Why Classic Video Games are GONE, The Death Of Arcade Game Design
3,030Why Classic Video Games are GONE, Death Of Arcade Game Design. Every channel should have a manifesto and this is mine. Today I discuss what I think are the most pressing and important issues with video game design and why "classic" games, as we describe them, are gone. And when I say "classic" I don't just mean 16-bit graphics and chiptunes, I mean that classic design philosophy that many games that we love, including PS2 era games, were created with. This philosophy was born and bred in the arcades, which was the perfect venue to encourage challenging, innovative, and dense video game design. However, with the loss of the arcade and the dominance of the home console market, we have seen game design shift in obvious and subtle ways to HEAVILY favor passive choose-your-own-adventure game design. In fact, the modern game design philosophy is so prevalent that most critics and online pundits truly believe that arcade design philosophy is objectively out of date, like ancient cave painting. I COULD NO DISAGREE MORE.
There is a lot of talk about art in gaming today, how The Last of Us or whatever is artistic because its story rips off The Road by Cormac Mcarthy and mixes it with zombie movies. But in my view, art is about the artist making choices. Art is about expression of the artist, NOT the reader. So with the arcade design philosophy, we see a much more bold and assertive (and my opinion) artistic style of game design where the way the mechanics are crafted and balanced sends a message to the player just as clearly as words on a page. In modern game design, however, modern games want to be everything and nothing at the same time. They want to be a "sandbox" for the players to fiddle around in. Sandboxes can be fun, but they are not compelling. Modern game design is all about off loading the burden of the artist onto the player and handing the player a few toys to play with. In other words, modern game design is particularly crafted towards children. In terms of game design for adults however, who can understand mechanical structure and can even work towards subverting structure, we are getting further and further away from that compelling style of video game design to cater towards literal children, or adults with the maturity of children.
The 5 main concepts I discuss in this vid are: 1. Difficulty Curve, 2. Gameplay Density, 3. Arcades Financially Allowed for Innovative Mechanical Design, 4. The Loss of Scoring System, 5. The loss of timers to FORCE the player to act.
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00:00 If You Use the Term "Quarter Muncher," You should be SHOT... in the leg.
01:26 Reason 1: The GOLDEN Arcade Difficulty Curve is Gone, Now Everything is EASY
04:03 Today's Market LITERALLY Caters to Unskilled PLayers
06:28 Reason 2: Gameplay Density is GONE, S T R E T C H E D Out Content.
09:50 Reason 3: The Arcade ALLOWED Innovation for Game Mechanics
12:50 Reason 4: We've LOST GOOD Scoring Systems (Speedrunning is Not Better or a Replacement)
15:00 Imagine if Devil May Cry 3 Had a Good Scoring System ...
18:00 Yes, Resi 4 Mercs is LIT, and this is why.
18:40 Reason 5: Timers Need to Come Back, Modern Action Games Have No Teeth
22:12 Games need to FORCE the Player to Engage, NO MORE play at your own pace garbage.
#arcade, #gamedesign, #residentevil4remake
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