Old time gamers

JD2013 · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

You clearly never knew the pain of loading a Commodore 64 tape.

P3ZZL3 · September 2015

@vamp_emily Occasionally on the very rare chance. Normally linked with Dust build up or Heat.

Look at the more traditional style of consoles like N16/32/64 - You couldn't download games, patches, upgrades. Games went through PROPER QA - none of this half assed "QA" that we see these days where everyone can just use the "Patching" excuse...

Belidos · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

Did they crash?

You don't know what crashing is until you have experienced it on one of the tape driven monstrosities we used to all computer! Half an hour of loading from a tape listening to it screech only for it to have loaded a piece of code badly throw up a ton of squiggly lines and with a loud beep turn itself off. Now that was what crashing was all about back then.

IKilled007 · September 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFsOUbZ0Lr0

CapnPhoton · September 2015

terrordactyl1971 wrote: »

I think my first system was an Intellivision around 1980 ish

Me too.

PinoZino wrote: »

And the pressure for the dev people was less: few competition and so was the involved money.

Many games had no deadline to deliver as well, for sure with the games made by 1, 2 or 3 people at home.

There were deadlines and sometimes it was a 'get it done or your fired and someone else will finish it' thing.

There were fewer games, which is why each one mattered. It was damaging to make a bad game and try to absorb the losses in the next one if that was even an option.

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

I think the main difference is that the Internet allows us to hear the loudest complainers disproportionately. Vocal gaming minorities seem like majorities because they won't shut up.

I don't think most players are complaining about ESO. But a decent percentage of complainers like to take their complaints public and dominate the discourse.

As someone who listened to a lot of sports radio in the 80s, people were pretty good at complaining back then too.

Yeah. All you have to do is spend an hour on youtube to see that quite a few people are probably quite miserable to be around.

Sports tend to bring out obsessive compulsive behavior in people. I have a friend on facebook who has literally made 100 posts in the last 2 months on the football deflation thing.

Robbmrp · September 2015

I'm 46 and have been a gamer all my life starting from the Atari 2600 all the way to my custom PC's I put together.

I pride myself in doing quality work and expect that of others, so I may be a little harder on @ZOS than I should be. But then again, we are paying for something after all so you expect a certain amount of quality to it or at least a decent resolution time frame on a fix. If the big things were fixed a lot sooner than they are currently, there would be a LOT more people playing and happy with this game.

The fact that we have bugs/exploits in the game months after they are reported and acknowledged by @ZOS says they need to concentrate a lot more on quality. Things feel like they are rushed into production and that there's no actual testing being done. It really feels like the only testing they do is to see if their code loads, if it doesn't crash they think it's ready for the live server. No actual checking to see if things are "working as intended" or not.

Adamon2 · September 2015

Bunch of youngsters you are... 51 here. My first computer games were on the TRS-80. You had to turn on the computer type in the code you found in a programming book. If you liked the game you would save it to a cassette tape so you didn't have to type it in again. It took a while to type it in. If you made a mistake you spent more time debugging it. TRON!

Robbmrp · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

The problem with this is look at any product made today regardless of where it's made. That same product made 50 years ago was built to last. The only things corporations care about today isn't how long their products will last, but how soon consumers have to buy a new one....NOTHING is built to last anymore.

UltimaJoe777 · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

If by crash you mean froze then yes. Then again, all consoles thereafter did the same, depending on the cartridge/disc's condition.

PinoZino · September 2015

Grunim wrote: »

@PinoZino - The MUD screenshot was from Aardwolf. That was the last MUD I played before shifting my attention to graphical MMOs. Cool MUD and they even worked hard to be accessible for blind gamers too.

That 's so typical for the MUD-community to think about the blind gamers. Nice.

Memories.

While it's rare, I still dream at night a bit about playing MUD. lol

PinoZino · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

Less than now. But it's not fair to compare: hardware and games were much simpler. Many famous Atari 2600 games were created by just 1 man.

However, they had bugs and glitches too.

Browiseth · September 2015

So....
"devs can make bad games and that's okay because it will still be better than bad games 30 years ago"
Yeah...No, I don't get you.

P3ZZL3 · September 2015

One of my favourite loading screens

Victus · September 2015

This reminds me that the Transformer toys I grew up playing with were metal and hardy as f***. Now they are all cheap plastic and break easily, because it's cheaper to make them that way.

Heck we tied a GI Joe to a bottle rocket (Ace, to be exact) and shot it off. All it did was kinda broke his helmet.

