Worst Generation yet to come?

I have been reading and watching people that think the upcoming generation will become the worst generation ever. I personally disagree with it The last generation was perhaps the worst when it comes to business practices overall, but i still think it was a generation filled with good games. The shady microtransactions and taking content out of the game, only to put it in as DLC on the store.

Personally, i think games have grown a lot this generation with great storytelling, improved gameplay and overall better games. There are still games that rip the customer off, but it's much clearer in my opinion who actually does that kind of bad business. You should vote with your wallet when you buy a game, about what you find is good business practices and what is a good game.

The gaming industry also has grown when it comes to games overall. With indie games and even blockbuster games trying new things. We also have a bad side to gaming, milking games to extreme lengths. Guitar Hero, sports games and Call of Duty unfortunately. But we also have loads of new ip's that gave us amazing stories this generation.

Coming to the end of this console generation we experience a lot of sequels, because of the long generation this was not unusual. I really hope the new generation will give us a breath of fresh air with new original ideas and perhaps reviving old franchises that we love.

I hope bad games and bad business practices will not be as big this generation and i also believe it won't be that bad. I try to be positive with looking forward to good games and voting with my wallet. Does anyone feel the same?

I gotta find that article on here, where the Take Two publishing boss made that press statement.

"If you make good games, then they're less likely to be traded back."

I still wonder how is that principle so hard for other mega publishers to wrap their heads around? Selling of any software is a long term investment scene. They're turning em into digital mini malls, selling 'em in bits like disposable contacts.

Once again the naive salesmen are all trying to fit in the director's chair.

I see your point, however as humans we have freedom of choice. Dlc is entirely optional, there is no one pointing a gun to your head. Plus there are countless games out there that don't even use dlc. Take note of Far cry 3, Skyrim and Bioshock infinite that make genuine use of dlc. Its games such as Call of duty that take advantage of their fan-base, and therefore give the term "dlc" a bad rep.

True, that's also what i said. Vote with your wallet with what you think is good. Personally i don't buy a lot of microtransactions or even DLC. But when i actually do it it is because i think the game is good enough to be worthy of my money

I remember Capcom releasing dozens of Street Fighter 2s in the 16 bit era. Every arcade revision was sold as a separate full priced game. Nowadays such revisions are done for free (mostly in multiplayer games, but sometimes in SP games). The fact that games can be subsequently patched has led to abuse, but it has helped make some games better. I've been gaming 38 years and my favorite game of all time is LBP2, which has gotten a more or less steady stream of DLC since its release three years ago, much of which has radically changed the game. I prefer free updates/tweaks and paying a couple bucks for new content to paying full price for a whole new game.

On a related note, user generated content has come into its own this generation. Its awesome that two of the top ten bestselling games in the US in 2013 were UGC games (Minecraft and Disney Infinity). Admittedly users could generate their own content on consoles as far back as the NES (Excitebike) but back then only people who came to your house could play your level. This generation people can create levels alone or in collaboration with other people on the internet (the biggest LBP2 production I have seen had 30 something people working on it including a director, level designers, artists, musicians and voice actors).

As is the case with for profit game development, most UGC levels are junk and much of it is derivative, but also as is the case with for profit game development, there are some gems crafted by exceptionally talented people out there. I've put well north of a fifteen hundred hours into LBP2. The community has crafted an amazing variety of levels. Some have replicated existing games (Kinect 4 and Peggle spring to mind), some others have crafted original games in their favorite genres (lots of platformers, 2D bullet hell shooters and even a few classic style adventure games), some people decide to make playgrounds or racing levels, others make skits and music videos.

In my experience while many adults are clearly big fans of UGC, kids and teens are huge fans. I spend two damn days putting together a dollhouse for my daughters, but it didn't hold their attention, they preferred crafting their own dollhouses in LBP2 and sometimes just strewing a level with obstacles and then doing rocket cheetah races.

I'm interested to see what upcoming games like the Xbone's Project Spark (which will hit sometime in 2014 and will boast the most powerful, flexible UGC engine when it ships) and Media Molecule's still largely under wraps (though we know you can sculpt figures out of clay and animate them) original play/create/share game as well as almost inevitable LBP3 and Disney Infinity 2 allow creators to do.

More broadly speaking, I think gaming is better than ever and I really enjoy gaming at all levels (from retail games crafted by teams of a hundred or even hundreds to indie games crafted by a couple buddies).

I totally agree, i would rather let them give us a great game and i will support it if it is good.

Yeah i saw someone creating the entire world of FF VII in that game

I really like that stuff, but i also tend to rely on the developer creating amazing stuff aswell

Project Spark looks like Black and White mixed with Minecraft

I totally agree, as long as you speak with your wallet and award bad games or bad business practices

I think every new generation of gaming has it's ups and downs while still moving forward.

Graphically the jump from last-gen to next-gen won't be as crazy as the jump from 2d to 3d or the jump to HD but I am looking forward to them getting the most out of the new consoles and giving us PC gamers less crappy ports. I've only gotten into PC the last 3 years or so but really feeling the neglect from a lot of developers/publishers (Ubisoft).

I sure hope this whole ordeal of releasing broken products goes away. BF4 still doesn't run very well on my high end system :/ so I hope developers spend more time on that.

Sequels don't bother me as long as they improve the game and don't just make more of the same. I am a die hard Halo fan and will buy them until they become horrible or they finally end the franchise. I liked Halo 4 and ODST, so yeah.

Otherwise the games I have played in the last year have all been pretty good and I'm looking forward to some true next-gen games (something new that isn't just higher resolutions).

Oh I think it's going to get a lot worse for the consumer in the future. It's really the big publishers that really abuse DLC and micro transactions. I will always be forever stuck in 1999 mode. This was a pinnacle in PC gaming with highly modifiable games with access to server software for dedicated servers and LAN parties. Developers often released free map packs / game modes. Unlike now where the player base is often split because of pay walls.

oh i agree with what you said, but too many sequels can kill games aswell. But releasing games that aren't finished and then patching them is just wrong. I still think the next gen will be good though

It's hard to say, i am sure some of the big ones like EA and Activision will try to pull some crap. I wouldn't say that for the rest of the industry though