The gaming industry has become largely toxic to creative endeavor.
In its rush to be recognized as an 'art form' chasing the coat tails of the movie industry, it charged straight into the arms of corporate and integrated far more than the movie industry ever did. Now gaming is on its way to surpassing the revenue generated by the movie industry (if it hasn't already), gaming's ease of use combined with its near universal appeal and ability to generate immense amounts of revenue was a goldmine that corporations have been trying to figure out how to reliably milk for a while, and they're only going to continue figuring that out.
If you think the practices of today are scummy, it's only going to get worse if we don't get something in the way government regulation which is highly unlikely. The easiest way to stop this nonsense is to simply stop supporting these publishers - stop buying the next assassin's creed, the next call of duty, or the next elder scrolls;
but that wont happen.
Why? It's a function of how games work as a medium in this day and age; if you hear that a movie you're interested in had massive trouble being filmed, had a ticket price that was way too high, and had your favorite actor announcing on twitter that they were abused by the film company; you can simply not watch it in theaters. You can wait for it to come out on netflix, or network television, or you can retrieve it via... other means.
A modern game however? The moments in which you often get the best experiences with them is the weeks after launch - game servers shut down with increasing quickness, player populations plummet like a stone after 3 months, 'metas' form which can often make or break (more often break) an experience, and the barrier to entry rises once DLC releases and divides up the already faltering player-base.
Video game reviewing in general has largely gone nowhere in terms of legitimacy and in some cases has even gone backwards, with memes and one-line zingers often taking precedence over any real discussion on whether or not a game is truly a credit to its industry. Games can be simultaneously 'over-rated' and 'under-appreciated' in the exact same community depending on who you ask, and god forbid you love a game when someone decided to make a youtube video digging up fan-art on some fetishist's deviant art page, suddenly somehow making the game worse because someone commissioned vore inflation art of a random character. You say the Witcher 3 is an artistic masterpiece? I say it's a boring piece of shit with wonky gameplay. The fact that neither of these statements can be analyzed or given objective credence is a massive problem, and the act of truly reviewing and analyzing games on a scholarly level has only barely become a twinkle on the surface of youtube or really gaming journalism in general.
No-one goes to a movie theater expecting every single movie to be for them, and yet many gamers believe that every game they come across should be an experience tailored to their personal enjoyment, and if they don't enjoy the game then it's obviously just a shit game and they will tell their friends as such. We have 'gaming journalism' which by all accounts is largely a joke that is openly bought and has practically zero integrity, so savvy consumers can't even trust any large publication to release objective reviews, and the less savvy consumers simply get lost in the noise of every single title in existence somehow getting a 8/10 or higher.
Thus here we sit, in a gaming industry targeted to the absolute lowest common denominator designed to please everyone just enough so that they spend money - brand loyalty and platform loyalty is a near guarantee with always-online servers and integrated "social" experiences that add exactly nothing but a way to keep players from pirating games, and perhaps far more insidiously, enjoying games past their normal fiscal life-span.
Gaming has become a giant industry and thrust itself into the spotlight as a legitimate form of business and a real break-out success in the entertainment industry; and yet gaming's award shows, journalism, community interaction, and overall respect for itself can largely be considered at best extremely poor in comparison to others within the same industry.
In short; Indie games deserve your support more than the latest AAA games do, it's a great way of avoiding getting burned by an increasingly greedy gaming industry, and giving support to these small more personal and perhaps artistic projects can only do the industry as a whole good. The modern day Bungies are small little developers releasing games in the back-end of Steam and elsewhere, perhaps you've seen a few, but I guarantee you're missing a lot more.
[QUOTE=KingKombat;53015172]I'd reckon MS would probably push Bungie into making more Halo, which they didn't want to do. Granted, I don't think signing with Activision was a genius idea. Not sure what they were thinking. That's like going from working an okay, pushy boss to literally unzipping your pants and putting your dick in the devil's death grip.[/QUOTE]
Part of me wants to think that maybe Bungie thought they could've gotten the "Blizzard treatment" after signing a deal with Activision (Activision and Blizzard were already merged by that point), meaning that they'd get more say and control in their work than most devs under Activision would.