Back on topic, I think what people are saying, is that due to the complexity of games nowadays, it makes sense for it not to be 100% perfect, though we all wish it were (and developers do too). From our perspective, we just kind of roll with it. Not saying it's okay, as that is another thing entirely.

vamp_emily · September 2015

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

If by crash you mean froze then yes. Then again, all consoles thereafter did the same, depending on the cartridge/disc's condition.

I keep on forgetting some people are on console. I am on pc. When I refer to crashing, I am referring to a very annoying crash report window that pops up and says something like "ESO quit working".

Cadbury · September 2015

Speaking as an "old guy" (38 here), the fact that technology has advanced so much since the 70's/80's has caused a floodgate of problems that were not introduced back then. So, yes nowadays it seems like everything we have is either buggy or broken. As we live in an era where people freely exchange information in media, we are more apt to hear about it.

Was it "better" back then? No. not really. Just different. As time goes on, we have adapted to the changing role of technology in society. Better tech means bigger problems.

tl;dr: Same stuff, different era

BabeestorGor · September 2015

Robbmrp wrote: »

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

The problem with this is look at any product made today regardless of where it's made. That same product made 50 years ago was built to last. The only things corporations care about today isn't how long their products will last, but how soon consumers have to buy a new one....NOTHING is built to last anymore.

Built in or planned obsolesence goes back earlier than the 60s, as far back as the 30s although it wasn't recognised as an issue until the 50s.

rb2001 · September 2015

Strange take.

I'm the opposite of you. I played all the old games, starting with SNES, and I wish modern games were good, and had actual gameplay like the old ones.

Games today are all this "epic" graphics, music, VA, everything. All of these epic pieces, but it seems like they are trying so hard to be a legit good game. Games today try to hard to be awesome with all this epic fluff and presentation values.

Super Metroid is better than anything made since, except Metroid Prime and maybe a few others, maybe RE4.

Super Metroid has gameplay that is not rinse, repeat, get new stat, rinse repeat. Super Metroid is effortlessly masterful. A complete domination of the gaming medium, of what it means to be a video game.

While playing, the music lulls and draws you in. It is slightly hypnotic. You begin to see past the 16 bit graphics and in your mind's eye, so much detail abounds. You are constantly thinking about what you are going to do next, what you need to go, where you need to go, how to solve this puzzle you saw 100 miles away in another cave complex.

It starts as a single point and them blooms into a complex canvas of different gameplay that keeps changing as you play. The game is without flaw.

Simply put, Super Metroid is more immersive, and has vastly better attention to detail and crafting how the player should feel while playing, atmosphere crafting, even being a 16 bit sidescroller, than ESO does (or countless other modern games with their high production values, tons of graphics and nothing to actually do, no actual gameplay, turn your brain off and kill stuff).

I love ESO, but when I play it, I constantly see things and think about "man I wish that didn't happen" or "man I wish it did this".

All we do in ESO is go to a place, talk to NPC, suffer through incredibly dry, boring, over-exposed dialog, get quest, go kill monsters, get gold, get new sword, break it down, rinse, repeat. Some of us also kill players.

When I play the old Nintendo greats, Metroid Primes (which to be fair are modern game, but one of the exceptions to the rule), I don't have a single problem. Everything is perfect.

Seamonkey001 · September 2015

I am 31 and remember playing Burger Time on my father Intellivision when I was just a wee lad.

vamp_emily · September 2015

Sounds like there is allot of history in this thread.

I must share with you that TESO is literally my first gaming experience. I have played a few console games in the past but no game has gotten my attention like this one. I think I like the fact that you can interact with other players.

About 4 months ago a friend of mine asked me to join her on ESO. I was so not a gamer, but she finally talked me into it.

My first experience was trying to escape from the prison ( I think that is level 1 in the game ). I heard loud noises and fighting going on, I had no clue on how to use the keyboard and mouse as a controller. It was a rough start because I was kind of afraid to play.

Level 3, I get to Daggerfalls, and I was amazed to see everyone walking around, they could chat and you could interact with them. It was a really nice experience, until I accidentally hit a guard, and repeatedly got beat up and I almost quit the game then.

A few months ago, I went to PvP to collect a few skyshards and seen a huge group pass me up, and i followed them and i got into a battle. And now that is all I do, I kill people and for some strange reason I like it.

The biggest complaint I have with this game is the balancing of skills. I spent the last 4 months creating characters and learning play styles, then someone complains and next thing ESO does is nerf something. I think it is so unfair.

I can just vision it now, in 20 years from now I will be telling the noobs my first gaming experience was playing The Elder Scrolls Online on a Digital Storm Krypton 17.3 Inch Laptop, Intel Core i7 4910MQ, Quad Core ( 8MB Cache ), 16GB DDR3 1600MH, with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB.

