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[Ainem Enamas]

Comparing to all gaming's history. What do you notice? What are the biggest differences in your opinion? How far do you remember gaming? Do these dark times in the world impact games?

I personally have noticed that popularity of video games have reached the point where gameplay is more accessible to more people.
Indie games are more accessible.

 

[reinking]

The biggest difference IMO is access to information both good and bad. I have mentioned previously that gaming is hyper scrutinized now. You have sites like DF zooming in counting pixels and pointing out any drop in frames. You have social media making sure nothing else slips by. We have always had reviews, debates and platform wars but never at the levels we have now. Games are no longer about how much fun they are but about agendas and narratives driven from all sides.

I agree with you about accessibility too. I can pick up my phone and play games anytime and anywhere. Even online games. Crazy how spoiled we have become yet whine a lot (myself included).

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Digital overtaking physical games to the point that physical only gamers are going to be increasingly reliant on scam companies like limited run games. Even Nintendo gamers are starting to ditch physical which boggles my mind.

 

[AJUMP23]

Gaming use to require imagination I was a dot on a screen. Now the person on the screen looks better than me and that is hard.

 

[bender]

Gaming reaching larger audiences and the design decisions made to cater to those audiences.

 

[R3TRO]

Too much fake outrage.

 

[Russell]

Those communication devices that nearly every human being carries around in their pocket, has completely changed gaming, compared to how things were in the 70's, 80's, 90's, up until the late-00's.

That's the difference.

 

[kevboard]

everything made by big studios insanely homogenous. in german we would say Einheitsbrei.
a very recent example is Monster Hunter... apparently the minimal friendly fire the games had until this point was removed in Wilds. and by friendly fire I mean you could get stunned by getting hit by another player.

why was that changed? it was changed to make the game as inoffensive to non-Monster Hunter players as possible.
so this mechanic which was originally implemented to add an element of team strategy to the game was removed in the name of homogeneity.

Splitgate 2 is another very recent example.
Splitgate 1 was basically a Halo clone with Portals. it even had functionally 1 to 1 copies of Halo weapons. and being a Halo clone also meant being an arena shooter where everyone spawns with the same weapons and looks for better ones on the map.
Splitgate 2 now does a Halo 4, and just copies mainstream shooters. it now has loadouts, it has character classes (akin armor abilities) and it was slowed down to make it casual friendly.

so it went from a shooter that wanted to fill a niche that Halo lost relevance in after Halo 4 destroyed the IP, to now chasing trends in the exact way Halo 4 did. it's almost hilarious to watch a Halo clone make literally the exact same mistake that killed Halo... all in the name of being as mainstream compatible as possible and being risk averse.

ironically this risk averseness is killing IPs because the devs/publishers have this delusional way of thinking, that if only they copied what Call of Duty does, that then CoD players would play their game. in reality CoD players will keep playing CoD and players of your previous game leave because what they came to your game for in the first place is now gone

 

[ReyBrujo]

Developers pay too much attention to social networks, for good and evil.

 

[lockdown2222]

The biggest difference IMO is access to information both good and bad. I have mentioned previously that gaming is hyper scrutinized now. You have sites like DF zooming in counting pixels and pointing out any drop in frames. You have social media making sure nothing else slips by. We have always had reviews, debates and platform wars but never at the levels we have now. Games are no longer about how much fun they are but about agendas and narratives driven from all sides.

I agree with you about accessibility too. I can pick up my phone and play games anytime and anywhere. Even online games. Crazy how spoiled we have become yet whine a lot (myself included).

Agreed. And therefore gaming is performance-based, companies making sure they get the maximum out of the “investment” now and not the game because people love it. And as such, as others mention, companies try to cram in shit to widen the net to their audiences, too. Then we get bland, safe and generic games that ultimately aren’t as fun or memorable as those of the past.

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. There is more of a news network surrounding games. It is a good thing. You can get walkthroughs to games to help you out.

This is especial helpfull for the hardcore stuff like From Software games that are intended to figured out by the fans as a group.

 

[Krathoon]

I wish there were more demos. Maybe even an app that is like the old PlayStation or PC Gamer demo discs.

That would be cool. The app could pull down the demos on the fly or something.

