I always told myself, that when I got older, I wouldn’t be one of those people. I wouldn’t go around saying, that back in my day we had things harder than todays children, because at the time, I figured that there was no way kids could get things easier. I mean, we could watch movies in our house whenever we wanted, which was pretty damn cool.Hell, We could even play video games at home without having to go to the arcade! Shit, we even had the fucking internet pop-up in my childhood!
Hell, we even had light-up shoes, cause we were bitchin' like that.
So, taking all that into consideration, the last thing I figured I would ever think, is how we had ANYTHING harder than any generation that would come after us. If anything, I figured the next generation would have it harder, because I assumed that by now, we would be living in an atomic wasteland, because that seemed to be the route the world was taking at the time.
In the end however, we didn’t end up nuking ourselves to Timbuktu, and somehow to my amazement, certain things got easier for the next generation. Not everything mind you, I mean back in my day, I remember when gas only cost like a buck fifty, and now look at how much teens are having to pay for gas! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Suckers!
*points and laughs*
Anyway, the point of this post is so I can do, what I said I would never do, and say the following phrase; Things are so easy now! You know, back in my day shit was so much harder to do!
This time I am going to focus on video games, because video games kicks much ass!
Believe it or not, video games have changed a LOT over the years, not just in terms of graphics and sound, though those are the biggest and most obvious changes, but that’s to be expected! It’s part of technology progressing, but there are also smaller more subtle changes in modern video games, that are in no way associated with the advancement of technology. Changes that were put in place purely to make your video game life that much fucking easier!
Changes like:
RPG Leveling up process
Growing up, I was a huge RPG fan! I loved Pen and Paper RPGs, so it was only obvious that I would try Computer/Console RPGs. When I did, I was hooked! I lived and breathed games like; Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Willow and Phantasy Star.
I remember popping in an RPG and spending a full day practically just walking around the first town, killing monster after monster, building up my experience points so that I could level up enough to take on some tougher monsters that were surrounding the second town.
Days were spent just killing monsters, all so you could get powerful enough to kill more monsters! basically, it was a total grindfest! People complain about how MMORPGs have a lot of grinding, but that’s pretty much how many RPGs were back in the day. Nowadays, you don’t even need to grind! Just start your RPG of choice and move from area to area. By the time you reach your next location, just from “Exploration Experience” you are practically level up enough to take on the boss, if you killed some things on your way there, then you are not only leveled up enough, but probably over-powered!
You don’t need to grind anymore in RPGs, which is a good thing in a way, because it means you don’t need to tear yourself away from the epic story being told. You can remain immersed in the saga. So, I see why it’s that way, but still, it makes RPGs so much more easier!
Passwords
When I first started gaming, many games didn’t have a battery back-up, which meant that you couldn’t save your game! So, in order to allow gamers to play huge epic sagas that took weeks of gameplay, they created a password system. When you went to “Save” your game, you were given a password! Then, when you turned your game on again, you would go to the password screen and input your password to continue your saga.
By the way, when I say password, I don’t mean something like “Heartbeat” or “Horseback” or even multiple worded passwords like “Goat Mountain thunder”. No, that would have been too easy! They were crazy passwords, that used letters, numbers, symbols, lower and upper case sensitivity. Like this password screen:
unfuckingbelievable!
Now, not ALL passwords were that long and insane, some were shorter, some even longer and crazier, but either way it was always a pain in the ass! Especially compared to todays gamers who just needs to press a button and poof! All saved! In my day, most gamers had a notebook, that had all their game passwords scribbled down! Some gamers, like yours truly, had multiple notebooks, because just one wasn’t going to be enough.
Now, that’s just a thing of the past, but….
Speaking of Saving!
…It’s not like you need to anyway! Not only do you not have to fiddle with passwords, but most of the time, you don’t even need to choose a save option! Most RPGs and even non-RPGs have a built-in “Auto-save” feature, which saves the game for you every 5 mins it seems like!
Whereas in my day, if we got too fucking lazy to grab our pen to write down a password, we could lose hours of gameplay due to our characters untimely demise.
Damn Slackers!
Too easy!
Video games nowadays are just way too easy! Sure, some have an option that allows you to choose a difficulty setting, however those same games also have an “Easy” setting in their difficulty list, which basically plays the game for you! Seriously, just set the game to easy and walk away for a half hour, and when you come back, there’s a good chance that you will have finished the damn game!
When I first started gaming, games were nearly impossible! It’s why so many old-school gamers have the konami code burned into their memory! After all, most of Konamis games were impossible to beat without the damn code! Games so difficult, that you literally had to fucking cheat to play it! Even with the cheat, the game was still a challenge!
Watchout for the lazer!
Sure, we had some games that had difficulty settings, and sure they had an “Easy” setting, but most times, unless you were playing a Disney title, even “Easy mode” would be frustrating enough to make you want to rip your hair out!
Clearly a fan of the Contra series!
Take Cover!
Most games started you off with “Three Health Bars” back in the day, which basically meant you could get shot three times, before you came face to face with the dreaded “Game over” screen, which i wouldn’t be surprised if most modern gamers have never seen in their life.
For modern Gamers
Sure, after you got hit and lost a health bar, you could come across a health pack to heal yourself up, but those were few and far between. Your best bet, was to just do everything in your power to avoid getting hit at all!
Gamers today rarely care about any of that, since a lot of modern games don’t even have a health bar! Just run out into the open and shoot shit til your screen is nearly red, then run behind a wall for a second til your case of extreme red-eye goes away, and yer perfectly ready to do it again!
Riddled with bulletholes? Nothing a few seconds rest won't cure!
I’m not saying that all of this is bad! In fact, I understand why games are made easier! Games today focus a lot on story! back when i started gaming, a story consisted of something like this:
Epic saga right?
So, back in the day, stories were more of an after thought! Most gamers didn’t even pay attention to a story, myself included! What would be the point, you see what our stories were! Most of the time, it was better to fabricate your own story in your head as the game moved along!
Nowadays, you have great stories with good voice acting and incredible cut-scenes! Games are made easier, so people can fully enjoy the story of a game, rather than be held back for weeks at a time, while the story is basically paused until you are able to advance it.
Even I play modern games the first time on “Easy”, just so I can experience the story first hand, and then play again on the harder settings.
So, as I said; I get it! That doesn’t change the fact that games in my day were ape-shit harder though. Just sayin’.
There was a game released on the Playstation 2, Called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I am sure you have heard of it, because it was insanely popular. It was so popular that Disney felt basing a movie on it would be the bee’s knees.
Made in the Shaide 