I just stumbled across a community forum topic on OCR about how the gaming industry today is nothing like it used to be, in terms of the quality of the games that are being released. We all know what I'm talking about. There are many games that come out these days, even those that are heavily publicized and hyped and highly rated, that people beat in three days and rarely look at again, unless for another eight hour run-through sometime down the road. Whatever happened to the games you could play for weeks or months that these days, people still love to come back to over and over again? Why can't developers make games like that anymore? Besides the reason that my brother and I just aren't home together enough and just don't have the time to set aside for console gaming, this is another big reason why I don't own a next-gen system. There's nothing really out there, in my opinion, that has lasting replayability. Sure, we didn't know back in the 90's that the games we hold dear to our hearts, like Super Mario World and Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country 2 and Sonic 3 and whatnot, were going to be considered cl@ssics years later and still loved by millions, but they are. Will the games of today be remembered in the same way? I tend not to think so.

But anyway, getting back to that forum topic, one member wrote the following, pertaining to a personal story (not my own) about a guy and his interaction with a mom picking out games to rent at a Blockbuster for her kids:

"You wanna educate your kid in the proper paths of awesome, you pull out the SNES and let 'em cut their teeth on Super Mario World, Link to the Past, and Super Metroid. Then you bust out the Genesis and let 'em play Sonic so they understand why you won't rent Sonic Adventure 14 or whatever for them, because it's a rape of all that was once good with the world. Know your roots man.

All that's to say, if we all have to know things like the fact that Columbus discovered this rock in 1492, why don't we educate our kids in how awesome games used to be?"

I really couldn't say it better myself. What do you guys think though? I know many of you own Wiis and 360s and must feel like attacking me because I've kinda indirectly bashed your favorite recently released games, but this is how I feel and I'm just wondering, deep down, what you think.