Re: Old entertainments (Re: Free Castle Break on Steam!)

On Wed, 16 Oct 2024 11:02:02 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

I love my obscenely-large collection of old-timey video-games... but
damn if most of them just aren't worth playing even for a few moments.

>

And even though they are playable, I suck at them! :(

>
Of course, with old-timey games, you're EXPECTED to suck at them.
Originating from arcades, most video games were -for the longest time-
extremely antagonistic towards the player. You weren't expected to
win; rather, you were expected to lose in order to milk you for more
quarters (or simply disguise how little game there actually was).

I think you're overlooking why arcade games were the way they were.
They were not just designed to milk you for quarters... the goal was
to optimize them such that you got such an extreme level of
entertainment for your 25 cent investment, that you were compelled to
repeat the experience over and over.  If it just took your quarter and
disappointed you, it wasn't going earn a return on investment for the
arcade owner (and remember the cost of the dedicated hardware of these
machines was not a small thing back then).

The net effect of that was that when a new game came out, cabinets
that seemed more addictive in play testing naturally became more
popular with arcade owners and vendors that provide the hardware.

It
took a long time before developers started thinking, "Say, what if the
idea was to let players actually see the WHOLE game instead of getting
repeatedl stuck on level three?"

Game completionism and quarter-munching arcade games are two
completely separate topics that have little to do with each other.

Developers of games prefer to get paid for their talent over starving
to death.  So if there's money to be made in arcade hardware (clearly
not much anymore) they'll focus there, but if the money is in console
or PC games in which the SP campaign lends itself to having a
conclusive ending, they will do that.  But don't conflate the two
types of games, they're not the same.