Do Games Grow Along With Us?
Just as our taste changes, so do the games. Right?
Monster Hunter World came out six years ago, and it was the first Monster Hunter I played. I didn’t enjoy it. I found it slow, and tedious, and I couldn’t get the game's appeal. While many of my friends continued to sink hundreds of hours into it, I couldn’t do it. Admittedly, it was me, and I decided to never play a Monster Hunter game again.
Fast forward to the present, and I am having a blast with Monster Hunter Rise. But, from what I’ve found, many people “loyal” to the Monster Hunter community favor MHW more than MHR, and it can be seen through the concurrent players and sales, overall, MHW was more successful than MHR.
Did They Change Their Formula?
To get it out of the way quickly, MHW has the main team, while MHR doesn’t. But they both had a different aim and audience. MHR was made with the switch’s limitations in mind, which is why MHW looks better with extra stuff added for immersion. MHR also had a different audience in mind, which is why they facilitated many features.
Monsters are already marked on the map, Wirebugs (a blessing), and Palamute makes getting to the monsters easier and quicker as you can drift to give yourself a speed boost, and jump over mountains, wall run up them, then jump again to get to the top or over. Also, from what has been said, it’s easier and quicker to get materials.
They did change the formula, enough so that Monster Hunter fans will pick MHW over MHR because of the pace difference, which is kind of odd considering how gaming has been pivoting to a quick-paced competitive setting. This always reminds me of that time when I saw that after the age of 24, you’re deemed “old” on Esports.
But In Reality, it was me
On a note I posted regarding how I’m enjoying games I didn’t enjoy years ago, John Murphy shared that he too went through the same thing. He said that way back when, he didn’t enjoy MGS3 and other heavy hitters that now, he enjoyed.
As time goes on, many things occur that change us. Happy times, sad times; the passage of time changes all of us and changes our perspectives. Sometimes it could be a simple switch, such as how Outlast Trials added co-op and added some grindable stuff. Other times, it’s understanding the narrative as you grow your understanding of the world.
Back when I was younger, I would’ve hated for a game to be two to four hours long. Now, I understand the art of writing short stories and look forward to people capable of delivering a concise and touching narrative.
I also used to love shooters and competitive games, but nowadays, it’s unnecessary stress to read patch notes often, learn the ever-changing meta, and get angry at my teammates. However, I do dabble in fighting games because it feels casual to me and it gives me that fix.
But the social aspect of gaming is one of the things that keeps me in this community. My fondest memory in gaming was playing my Halo 3 Forge on my Xbox 360 with my friends. Creating maps and game modes. The banter, the jokes. Making cool poses for pictures to post.
I think that two things make a game truly memorable: the narrative, and the social/community aspect. But that could just be my current perspective.
If you were to ask me back when I was younger, it was the shoot-shoot, the bang-bang, and the run-run games for me. I mean, there was always time for Viva Piñata, though.
How do you think games have changed? How has your perspective changed regarding games? What do you miss? What have you noticed? What is your fondest gaming moment?
Games definitely changed but so did we! I think for games, the biggest change I've seen is the mixing of genres. Some mixes are tacky, but others are genius. Turn-based, survival extraction, rogue like is a surprising mix that Ive recently enjoyed in games like Quasimorph.
The other big change is emergent gameplay. Games in the past were stories that we played through (for the most part). A lot of the games I enjoy now allow me to be the storyteller, dictating experiences unique to me. And those games, regardless of how long it takes are the ones I tend to keep playing forever.
There's also a lot more variety these days, which impacts taste as much as how we change as gamers. When games were less common, you milked the experience of playing a good one. But today, there are often several good choices even in a niche genre. Our motivation for selecting and sticking with a game has changed more than what games themselves have changed.