Did you prefer gaming in the 2000s or 2010s?

[Aaron D.]

I prefer the 2010's.

Digital distribution really took off.

Along with it, cheap & accessible dev tools, varying pricing models, and the eradication of middle-man publisher gate-keeping.

This opened the floodgates for indie/AA development across all platforms and created an explosion of both choice & diversity in the medium.

Quite frankly, I think this is where the absolute most interesting experiences are happening today, and I couldn't be happier for the creative freedom digital distribution has brought us.

 

[Deleted member 364]

2010s on the strength of fighting games alone.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Best to worst:

1) 1990s
2) 2000s
3) 1980s
4) 2010s

 

[Nazgûl]

Surprised to see 2010s wining.

 

[Van Bur3n]

Click to shrink...

 

[Guru Meditation]

I enjoyed the 2000s way more. Possibly because I'm 36 now, but imo the big publishers were so much more creative back then, especially the first half of the 2000s. PS2 library alone is better than PS4/XB1 put together. Not to mention all the great PS1 RPGs from 2000.

 

[Jakke_Koala]

2010's

That period had the most GOAT's for me. Bloodborne, Hollow Knight, Borderlands 2, What remains of Edith Finch, PT, Fall out New Vegas

 

[nizerifin]

2010s saw a better selection of consistently high-quality games.

 

[don't answer that]

I enjoyed playing games in 2000s way more than I do now. Now, 90 % of the games that I start playing, feel like something that I have experienced before, to the point where it bores me to hell after the first few hours. That wasn't the case in the 2000s. And the online multiplayer (especially in the early 2000s) felt like something revolutionary was happening. Now it just feels faded.
But maybe I just got way older and the excitement for games left my soul over the past 10 years.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

2000s were magic... an epic console like PS2 with explosions of epic games many are still one of the best I've ever played.

 

[UnderNewOwnership]

2000s had horrific shit like SecuROM or <shudder> Starforce and patches you needed to manually download and install.

On the other hand, people were more likely to create detailed guides/walkthroughs/FAQs and post them on GameFAQs.

The Baldur's Gate 2 FAQ by Dan Simpson remains the yardstick I measure 3rd party game guides by to this day.

 

[EvilBoris]

2000's easily , that covers the End days of Dreamcast, N64 and PSX, almost all of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube , the Wii,360 and PS3 were all at their prime. We even had the DS and PsP

the library of all of those games , plus the hugely innovative years of online integration.

The Post 2010 years were all the big AAA storybased movie wannabees, something that we've never really gotten over.
That's not to say that there are no great games, but there is certainly less variety

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Extremely easy pick. The previous decade has been one where all the worst trends in gaming raised in popularity, during the Xbox360/PS3 era.
Cinematic games, corridor shooters, QTE fests, publishers moving away from PC more and more, the attempt to turn everything into a fucking MMO to get those WoW money, a jarring lack of mid-tier games, several genres going almost extinct.
Frankly especially the latter half of that decade has been one of complete creative bankruptcy.

It's not like the current era doesn't bring its fair share of problems, but especially on PC I'd argue we are going through one of the most prosperous times in gaming.
And we have access to an unprecedented amount of diversity at any given time.

P.S. since people are pushing this bullshit as excuse: for context I'm 42 and I was already an adult through both eras.

 

[EvilBoris]

Oh it's another 'how old are you' thread

In almost every case people's best gaming yasrs is regardless of quality and usually when they were 12-20

Click to shrink...

Haha it's true, which is why we have so many claiming the Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are the greatest games ever made.

 

[Serious Sam]

 

[LostSkullKid]

Not much this decade has particularly blown me away. I mean Mario Odyssey was great and probably my favorite Mario game. And Breath of the Wild was also pretty good but it ain't shit to Majora's Mask or Twilight Princess. And Kingdom Hearts 3 wasn't as good as 1 or 2. There's not a lot else this decade that sticks out to me. There's some stuff like Persona 4 that I didn't play until 2011 but it's still a 2000s game.

 

[bell wood's jet cola]

2000s because I was still a kid from 2000-2004. Lot more time to devote to games and I still had that starry eyed nature that's left me.

 

[Nameless]

The 2000s gave me Morrowind, Chrono Cross, MGS3, Deus Ex, ICO+SoTC, KOTOR I & II, Oblivion, prime Rockstar with the PS2 GTA games, Metroid Prime, Code Veronica, Suikoden 3, PSO, Ninja Gaiden Black,Wind Waker, FFXII, Silent Hill 2, REmake, Orange Box, Dragon Age Origins.

In the 2010s I got New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, Dragon's Dogma, Witcher 2&3, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 1+3, Sekiro, The Last of Us, Skyrim, Prey, Human Revolution, BOTW, REVII, Astro Bot, Gravity Rush games, RD1 Talos Principle, MHW, peak Rockstar with RDR2, Last Guardian, MGSV , two cosmic dream games in NMS and Outer Wilds, DMC5, Control, REmake 2.

I think I give the slight advantage to the 00s. It's was the more formative decade and conditioned me for a lot of the experiences I fell in love with in the 2010s. It's really friggin , close, though.

