Sid Meier: modern graphics have lowered the barriers of entry to gaming

I can understand that. My parents have definitely been more willing to watch me play games, and try to understand them, as the graphics have improved. My dad sat and watched me play Uncharted 2 for a few hours last time I had it on, because it spoke to him in his own language - adventure movies - rather than making him learn a new language.

sour grapes

Curses and drats. Sid is all the way over on the western shore. As much as I'd be interested in seeing his ideas. I wont be driving all the way to the other side of Maryland just to search in his trash.

He brings up a good point though. I remember when using your imagination was just as important as playing the game itself in the past. I remember spending a weekend over a friends house in the late 80's and watching his older brother play Wasteland on their Commodore 64. It got to the point where all we did that weekend was watch him play the game.

While by today's standard it might not look like much. Wasteland was mind blowing for us. With these simple pixels and pictures it was like we were watching him play in this apocalyptic world. In some ways though I am sure that hampered some peoples attempts to get into gaming. The same could be said about the earlier text based games such as Zork. Some people could still play that game while others would find no fun or adventure dealing with it.

While I am glad we have great graphics this day in modern gaming. I still think its great to go back to roots of gaming. I am a nostalgic gamer still. I love going back to classic games like Pac-Man, Missile Command, and The Legend of Zelda to Phantasy Star 2 and Final Fantasy IV.

Wow. Definitely something to chew on in this. Especially the notion of imagination. In order to reach a wider audience, you have to pander and hand-hold them into "imagination".

With that I gotta say, my parents have actually pulled away from gaming as the graphics quality grew. The days of watching them play Strider, Gradius, Street Fighter, and Sonic have long since been over and I don't see them picking up the newer incarnations of these titles anytime soon.

It's an interesting point and you could argue it's part of the reason that the original playstation managed to broaden the market so much upon release; the graphical leap from what had been available before was massive.

I guess you could say it's somewhat ironic then that the Wii, the graphics of which could not begin to compete with other home consoles, finally brought gaming to the non-gamer, as it were.

I wonder what his opinion of the effect that modern graphical standards has had on the barrier of entry to game development.

I love the points he brings up, and it does make it more accessible for everyone there's no denying that.

I just can't help but feel as though the focus these days seems to be on graphics a little too much, and I'm not sure about anyone else, but I still love myself some 16-bit :

Part of the problem is that most games now, are just make overs of an old game. Been a while since I have seen a new "genre" that interests me.

Now they come up with a new story slap some new graphics on it and voila' new game.

That being said, I do love Skyrim as much as playing Bards tale on my old C-64, which was a lot.

He takes a shower everyday? Impressive.

Sid Meier is what Peter Molyneux wishes he was.

My dad watched me play some of Skyrim and he couldn't believe how "good the graphics were".

It's funny because before he said that I was thinking in my mind about how muddy and terrible the textures look.

Just shows the different standards and expectations different groups of people have approaching modern video games.

If you really want to play a game and have complete control of your interpretation of the world with your imagination, play a MUD. No, I'm serious. I'm sure there's still a couple still active.

Still though, Meier's got a point. But now at least the 'much' older bunch are more accepting of games and that they aren't just a 'time waster for kids' but actually a good investment for escapism and entertainment, like a book or movie. My dad loves westerns and he would stand there for a bit and watch me play Red Dead Redemption. My mom watched me play through Dark Souls. They weren't/aren't gamers, and they didn't know what the hell was happening, but it was enjoyable to watch.