I can think of nothing. The initial idea of interacting with a screen via some device - that feeling of feedback hasn't been superseded.

Graphical improvements have given a short buzz from time to time - and have enabled new genres - but it hasn't changed the feeling of a well crafted video game.

Tech advancing to the point where it could create a recognisable representation of a "real" world (PS1) bringing in the mainstream gamer is probably the greatest change - though it hasn't raised an eyebrow by more than 1mm with me. I don't want games to look real - makes it feel like work.

If VR without headset and associated gizmos could create new immersive, social interactive pastimes then that would be the true next step.

Minnesänger wrote:

Yennifer’s titties.

“Marika’s tits!”

My fave line from ER so far.

The switch from the primacy of the arcade to home gaming, allowing games to become longer, deeper and more meaningful experiences than the arcade format allowed.

As an industry.
iPhone and mobile gaming in general, with all that comes with it like gouging monetisation, manipulation, huge market reach outside of males of a certain age.

All personal choices and I'd not even say correct but I would go with the following within my gaming lifetime

- The C64 - it was the first computer I had that played games and was mine. So obviously the spark to everything that follows

- The Mouse - The Amiga and its Mouse controller brought with it a whole new way to interact and also created whole new game styles. I guess its an age thing but I still find the mouse the most comfortable way for me to interact with my PC.

- Having a Job - Having my own disposable income really changed my approach to games. My Sega Saturn was a much loved machine in part because I could afford to build a fairly large collection for the first time.

- PS2 and Real Mainstream gaming - While the console world was always growing, I really felt it was the PS2 were it became the real mainstream for me. Lots of friends had a ps2 at the time and games  were as much a part of going out as anything. Maybe some games of PES before hitting the pub or back to a flat for drunken rounds of Tekken. I think PSone really kicked the door in but it was the PS2 that everyone seemed to have. Stories of GTA3 and what you could do were everywhere.

- XBox 360 and going online - I was never a major PC player and online had felt very niche until I got a 360. It wasnt just the 360 - decent broadband was no affordable and easy to get in Dublin. Console games were also really being built around them. The introduction of an online store to both the PS3 and 360 experience is also (outside of airplane tickets) my first real instance of buying stuff online. 

- Edges decline - going to end on this one and I should say - its not the mag, its me. Up until the Xbox one/ps4 era, I bought and read Edge monthly and was fully in the know on the game scene. But a range of things happened that have pushed me out of being a keen videogame player to one who enjoys it as a hobby but could take or leave it. Edge often covered content that I felt had no connection to what I wanted from the hobby. The writing didnt engage and many of the things focused on left me cold. Things move on I guess. The rise of online multiplayer also played its part I think - I simply couldnt keep up. I've gone from someone who played MW3 religiously to someone who hasnt played a COD in over a decade. Every now and again I try to get back in - read a few issues of edge only to be bored and get the latest hit only to be left cold even from the presentation screens. 

I still enjoy videogames but its a whole different hobby now.

Digital distribution. 

I know some of you collector geeks are still clinging on but you're all a dead end species. People don't really care about playing 5 generation old games in mass numbers. I guarantee Sony are only doing the PS1/2/3/4 stuff for parity with Xbox BC PR machine. The numbers probably don't make financial sense.

And physical discs only contain half the game now anyway.

EvilRedEye wrote:

I feel like an argument against the 2D to 3D transition is it cut the legs out from 2D graphics and gameplay just as it was getting good, to replace it with 3D graphics and gameplay that with hindsight we now generally consider to be of completely unacceptable quality. Compared to other changes that were immediately and straightforwardly additive.

This. 3D is a crashing bore. I never got the obsession with it. I remember the really early video games - Night Driver (which was actually rather good) and Tailgunner.  Battlezone was a novelty. The sprite scaler games like Space Harrier were OK but didn't hold my interest.

I remember those awful looking early PC shambolic attempts at it with shuffling ugly polygons. The only good experiences I have had with it is with driving games.

Tempy wrote:

Lulu's titties.

A fellow man of culture.

I'm going SM64 and that stick on the controller combined.

Was those or Zenos’ thick butt cheeks, but I don’t think enough people here have played FFXIV to know how much of a fine specimen of a man he is. Could have gone for Geralt’s well defined rear territory, I suppose, but it would have felt like a cop out.

Had to look up Zenos. He looks like a cheap Sephiroth.

Solid Snake's perfect buttocks.

Minnesänger wrote:

handsofblue wrote:

Had to look up Zenos. He looks like a cheap Sephiroth.

How dare you!

Not refuting it though, are ye?

handsofblue wrote:

Minnesänger wrote:

handsofblue wrote:

Had to look up Zenos. He looks like a cheap Sephiroth.

How dare you!

Not refuting it though, are ye?

They’re vastly different people. Sepiroth has mummy issues, but Zenos has daddy issues. Also Zenos has a better butt and combat makes him horny. He’s basically perfect.

Me being able to buy my own games.