 

[AzureFlame]

2000s forever.

 

[Augemitbutter]

not a contest, it's 2000s. Sega was still in hardware market and the PS2 had every game under the sun. Crazy stuff had tons of shelf space next to AAA+ and it seemed so natural. Konami was still making good stuff next to MGS. Printed manuals because the cost of manuals is definitely going to make new releases cheaper *cough*. Demon's Souls to fight the upcoming mass regression. Free online. Only one among us is trying to sabotage it. Atlus peaks with SMT and all side games. And much more.

2010 is still great because you can play all the back catalogue. Tons of good games but also tons of fuckery with gambling and similar that threatens both young and old. We don't know how this will affect future generations. I hope it's not too sad. Still overall pretty happy because i know how to avoid the bad stuff and stick to physical media. In the end i don't want to be the guy that sabotaged all the good stuff.

 

[Aaron D.]

Oh it's another 'how old are you' thread

In almost every case people's best gaming yasrs is regardless of quality and usually when they were 12-20

Click to shrink...

That would make my faves 2600 & NES, lol.

 

[NuclearCake]

2000s generally sucked at everything, except for gaming. Sony, Nintendo, Xbox and PC gaming kicked it out of the park mostly. There were so many games to play that i was overwhelmed for the first time in this hobby. I couldn't play many classics until much later, There was just so much to play.

2010s were good, but there were a ton of disappointments.

 

[Kneefoil]

2000s:
+ AAA was more experimental
+ More mid-tier games
+ Shorter development times
+ Little to no microtransactions
+ Smaller devs have an easier time getting their games be noticed

2010s:
+ Generally higher quality games
+ AAA devs aren't afraid to use colours outside of the browns and greys that were popular in the late '00s
+ Rich and inventive indie scene

This is tough. I kind of wanted to give it to the '10s because the actual games have gotten better, but the truth is that even if we had continued with the paradigms of the noughties, games would've still improved a lot. And even though I appreciate the indie scene, truthfully, I don't play indie games very often and I do miss the times when big publishers were more willing to experiment and work on smaller projects. I think my answer's gonna have to be the 2000s.

 

[Mizeris Lutz Ether Lanai]

2010s. After the Dreamcast went into eternal sleep mode, the rest of the decade was dominated by good but not-quite-there-yet 3D and undercooked online. This decade has seen things really come into their own, and the indie boom & the growth of digital distribution have meant whole genres once thought dead are thriving.

 

[Melchiah]

I enjoyed playing games in 2000s way more than I do now. Now, 90 % of the games that I start playing, feel like something that I have experienced before, to the point where it bores me to hell after the first few hours. That wasn't the case in the 2000s. And the online multiplayer (especially in the early 2000s) felt like something revolutionary was happening. Now it just feels faded.
But maybe I just got way older and the excitement for games left my soul over the past 10 years.

Click to shrink...

It's the same effect that plagued Amiga. Now, instead of sidescroller galore, we just have open world this and that with the same collecthaton mechanics. They're all mechanically the same.

 

[Funkybee]

Where is the 90's option?

 

[Virtua Saturn]

2010s
Bigger games
Indies
More diversity
Capcom redeemed

 

[Timeaisis]

2000s had Final Fantasy IX, Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4 and Metroid Prime so....

 

[mogwai00]

2000s.
And on PC you already had some strong stuff of 2010s (digital distribution, experimental stuff, flexible online experiences).

 

[DarkMagician]

The one where we got Zelda TP, Metroid Prime 3, and Mario Galaxy within a year of each other.

 

[V has come to]

2000's for me. it just felt like there was constantly new ideas being brought to the market, devs were more willing to try weird things. we still get that, especially in the indie scene, but it's just not the same as back then

2010's have still been great tho, there's more games i want to play than i have time to these days

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

2000s:
+ AAA was more experimental
+ More mid-tier games
+ Smaller devs have an easier time getting their games be noticed

Click to shrink...

All of these are almost comically wrong.
The 2000s have been the period where mid tier productions came their closest to complete extinction , at least until the raise of digital distribution on PC by the end of the decade gave them new blood.
Not to mention the time where "AAA" peaked in formulaic design.

In the '10s we got crowdfunding, the resurgence of entire genres that were considered unmarketable before and the never too welcomed death of a lot of atrocious design trends in triple A productions (QTE galore, cinematic focus, etc).

It's fine to have different preferences but some of you are simply rewriting history on a whim.

 

[Jimbojim]

Tough call but I have to pick 2000's.
* FFIX- X - XI- XII
* Splinter Cell 1-2-3-4
* Resident Evil 4 - REmake
* Dragon Quest VIII
* Burnout games
...and more

 

[Melchiah]

All of these are almost comically wrong.
The 2000s have been the period where mid tier productions came their closest to complete extinction , at least until the raise of digital distribution on PC by the end of the decade gave them new blood.
Not to mention the time where "AAA" peaked in formulaic design.

In the '10s we got crowdfunding, the resurgence of entire genres that were considered unmarketable before and the never too welcomed death of a lot of atrocious design trends in triple A productions (QTE galore, cinematic focus, etc).

It's fine to have different preferences but some of you are simply rewriting history on a whim.

