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Older vs New consoles?
I love the newer generation of consoles, I love the enhanced life-like graphics and I love the online aspects of them. Especially the Xbox 360 Live Arcade experience is something unique and can not be matched by any of the other current consoles like the Wii or the PS3.
But there is something about the older generation of consoles that makes them more timeless, easier to use and their gameplay is guaranteed to last a couple of decades - provided the circuit boards don't corrode etc. Will this be the same with the newer generation of consoles?
Read more about what I think about that subject, I am very curious about what do you think?
I am not sure if the Xbox 360 Live Arcade games are going to be any fun in 20 years time. What if your account is wiped and you want to access your live games? Well in 20 years time with the servers probably being dead you just won't have access to the full games anymore. So digital download-able content/distribution has disadvantages for the users apart from the fact that you don't have to go to the store to physically get the physical game medium. It does have great advantages for the publishers who can control their software even better than before.
In the future the 2nd hand market will disappear, there's no trade in Digitally Downloaded games. People will have to resort to hacking the consoles in order to preserve the games. But perhaps in the future companies like Microsoft and Sony will allow a final update that basically opens up the hardware and the games so that they can be played, restored indefinitely..... Would be a nice thing, but I don't see it happening
So where game collecting is concerned, older media and older consoles will withstand the test of time better than those newer devices. So if you want to collect a library that you still want to be playing in 20 years time - you'd better stick to retro.... or not?
Perhaps PC-gaming and emulation isn't that bad after all. This open platform (at least for now) will allow gamers to access the game-code in the future.
Comments
Given the pathetic build quality (people still getting the RROD here in the UK) I can't see the 360 becoming a playable artifact. The onus on online will also effect the playability of titles in the future no matter what the platform.
Given the pathetic build quality (people still getting the RROD here in the UK) I can't see the 360 becoming a playable artifact. The onus on online will also effect the playability of titles in the future no matter what the platform.
Yeah in 20 years time the gpu-units will all have fallen of the mainboard producing the infamous red ring of death. The only way to play those 20 year old xboxes will be by doing it with the ' towel method ' :-P
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
People will find ways around the online stuff. I'd be shocked if there weren't communities out there who continued or preserved the online stuff. Sure, it will be a tiny percentage of the present size, but there will be people. Case in point--the PLATO community. I mean, if something as obscure and specialized as that system can still exist in its online form, I have no doubt whatsoever about Xbox live or whatever it is. I've seen lots of emulators out there with online capabilities, often utilizing the web to do things the original developers couldn't do. Again, I'm sure they will be very small, niche communities doing it. But it will be there for folks who really want to seek it out.
I wonder more about pure MMOs. The problem is that so much of what they do depends on the developers themselves, and I bet there would be lots of IP problems if fans tried to run their own servers after one fell. I didn't hear of any such efforts after the fall of Garriott's game. Still, assuming that clever folks can get hold of the source code or find ways to run their own servers, I bet at least some of them will resurface eventually.
People will find ways around the online stuff. I'd be shocked if there weren't communities out there who continued or preserved the online stuff. Sure, it will be a tiny percentage of the present size, but there will be people. Case in point--the PLATO community. I mean, if something as obscure and specialized as that system can still exist in its online form, I have no doubt whatsoever about Xbox live or whatever it is. I've seen lots of emulators out there with online capabilities, often utilizing the web to do things the original developers couldn't do. Again, I'm sure they will be very small, niche communities doing it. But it will be there for folks who really want to seek it out.
I wonder more about pure MMOs. The problem is that so much of what they do depends on the developers themselves, and I bet there would be lots of IP problems if fans tried to run their own servers after one fell. I didn't hear of any such efforts after the fall of Garriott's game. Still, assuming that clever folks can get hold of the source code or find ways to run their own servers, I bet at least some of them will resurface eventually.
The PLATO system is an open source system - people have access to the system itself and are able to modify it.
The Xbox-Live system is closed - the only thing non-Microsoft-employees will be able to do with it is enjoy it while it lasts.
Preserving the xbox-Live system is because of its very nature - not possible without the help of Microsoft really.
Emulators with online-capabilities are only 'emulating' the system link or multi player on one console aspects of the games where both parties need to be running the exact same rom and the emulators constantly synchronise the way the game runs. Not really online-multiplayer but some sort of long-distance 'two player sonic' game, Mario Kart game.
The specific Xbox-live experience with the friend-highscore list, the ability to play a game together for a party is something very different.
By their very nature each specific MMO's will die out once they've peaked and less and less players are enjoying the environment. You see this type of thing happening to other online games - they have a peak and after some time it is hard to find other people playing a game you can join.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Where there is life, there is hope.
http://www.onlineconsoles.com/
There are even people here using software to play Gamecube LAN games over the web.......
Yes, and plenty of illegal private servers for running WoW among other MMOs. ;)