 

[Da1337Vinci]

Gaming discourse can now be separated in its own niche ( performance, dei, genre connoisseur, etc. ) with youtubers that are the 'thought leaders' respectively. Is this good or bad just depend on how much time do you like to spent in the topics.

Live services games are interesting to me in the regard that I view them as something like installation art. But due to network effect tribes are build implicitly or explicitly. That comes with all its benefits and deficits.

Good stuff is of course much more high accessibility in regard to game development.

Most exciting to me is to see how or if chinese or/and korean games will evolved in the upcoming years in their on distinct flavour (gameplay wise).

what is miss is more technical challenging games but hopefully Team Ninja (Ninja gaiden 4) and Capcom ( Devil May Cry ) can deliver.

 

[bundylove]

JUst like apple products are for people who know nothing about tech and computers, gaming has become the apple product for people who know nothing about gaming or history of gaming.

 

[Krathoon]

Oh yeah. Game development is way more accessible with the game engines.

You can learn Godot or Unity and whip up a game.

I would go with Godot since it is totally free.

There are so many free tools to use.

 

[Krathoon]

Monogame is also a pretty good framework.

 

[Da1337Vinci]

JUst like apple products are for people who know nothing about tech and computers, gaming has become the apple product for people who know nothing about gaming or history of gaming.

Damn hire this man obsidian or bethesda then maybe we can get good writing in WRPGs again.

I almost write that this was not entirely correct but thinking about more maybe you are more correct than I thought.

 

[SHA]

You don't trust devs
You don't trust publishers
You don't trust the big 3 even Nintendo did some awful job
You don't trust grifters
You don't trust mixed bag content creators
You don't trust haters
You don't trust people's tastes on games.

 

[evanft]

You don't trust devs
You don't trust publishers
You don't trust the big 3 even Nintendo did some awful job
You don't trust grifters
You don't trust mixed bag content creators
You don't trust haters
You don't trust people's tastes on games.

I don't even trust myself.

 

[Wildebeest]

The difference is that young people don't think that games are that important any more, outside of being another way to hang out with friends, and there don't really seem to be new innovative games pioneering a new way forward.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

AAA is dying.

 

[Evolved1]

I think the biggest difference for me is that I'm an adult now. Attention is harder to capture; there's more competition. And as a child we were, at various times, poor as fuck. My folks made sacrifices to buy us consoles or rent games. Now I can buy whatever I want, stuff doesn't mean as much. Now it's my time that's more valuable than the money, and I've developed very particular tastes and expectations. Still like being surprised, but it rarely happens... and the industry, every part of it, has become quite cynical. In the old days, CEO's were running these companies for the love of the game, now they're fucking scumbags. Their only job is to leverage our love of gaming against us. And there is literally no end to their greed.

 

[buenoblue]

We're all older and jaded as fuck

 

[riko]

People never had multi page arguments about male/female NPC ratios in previous gaming ages.

 

[Ainem Enamas]

everything made by big studios insanely homogenous. in german we would say Einheitsbrei.
a very recent example is Monster Hunter... apparently the minimal friendly fire the games had until this point was removed in Wilds. and by friendly fire I mean you could get stunned by getting hit by another player.

why was that changed? it was changed to make the game as inoffensive to non-Monster Hunter players as possible.
so this mechanic which was originally implemented to add an element of team strategy to the game was removed in the name of homogeneity.

Splitgate 2 is another very recent example.
Splitgate 1 was basically a Halo clone with Portals. it even had functionally 1 to 1 copies of Halo weapons. and being a Halo clone also meant being an arena shooter where everyone spawns with the same weapons and looks for better ones on the map.
Splitgate 2 now does a Halo 4, and just copies mainstream shooters. it now has loadouts, it has character classes (akin armor abilities) and it was slowed down to make it casual friendly.

so it went from a shooter that wanted to fill a niche that Halo lost relevance in after Halo 4 destroyed the IP, to now chasing trends in the exact way Halo 4 did. it's almost hilarious to watch a Halo clone make literally the exact same mistake that killed Halo... all in the name of being as mainstream compatible as possible and being risk averse.

ironically this risk averseness is killing IPs because the devs/publishers have this delusional way of thinking, that if only they copied what Call of Duty does, that then CoD players would play their game. in reality CoD players will keep playing CoD and players of your previous game leave because what they came to your game for in the first place is now gone

The treasures of this world...it just reminds me Jesus' words about God vs this world's treasures.
I'm happy God has kept Doom franchise alive, looking forward to the next Doom game, soon

 

[PeteBull]

To sum it up all in one sentence, what is wrong currently with gaming/gaming business- in many cases games arent made by actual gamers anymore, its evident in so many aspects, especially AAA western dev studios dropped the ball hard this gen, so last 5 years.

