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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 9770441" data-attributes="member: 5142">Agreed. I like to think about design in terms of evolution. (Usual disclaimer here about "no perfect analogies" for the people who get their petty joy from picking illustrative analogies apart.)Mammals first appear in the fossil record in the Triassic. However, there are traits that we recognize in mammals that have their origins in pre-mammalian synapsids (and earlier). But when mammals do arrive, mammals are mostly doing their thing in the background throughout the Mesozoic period. They are mammals but not mammals as we really know them. They are small. They are laying eggs. They haven't really diversified into the mammals we know. They're there but not really in the forefront. It's the age of dinosaurs! The first marsupials appear in the early Cretaceous. Placental mammals don't appear until the late Cretaceous period. Other lines of mammals rise and fall into extinction. Although mammals start booming and diversifying after the Cretaceous period in the Paleogene, it still takes awhile before we really start recognizing creatures that begin looking more like the sort of mammals we know. Then we start seeing things that vaguely look like horses, sloths, leopards, deer, primates, elephants, etc. of today.IMHO, it's similar with design. (Though a key difference being that game design has intent whereas evolution does not.) You're going to see traits/mechanics expressed in earlier games. But what matters are how those mechanics are expressed in the game, their frequency, their other mechanical traits that comprise the game, as well as their surrounding environment. Are they flourishing or perishing with these mechanics in their present environment? So with "modern" games, it's a question of what sort of mechanics, features, and expressions of game mechanics, play styles, and game families are we seeing in the market?</blockquote>

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