"The Golden Age of Gaming" didn't exist, has never existed, has always existed, and exists right now

Written by Claire Beckett

Games are forever!

"The Golden Age" is a very common reference point when talking about any concept that has any sort of history. Things were good then, they aren't now, we should make it like that again. Perhaps trying to make things like that again is a fruitless effort, perhaps its for the betterment of the whole concept, or perhaps, just maybe, the whole concept of a "golden age" is rubbish. I'm here of course to talk about video games, and the supposed gilded ages that reviewers and critics love to harp back to. I'm here to say that video games have always been great, they're great right now! The way in which the mainstream public eye views them must simply shift to a different angle. Let's get into it. If you've ever partaken in any sort of video game criticism you've probably heard this phrase. Hearkening back to the earlier days of development and hardware, where creativity was boundless and the market was strong. It's a bit more complicated than that but you see the point. These types of arguments posit that the modern era of video game development and hardware pales in comparison to what came before.

While this can certainly be the case for some aspects of the greater gaming sphere, it undermines the growth of creativity within it as well as all the new advancements and skilled artists working within the sphere in the modern age. These talking points are usually only aimed at the mainstream "triple A" part of the gaming landscape, and often forgets the massive swathes of it taken up by independent developers and artists who create new interactive works of art almost every day. I miss the Wii Shop Channel as much as the next gamer, but I'm not ready to write off the entirety of itch.io just because I can't get Mario Kart 64 there. "The good old days" are every changing, constantly shifting forward to account for the nostalgia of the ones who prop up the argument. Technology has come such a long way that we can make the games we were making then now with less issues and better workflow than we ever could back then, and people do! Look at projects like Bloodborne PSX, Anodyne, Ultrakill, Lunacid, Crow Country, all games that wear their old school inspiration loud and proud. These games were made with modern tools by modern people to capture those feelings, to make "the good old days" today, and tomorrow, and the next day. And they did a bang up job as well. Discounting entire generations of new games and developers just because they don't have the nostalgic branding is, quite frankly, a horrid thing to do. Inspiration comes in all forms be it stylistic, mechanical, or simple nostalgia for something once experienced.

To say there was a fixed point in time where games were "good" and that now they're "bad" is a flatly incorrect way to view such a gorgeously complicated art medium such as video games. Many of the problems and systematic issues the gaming landscape faces now existed and were invented back then. Was it better than modern crunch time practices for Insomniac games to make the Spyro the Dragon trilogy in just four years? Where the 100 hour work weeks in the 1990s worth more than the 100 work weeks worked today by developers forced to meet deadlines for publishing companies that only demand results without caring about the cost? Video games have always been hard to make, we made a market out of them. One could argue that once upon a time the bedroom programmer making a few thousand dollars off a surprise hit was commonplace, but that was such a short burst of time before the grip of corporate marketing and the newly created market closed its fist. Things have always needed change. Many of the classics people will endlessly prop up as examples of perfection within their genres or within the medium as a whole have these flaws. They took off because of well funded marketing teams, and passionate developers. Only one of these things is truly needed for a video game though.

No one needs to be a big name in the business to make a good game. I promise you that in corners of the internet like itch.io and other free distribution sites, your next favourite game probably exists. Putting the tools in the hands of passionate creatives is the only thing needed to make good games, and its easier now than its ever been before. With the advent of true online marketplaces and free distribution and hosting websites the number of video games to experience has only gone up. No longer do you need to send out demo floppy disks with cereal boxes or offload CD-ROMs at your local book store. The games are there, we just have to look for them. The mainstream "triple A" landscape has reached a critical point of stagnation. Companies abide only by industry trends, only content to let new creative projects slip through the cracks a small fraction of the time. Relying only on the brand names you know to experience art is not the way forward. This of course doesn't mean you can't enjoy the myriad of multiplayer online only shooters or battle royals, or co-op based video games. Not at all. But I do implore you to branch out. Really see what's out there. Check out small teams that don't have the money to be in a Nintendo Direct, give the game with an awkward 6th gen art style a try, always search for new and interesting things. The greatest era of video games has not passed us by in a flurry of low poly models and low resolution textures. It's always ahead of us in the form of free to use engines, independent developers, fresh ideas and inspirations, and of course, people to play the games that get made. It's easy to think that with the way the largest parts of the landscape are right now that the whole has gone rotten, but that's simply not true.

Video games are art, and art is ever changing. You can't pin down the best of something to an era that barely knew what it was doing. I promise that someone will make the next Mario Kart 64 or Halo Combat Evolved, it might just be someone who only programs on the weekends and has two friends making models and textures. It also might only be on a website others deemed "not a real platform". But I assure you it is, and that game is somewhere out there. Either neatly packed into a .zip file for you to download at a name your price rate, or in the mind of some hobbyist developer who's just cracking open a tutorial for the engine they downloaded.

Brand new games are released every day online! Go find your new favourite at places like itch.io!