 

[Humdinger]

The main thing I've noticed is that as gaming has become more popular, it has become more corporatized and mainstreamed. This is what you expect in any form of art/entertainment. As something gains popularity, it starts to attract people interested primarily in the money, not in the love or craft of the thing.

It also becomes less about fun, more about business. You even see that on GAF, where much of the front-page discussion is about the business of gaming, not the fun of the games themselves.

 

[March Climber]

The biggest difference IMO is access to information both good and bad. I have mentioned previously that gaming is hyper scrutinized now. You have sites like DF zooming in counting pixels and pointing out any drop in frames. You have social media making sure nothing else slips by. We have always had reviews, debates and platform wars but never at the levels we have now. Games are no longer about how much fun they are but about agendas and narratives driven from all sides.

I agree with you about accessibility too. I can pick up my phone and play games anytime and anywhere. Even online games. Crazy how spoiled we have become yet whine a lot (myself included).

Probably the best first response post I've seen in a while.

The only two things I'd add is how today's gamers have stopped caring about new/unknown I.P. unless they come with a certain amount of clout, and in that same vein, a lot of communities don't look at indie, B, or AA games like they used to before the internet became what it is today.

The large amount of stories about people finding some random game at a bargain bin price, even on places like steam which has sales on a regular basis, have mostly dried up, and that's concerning because it shows how much of a huge effect the big budget hollywood-ization the PS360 generation had on every generation afterwards.

 

[PeteBull]

I look at all those terrible looking DEI infested woke agenda games and only thought on my mind is:

 

[Ainem Enamas]

Agreed. And therefore gaming is performance-based, companies making sure they get the maximum out of the “investment” now and not the game because people love it. And as such, as others mention, companies try to cram in shit to widen the net to their audiences, too. Then we get bland, safe and generic games that ultimately aren’t as fun or memorable as those of the past.

It's controlled investment, ideas are around statistics it seems, developers are forced to follow the graphs. So many incredible artists there

 

[Ainem Enamas]

Yeah. There is more of a news network surrounding games. It is a good thing. You can get walkthroughs to games to help you out.

This is especial helpfull for the hardcore stuff like From Software games that are intended to figured out by the fans as a group.

I remember that I watched full walkthrough of Returnal, some years back (only have Series X). So I know about what's Returnal

 

[Ainem Enamas]

You don't trust devs
You don't trust publishers
You don't trust the big 3 even Nintendo did some awful job
You don't trust grifters
You don't trust mixed bag content creators
You don't trust haters
You don't trust people's tastes on games.

Fucking demonic darkness, yeah

 

[Ainem Enamas]

To sum it up all in one sentence, what is wrong currently with gaming/gaming business- in many cases games arent made by actual gamers anymore, its evident in so many aspects, especially AAA western dev studios dropped the ball hard this gen, so last 5 years.

I think there are gamers, but they can't be gamers in the workplaces

 

[wolfboy203]

Ppl Whining and Bitching about Video Games having different characters from different races and backgrounds which usually sounds like a bigoted dog whistle because it makes them feel uncomfortable seeing a couple characters that don't look like them. Ask them what kind of agenda their pushing and they'll talk themselves into circles trying to explain why without soundung like diet racists. Games with bad writing aren't woke.. they just have bad writing(among other things) Oh and they'll usually shut the fuck up when a game they like aslso has bad writing and what not.

Fully Priced Games being Riddled with Microtransactions and Fucking Lootboxes and people mindlessly buying them + defending them

Games releasing Broken and Buggy and then the publishers act all surprised when they don't sell well lmaoo. Some ppl also defend this bullshit somehow.. Especially if it's from a gaming franchise that they like...Gta the definitive edition is a prime example of this. Like how the fuck did over 10 million people buy that piece of shit?? Its baffling to me to this day

 

[Guardian Monkey]

There isn’t a lot of passion around projects in the AAA space. The industry is at point of oversaturation chasing the dollar leading to fixation of performance of financials.

