this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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When did the (first) golden age of PC gaming end? (feddit.nu)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Let's see if this community still is active.

I'm not sure if it's officially agreed upon, but I would say the release of Doom in '93 properly marked the beginning of a golden age of PC gaming. Modern homogenisation and monetisation hadn't set in yet and over the next decade or so the PC gaming landscape would be full of innovation and passion, with a sea of classics being released in that time frame... but when did it end? Was there a specific watershed game that signalled a shift in the landscape?

This topic has been on my mind for a while, because I've pondered on whether there is an open niche for a community dedicated to games of this era. They're not quite at home in Retro Gaming subs, but still old enough now that they might warrant their own corner separate from main gaming spaces.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What exactly makes now not the golden age? There are more games than ever and emulation tools, the Steam deck, big modding scenes, etc.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They did say "first Golden Age - no reason we can't be in a new Golden Age.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

But PC gaming has always been pretty great. It's not like there was some "dark age"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

You don't have to have a dark age to hava a golden age.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That's the bit I was trying to figure out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Its pretty easy to find a dark age for pc gaming. There was a period of time, during the PS3/Xbox 360 era, where publishers were writing off PC as a platform. There were tons of console exclusives and the games that did hit PC were often bad console ports.

Still even in that period, there were PC games for people to play. If you were following game trends or interested in most of the games shown off at E3 those years then it was a dark age. If you were playing World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2, you probably didn't notice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I think there is too much bad happening at present day to call it a true golden age, but I might be wrong. Depends on your definition. There are certainly plenty of good games coming out. Maybe it's a golden age of indie games? Overall though, predatory monetisation is rampant, pre-order scams and shovelware mobile games are abundant. Gacha games have conquered the world and continued the EA Sports tradition of selling gambling products to children. Shareholders dominate the business more than ever, we have mass layoffs happening everywhere, mods are getting copyright struck, we have normalised rootkit DRM and always-online singleplayer games... I could go on.