T w e n t y S i d e d

My column this week has a title that, on further reflection, could have been better chosen. The title asks “Has Rendering Technology Stagnated?”, but really that question was answered last week. This week the question I’m actually answering is, “Does it Matter?”

I mean, I guess the title kinda works if you think of stagnation in terms of “Not producing significantly better images”. Even so, “Has Visual Fidelity Stagnated?” would have been less ambiguous.

Such are the perils of working with a deadline. I’ve been dividing my time between publishing my book and other important workAssuming that playing Prey: Mooncrash counts as work. and I didn’t get working on last week’s column when I should have. When I finally started writing I realized I was juggling two different ideas:

1. Gaming hardware hasn’t really advanced very much in the last decade. However…
2. …it doesn’t matter, because it’s hard to make real gains in visual fidelity and gameplay is far more important at this point.

So I thought I could split the one column into two. That worked out in the sense that it gave me more breathing room this week, but I really should have finished writing both of them before publishing the first.

If this was just a blog post then it wouldn’t be a problem. I could push the articles off for a week and put up some goofy filler post in the interim. That’s fine when you’re publishing stuff to your own site, but it’s not really acceptable when you’re being paid to do a job. The folks at the Escapist are lovely people and very easy to work with, but this isn’t their hobby. They’re trying to run a business, and the last thing anyone needs is an unreliable contributor.

To be clear, nobody really complained about the column. This isn’t a situation where I turned in work that disappointed someone. Rather this is a case where I realize I could have made a much better pair of articles if I’d had another week.

The solution here is for me to knuckle down and build up some lead time. This is the same advice I keep giving to publishers: Don’t try to finish everything in crunch mode. Take your time. Put in half the hours over twice as many days and you’ll get a better product for the same work.

Anyway.

Now that I just spent 300 words telling you it’s not very good, please do be sure to read the column.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

My original plan this week was to write about the evolution of graphics and gameplay over the last decade. While writing that article, I realized I needed to discuss gaming hardware so I had some sort of context for all the other stuff. But then that aside on hardware grew into my column for this week. I guess you could think of this entire column as a footnote or parenthetical statement for next week’s column.

While writing this I was thinking about what a disaster the last gaming generation was. The Wii was a waggle controller in search of a game mechanic. The Xbox 360 had a bad habit of dropping dead the moment it went out of warranty. The PlayStation 3 was painfully expensive and ran on mutant hardware that made it hard to develop for. The PC was afflicted with bad ports, DRM, and Games for Windows LIVE.

This was also the generation where the BioShock was hailed as this great moment in gaming, despite the fact that it was pretentious and incredibly shallow compared to its forebears Thief and System Shock. It’s not an awful game or anything (and I still think the scene with Andrew Ryan is one of the great moments in gaming) but it’s overshadowed by the things that came before itThief, Deus Ex, System Shock. and the things that followedPrey 2017, Deus Ex Human Revolution.. This was also the low point of both Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls. What I’m getting at is that being one of the greatest games of the previous generation is kind of like being recognized as the world’s best-smelling hobo or the world’s tallest midget.

I’m not suggesting there weren’t good games. There were lots of great games in this time period. But there were also a lot of annoyances, expenses, and hassles. Regardless of what platform you favor, I think we’re in a much better position now than we were 5 years ago. I certainly like my PlayStation 4 more than I cared for either the PS3Huge. Heavy. Tons of heat. Rounded top so I can’t put things on it. Mushy triggers that feel awful. Dumb tilt gimmick. or the Xbox 360Dead in less than a year of very light use.. I don’t think we’re in a second PC Golden Age right now, but I think things are better now than they’ve been since I started this site. Keep in mind that I’m an incurable cynic who complains about everything, so positive appraisals like this one are a rarity for me.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.