tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-794354419457481246.post4829981582830816692..comments2024-02-11T03:11:38.941-05:00Comments on Kupowered: Random Thoughts - Older Gaming vs. Newer GamingMogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304103894181718880noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-794354419457481246.post-7843005466202597862011-03-04T21:27:17.901-05:002011-03-04T21:27:17.901-05:00Sure, just look at Limbo - absolutely striking, wi...Sure, just look at Limbo - absolutely striking, with such constraints placed on itself. Didn't Jack White say that's why The White Stripes only ever used like, three instruments? Because limiting your tools forces you to be more creative? <br /><br />And you're right, Mogs, about old games being more "concept" than current ones. The original Ninja Gaiden, for example, would be just another combat-platformer if not for its cover art. Even moreso - look at Metal Gear Solid! The cover art was so informative of the mindset the gamer took into their experience - perhaps because there was so little else, at the time, to inform it. <br /><br />I'll be first in line to champion the value of great graphics on the current gen, but often some of the most special games are ones that have this delicious nugget of inspiration at their center. <br /><br />Good-but-not-great games like The Saboteur, for example - where their greatest strength is a style, an idea, a romantic <i>vision</i> the game hopes to share with the player. <br /><br />That's one of the reasons Red Dead Redemption was such a huge success, I have to think - it was <i>both</i>. It was a Romantic Idea Game <i>and</i> a Polished Triple-A Infinite Budget Game.Chancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18404009115454788746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-794354419457481246.post-15496422048090198032011-03-04T02:36:44.817-05:002011-03-04T02:36:44.817-05:00One of the interesting points you touched upon was...One of the interesting points you touched upon was the impact of technical limitations on how a game evolves.<br /><br />There's a bit of a theory that states that a creative work with a good deal of restrictions requires more work to produce a certain effect- with the extra effort actually improving the product by encouraging innovation or cleverness.<br /><br />Take poetry for example. If we're given the rules "The last word has to rhyme", we'd be able to whip up a fairly easy, if unremarkable poem. If we're told to write a -sonnet- however, we have to take into account rhyme (several times in different ways), metre, a particular flow, etc. The sonnet is a lot harder than the poem, but there's a greater chance that the sonnet is gonna be the better work.<br /><br />Of course, part of this relies on you -turning your restrictions into an advantage-. Take Hideaki Anno for example when he was worning on Neon Genesis Evangelion. Thanks to his constrained budget, he took one of his restrictions (having to recycle shots to conserve money) and turned it on its head, using mirror shots to establish symbolism or meaning, or just to get a particular point across.<br /><br />Now, I'm not the kind of guy who claims old games > new games or whatever. Just by general progress new games will, for me at least, win out (although old games can still occasionally compete). Like Mogs, I think presentation -is- important for a whole plethora of reasons.<br /><br />I just think it's possible to present really, really well without having to use ludicrous cash.Captain Haplohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16409780024944920093noreply@blogger.com