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Subject: Was '98 a transformational year in video/computer gaming?

Written By: 90s Guy on 07/22/18 at 7:53 am

I feel like 1998 represents a few things:
-3D cementing itself as the dominant style in all game genres, rather than as a novelty or option (IE in 95, 96, and even 97, you had AAA budget 2D games, FMV games, etc), whereas after '98 3D became the rule.

-Outside of Half-Life, the first person shooter craze died down and action/adventure titles became the dominant style of gameplay.

-GameBoy Color helped usher in a second wind for handheld games and brought Pokemon into the mainstream.

-The decline of Sega was pretty much in full speed.

-The Myst-clone craze in PC gaming ended.

-PS1 and N64 cemented themselves as the consoles of choice, whereas in 97, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were still competitive consoles and the former two consoles were still relatively new and not in everyone's household yet.

-The RPG genre on PC rose from a state of near death/being a niche genre to becoming one of the biggest mainstream genres with the release of Baldur's Gate. Diablo had started the revival, but Baldur's Gate cemented that the genre was viable

-RTS gams at an all time high

-'98 marked the last year where adventure games were a mainstream PC game genre, with King's Quest 8, Grim Fandango, and Quest for Glory V being among the last big budget releases. Two years prior, they had been the dominant genre.  Blizzard, sensing the sudden sea change, abruptly cancelled the 98% complete adventure game called Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans (whose voice cast had among it Clancy Brown and Tony Jay) and which they had been working on since 1996.

Am I reading it right? Was '98 a pendulum year in gaming?

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