Metroplex System

@GwenStarlight

Producing lesbian demons since 1993

She/her They/them

TMA, multiply neurodivergent, ancient by internet standards, poylam and happily married.

I was on Cohost from 11/04/2022 until its last day (10/01/2024)

Metroplex System @GwenStarlight12/6/2022, 10:26 PM

H.K/デビル零 @DevilREI

Dave @sasuraiger12/6/2022, 6:53 PM

Responding to Masahiro Sakurai's "That Was Then, This Is Now"

https://gamesoftrobo.substack.com/p/responding-to-masahiro-sakurais-that

New quick piece on the newsletter. This is about Masahiro Sakurai's recent grab bag video about retro games. He arrives at the contentious point that despite our nostalgia, games basically have gotten better, and now is the best time to play video games. I'm pretty much with him, but in this piece I offer compulsion/addiction design as a major way that games have gotten worse, and a force that retro games offer a reprieve from.

In making this argument I wanted to be clear that this isn't about the trap of rose-colored nostalgia that Sakurai himself describes in the video. It's not about the inherent superiority of any particular era of games; that would be foolish. It's about stuff that's inescapable today.

#video games #masahiro sakurai

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in reply to @sasuraiger's post:

Ragu 2000 The New Millennium ~ｆｕｎ　ｇｒｉｚｚｌｅｒ~@revragu12/6/2022, 7:54 PM

i often wonder whether the reason that big budget games regarded almost universally as "great" so often slide off my brain is because the impossible refinement and razor keened systems lack the character of the janky and busted systems of old, if it's because big budget games have progressively become more risk-averse, or if it's because i'm not 12 years old and my sense of wonder and mystery is shot.

then again, the last times i truly jived with a newer mainstream-ish game were with dark souls (as unapproachable and full of busted-ass systems that game is) and metal gear solid 5 (a legendary mess) so maybe there's something to games needing to be profoundly imperfect to actually be interesting to me.

Dave @sasuraiger12/6/2022, 9:03 PM

I truly think it can be all those things coming together. Entertainment in its entirety has ducked into full risk-aversion and I feel like they got the hint from video games. Risks don't make any sense in this space.

My microcosm for this in the FGC is Street Fighter V, a very high-quality game that is unfortunately so technically polished that it feels like there's only one way to play it. It works, but players feel trapped and bored. The wave of simplified FGs including GGStrive have this problem in a fundamental sense.