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Why were we once able to play and enjoy games that are now rather unplayable? Digital mediums don't necessarily age in the most literal sense, but in their own right it's not always so easy "going-back". I'm lead to believe that either our tastes and criticism were simply non-existent, or some phenomenon has happened, where we've forgotten how to let our imagination do part of the work.
I'm not so sure, so what do you think?
When considering games as an experience, as play, how do graphics activate our imagination? How has newer technology provided outlets for this, or make it obsolete? How has imagination in exploration, in gameplay, and strategies, plot elements, etc. factored into a better or worse experience, past or present?
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In the case anyone is interested, a group of student game-designers/artists/modders from the Cleveland Institute of Art have started a new podcast this month, and we discussed this very issue in our first episode, which you can find and download at our project blog, here.
We mostly cover game-design/theory from our studies, and then modding projects/peer review. The audio-fidelity of longer segments will improve with each episode, being that it's done independently. Our second episode is in the works, and I'll be posting here again soon with its theme and main question as well for discussion.