Of course, this also assumes that you think Blizzard got out of the merger unscathed and also just aren't a shell of their former selves these days...
Still, the downfall of Bungie is tragic. I have so many great memories of playing the Halo games (including Reach) with friends. I wasn't too far from idolizing them myself just because of how fun their games were and how connected their community was. To see them go from that to what we've seen from the Destiny games is almost depressing.
The sad thing is though, even in Destiny's shitty state, it still has very faint echoes of old Bungie in there. From how gunplay feels to the environment design. It makes the games even more depressing to play through, because you know that if these games had better management behind them, they truly could've been something amazing. They maybe could've achieved the "world domination" that Bungie wanted.
A bit of a side topic but I find it incredibly quaint to hear people talking nostalgically about Halo. Like, I wasn't far into my teens when that game hit but my sense of time is stuck at when Halo 3 was hitting the shelves. Dude might as well be nostalgic for Destiny 1 as far as I'm aware.
Doesn't necessarily diminish the points raised in the video, I should say.
[QUOTE=chipsnapper2;53015276]Video gaming has become a cold and desolate place in the last five years. It was five years ago when Valve released their newest games and when Bungie closed Halo stats and signed with Activision. EA and Ubi have grown worse. Nintendo is the only good dev left, and they’ve always been nasty about derivative works on their IPs, especially Nintendo of Japan.
Where did all the good devs go? Where did the titans of the realm go, the Joe Statens and the Marty O’Donnells?
Are we going to be doomed to yearly rereleases of games a la Todd Howard? I fucking pray not.[/QUOTE]
Despite my appreciation for Nintendo, it irritates me that the industry has rotted to the point of making them look like a life raft in a sea of shit.
[QUOTE=ntzu;53016011] You say the Witcher 3 is an artistic masterpiece? I say it's a boring piece of shit with wonky gameplay. The fact that neither of these statements can be analyzed or given objective credence is a massive problem, and the act of truly reviewing and analyzing games on a scholarly level has only barely become a twinkle on the surface of youtube or really gaming journalism in general.
[/QUOTE]
I have a friend who unironically believes that Witcher 3 is a bad game because it has "too much effort put into it and too much to do."
I can't fathom how he can believe this when Witcher 3 is one of very few AAA titles I would call a complete game experience in the last few years.
[editline].[/editline]
He won't even look at it mechanically or judge certain aspects of it aside from his belief that it has too much to do. He thinks the combat is terrible and the story is boring, thinks it has no artistic merit, and discussing it with him is enraging. I feel like his attitude is more typical of the majority of gamers nowadays.
[QUOTE=LZTYBRN;53016185]I have a friend who unironically believes that Witcher 3 is a bad game because it has "too much effort put into it and too much to do."
[/QUOTE]
If he says something like that, it's because he doesn't like it for a different reason and isn't willing to explain himself because he know's his point of view is flimsy, but doesn't care enough to defend it.
Destiny 2 is good and it's only getting better with age.
[QUOTE=Hogie bear;53016203]If he says something like that, it's because he doesn't like it for a different reason and isn't willing to explain himself because he know's his point of view is flimsy, but doesn't care enough to defend it.[/QUOTE]
His favorite game is league. That says it all.
He has also been banned multiple times for flaming. He's literally your typical internet shithead that you'd meet playing in comp. Even comes with aspirations of being a pro league player while he still has to ask his parents for money :v:
[QUOTE=eirexe;53016205]Destiny 2 is good and it's only getting better with age.[/QUOTE]
It's a shell of a game with sprinkles of decent-ness. There is so much missing in Destiny 2 that I'm surprised it's not a F2P with pay-content.
[editline]30th December 2017[/editline]
I bought it + the DLC just to play endgame raids with friends, and I dove in headfirst without reading into any reviews beforehand, and in my opinion the main story was hugely lacking, the DLC story was better but still felt light, the Crucible is a huge joke, and the face that there's a microtransaction market at all for so little content is hilarious to me.
Whoever named and designed the weapons and did the environment art direction did great jobs though. It just feels like 1/4 of a game.
