Recalling ‘The Decline of Video Gaming’

Did British teens see the future fourteen years ago?

Dim, Dan, and JT.

It was a simpler time in the online and gaming community. Three-dimensional video games were in their second generation, with the Nintendo GameCube, the Sony PlayStation 2, and the Microsoft Xbox leading the way. Google was a rising star, but its favorite asset, YouTube, did not yet exist. The leading platform for user-based video content was Newgrounds.com, which enjoyed a golden age of Flash animation that defined the era. It was on this site, on March 30, 2004, that a handful of British teenagers unleashed what would become one of the most famous and beloved series of that time: The Decline of Video Gaming.

With such a bright time, gaming looked like it would last forever. Little did we know that we drew ever closer to our self-manufactured downfall!

A collaboration of brothers Dim and Tom (Super Flash Bros.) and their friends Dan and JT (Double Helix), the Decline series set a standard for quality flash animation in a bubbling genre that now permeates the Web, even if these creators are mostly forgotten now. One of their voice acting partners on this project, who still enjoys online celebrity, is none other than Egoraptor. He is better known today by his real name, Arin Hanson, and his gut-busting rage as he films himself playing video games, in a series known as Game Grumps. Indeed, Arin is one of the few titans of this period that has remained in the spotlight.

The change of the winds aside, Decline was an impactful series when it was released. It imagines a comedic future in which video gaming has grown stale and uninspired. Dim, Dan, and JT (along with Tom here and there) explore video game stores, E3, and Tokyo as they rip into flawed video games, to the chagrin of developers. Nevertheless, one can tell that their critiques come from a place of love. In fact, the jabs appear to occur on a background of pure admiration for the major titles: The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Bros., Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and many more.

While the satire is meant in good fun and appears to feature little, genuine concern for the future of the industry, some of their observations seem to have stuck. The industry as they foretold is rife with a slew of sequels, overstretched franchises, and gimmicky hardware, often lacking originality or truly innovative experiences. As gaming has become more mainstream than it was in that time, lifelong gamers such as myself will, on occasion, wistfully recall the feeling of satisfaction that one used to get when playing a truly great game, a feeling that is, more and more, hard to replicate.

In its opening sequence narrated by Arin, Decline provides the following exposition: “With such a bright time, gaming looked like it would last forever. Little did we know that we drew ever closer to our self-manufactured downfall!” This line presents the main idea, that the Decline of Video Gaming is the result of its own growth, that something about its rise guaranteed an unfortunate reversal. It suggests that it was unavoidable, as well as the product of our collective decisions, be we the makers or the players.

Just how much of that projection actually came true?