Wing Commander III

Re:Wing Commander III by elorant on Friday March 05, 2021 @01:40PM (#26360272)

Games lasted longer twenty years ago. It was easier to immerse in the game for this reason. Nowadays, blockbuster action games give you twenty hours of gameplay give or take. Even RPG games are shorter these days. Baldur's Gate took me weeks to finish. I can't remember the last time I played a contemporary game that lasted that long.

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Re:Wing Commander III by reaperducer on Friday March 05, 2021 @02:08PM (#26360735)

Games lasted longer twenty years ago. It was easier to immerse in the game for this reason

I think part of this was because games used to be about the gameplay, and not about the special effects.

A few weeks ago I got an old Pong cart in the mail. By the time I looked up from playing it, I'd lost half a day.

No special effects. Minimal sound. Irritating controllers. But almost entirely about the gameplay, and not about the game.

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Re:Wing Commander III by lou1306 on Friday March 05, 2021 @02:35PM (#26361071)

However, some old games' gameplay, unlike Pong's, was awful. Sometimes, terrible gameplay was actually a legit "strategy" by the devs to artificially make a game last longer, so people wouldn't feel ripped off. Good gameplay was appreciated, sure, but bad gameplay was often swept under the "challenging/hard-to-beat" rug.

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Re:Wing Commander III by taeric on Friday March 05, 2021 @02:10PM (#26360768)

I challenge this. Most games were really short. They were just very quick to kick you back to the title screen. :)

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Re:Wing Commander III by dunnevens on Friday March 05, 2021 @04:29PM (#26362364)

There are many games that will give you much longer than 20 hours. It's actually a complaint by some about modern open world games and how they're geared towards 40+ hours for even a basic completion. Longer if the player wants to finish some of the side quests. And then that's not counting mods and how those extend game time even further. And also not counting all those open-ended games which last as long as you're interested.

Gaming is in very good shape right now. I think most of the lack of immersion comes down to age. And also comes down to having many more diversions when you have an afternoon to yourself with time to play.

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Re:Wing Commander III by prox on Friday March 05, 2021 @01:45PM (#26360342)

They are still there : Rimworld, Space Engineers... Factorio is a fan favorite on HN. You can also count Minecraft and Skyrim as long enduring successes.

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Re:Wing Commander III by caoilte on Friday March 05, 2021 @05:07PM (#26362758)

Speak for yourself. I get hundreds of hours out of great games like Rimworld, FTL, They are Billions and Hades.

There are just as many great games, they're just not the ones advertised to you.

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Re:Wing Commander III by elorant on Friday March 05, 2021 @06:56PM (#26363851)

Speak for yourself

I always speak for myself dude. Like everyone else in here.

they're just not the ones advertised to you

I'm not learning about new games from ads. I don't view ads at all online.

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Re:Wing Commander III by sandworm101 on Friday March 05, 2021 @02:02PM (#26360625)

>> Baldur's Gate took me weeks to finish.

The great games have no "finish". Where is the finish line in SimCity? Factorio never really stops, just getting bigger each time you play. I don't like SeaOfThieves but I appreciate that it is about playing rather than winning. And I cannot be the only one who has never bothered to kill the ender dragon.

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Re:Wing Commander III by lovegoblin on Friday March 05, 2021 @02:43PM (#26361148)

> The great games have no "finish".

Hah well this is obviously highly subjective.

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