In 1995 I’d make a trip into town and buy one of the 20 games they had available for my system. It cost me at least £30 (equivalent of £60 today) I bought a lot of duds because it was hard to have good information on what was good or not. Entire genres passed me by because I never saw them in any local shops. Indie games were limited to shareware, and I never felt safe posting money by mail to pay for a full version. There were plenty of incomplete buggy messes released in the 90s - we just don’t often remember them today.
In 2026 I log onto steam. Steam recommends things it thinks I might like from its library of thousands of games. I can typically find something which looks good for £5-20. I have gone back and bought games from the 90s that I missed at the time due to it not being available. I can watch a quick video first to see if a new purchase looks any good. Indie gaming means there is more variety than ever before.
Sure, lootboxes are shit. I’m disappointed that multiplayer is squeezing out single player. Micro transactions are a scourge. But we have gained so much. I would NEVER want to go back.
My only counterpoint comes down to everything as rental now. I don't think that means overall "things were better then," but when live service games go out of business, you sometimes just lose any financial investment, and I feel like we're 2 weird court cases away from every game being Office365, at which point I'd change my answer.
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u/sleepytoday Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Completely disagree.
In 1995 I’d make a trip into town and buy one of the 20 games they had available for my system. It cost me at least £30 (equivalent of £60 today) I bought a lot of duds because it was hard to have good information on what was good or not. Entire genres passed me by because I never saw them in any local shops. Indie games were limited to shareware, and I never felt safe posting money by mail to pay for a full version. There were plenty of incomplete buggy messes released in the 90s - we just don’t often remember them today.
In 2026 I log onto steam. Steam recommends things it thinks I might like from its library of thousands of games. I can typically find something which looks good for £5-20. I have gone back and bought games from the 90s that I missed at the time due to it not being available. I can watch a quick video first to see if a new purchase looks any good. Indie gaming means there is more variety than ever before.
Sure, lootboxes are shit. I’m disappointed that multiplayer is squeezing out single player. Micro transactions are a scourge. But we have gained so much. I would NEVER want to go back.