Definitely. Like I think a lot of people forget that the older generation of games, like the 8bit era especially, were arcade ports that were designed to eat quarters and not really modified much when moved to console. That was the main reason it was like, “here’s your three lives to get through the next 15 levels and when you’re out go fuck yourself start over loool”.
I was an 80s kid and have tons of nostalgia for the time and the games even but to put it simply, there were not many games back then that you were getting more than a couple hours out of unless you were getting your shit pushed in constantly due to the artificial difficulty designed to suck up those quarters at the arcade. Even games like the original Legend of Zelda, if you know what to do ahead of time youre only talking a few hours of actual content. For platformers it was far less…Ninja Gaiden, a brutally difficult game…turn on invincibility and you can speed run that shit in like what, 20 minutes?
And not to toot my own horn but there would be games I paid $50 for that Id have done in an afternoon and then what? Nothing, play again I guess. Which sometimes was worthwhile, other times not so much.
Even later the ethos was still there, just instead of the quarter stealing mechanic, it was the “dont let them finish it in a rental period” mechanic…they wanted people to buy, not rent.
But, I do definitely miss the simplicity. No fuckin achievement chasing bullshit, no fucking unlocks, no dlc…they couldnt as easily release 40% of a game and lock the remaining 60% behind season passes and shit.
And of course having the whole game be dependent on multi-player and an active community for it to worth a shit beyond the first 60 daya. How many full price AAA games out there that lasted a few mere months befoee the server was a ghost town and nothing to do in the single player game.
Cest la vie lol
My wife and I were 6 months into planning ours and so fucking stressed out over making it a great experience for our honored guests. A text from her mother that read “Well if you invite X you have to invite Y or else it’s going to be an issue…” was the straw that broke both our backs, but there had been months of this shit prior to that point, to the point where it was affecting my wife-to-be and I’s relationship and we never argued like we did over planning our “traditional” wedding.
None of the stress was internal, it was all external…people weighing in with their opinions of our plans, what we should serve, oh this person doesn’t like that, you should have this instead, well this person is going to insist on bringing their kids even if they kids are not invited so you’d better plan on having settings for them, dont use that photographer use this photographer or else wedding ruined, dont get this caterer get this other caterer or wedding ruined, dont have it here, have it there, or wedding ruined…
So we both said “Fuck it” and eloped. Found a small bed and breakfast a few hours away that offered a literal Elopement Package…the owner was a certified JP, his wife did all the decorating…they even provided witnesses. All we had to do was show up. The price was just under what the photographer alone was going to cost us.
Happily married for 10 years now. Best decision we ever made.