team as everyone begins at a spawn point, long enough to disappear, or even better, if someone picks that class, their into-game-spawn insertion point is different from the others, and one has to navigate at distance properly using micro terrain to assist the assault teams, while counter sniping other snipers, taking into account windage, bullet drop, knowing when to dial up and down in elevation, etc.

Yes that's what I look for, and I've yet to see it implemented. This is why I laugh when I see *Sniper* classifications in modern gaming. A man with a telescopic sighted rifle is not a sniper, and these games never allow one to properly assist and even join in with a sniper team who's objectives are particular targets within the bigger battle going on who have to be killed within a certain time schedule, or risk then having to escape out of a friendly aerial bombardment or enemy shelling.

But I guess if that kind of thought went into these kinds of games, the youngsters would cry "This is bullshit!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMA_2

 

[Mike Shagohod]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMA_2

I might just make a PC game purchase for the first time in like 12 years. I believe the last game I purchased was Westwood Studios BLADE RUNNER or SHOGO: Mobile Armor Division. Can't remember which came after the other anymore.

If it does what it says it does... oh man.

 

[abasuto]

I'm 33, and I definitely don't have the reflexes that I used to.

My reflexes are as quick as ever, but I lack the patience I use to have on games.

As a kid I'd spend 5-6 hours in a row just trying to pass 1 stage on something like Ninja Gaiden (NES). I just lack that conviction with age.

 

[Mike Shagohod]

My reflexes are as quick as ever, but I lack the patience I use to have on games.

As a kid I'd spend 5-6 hours in a row just trying to pass 1 stage on something like Ninja Gaiden (NES). I just lack that conviction with age.

Yep. These days (even playing the oldies I love and still con-temporarily play) if I lose in an area or in a boss battle more than 3 times, I shut it off for a bit. I don't have the patience I did as a 8, 10, 12, 14 year old anymore.

 

[SonGohan]

I'll fuck up any new kid in Street Fighter.

 

[FormlessOne]

I just had a conversation about how all these new popular games are the same shit. Guy/Girl/Thing with a gun killing soldiers/aliens/zombies/etc. And I know one can argue that a lot of the popular games back in the day were the same way. But in all honesty back then they had to try harder to make something unique and keep you coming back for more. Goldeneye was the only FPS I've ever owned and will continue to be that way. Videogames are getting like the movie industry, remaking and rehashing the same old shit because no one can think of anything better than what's already been done.

 

[ForeverSublime]

I just had a conversation about how all these new popular games are the same shit. Guy/Girl/Thing with a gun killing soldiers/aliens/zombies/etc. And I know one can argue that a lot of the popular games back in the day were the same way. But in all honesty back then they had to try harder to make something unique and keep you coming back for more. Goldeneye was the only FPS I've ever owned and will continue to be that way. Videogames are getting like the movie industry, remaking and rehashing the same old shit because no one can think of anything better than what's already been done.

Check out cheap/inexpensive/browser games. It's a lot easier to be different when you don't have to justify a budget.

Edit: I thought the article was going to be about Shmups, so there's your answer.

 

[T.A.P.]

I find I'm much more impatient with games than when I was younger. It used to be that if I could find anything in a game to like, I would play it for hours, whereas now if I find anything I don't like (boring tutorials, unskippable cutscenes, obnoxious voices, irritating art direction, etc) I'll shut it off almost immediately.

 

[FormlessOne]

Check out cheap/inexpensive/browser games. It's a lot easier to be different when you don't have to justify a budget.

So we should recycle the same shit over and over for the sake of playing it safe? Sounds like a terrible plan.