Marathon Civilization II game captures gamers imaginations.

[Lennis]

I stumbled across a fascinating article via Steam that tells the story of a Civilization II game (a game that came out in the 1990s) that lasted for ten years.  Ten real world years.  He posted his experiences on Reddit and it went viral - people writing fan fiction and art based on the unique events of his campaign.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/17/community-heroes-we-talk-to-the-man-behind-civilization-iis-eternal-war/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

I think it's interesting that people can still be engrossed in a PC game that is nearly as old as Chrono Trigger.  That says something about the quality of the game design and the gameplay balance.  Firaxis must be tickled pink to read stuff like this.

[Satoh]

Well if you consider...

A game without a plot...
It can last indefinitely if the gameplay is solid. The story is whatever you put on it.

It's for that reason that old games like Starcraft are still getting the game hours that their newer counterparts get.

Some older games had charm in their lack of features in fact. Newer games, even in the same series as their still popular predecessors, don't see the same success, and I think it's because of the feature bloating, the fancy graphics, etc... They're just too different from what made them successful, even though they are still successes.

Some older series have even lost their customers for their new releases. They've gained a new market, but lost the old.

If I could figure out exactly what it is that makes the new series' different from the old, lacking that nostalgia...

But back to the point, I think it's simply that some old games are just more enjoyable than the new ones, and that's why they remain playable today.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

It's interesting, I feel this way about the Elder Scrolls series. I have played Morrowind forward and backward and no game even comes to close to this one. I have literally invested 1000+ hours into this single game through multiple characters, and every two years or so I come back for another 200+ hours.

Even Skyrim, as wonderful as it is, doesn't hold a candle to Morrowind's depth and ingenuity.

If only Morrowind could be remade with Skyrim's graphics... Alas!

[Thought]

X-Com is that way for me. Generally about every year, I dig the old games up, do horrible, horrible things to my computer to make it able to play them, and then I go once more into them. Mostly just Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep, but Apocalypse makes its appearances too.

What makes X-Com so enthralling for me is that there is always room for improvement, and I feel like I actually do rise to it. I've never gotten to Superhuman difficulty, I am not sure I ever WANT to get to it, but maybe with a little more work I can get off easy

I greatly enjoy Morrowind as well. That game, though, strikes me more about exploration and mythos. I still haven't explored it all, but each time I branch out into a new area, I find something fun. Unlike, say, Oblivion where it feels like branching out nets me nothing particularly engaging. The area is nice, but the mythos is... to familiar, I guess. Too bland.

[Lennis]

I love X-Com.  I have that game for the PS1.  The load times and the limited save files are annoying though, so I wish I had the PC version.  I still have an old ME computer, and it could probably run it without too much difficulty.  I'm not brave enough to tinker around with the newer stuff, though.

[Thought]

If you have a few dollars, try Steam. I think I was able to get the entire collection for around 15. They put the effort in to make sure that they work on modern computers.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

I greatly enjoy Morrowind as well. That game, though, strikes me more about exploration and mythos. I still haven't explored it all, but each time I branch out into a new area, I find something fun. Unlike, say, Oblivion where it feels like branching out nets me nothing particularly engaging. The area is nice, but the mythos is... to familiar, I guess. Too bland.

That's a very popular belief. Morrowind is by the far the best of the Elder Scrolls series, with Skyrim a close second. Oblivion was great in how it's questing was structured, but overall the game felt too typical. Morrowind really engaged players because the world was so varied and fleshed out; it truly felt like an alien/fantasy world with a rich tapestry of history. The lore alone in Morrowind is more than Oblivion and Skyrim combined.

On top of that, there are so many mods out there for Morrowind that the graphics can rise up to Oblivion's (if you are patient enough to insert all the new meshes and textures).

I haven't played X-Com.

[xcalibur]

this was always one of my favorite games. I remember picking it up again a few years back to play the WWII scenario.

this is awesome, thanks! it's fascinating to see one game go this far. and for the game world to turn into a dystopian nightmare full of fetid swamps, radioactive waste, and high-tech warfare... that's pretty cool.