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well but also just born in time to live the golden age of computer games as a teenager. oh man those gorgeous manuals of 1990-2000 era games
As I read your comment, I could smell the manual, hear the gentle crack as I broke the hymen of a new manual, it's semiglossy pages revealing the secrets of button layouts to me.
Uhhhh phrasing
The joy of using red filters to find keywords to start those games.
The golden age of computer/video game manuals, sure...
But if you think video games have gotten worse overall, then you are playing the wrong games. For one, "indie" games didn't even exist.
Indie games existed, they were just called shareware
Lol yeah ok, you want to compare the shareware scene in the 80s and 90s to indie games today? It's not even the same ballpark.
indie games didn't even existindie games did not have to exist. indie game level of passion for the game you are creating was generally the norm back then. once the process is turned into an industrial pipeline you sacrifice aesthetics for output volume.Have video games gotten worse overall? On average yes. What percentage of the games being produced now can you say is on par with what you would call a creative and good game "back then". We are basically swimming in a sea of garbage and indie games are a reaction to that. That can not, not be a problem but it also does not mean good games still don't exist.
If video games have gotten worse overall on average, it's simply because there are orders of magnitude more games. If you honestly think games are worse, it's nostalgia speaking 100%. Tons of shovelware will of course bring the average down, but most of us just ignore that shit. You're playing the wrong games.
Not to mention that I can still play all of those old games anyway, so...
Civ2 manual was probably the biggest book I'd seen as kid apart from Bible
If you're on board with puzzle games and a bit of Souls-adjacent combat, you should check out Tunic. It is very relevant to the thing about manuals, even as a digital-only game