"Video games today are a race to the bottom."

"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash, and I'm sad for that."

This is quote by PONG creator and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.

Normally I would just dismiss a statement like this for various reasons. But the fact that the creator of PONG said it, got me thinking. It's interesting to look at how video games relfect our culture. It gets me asking questions like "Why are a violent games so popular?"

You would think that Bushnell, some consider the father of electronic games, to be impressed and pleased with what can be accomplished in games these days. But when he says that games today are "trash" and are going downhill it just gets me thinking. Does it get you thinking? What are your thoughts on Bushnell's quote and the current trends in gaming today? Do you agree? Disagree?

 

Bushnell's opinion is trash. His company created garbage title after garbage title with nothing but profit in mind. He didn't even create pong, he stole it from someone else. He is nothing but a crook. I think that because the industry is so large and his company that jumpstarted it is the laughing stock of the gaming industry and he has no place in what is essentionally the industry he created, he says it's trash.

 

Bushnell is just bitter he didn't create super Mario Brothers and Katamari.

 

I would take that seriously if it came from Carmack, Miyamoto, Yu Suzuki, Kojima, Naka, Cliffy B, or even David Perry (who isnt that important these days...)

But Bushnell? give me a break! that guy left the market before most gamers today were born, he created the shittiest console ever (2600) which almost single handedly drove the entire market into a crash back in 1983.

Then he created chucky cheese, the most unnecesary piece of crap ever, and now wants to make a VG-themed bar franchise, which is already bleeding money and most investors are laughing at.

The guy is an unresponsible spender and a frigtard, who cares what he has to say about videogames...

 

The attitudes in this thread disappoint me.

 

In the past it was all about interactive movies
now it's about graphics, textures and fake-gameplay (quick time,
time freeze, style). Bottom.

 

Because pong, and pitfall are interactive movies...

 

I think he's right, for the most part. Then again, anyone that was into film in the 50's, 60's, and 70's would say the same thing about 95% of film made in the last 20 years. Things change, and as they become more mainstream, they cater to the idiots that make up the larger portion of society. It is true of just about every part of pop culture. You can blame the developers all you want, but the problem in the end is the end-user. If they buy shit, that's what will be made. Look at Pop music.

Are there some gems that come out a few times a year? Sure. But that's amidst how many complete turds?

 

Interactive movies have been around since the 70s you know.... in fact one of Nintendos first arcade games was Wild Gunman back in 1974 and that was an interactive movie (used split cinefilm).

Anyway still lots of negativety, yep he stole the ideas for Pong and Computer Space but to be fair he did turn them from wonky analogue electronics and large mini computers to digital electronics on a single board and Atari from then did make some original and decent games, which basically everyone copied until about 1976.

What sort of fanboy nonsense are you spouting there? The Atari 2600 when it came out was still tecnically better then anything else at the time, Fairchild Channel F and RCA Studio II? Even years later it was still miles ahead, Atari did make some cock ups with rushing games for christmas sales and over producing cartridges but as there was a glut of third party publishers making even worse games you can't blame Atari for the video game crash.

I still agree with him, games are a race to the bottom, there is too much "me too" junk with only a few games really doing justice to the games market. It was much better in the old days when less stuff came out.

 

Are you high on something? They kept the console on the market for more than a decade, and those actions were the main cause of the crash of 83.

And you blame games today? 99% of all games for the 2600 were crap, most of them being corporate spin-off in an effort to get into the "me-too" bandwagon of the early console industry.

 

I wouldn't call 40,000,000 units sold a shitty system. Enough with the broad sweeping generalizations.

Atari was the first games company to achieve widespread success - don't expect the first company to figure things out immediately.

 

Quote for truth

 

Good games then, bad games then.
Good games now, bad games now.

 

exactally

 

This thread disapoints me.

Bushnell was not the one to run atari in the ground. Yes his greed is responcible since if he never sold off the company then it might have not been run into the ground by the execs who he sold to.

This industry does owe a lot to Bushnell.

 

I think he's just been left behind. I don't think there's anything horribly wrong in the video game industry other than the obvious things. None of them really threaten the industry's survivial.

While I don't think Bushnell is a god, I can respect what part he played in getting us to where we are now.

 

I think Atari made worse systems then the 2600.

 

Selling Atari to Warner basically paid for the completion/launch of the 2600 design, didn't it? Without that sale, there might not have been a 2600.

Don't know the context of Bushnell's comment, but I think opethfan's & MottZilla's comments hold true. The main beef I have with Bushnell is for inflicting Chuck E Cheese upon an innocent world...

 

^ Spot on!

 

Jaguar anyone?