A Distinct Lack of progression

When I was a young lad in the early nineties, I was an avid reader of a magazine known as CVG (Computer and Video Games).
I can imagine that, having said that, many veteran gamers are now getting misty eyed with thoughts of nostalgia. It never fails to impress me how many people read this magazine back in the day and how many of them think highly of it years later. Granted the magazine in question had a very long shelf life (1981-2015) but for me, this was an important source of information in my tentative steps into the world of gaming. 

For this post, I would like to share with you all, something from the December 1992 edition. A reply to a reader's letter whom found a lot of Atari 2600 seemed more challenging when compared to the 16-bit era:

...Technical wizardry isn't necessarily a substitute for a good idea, and many of the games we're seeing today are substandard rehashes of ideas which are ages old. Why is this? Have all the good ideas run out? The simple answer is no. There are still plenty of good ideas out there, the the wrong people have them. 

I'll try and explain: in the old days a programmer would come out with an idea, sit down and bash out the code on his machine. He didn't have to work for anyone, didn't have to worry about so-called quality control and could work whenever he liked. That was how the all-time greats like Manic Miner were born. So what's gone wrong now? Computer game shave become such big business that programmers are forced to work in teams to compete, often writing specific projects dictated by software houses. These projects are dictated by business - will the game make money in the long run? - and very few people are prepared to to take any risks with the result that many good ideas are left on the drawing board. The upshot of all of this is what when a truly great game like Streetfighter 2 comes along everyone jumps up and down and makes a huge fuss, when there was a time when people were banging out brilliant software left, right and centre! 

At the end of the day, though, it's all up to you lot. If you go on buying the same old games the software companies will just go on producing them. If, however, you demand something decent then maybe the right people in power will take a long hard look at the future and realise that something has been lost. When was the last time ANYBODY wrote anything nearly as good as Defender?.... 

Unless you lot - the buying public - decides you want better more playable games you simply won't get them. Personally I'm sick to the back teeth of sub-standard licensed games and I for one am not going to tolerate it much longer. Start shouting for your games NOW! 

Source (page 48)

This may seem like a echo of the problems facing the current gaming industry but the thing is, this in 1992 - nearly three decades ago. It may be abused to think that such problems have grown to a monumental scale but they have. 

And the more things stay the same.....