Modern video game technology...

So as I mentioned last time, I am planning on playing the new DC Universe Online game. Today I stayed home to ship out some blu-rays I sold on eBay, took my car to get service and take a shitload of damage to my credit card, and worked on something else to improve my standard of living. So since my day was eaten up by all these errands, I wound up not going out tonight. I got my dumb PS3 to finally download the new update that was necessary to play online and proceeded to pop in the DCU disc to start the long process of coming up with a character and making a bunch of in game decisions to go down this dreaded road of the MMORPG.

Sadly the damn thing needs to install itself on my PS3 hard drive. That was about 20 min. THEN it needs to download all the updates needed for the game itself. It is currently starting it's FOURTH HOUR of downloading this content. I do not recall going through this kind of bullshit when I was younger and playing video games. While some may ask, "Dre, have you not ever played games on PC and experienced installation?" I would say not really. I have not been a "PC Gamer" in over 12 years and all I played was Star Wars: Tie Fighter and Civilization 1 and 2.

This widespread phenomenon of installations, patches and system updates becoming commonplace and accepted in modern console gaming is really annoying to this crotchety old gamer. The only delay old gamers had to deal with was dust getting into our SNES/Genesis cartridges or hoping that a scratched PSone disc would load on the first couple of tries.

While I do accept that modern gaming is technologically superior to games of old, but I feel that we have sacrificed much to get to this current point. Pretty graphics and online play are nice luxuries to have, but lost in this is the appreciation of the game itself. Playing a game because it was FUN or a CHALLENGE, not because it is pretty or has 265 people shooting each other at the same time. Playing with your friends in the same room, NOT dealing with a bunch of moronic, self-hating bunch of racist homophobes over the internet. Instead of developers being encouraged to come up with new ideas, we get retreads of annual shooters and repetitive IPs (intellectual properties) that are "safe" because enough lemmings buy them.

Maybe it is because I work in the industry and my constant exposure to it has made me more jaded than the average "gamer" but even that title does not feel suitable for myself considering what the modern "gamer" is interested in. I think I may just be an angry old man.

-Dre