How you divide an era in Gaming?

[HyperTurboFox]

Video game is nearly 60 year old.
Since the Switch 2 is right around the corner and pricing becoming overpriced.

How you guys divide an era in Gaming?

 

[Clippy]

First you have prehistory - the stuff made in the 50s and 60s like Strachey's Draughts, Tennis for Two, OXO and Spacewar.

Then you have the stone age - first two console generations from Magnavox Odyssey to Atari 2600 and everything in between.

Then you have the golden age - the arcade stuff and home gaming from the 3rd generation up until 2007 or so.

Now we're living the greed and anti-consumer practices age - I'd place its start at the Oblivion horse armor and it continues till this day. An age defined by stupid day 1 DLC, lootboxes, microtransactions, always-online requirements, games being far from finished at launch and the ever more intrusive DRM.


I'm sure one could go more in-depth and name more eras of gaming or discern between PC, console and mobile but it's late and I'm not prepared to research and write an essay on the topic. Indie games definitely deserve a mention somewhere.

 

[ciro64]

Anything after Pong is the cringe era.

Ok slightly more serious answer now. I think each home console videogame generation stood out until 6th gen. After there things starts to blur a little.

 

[HyperTurboFox]

Anything after Pong is the cringe era.

Ok slightly more serious answer now. I think each home console videogame generation stood out until 6th gen. After there things starts to blur a little.

7th generation isn't bad, I think it's the last major stepping stone of gaming.

 

[Xugabugala]

For I am perfect, I also am the measure of everything that is, therefore everything before me is outdated and everything after me is modern.

(in reality I don't really stop to separate games by eras, just by platform LOL )

Post automatically merged: May 18, 2025

7th generation isn't bad, I think it's the last major stepping stone of gaming.

Yeah the Xbox 360 is still one of the best machines I've ever had contact with

 

[BladeEXE67]

Pre Horse Armor DLC and post Horse Armor DLC.

 

[ciro64]

7th generation isn't bad, I think it's the last major stepping stone of gaming.

I didn't dislike it either, I was impressive to me in its own right.

But idk, from the perspective of someone who likes colorful mascots, there isn't a stark difference between the photorealistic shooters of that time from what we have today. Besides the horse DLC, survival open world trend and fabricated esports stuff.

 

[otogirisou]

before fortnite and after fortnite

 

[solidbatman]

pre industrialization and post industrialization. before industrialization, games were a part of the cottage industry. serfs created video games for the lords of the manor in exchange for land to live on. the lords then fought against one another in those games. then space war released and freed the serfs.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Passion and no passion jk

 

[A man on a computer]

Why can't you darn kids just hate everything made past 2005 like I do? Everything obviously began to fall apart after the 7th gen.

Honestly... I think it's when mainlined games stopped making games with experimental gameplay with fun stories. And began to make an endless slew of uninspired filth that constantly lectures why your an awful person all while poorly imitating what we got before.

 

[nobitakun]

I separate all desktop generations by HDMI, non HDMI, because it's equal to CRT, non CRT. As I have different consoles hooked up, I also have 2 TV's, one CRT and one LED.

For portables, I divide them by TV out, no TV out :D.

 

[HyperTurboFox]

I think Gaming goes Downhill since 8th Generation, yes I'm may be a young guy but I think 7th Gen is the last golden age. Even Seventh Generation populated DLC at least they don't overused it and most games are completed compared to the games of this generation.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Firstly, try 70+ years, with the part that nobody talks about being how video blended with pre-existing arcade games with physical props to create video games.

Secondly, it’s down to the person, but generally it ties to shifts in technology, tastes, and popular trends in the gaming sub-culture. We define generations pretty rigidly, but I‘d say it’s more down to the time period than anything else. Systems like the Zeebo, Ouya, Neo Geo AES, and others are either freakishly under or overpowered for the generations they’re defined under, but they still get placed because of the timing of their release.

And please remember, to all those in the back who only follow Nintendo consoles, that the big N has been pretty late to the party on multiple occasions. That means the 16 bit generation begins in the late 80’s (1987) rather than the 90’s, and the fifth generation predates the N64 by three whole years because our good friend Marty decided to crash the party.

Alternatively, Nintendo has also been the one to start generations many times. And they also have the most successful example of having two systems in one generation line (Wii U and Switch are both considered 8th generation hardware). The story of games involves giving flowers to every corner of the industry, no matter how obscure.