I still think PSX/N64 era was the peak. Because they had 3d but very limited due to hardware limitations. It seemed very high tech at the time but you still had to use your imagination to make the graphics look good (its in the perception of the viewer). Game devs also made it so that the jagged pixels are "smoothen" on CRT monitor due to scanline. Overall it was a very creative era and they kept pushing boundaries. The first time I played FFIX on PSX I thought theres no way games will look better than that.
Here is an interesting video from the creator of Crash Bandicoot. Just pure passion and creativity
Nowadays, games are so pretty it feels like watching a movie than playing a game. But once they look very good, its hard to improve on those. The average joes like me wont notice if theres a better shadow, reflections, hair movements. So theres no longer a wow factor when it comes into graphics. But so many are relying on those than the gameplay. And they demand a lot from your hardware. Optimizations are out of the window. So many games, especially ported PC games are so badly optimized.
I guess limtation and creativity goes hand in hand. There are barely any innovation in game genres anymore. Most stick to their successful titles and add stuffs to it than to create a new concept. So of course there wont be a lot of new experiences. They make things the gamers will like rather than make something interesting/new that forces the gamers to like it. In the end I think it all comes down to one thing: corporate greed.
We also had very small but direct teams that loved games, and no overblown roles like multiple producers/directors and all that. Basically the industry caught the eye of the money men and started injecting all sorts of roles into it. No different to the music or film industries. Look at any game credits now and you'll see thousands of names on there, it's no wonder games cost a ridiculous amount to make these days.
You are correct about optimisation and all that. University degrees and work placements don't come close to teaching anything like that on a real level anymore and even if they did, the timings just aren't there when they get into the real world and work within these huge teams. Thanks to people who don't know anything running the show. I loved the 2mb of video buffer on the PSX looking back (even though at the time, we were annoyed by it
), I really enjoyed writing custom compression routines for the AGB. Don't get me wrong, working on more powerful hardware had it's times, but even back when I was still in love with development you had machines (Gamecube/Wii/PS2/PS3/DS) that were so different from each other that it was challenging but still made you have to plan properly, it began to be more and more about the money to be made and how to fake even more. Not that the current crop of talent isn't amazing at what they do, but it's that they are further marginalised out of anything. AI and all that will only further make it so.
All of these are true:
— games are getting better
— the game industry is getting bigger
— with the above, anti consumer practices are more prevalent
— big budget games take longer to develop
And are often not finished during their first year after full release.
Games getting "better" isn't any real metric, other than that the rest is true.
They aren't finished because it's easier to release buggy messes and fix them to stay on schedule for the budgets and share prices and all that good stuff, rather than continue to delay. Let's face it, the backlash is the same either way and even 4 years later (like Cyberpunk) and it's still not finished, people forget so quick and can't wait for the next one. Also, huge patches and "updates" are now the norm, so is cutting content for DLC/microtransactions, so is actually using psychology techniques to play on addictions. Ultimately we are at that same old cycle of laughing at people calling this shit out all along, now bemoaning the state of where we are.
But again I'll state, that article is largely trash and gaming isn't in any worse state in terms of being able to find great games to play that it ever has been, in fact it's the opposite. There's never been more choice for gamers, and certainly never been more avenues for people with ideas and talent to shine.
️