 

[nemiroff]

The bitching and whining.

 

[simpatico]

Mastery has moved from AAA to indie, which really hurts the cutting-edge stuff. Readily available amazing engines might have fucked the Darwinism that took place on the technical teams in the old days. We're getting less and less clever optimizations and more and more brute force. CDPR was kinda the last people doing it, and with all the turnover between the end of Witcher 3 and now, I don't think they even have the ability to continue using RED engine. Why they think UE5 is a better choice on equal terms just boggles the mind.

 

[Gamerfan81]

I would say development time and the cost of it in this era, especially for AAA titles. That's more a threat to gaming than the woke stuff. Don't get me wrong the woke stuff is maddeningly annoying, but if development time wasn't so long and the cost so costly, a few woke games wouldn't be so bothersome, because there would be a lot more quality games to balance it out. We just notice the woke stuff more because of the costs and development time.

 

[Hawkeye2890]

Hard to put in words, but I think it’s an idiocracy effect. Loss of knowledge and imagination with each new generation. Boomers were the original and the best. Gen X wasn’t far behind. Millennials started to slip and gen z is fucked. I think the rise of social media and cell phones along with shorter attention spans as it relates to those devs and writers factors in, where boomers and gen x grew up before those things. They had better imaginations and were raised on sci fi books and old school pc games like zork. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Games Bookstore]

To me what defines this generation is all the wrong things, in summary "Too Safe". Those weird, wonderful and quirky games from yesteryear are so few and far between these days.

We've been given the best hardware, tools and ease of development and yet games takes years and years to make, budgets are ridiculously high that any sales failure could bankrupt a smaller company.

To top it off, games only look marginly better than ps4/x1. Yes I appreciate ray tracing, hdr and all the other fancy features, but I'd be happy to lose some if that meant 1st party games could be churned out a bit quicker and at a lower budget.

This need to be inclusive, don't offend anyone, DEI, SBI, ABCDEFG, ie don't take any risk, play it safe, make weird, grotesque or soulless looking characters is alienating.

The need to chase the GAAS dragon to make up for financial shortfalls is also concerning.

I'm finding less and less reason to play games these days already and feel like switch 2, may be the last console I get, and even that's not guaranteed.

 

[RodriGames40]

Personally, one thing about modern gaming that's truly different to the past is that it is truly taped out, nearly everything worth attempting has been attempted from a design standpoint, games starting from now are just window dressing for existing ideas. The medium is creatively exhausted and there is nothing wrong with that, especially if you have been playing for a long time, it was bound to happen.

If I had to say from my own accord, to enjoy modern gaming as intended you really need to care about graphics. It's the only singular aspect that continues to improve and is in no way taped out, probably why DF has gained as much notoriety as they have in the last few years. When everything else is banal, what stands out draws your attention and graphics are that for many people.

 

[SteadyEvo]

Gaming was better before the internet

 

[Blank Space Invader]

Can it be that it was all so simple then?

 

[Kacho]

Been gaming since 1987. Something has changed but I can't quite put my finger on it

 

[Ozzie666]

Greedy developers and share holders finding new and creative ways to get more money from their customers. By hook or by crook at all any expense. 70 price tag isn’t enough with poorly run development budgets.

Unlike cartridges unfinished games can be patched later so no consequences for shitty buggy games. Games release in terrible states because the calculated risk is acceptable.

Never mind politics and agendas and games designed around micro transactions.

 

[GigaBowser]

metacritic fake woke lgbq liars you must watch youtube vids or listen to my perdictions

 

[NeoLed]

The audacity of big publishers to gone gold with their bugfest build printed on the physical copies, making them obsolete if the service down in the future. And then coming with massive patches larger than the base game

 

[Paasei]

Games that get released but aren’t even finished.

Also seems that optimising games for PC is becoming a lost art.

 

[PeteBull]

I think there are gamers, but they can't be gamers in the workplaces

If bottom row devs/programmers are gamers but whole top is woke infested feminists ofc game gonna turn to garbage or well below what it could be under such a terrible direction, devs who have a say on how game gonna look/play/its story etc cant be infected by woke virus, those are ppl who make decisions, game's quality and sales gonna be directly impacted by their stupid choices if no1 gonna check on them, we have examples left and right with AAA games budgeted for hundreds of milions of usd bombing hard coz of that.