I've played video games for close to 20 years now. I picked them up when I was 3 and I've been playing ever since. In those days I had the NES, the SNES and the Sega Genesis to play. What I liked about these games was the pure game play value they held. The concepts of these games were so simple but so brilliant and it kept you entertained forever. The game of today have great and wonderful graphics but they lack in the game play that these older games were masters at.

Personally, I feel like these games need to be combined and meet somewhere in the middle to improve. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen though because people are stuck up on graphics now.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, I mean I think that they have been going downhill a lot lately because they seem to be running out of ideas for video games and also it is the same way for tv, and movies, they are getting more and more lame and boring. New shows that don't make sense that are lame or annoying or movies that are repeated and are also sort of forced. I mean I think we are just running out of ideas for good games, tv and movies and I agree that there are a lot of things that were better a few years ago, like the cartoons on tv for example. So yes I can say that games are probably getting worse and they will probably just continue going downhill. I think that they are mostly killing, zombies and stuff which I am not really into. Graphic wise I think they are okay and some games could use improvement here and there but I think they are just getting worse with video games and some entertainment as well.

Razor-987 : I don't think they've run out of ideas I just think that they haven't taken truly creative people and take those risks with games that could go good. They take risks with games that just suck. Gaming was huge when there were arcades and now people don't even have that as much... It's just greedy business owners...

I don't think games are TOTALLY going downhill, I mean, there are a LOT of upcoming games that millions of people are looking forward to, like the new Smash Bros, and Pokemon X and Y. But the one game genre I think is definitely going downhill, is the FPS genre, no one is looking forward to CoD: Ghosts, I am one of those people that aren't looking forward to it. All we can do is wait for future games, maybe a new series will come up that could end up being just as popular as Mario was in his first game.

Well quality(story line and plot wise) and creativity wise yes Video games have gone downhill because just like television companies and producers are running out of unique original creative ideas for entertainment and have been wasting time making alot of crappy remakes to older shows and video games with a few horrible twists/changes to them.

Well my good man, you and I are kinda in the same boat. I picked up video games at the age of 5 from the NES to current gen consoles and I have to say that yes, games have definitely dropped like a boulder into the proverbial crap pit. Now I don't mean that for every single came that has come out. There are still some gems out there to behold, that's for sure. 

You are very much right on how simple gaming use to be and yet it blew our minds to how it all turned out in the end and for about 30$ or 40$ we had some amazing entertainment. But like Razor-987 stated, a lot of games currently are just coming out with the already basic and established plot lines and are just being forced on the consumers with little to no effort or second thought. There are some really creative developers out there but the hard part is doing something different and getting a fanbase.

My ultimate issue with gaming today is that it really just focuses on a convoluted plot line of consistent FPS tactics borrowed from other games and thrown together with a shallow story. Does that happen all the time? No. But do I see that a lot some times and said games flopped like all hell and disappeared as if they never existed? Sure have. Modern warfare type games or zombie games have hit an all time high with mainstream and too many developers are making such games and they become stale. It blows my mind how Call of Duty has been left to its own devices and squabbled over between two companies and still holds the market when its play value seems to falter a lot in my perspective. Now i'm not hating on Call of Duty at all, I originally loved CoD when it came out for the Xbox 360 and covered a lot of amazing WWII battles.

But to stay on main topic here: games have become more complex to draw in consumers and create wonderful work of art: the games themselves. Over time we've seen many amazing advancements and such but with how technology goes and somehow graphics are more important than he story and gameplay its become a big ol' mess. The small gimmicks developers use in their games to draw us in don't help much either as it can be a small thing when they make it look like the most amazing thing ever. Many franchises have lost their touch and got caught up in worry about how they can present things to us than how they can actually play, a reason why Mega Man is no longer being worked on right now which is really sad.

And like Razor posted, its only going to get worse from here. However there will always be a few companies that stay true and take a leap of faith in development and create some really beautiful games that hold together through and through that isnt your run of the mill typical shooter these days. The days of old where simplicity made things fun is over my friend and I miss that.

zerothesaint : I agree with you. I like playing Call of Duty. I think it is a good game but it cant keep my attention for too long because it's all about the graphics and little to do with the attention. Games like Call of Duty focus more on the skill rather than the strategy. I love my strategy games because they require you to think things through and in a way strategy is the advanced form of puzzle games. Unfortunately, too many people want to shoot things and run around like an idiot. I wish that somebody would revive some of these games and renew some of them on these new consoles with the modern look, modern A.I. scripts and updated features kind of like what Nintendo does with Mario. I even wish I could offer suggestions to improvements on games and even tried to but it's impossible in most cases.

Unfortunately, that's how it is. That gives me an idea though....

Yes, they have. For the fact that lots of violent games are being released with terrible gameplay, and the fan-boys are just CRAZED. I always play Retro Games, instead of new games, or I just pick up the rare species known as a new game that's actually worth playing.

While I do like older games, I dunno if I would like them as much if I didn't grow up with them.
I think we are applying a nostalgia filter to the games we grew up with, maybe to relive our childhoods.

