And then lock it up.

something unique, better even, something fun.

What’s the point? I thought I got it, and that I agreed, but now I’m not sure anymore.

Zoomers aren’t teenagers anymore. Well, some might be; I’m not sure where the cutoff is exactly, but the oldest zoomers might be 30 already.

Though I’d also say that millennials, Xers, and boomers got each of those games, too, if they were interested. Hell, even the silent and greatest generations probably have members that enjoyed those games, though probably not so much for the WW1 generation.

And in the other direction, I’ve enjoyed games that were popular before I was born, so if gens alpha and beta want to claim them as well, I’d allow it.

I remember being so impressed with King’s Quest 7’s graphics that looked like a cartoon. Big improvement over KQ6, which itself was a big improvement over KQ5, which was so much of an improvement gameplay-wise over KQ4 that I gave up trying to play 4 after later getting it on some abandonware site (it was a “type what you want to do but the engine will have no idea what you intend unless you use the very specific wording they programmed into each scene”).

But yeah, before that, cover art often had little to do with the game itself. I have a vivid memory of receiving a birthday gift and experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions as I was excited to get a new video game, then dissapointed when I realized it might be a movie instead, follwed by happiness again when I noticed the Nintendo logo, confirming it was a game. The cover art just looked like the generic cartoon art that was popular in the late 80s/early 90s.

Oh and on that note, most cartoons sucked back then compared to today. I can understand why many people thought cartoons were just for kids because most of them back then were so awful only kids could enjoy them and even the better ones were usually only able to trigger wholesome kind of vibes (like most Disney ones prior to Aladdin). There were some exceptions, like Looney Tunes. But most of it was like minimum effort to sell some shitty toys.

Don’t you dare knock Adventure!

You may be right among us, lethal company, 5 nights, generation, they were raised by those types of games, not what we had, theres a fat difference still, but they definitely had variety, im not saying they didnt, if my friends and I had modern roblox/fortnite growing up we wouldve exclauively played that too, we only played what we could all play together so it would be the cod/sports game we all bought that year, ocassionally trying mid ftp titles like dcuo

All those games you mentioned are like what I played growing up and im mid 20s

thats not zoomers tho, thats over 18, 20+ at least, idk my nephews have never bought a game its just fortnite and/or roblox

I have to think it’ll stay an arcade and power user thing indefinitely. The full experience needs large, clear section of your house, and housing is getting more expensive. Break down your costs per sq ft and see that you’re paying an awful lot for it.

Games like Beat Saber don’t have to move around too much, but the experience will always be limited if games have to keep the player in one spot and can’t use room scale. That said, Beat Saber can be pretty decent cardio workout if you put effort into swinging your arms (as opposed to lazily flicking your wrists around). Sweat buildup on the headset can be an issue, though. Keep some alcohol wipes around.

Racing/airplane sim stuff is one of the best uses. People who are into that are willing to drop a lot of money.

Strong rumors of Valve’s new VR launching this year. Quite excited for that. Otherwise, the status (in my opinion) is stagnant. I still have fun occasionally getting into VR though.

regrettably, Meta is the state of the art for VR. the Meta Quest 3 is stunningly crisp for the price point. it’s almost retina-scale with the pixels, the head/spatial tracking is extremely accurate and doesn’t require any base station or wired attachment, and you can fluidly stream VR games from your PC wirelessly at 1080p and like 120fps with nearly no latency or reality sickness.

I played Myst and Riven while I was sick with COVID last year, and it was one of the top five visual experiences of my lifetime (along with seeing the Grand Canyon and taking psychedelics.)

Meta has also recently finally cracked the holy grail of non-chonky AR glasses with full FoV, though the gallium nitride waveguide process is quite expensive and yields are too poor for them to sell it. but they look like slightly nerdy glasses that let you see holograms superimposed on your vision, even outdoors in the light.

unfortunately, VR is still anti-social and there’s not much content there, and the company leading the way is awful. but even just for Riven alone it was worth it to me.

Came out in 1982, I was looking for a 1980 game. And boy, is that version notoriously awful!

That’s a good choice! Probably the most popular one of that year. I never had a 2600 and started with a 5200, so my knowledge of it is lacking.

I really hoped we millennials would remember getting shit on constantly and maybe not do it.

Everyone who doesn’t play LoL will think you’re an idiot if you play ranked, that hasn’t changed in 15 years

Not true! I installed it and played for 5 minutes once!

My wife’s current fortnite addiction would suggest otherwise

Parents playing with their kids

Yeah but then osrs came along

Exactly. Several limits were loosened or removed entirely. The SNES was the first console with actual pixel transparency, the PSX, despite being weaker than the Saturn and the N64, was the king of the 90s. The jump in graphical and sound quality was always night and day from the Atari era all the way to the PS3/360 era (sound probably peaked in the PS2 era, with DVD quality)

Even on the PC, the jump from 3 years’ worth of advances was astonishing. Just compare the original Doom, 1993, with Quake, 1996

And here’s Quake 3, 1999

the goal is to get dopamine, move on when you stop getting dopamine

Is that the goal? I want more from my games than just poking my brain. I sometimes play games that challenge my reactions, sometimes ones that challenge my thinking. Superhot and Braid provided interesting time-related puzzles. Portal had some good lateral thinking puzzles.

I’m not exactly playing educational games, but when I played Assassin’s Creed games, the historical bits I found interesting were things I could learn more about outside the game. When I played Hearts of Iron 4, it was global politics around the time of WWII. Uboat and other sub games taught me a bit about submarine tactics in WWII. Oxygen not included taught me things I didn’t know about thermodynamics and materials, even if it is extremely simplified. Age of Empires and Total War were gateways to learn about medieval styles of warfare.

Even Sea of Thieves, which involves incredibly simplified sailing was what prompted me to learn about how square-masted sailing ships actually worked.

And, of course, all the flight simulators I’ve played over the years has taught me a lot about how to actually fly planes.

To me, if all you’re getting from a game is a bit of dopamine hits, you’re really missing out. It’s like watching the same movie over and over, or reading the same book over and over.