I actually had to look up my computer specs, I'm not a geek like most you guys are. But in 20 years from now I wonder what everyone will be gaming on? Cellphones? VR headsets?

Soulshine · September 2015

The first gaming system in my house was a Magnavox Odyssey and I past age 44 a long time ago.

"Progress" in the industry has not been all it's cracked up to be and there are reasons plenty to voice complaints, whether you played in the 70s or not.

Smitch_59 · September 2015

Adamon2 wrote: »

Bunch of youngsters you are... 51 here. My first computer games were on the TRS-80. You had to turn on the computer type in the code you found in a programming book. If you liked the game you would save it to a cassette tape so you didn't have to type it in again. It took a while to type it in. If you made a mistake you spent more time debugging it. TRON!

I got you beat, I'm 55.

I too had a TRS-80. Games were typically written in BASIC. My first RPG/dungeon crawl game was Temple of Apshai, which looked like this on my B&W screen:

I remember making hand-drawn maps as I explored dungeons so I could find my way out again! It was great fun.

TheValkyn · September 2015

If a game isn't quality then people own every right to make a complaint. They paid real money for it and the product's quality should reflect that. Old, young or dead even this concept holds true. The gaming industry has evolved but it's progression is not an excuse for apologetic excusation.

Tandor · September 2015

I'm 65 and have been playing computer games since 1983 (Melbourne House's The Hobbit on the Spectrum). I came to MMORPGs in '98 via text adventures (one of which I wrote and had published) and MUDs.

I think there are a couple of reasons why I don't complain about the games I play, the obvious one being that if I don't like a game I don't play it, I just move on. I don't see the point in sitting on a forum whining about it! Why detract from other people's enjoyment of it when I could be spending the time enjoying a different game instead?

The other reason relates to my playstyle. Given my age I don't have RL friends who play MMOs (I had a few but they've all passed on in one way or another), and you'll all be relieved to know that I don't play computer games in order to socialise with people 40 or 50 years younger than me - that's called grooming

! I have no interest in PvP and don't play competitively, thus I don't worry about things like class balance, bugs, FPS, lag and so on - I either don't experience those things or they don't bother me.

There are plenty of older players around, most of them are too busy playing the game to be bothered with all the forum negativity.

Junglejim82 · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

Sounds like there is allot of history in this thread.

I must share with you that TESO is literally my first gaming experience. I have played a few console games in the past but no game has gotten my attention like this one. I think I like the fact that you can interact with other players.

About 4 months ago a friend of mine asked me to join her on ESO. I was so not a gamer, but she finally talked me into it.

My first experience was trying to escape from the prison ( I think that is level 1 in the game ). I heard loud noises and fighting going on, I had no clue on how to use the keyboard and mouse as a controller. It was a rough start because I was kind of afraid to play.

Level 3, I get to Daggerfalls, and I was amazed to see everyone walking around, they could chat and you could interact with them. It was a really nice experience, until I accidentally hit a guard, and repeatedly got beat up and I almost quit the game then.

A few months ago, I went to PvP to collect a few skyshards and seen a huge group pass me up, and i followed them and i got into a battle. And now that is all I do, I kill people and for some strange reason I like it.

The biggest complaint I have with this game is the balancing of skills. I spent the last 4 months creating characters and learning play styles, then someone complains and next thing ESO does is nerf something. I think it is so unfair.

I can just vision it now, in 20 years from now I will be telling the noobs my first gaming experience was playing The Elder Scrolls Online on a Digital Storm Krypton 17.3 Inch Laptop, Intel Core i7 4910MQ, Quad Core ( 8MB Cache ), 16GB DDR3 1600MH, with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB.

I actually had to look up my computer specs, I'm not a geek like most you guys are. But in 20 years from now I wonder what everyone will be gaming on? Cellphones? VR headsets?

Emily denial is futile , I've never classed myself as a nerd neither would friends . I'm a big handsome jock . Play sports , keep fit , ladies man , modest as hell but I've finally accepted at 32 I am actually a bit of a gamer nerd. It was accelerated from my 28th year onwards when I got heavily into mmos. Don't hide from it , embrace it like I do (in private , among gamer friends but never in public)

IKilled007 · September 2015

Adamon2 wrote: »

Bunch of youngsters you are... 51 here. My first computer games were on the TRS-80. You had to turn on the computer type in the code you found in a programming book. If you liked the game you would save it to a cassette tape so you didn't have to type it in again. It took a while to type it in. If you made a mistake you spent more time debugging it. TRON!

cloadm! I used to type code (basic) into my Trash 80 Model III, usually from some PC magazine. I also did a little programming on it myself.

kevlarto_ESO · September 2015

kalimar44 wrote: »

I'm 44 years old and I've been playing pc and console games since 1977. I truly believe we are the gamers that rarely complain about any game that is made today. You might ask yourself why?? The answer is simple. We went from playing games that had a bouncing ball that went back and fourth(PONG)to the games of today.
So in till you had to live through all of the games from the 1970s to this day you don't have any reason to complain. So if your around my age and you have been a dedicated gamer for all these years you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's all I have to say.