There are lots of games that came out recently that I think are great:
The Last of Us, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Sleeping Dogs, and Silent Hill: Downpour to name a few.

There is also a group of "old school gamers" that hates anything that changed from the original.
Silent Hill and Castlevania are the best examples of this.
Silent Hill 3, 4, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, and Downpour are all great games, but most of the fans of Silent Hill 2 (I dunno why 2 in particular) complain about how all the others aren't Silent Hill 2.
Same with Castlevania. The "epitome" of Castlevania seems to be Symphony of the Night.
While I do like SotN, is it the best? I dunno if I can say that. I personally like the whole series. My favorites being Castlevania 2 and Super Castlevania 4.

So take off those rose-colored nostalgia glasses and give new games a try with an open mind.
Stop looking for flaws or comparing them to old games.
Forget the fan boys.
If games never changed, the only game on this site would be Pong. 

The price went up from $40.00 to $60.00 and they only want to dish out Four Hours of entertainment. (Still there's Load Time?)

They took out so many extras like secret characters and alternate costumes and weapons and made them extra features that you have to buy. (So, Instead of spending a few hours replaying and enjoying unlocking stuff in my game (Just to see what it looks like or performs) I have to pay an extra fee for something I could care less about? (Something I can get for free? See what it looks like on-line or performs on-line. No extra charge.)

They can Keep the bonus stuff.
I'm waiting for the price to drop before I buy my games anyway.

After that stuff?

The quality of games has not gone down any. It's just the business end of it that has altered.
With Men, Women, and Children of most Countries trying out video games? As opposed to the old days of Just two or three countries boys ages between 5 and 16?

That's allot of money to have when they do not make every game a solid 100 hour game.

So, in my perspective?
Video games have gone downhill.
They used to be playable comic-books.
Now? They are movie previews of what they used to be. "Robot Chicken" of what they used to be.
Too many times. I rarely play a game that is worth more than $20.00 bucks.
I mean that in terms of,,, that's what they all should be priced as brand new to begin with.
Very Few are worth more than that Brand New.
Period.
It's just an opinion but whatever folks.
Good Luck To All.
Peace.

orionfoxgibson : That's how I feel. It seems like it became more about the dollar signs that it was about producing good games that could last a lifetime. That's probably a good way to describe older games "Games that last a lifetime"

vanelan :

If we stop looking for flaws, games won't get better. We would just keep getting the same things the developers push out. Criticism is totally needed. Same goes for comparison.

On topic:

Games aren't going downhill, they're just becoming different. Or at least most of them are. In the time of the pre-Windows/DOS era, most games required the use of manuals, books, keeping graph paper handy to sketch out the dungeons, or simply just guessing correctly. Heck, sometimes the entire story would be printed on the back of box. The reason? The technology wasn't there back then. Developers had to be cryptic and brutal because of technological limitations. They did this to make games seem longer then they actually are.  

It's pretty easy to see why would it change. Video Games that use a lot of money to make, need a lot of sales. To get the sales you need to keep things simple and safe. Do what sells. That's why back then almost every game was hard as hell, most developers thought that's what sold. Now developers think that generalized games sell, and in hindsight they do. But I'm seeing a decline with these kinds of games as well. I mean Tomb Raider (2013) sold about 3.4 million copies, and that wasn't enough. Publishers and some developers believe they have to cater to someone. They have to tap into some market. And to get the most sales, they have to invest in it even more. Instead of really just making a game, like what indie developers have done. 

I haven't seen anything lately that really interested me, I have to admit. It looks like it could get better, I just wish it wasn't in the state it is now. Would I want things to be crazy brutal? Not really, brutal =/= depth. I just want some things to be more than just point and shoot. Would I say things are going downhill? No, it's just going into a direction I don't exactly care for. It's different, that's for sure.

siveon : I might have stated that wrong, but I meant don't go into a game just to look for something wrong or having preconceived notions like, "This game isn't (x), its gonna suck."

I think video games haven't gone downhill because I've seen lots of great new ideas lately especially for the new Smash Bros.

I have to agree to a certain extent that games AS A WHOLE have gone downhill. The main reason being that these larger studio productions on games focus almost wholly on graphics and online content rather than the gameplay and SINGLE player content. Also it is getting harder and harder for developers to come up with FRESH and new ideas.

I myself have been playing games since the early to mid 80's. The great thing about growing up during the 80's and 90's was that everything was new and fresh. They focused not only on the graphics but the gameplay as well.

They did such a good job that I still play a TON of the games I played while growing up. The fact that I can still play these games 20 years later is a testament to how great the good titles/consoles are. I highly doubt that I will be playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 20 years from now ;-)

Well, Video games these days in my opinion definitely have went downhill. They just keep improving the graphics while the gameplay is just getting worse and boring. Gaming companies has to start improving on the gameplay more nowadays.

Yeah, They have gone down hill a lot and I have no idea why. lol
But still, People still have them and in some stores, they still sell the NES and stuff.