I can't get over how fucking terrible crucible is. Why don't they literally just rip off Halo's MP? Seriously? There are fucking vehicles in the game but nope. Multiplayer has to be 4v4 on shite maps with no pickups, no emplacements, no cool arenas. Nothing
[QUOTE=Zeos;53016228]I can't get over how fucking terrible crucible is. Why don't they literally just rip off Halo's MP? Seriously? There are fucking vehicles in the game but nope. Multiplayer has to be 4v4 on shite maps with no pickups, no emplacements, no cool arenas. Nothing[/QUOTE]
The "competitive" playlist ( lol playlist ) is definitely not competitive at all, and the map design is pretty awful.
Upsetting because I was excited to get into competitive PvP in a Halo universe game again.
[QUOTE=LZTYBRN;53016185]I have a friend who unironically believes that Witcher 3 is a bad game because it has "too much effort put into it and too much to do."
I can't fathom how he can believe this when Witcher 3 is one of very few AAA titles I would call a complete game experience in the last few years.
[editline].[/editline]
He won't even look at it mechanically or judge certain aspects of it aside from his belief that it has too much to do. He thinks the combat is terrible and the story is boring, thinks it has no artistic merit, and discussing it with him is enraging. I feel like his attitude is more typical of the majority of gamers nowadays.[/QUOTE]
I think the majority of gamers have respect Witcher 3 but just aren't interested enough to pay for it
On the subject of the Witcher 3, I'm just really not a fan of the dreariness of the Witcher universe.
I don't think I've ever as aggressively uninstalled a game before after the expansion came out. I was so fucking disgusted that they had the balls to charge $25 for it
I honestly don't understand why anyone would support Destiny 2 after what Destiny 1 did. A season pass with an extra 40$ expansion, each of which progressively locked old content unless you bought it, and then microtransactions. I get why you would be a bit reluctant to let Destiny 1 go after spending money on it, but willingly buying into Destiny 2?
you dudes have WAY too much money lying around lol
[QUOTE=MrHeadHopper;53016570]I honestly don't understand why anyone would support Destiny 2 after what Destiny 1 did. A season pass with an extra 40$ expansion, each of which progressively locked old content unless you bought it, and then microtransactions. I get why you would be a bit reluctant to let Destiny 1 go after spending money on it, but willingly buying into Destiny 2?
you dudes have WAY too much money lying around lol[/QUOTE]
unfortunately I never played D1
I haven't touched a Halo or 343 or Bungie related game since ODST.
[QUOTE=MrHeadHopper;53016570]I honestly don't understand why anyone would support Destiny 2 after what Destiny 1 did. A season pass with an extra 40$ expansion, each of which progressively locked old content unless you bought it, and then microtransactions. I get why you would be a bit reluctant to let Destiny 1 go after spending money on it, but willingly buying into Destiny 2?
you dudes have WAY too much money lying around lol[/QUOTE]
I see it as Bungie learning from past mistakes and progressing. D1 vanilla was iffy but they gradually solved problems, tweaked weapon archetypes/maps, the levelling system etc. Eventually The Taken King expansion was released which D1 players agree on it being fucking AMAZING and it pretty much what made us forgive the rocky start and look up to future content
I assumed they would keep everything they learnt in mind when they went on to make D2 but nope, it’s such a let down. I’m sure it’ll be decent in a few more expansions time but this isn’t acceptable a second time around
[QUOTE=Alec W;53016604]unfortunately I never played D1
I haven't touched a Halo or 343 or Bungie related game since ODST.[/QUOTE]
Reach is mighty fine
Reach is a good game. It's personally my favourite in the series, but I can see why some would prefer the original trilogy. [I]But it is a good game.[/I]
So it's heartbreaking to see Bungie fall so much from grace (not to mention what 343 did with the Halo franchise, but that's a discussion for another time), although I'm sure Activision hasn't helped much.
[QUOTE=doomkiwi;53015233]How did the industry get in the state that literally none of the big players are anything less than sleazy?
Activision, EA, and Ubisoft all vy for position as the worst of the lot (tossing that around like a hot potato, though I think EA is the worst more often than not) and load their games with microtransactions, lootboxes, and gamer unfriendly practices. Bethesda releases incomplete piles of shit over and over and over again without even trying to fix any of the problems their games have, and worse yet they do that shit where they don't give early review copies for games any more. Even Valve, our beloved savior, has stopped producing the games we love and has become a platform for the scummiest little indie devs on the net. Even the guys at Nintendo keep taking down footage of games on youtube.[/QUOTE]
Gaming has gone maximum corporate. At this point the concern for the artistry of games is dead. When fucking Nintendo, [I]Nintendo[/I] of all companies is the best corporation out there right now, you're deep in the shit.
At this point if you're not playing an indie game or a nintendo game, chances are it was made from the ground up to be a money printing machine first and, well, last, because that's it. Ubisoft's complete shit, Activision-Blizzard are cunts, EA fucking sucks, Valve is dog shit as it has been for the past like half [I]decade[/I], and in spite of their stunt to pretend they're ~still a company with gamers interests at heart~ singleplayer stunt at the game awards this year, Bethesda is starting to hop on the greed train just as much.
The moment they find out [I]another[/I] way to squeeze more money out of you I guarantee you they will smack it in place because that's ALL that matters now, so I absolutely believe it's going to get worse.
Not to mention Gaming Journalism is damn near pointless, the integrity of games journalism is so blatantly compromised that there's no point in taking [I]anything[/I] someone who's a professional critic has to say seriously when they could just be saying it because they were told to, or because they don't want to be blacklisted, or whatever. You can't even trust the fucking [I]ESRB[/I].
I think it will get better in the next decade once things hit critical mass, perhaps in the form of people just not buying this shit anymore or maybe in the form of actual government action. Probably not from the Federal Government in this fuckin' country but on a state level, and in different countries that have their shit somewhat together? Who knows.
[QUOTE=Mister Sandman;53018195]Gaming has gone maximum corporate. At this point the concern for the artistry of games is dead. When fucking Nintendo, [I][B]Nintendo[/B][/I] of all companies is the best corporation out there right now, you're deep in the shit.[/QUOTE]
[IMG_Thumb]https://image.prntscr.com/image/9eBTH0anStqS-GSS6WOUkA.png[/IMG_Thumb]
(Ik, the microtransactions aren't that bad and it's just a mobile game, switch is free from bullshit for now and amazing yadi yada BUT it's still Nintendo dipping their toe in the same bullshit that ruined so many games, the whole game being designed around spending leaf tickets which rly hurts the enjoyement imo. Wouldn't say they're the [I]best[/I] company out there anymore when there's still AAA or AA companies not doing any mobile business model bs)
[QUOTE=Loth;53018201][IMG_Thumb]https://image.prntscr.com/image/9eBTH0anStqS-GSS6WOUkA.png[/IMG_Thumb]
(Ik, the microtransactions aren't that bad and it's just a mobile game, switch is free from bullshit for now and amazing yadi yada BUT it's still Nintendo dipping their toe in the same bullshit that ruined so many games, the whole game being designed around spending leaf tickets which rly hurts the enjoyement imo. Wouldn't say they're the [I]best[/I] company out there anymore when there's still AAA or AA companies not doing any mobile business model bs)[/QUOTE]
Unsure about that because myself I enjoyed pocket camp for an entire month without spending a dime. Never used leaf tickets outside the tutorial, so I have over 800 still just banked from milestones.
It's just a simple time killer, otherwise honestly I'd be playing a real animal crossing game if I wanted to be invested into it. Haven't played that in over a year
[QUOTE=Scratch.;53019135]Unsure about that because myself I enjoyed pocket camp for an entire month without spending a dime. Never used leaf tickets outside the tutorial, so I have over 800 still just banked from milestones.
It's just a simple time killer, otherwise honestly I'd be playing a real animal crossing game if I wanted to be invested into it. Haven't played that in over a year[/QUOTE]
I'd love to play one of the older animal crossing games but I just don't own any consoles they're on and after buying the switch I'm not gonna go back and buy old consoles. And they're taking their sweet time to make one for switch.
I just dislike how every single aspect of the game feels like it's designed around leaf tickets. The whole happy cheering animal vibes of the game feels weird when you go talk to them and they tell you about the microtransactions store. I don't have an issue with the amount of free stuff they throw at you, the game is generous, but it really feels like everthing is designed around spending leaf tickets.
It's a lot of small stuff like the way you have to ask your friends to help you with shovelstrike quarry one by one by going through 2 menus each time, which takes obviously ages, instead of having a "ask all your friends" option (which everyone does anywyay), to push you to just spend the 20 tickets.
I still enjoy it, I love the creative aspect of the game and it's great to relax, I just wish there wasn't a leaf ticket price on everything and the game was a buy-in. It's not predatory, just a bit sad imo.
[QUOTE=Loth;53020263]I'd love to play one of the older animal crossing games but I just don't own any consoles they're on and after buying the switch I'm not gonna go back and buy old consoles. And they're taking their sweet time to make one for switch.
I just dislike how every single aspect of the game feels like it's designed around leaf tickets. The whole happy cheering animal vibes of the game feels weird when you go talk to them and they tell you about the microtransactions store. I don't have an issue with the amount of free stuff they throw at you, the game is generous, but it really feels like everthing is designed around spending leaf tickets.
It's a lot of small stuff like the way you have to ask your friends to help you with shovelstrike quarry one by one by going through 2 menus each time, which takes obviously ages, instead of having a "ask all your friends" option (which everyone does anywyay), to push you to just spend the 20 tickets.
I still enjoy it, I love the creative aspect of the game and it's great to relax, I just wish there wasn't a leaf ticket price on everything and the game was a buy-in. It's not predatory, just a bit sad imo.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, It's ubisoft/ea shortcut packs the game if anything.
Despite the success of the Switch, I'm still thinking that all four of nintendo's recent mobile games were all made to cash in and mitigate losses made among the Wii U. While it really is unfortunate for those who do prefer having these games made without having any temptation for chucking in a couple dollars. It's really where the mobile market sort of entered, and Nintendo saw it as an opportunity.
I can't say for sure how well these games are doing, I've played both Miitomo and Animal Crossing for a fair amount of time. (didn't want to drop cash on mario run, couldn't play FE with root), but if I was to predict anything, if people enjoy these games and/or Nintendo finds success in these mobile models, they will continue to develop them as such, because I'm pretty sure there smart enough to realise that some people will probably just stick to platforms they use instead of investing in a switch, so the mobile market allows them to continue to target them.
They aren't necessarily a saint in the field of game developing, but they aren't downright evil with how they're monetising their games. Also Miitomo drop always felt like the biggest scam I've had to deal with, typical Japanese casino games.
There's also always been that thing where people don't always like dropping cash on mobile platforms, it's a big thing apparently on android according to research, which for me is actually pretty accurate with my track record. But I think it also comes down to you're not really getting any new gameplay when purchasing anything in-game in pocket camp. All your leaf tokens get is either cosmetic or just, as mentioned shortcuts to progress faster. And honestly, I myself would only feel that pressure during a limited event with seasonal content... that still adds no gameplay to the game
[editline]2nd January 2018[/editline]
I probably rambled a bit to much
343i has put some horrible effort into completely ruining the background of Halo, everything needs to be retconned apparently
[QUOTE=Scratch.;53020321]They aren't necessarily a saint in the field of game developing, but they aren't downright evil with how they're monetising their games. Also Miitomo drop always felt like the biggest scam I've had to deal with, typical Japanese casino games.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I completely agree with that. They're pretty grey to me. All of this + artificial scarcity with Amiibos and NES mini/SNES mini + their completely scummy behaviors towards youtube fair use, etc.
I just don't see Nintendo as the saints of AAA gaming just because their new games on switch don't have microtransactions and are all pretty great. They've had their share of corporate bullshit too.
Haven't seen any shortage in Amiibos here at all.
While I did here a lot of complaints online, I was always able to just find said figures on shelves here
Content Takedown is always fucky and their attempt to regulate it is, while I understand what they wanted to do, still bullshit
Nintendo had to deal with a [URL="http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/19/nintendo-president-port-strikes-have-caused-amiibo-and-new-3ds-xl-shortages"]port strike[/URL] before amiibos were actually easy to find. can pretty much find any amiibo i want now.
There was no way nintendo would ever meet supply demands for a NES/SNES mini. too much popularity and the SNES classic was worse because everyone knew about the nes classic situation. They are planning a second round of them later.
youtube shit is bad tho.
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