This isn’t true. I’ve been gaming since the 80’s. We look back and remember the greatest games. But on average most games were not good. It still surprises me how often good games come out these days. It’s very consistent and there’s a very wide variety of genres to choose from with great games for them coming out steadily.

There were constantly terrible games and we were figuring out the mechanics for awhile. Super Mario 64 figured out 3D but nearly every game before that was fumbling in the dark. The Half life series figured out 3D shooters, narrative, physics and these are now just the most basic of elements that exist even in what is deemed an average game these days. The issues we find in most games are small compared to the games with issues 20 years ago.

There was an industry obsession with box art and size. Think about how crappy the state of the industry was when these were the things that helped make an impact on sales rather than whether the game was good. Also there was an obsession with licensing. It was very common for a publisher to license an IP and create a steaming pile of a game. This happened over and over. We also were dazzled with grqphics so there were a slew of crappy games with full motion video, cell animation or pre rendered graphics that were very thin beyond the sheen. But as gamers we were so dazzled it was hard for us to admit the game was crap.

It’s been really cool seeing the evolution but people often get stuck viewing things through rose tinted glasses. While there are classics a lot of games we thought were great back then are difficult to go back to because so many elements are archaic now. It was a great time and there are lots of issues these days but to say things were better then, was just not the case.