Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 3760999" data-attributes="member: 3854">"We didn't need more than 48K memory back then. We could use our imaginations, and the game developers knew this. They assumed people would fill in the images with their own minds. They didn't waste memory space with extraneous coding to throw the graphics up in our faces."But the 48K was a limitation on the technology, not on the design skill. There were good old computer games and bad computer games all built within the 48K limit."We didn't need color visuals back then. Watchers knew what color the sky and grass was, and black and white were perfect for showing whether the cowboy was bad (black hat) or good (white hat). TV producers understood that people could fill in the colors of the world with their own imaginations, so they didn't waste effort trying to make wardrobes and sets colorful because that would and does take attention away from the story."But the black and white was a limit on the technology, not on the design skill. There were good and bad shows/films back then.Just because the standard back then was based on little or no understanding of good design philosophy, because the hobby and genre were brand new, doesn't mean that everything created back then was good.Back then, gamers were starving for new material and adventures, so there were some writers and publishers putting out crap just to get something out. And some people bought and ran the crap because they had nothing else to do. (It didn't really matter to the 12 year olds, because they were just having mindless fun with their friends, anyway.) But there were some writers and publishers putting out good stuff because they either knew good design instinctively, or they paid attention and learned/figured out what would make for a good/well designed dungeon.I don't think adventures are/were better (old or new) because they had nonsensical, illogical, or wonky design elements. Wonky elements are wonky, and are bad design.If a bad design element is present in a dungeon today, people will point at it and say "that's bad." And most people will agree with the statement. Strangely, though, a bad design element in an old dungeon gets defended as some kind of wise and good design decision to be respected because we didn't need good design in the old days. If wonky design elements were better for us in the old days, why did some designers give us some logical, sensical, and well explained adventures in the old days?Quasqueton</blockquote>

Verification