Is the current interest in collecting retro games a fad?|General Gaming Discussion|Forum|SNES HUB

I once read a fantastic review that really got to the heart of why we still play these games.  In it, it explained that Diablo 3 was a success due to it not making anyone want to play Diablo 2 again. Despite other Diablo clones that have come out, Diablo 2 still had something that made people want to keep playing it. Diablo 3 has successfully replaced Diablo 2 in the appetites.

And is that not what gaming is? An appetite? This made me realize, in crystallized terms, why I keep playing old games. It is not because I am old, a fuddy duddy, a retro gamer. I don’t see myself as a retro gamer. I see myself as an Old School Gamer where I love Old School gaming values.

This gives us a more precise tool in evaluating the quality of video game sequels. If the old game is being played instead of the new one, it shows the new game is not satisfying the appetite correctly.

For many, many people, Super Mario Brothers 3 made Super Mario Brothers obsolete. Given a choice between SMB 3 and SMB 1, nearly everyone chooses SMB 3. The controls are more precise, there is more content, it is just a better game. The reason why modern Zelda fans keep replaying Ocarina of Time  and ALTTP is because the other Zelda games failed. Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, and Skyward Sword failed to make Ocarina of Time obsolete. Why can’t these new games satisfy the appetite?  The Classic Zelda games remain interesting and playable because other Zelda games have not satisfied the similar appetite. A decade from now, people will still be playing Super Metroid even though Metroid: Other M is a much newer game. Super Metroid satisfies something in the appetite that Other M does not.

There is plenty of research, and especially market data, to confirm that the so-called ‘New Market’ that sprung up around the Wii was actually Old Gamers. The Wii was many people’s first game console since the SNES. Now why is that? Wii Sports has more in common with the NES sports games (including NES Golf’s courses taken directly) than anything else. Wii Sports and Wii Play have much in common with PONG and the early arcade games. Wii’s peak revolved around Super Mario Brothers 5 which was food for the 2d Mario gamer.

The point is that if you are consistently playing a video game that is over ten years old, the Game Industry has failed you. They have failed to satisfy your appetite.

The reason why I point out that I am playing these old games is not to point out the quality of these games or to raise some Retro Flag on this website. The point is to say: “You have failed me.” For example, how much longer are we going to have to replay Super Metroid until a modern game comes out that satisfies and does more? How much longer are we going to have to keep replaying Super Mario World or ALTTP?  How much longer do we play FF3 and Chrono Trigger?

re you still playing  playing a game older than ten years?  If so, you are not the problem. The game makers are the problem.  But it’s all good…  If not for their failure I would never have discovered HALF of the awesomeness of this system.

The best way to look at industry studies is through NPD, since they do in-depth market research and analysis, and that is where this comes from.  It will also show you the macro-economic trends that has sunk the industry into it’s current mess and made the Wii a phenomenon, since it did not rely on these trends (Things like New Markets, Multiple-console ownership, Gamers getting income, ect.)

https://www.npd.com/wps/portal…..d/us/home/

Blizzard has ALWAYS understood this.  And as for Majora’s Mask, it is true that this was a side-story, so maybe that was unfair…

It is definitely both of those things.  Some will quit, but many will play the games they enjoyed when they were gamers.  I know a girl who was never much of a gamer, but in college she had a SNES and a copy of Mario Kart.

I would amend that statement as thus:

EVERYONE LOVES MARIO!!!

@Rushdawg, Here is a great video detailing industry shrink featuring Reggie from Nintendo. (and this one is free unlike NPD! )  Pay close attention to the graphs at the end, as they explain what I am talking about when I say that the game industry has had no real growth since the SNES.  And this was from 2004!  Then there was no decline, only stagnation!

One of the problems of technology is that products improve faster than the customers can absorb the benefits. This leads to ‘overshooting’. It is putting out a product with features and bells and whistles that the customer cannot utilize. For example, the new versions of Microsoft Word are overshooting the market. People want a decent text editor for school work and all, and they do not need the bloated features that Word offers. People stop buying the latest version of Word because their older version of Word is ‘good enough’.

Nintendo thought the move to HD gaming was overshooting the market. HD visuals would dramatically increase the cost of the game console. The HD TV install base in 2006 was not very large. And most people cannot tell the difference between HD visuals and non-HD visuals. Or, rather, the PS2 Era visuals were ‘good enough’. This is why the PS2 still  was still selling at around the same rate as the PS3 for YEARS which is shocked Sony.  By the same token you could make a shopping list out of the bullshit features that we did not buy a PS3 for and never use, yet was included and thus drove the price of the system up.

-Internet Browser(My computer works guys, and it has internet.  “But can yoy surf on your TV?  Yes I can-WITH MY COMPUTER!)

-CD Player (Are you still listening to Cds?  Then you probably have a stereo that does this job better)

– Video and Photo Sharing (Again why would I use this for that?  My computer does it bettter.)

-Blu-Ray (Yes, this is on the list.  It is a common misconception that The Blu-Ray player helped sell the PS3.  It is actually the opposite since it was the primary reason why the PS3 was so expensive.  This expense meant that early adopters were few and far between, with most waiting for a price drop.  Also since Blu-Ray is only estiamted to be in 25 percent of homes, and only around 47 percent of THOSE are PS3s I think this is a safe assumption to make, guys.

So what do gamers really want?  If they dont want HD and Browsers and Weather Channels in their consoles?

-How about Backwards compatibility, which Sony built their business on?  It is no risk and all reward, and is simple to implement.  It tells gamers that the library that they have speant DECADES building is an INVESTMENT.

-How about online integreation?  If Microsoft has proven one thing it is that gaming is enhanced with a great set of tools designed to streamline and improve multiplayer.

-Games we want to play:  Every console had their system sellers.  For the Wii it was Wii Sports and NSMB Wii.  Microsoft had spikes around Gears of War, Halo, and Forza.  It also benefitted for many years by being the cheapest box to get to all that 3rd party stuff (Which also proves how little Blu-Ray his used to enhance Gameplay)  Sony has MGS4, Gran Turismo, and god of War which are huge deals to Sony fans.  

  So looking at the above why do we buy your systems, console makers?

It’s The GAMES, stupid!  so focus on improving the games and their experiences!  We don’t need all this bloat!  We just need it to play games.