Click to shrink...

Sounds like you're talking about the latter half of 2000s, the HD era. The first half was different, and offered unique "AA" gaming experiences, that pretty much only exist in indie space these days.

 

[Deleted member 17676]

Can't believe so many people are saying last half of 2000s sucked. 2007 and 2008 were some of the best gaming years ever.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

2017-2019 has been incredible, so I'm voting for this decade.

 

[Tailzo]

Shenmue I and Shenmue II was early 2000s so...

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

I've been playing videogames since the NES and the 2010-2013 timeframe was the best ever for me. Just an amazing run of all-time great games.

 

[CannonFodder52]

Interestingly the poll has been getting closer as the day has gone on. I wonder if that's potentially time of day or region related.
I think it was 30-70 this morning.

 

[Kneefoil]

All of these are almost comically wrong.
The 2000s have been the period where mid tier productions came their closest to complete extinction , at least until the raise of digital distribution on PC by the end of the decade gave them new blood.
Not to mention the time where "AAA" peaked in formulaic design.

Click to shrink...

I beg to differ. While mid tier and originality would start to decline in the noughties, I don't think the peak was reached until the early 2010s, and things have only started to get better again a few years back.

If you want me to back up my words, why don't we use Capcom as an example, shall we? You know, they're a big name dev and publisher, but they did some weird and unexpected stuff back then:

• started doing graphic adventures with Ace Attorney
• came up with a wacky new beat 'em up with Dead Rising
• basically anything Clover Studios ever put out
• reinvented Resident Evil
• published Killer 7, which was an extremely strange title
• developed Ghost Trick - a very original puzzle game

Capcom have had their moments in the 2010s as well by reinventing Resident Evil again and coming up with Dragon's Dogma, but their output has still paled in comparison to what they produced in the '00s.

I do also stand by with smaller devs having an easier time being noticed just because the indie market really is flooded right now. Of course, in the early 2000s they flew pretty much all under the radar, but they already surfaced to public's attention in the latter half of the decade.

In the '10s we got crowdfunding, the resurgence of entire genres that were considered unmarketable before and the never too welcomed death of a lot of atrocious design trends in triple A productions (QTE galore, cinematic focus, etc).

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'm glad QTEs aren't everywhere like they used to be. I'd argue that a lot more games take cues from cinema now than they did back then, though.

 

[Ocean]

10s gave us Hollow Knight, which is enough to settle the entire discussion if you ask me.

 

[Turbo Tu-Tone]

Warhawk PS3 dropped in 07. UC2 in 09. MAG in 2010.

BOTH.

 

[Duxxy3]

Games are always good for their era, regardless of hardware. But I do think that the 2010's have been a ripoff in terms of hardware value.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Sounds like you're talking about the latter half of 2000s, the HD era. The first half was different, and offered unique "AA" gaming experiences, that pretty much only exist in indie space these days.

Click to shrink...

Sure, precisely because I'm talking about the general trend that decade moved toward, not the place where it started.
Baldur's Gate 2 may be one of my top 3 favorite games ever made and it was in 2001, but I definitely wouldn't call it an expression of "the spirit of its decade", it was a something that dragged from the '90s and not incidentally went to die as a genre until very recently.

Stuff like XCOM 2 or Divinity Original Sin 2? In the 2000s no publisher would have touched them with a ten feet pole.
I'm so, SO glad that period is behind us.

 

[ghibli99]

Every one of the 4 decades of my gaming life have been a tie. I just love games, period.

 

[TrishaCat]

We could probably boil down the question down to, do you prefer the more rapid releases of classic AAA titles in the 2000s, or slower dev-cycles bolstered by the enormous rise in popularity of the independent scene?

So, which decade did you prefer?
If you were stuck on a desert island with your top 10 of either decade, which one would you choose?
What do you miss or nostalgically look back upon regarding the 2000s?

Click to shrink...

I'm in a weird place because I think video games are in a better place than they've ever been with regards to the quality of games coming out. There's just SOOOOOOO much. But at the same time, there are a few devs where I miss how much more frequently they'd put out games back in the 2000s. Square Enix especially fits this.
Most of my favorite games are from this decade though.

 

[Guru Meditation]

If I could slide the period a bit, I'd say it was really 1995-2005 that was the golden era of console gaming. So many new and revolutionary games, birth of 3d gaming, online gaming, industry shaking games dropping nearly every week.

Quality is definitely better now for the average game, but everything kind of has a been there done that feeling to it now.

 

[oreomunsta]

Apart from some negative trends of modern gaming, we've never had so much choice and ease of finding something to play as we do today.

The Switch is possibly my favourite console I've ever owned. Gamepass is terrific. And I'd give up any zelda game for BotW and what it could mean for the rest of the series

2010's is better and shows the medium blossoming

 

[JimmyNeedles-TS]

For me personally, the 2000s, but this is mainly based on emotional memories of those years. Saving up for a game, biking home from the store as fast as possible, no bullshit downloads or endless install screens. Man, I would love to warp back to that time :)

 

[Deleted member 17643]

I think the current gen has been one of the best in video game history. So the 10s for sure.