I am 57, my gaming goes back even further, and growing with games and seeing how they started to what they are today is amazing, I have worked in the IT field since w.a.n.g mainframes and vampire taps, up to a windows Enterprise administrator for a State agency, to see games go from text based to wire frames, to crude animations, to todays graphics has been an experience and gives me a certain appreciation for the games I play today, I am still an avid pvp'er and always do well in my class on the leader board, don't care if I am number 1, just as long as I am having fun.

Most older games were stand alone, some of the first online games I played were text based on a BBS you would log on read the text make a few commands come back later to see the outcome. Mudz were fun, my first graphical mmo was Meridian59 I believe. My first ever computer game was on a TRS80 Level 1, was on a cassette Tape called the Dungeons of Magdar. Was stick figures moving through a black and white grid. I think I owned all the consoles of the day, I had pong, Atari, ColecoVision, Sega, the original Nintendo.

Computers, TI 994A, C64, TRS80 Level1, pc had 286,386,486, Pentium's, was fun times, my first internet access was dial up modems. The 8088 still holds a special place in my history..:) Memory was measured in kilobytes, we only dreamed of megabytes back then now we throw gigabytes around like they are nothing, I have come along way from he days of the 8088 to the I7 with 16gigs of ram, ssd drives, and 100+ Mbs internet speeds.

Soulshine · September 2015

Tandor wrote: »

I'm 65 and have been playing computer games since 1983 (Melbourne House's The Hobbit on the Spectrum). I came to MMORPGs in '98 via text adventures (one of which I wrote and had published) and MUDs.

I think there are a couple of reasons why I don't complain about the games I play, the obvious one being that if I don't like a game I don't play it, I just move on. I don't see the point in sitting on a forum whining about it! Why detract from other people's enjoyment of it when I could be spending the time enjoying a different game instead?

The other reason relates to my playstyle. Given my age I don't have RL friends who play MMOs (I had a few but they've all passed on in one way or another), and you'll all be relieved to know that I don't play computer games in order to socialise with people 40 or 50 years younger than me - that's called grooming ! I have no interest in PvP and don't play competitively, thus I don't worry about things like class balance, bugs, FPS, lag and so on - I either don't experience those things or they don't bother me.

There are plenty of older players around, most of them are too busy playing the game to be bothered with all the forum negativity.

And there are also plenty of us who DO engage in competitve play, PVP, etc. and enjoy being socially active in the game with other people. I dont ask everyone I play with how old they are nor do I care. What I care about is having fun in my games, just like you do.

The issue with these types of threads is that in typical fashion they want to label ALL FORMS of crticisms of the product with mere vacuous nothing better to do negativity. Intelligent indi individuals, which I have not doubt abound here, do happen to still believe in discourse as a means to motivating change where change is needed. If you dont see any reason to voice a complaint, that is great but it doesn't mean there are no reasons. HOW people voice them, is a topic that does merit discussion also, but that is yet another thread.

IKilled007 · September 2015

Smitch_59 wrote: »

Adamon2 wrote: »

Bunch of youngsters you are... 51 here. My first computer games were on the TRS-80. You had to turn on the computer type in the code you found in a programming book. If you liked the game you would save it to a cassette tape so you didn't have to type it in again. It took a while to type it in. If you made a mistake you spent more time debugging it. TRON!

I got you beat, I'm 55. I too had a TRS-80. Games were typically written in BASIC. My first RPG/dungeon crawl game was Temple of Apshai, which looked like this on my B&W screen:

I remember making hand-drawn maps as I explored dungeons so I could find my way out again! It was great fun.

We had the TRS 80 Model III and my friend had the TRS 80 home computer -- on his we used to play Madness and the Minotaur and Bedlam. Both were very frustrating.

SahrotRein · September 2015

I'm not nearly as old as you, rather 20 years younger but I agree with you. Those, who've been around for a long time and have lived through the times when games such as Gothic I were masterpieces can appreciate today's games.

Back in the day, when graphics didn't matter simply because they couldn't matter, all we were looking into was game's story and therefore quests (RPGs). Today's standards are set to achieve greatest looks, clearly visible rain drops sliding down a rock that is reflecting sunlight that afrewards creates a damn rainbow and what not.

Therefore "old gamers" can appreciate other side of every game that is being overlooked today. I still like to remember Gothic I, II or Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna.