I feel like games these days seem to be hella recycled, boring experiences - the same shit reskinned again and again for the same (if not higher) price tag. Perhaps its because im like 25 now and I've seen my fair share, so it's not as exciting anymore, but maybe its also just because the quality of them has decreased?
Developers also seem to be more afraid to go out on a limb and take risks, resulting in games that play it way too safe. One thing I noticed is that usually developers will try a few things, find something that works, and then milk the fuck out of it. But then they don't make better games - once they have their cash cow you'd think they'd be like "ok great we solved the money problem, now lets make some good shit" - but they dont even seem to in a lot of cases.
Maybe that's a shot at capitalism, but it's funny you know because when you start a business, your funds are low and you're trying to cultivate something amazing, and by the time you finally see success youve just become heinously greedy and creatively bankrupt. This isnt just a reality for the videogame industry either, it happens all over. The world in general is a more insane place than most people realize outside their sheltered reality.
Overall, I feel the following is the sad reality/issues with video games in 2021:
- Microtransactions are everywhere and they're being accepted by docile consumers (and/or ignorant younger people) who are not choosing with their wallet, further perpetuating the problem
- Certain developers appear to be hacking gamers for $$$ and getting away with it, while no one acknowledges what is happening before their eyes
- New games are often recycled hot garbage thats hyped to the moon and back (but never lives up to it's expectations)
- Video games dont even ship complete anymore, content is cut from the disc or original offering and then being offered later as DLC, or worse, it's being left on the disc and then unlocked after the initial purchase with yet another purchase
- Console gamers have to pay monthly to play online (when they already pay for internet - yes i know this isnt a new thing, but its always been bullshit)
- Video games are hitting prices far too high for the average consumer to realistically want to buy more than a couple a year
- Fewer games are developed each year, and the ones that are play it incredibly safe to ensure profits aren't low
- Games/writers are now injecting political and social agendas into video games
- Developers are pandering to anything that makes anyone uncomfortable and completely blunting any apparent edginess to appeal more to a larger audience (devs are legitimately afraid to be edgy in today's world as apposed to two or three generations ago)
- Every developer seems to want you to have and use their own marketplace and app launcher so they can make more $$$ and profile you harder, forcing consumers to install trash they dont want just to even play games
- Developers skimp on substance and instead make everything hella shiny/explosive in an attempt to overstimulate the player and 'wow' them (because explosions and shiny things are entertaining, right?) - a general over-focus on graphical fidelity and how it looks rather than how it plays
- Games ship broken with many bugs - developers release day 1 patches to supposedly fix the issues, but the patches dont even fix the issues in some cases (why not just fix the issues before launching the game, the fuck?) resulting in consumers getting a shitty experience that is in some cases unplayable (and effectively being scammed)
- And more that's not coming to mind right now
I recognize that some of these issues are due to the way business goes and economical pressures on both the consumer and business' side, but the overall state of things is concerning.
Does anyone feel like most games aren't living up to their hype and or expectations? At what point do you think the shift happened? IMO there seems to be many industry wide issues that aren't really being addressed, or companies aren't being held accountable. What could be done to resolve these issues?
Discuss.
Excuse any poor formatting/weird continuity issues, this is just a bunch of thoughts dumped onto a page.