What Went Wrong with Gaming?

I honestly think this is the reason that indie games have become popular; indie games are more often passion projects than money grabs, and consumers recognize that. That's why we love them.

A retro game store opened in my town a few years ago. They've been so successful they opened a second location in a town an hour away this past month. Local news asked the owner (a young guy who opened the store when he was still in high school) why he thought there was a market for retro games. He said he wasn't sure, but he suspected that with older games, you didn't feel like you were getting nickled and dimed constantly.

It's interesting how the gaming industry went from, "do what you love, build games that you love" and as a result, money comes, into "build games you hate, because greed and money rules."

I find myself playing and wanting to play significantly fewer games than I used to. It's hard enough to find an offline single player game, much less one without predatory practices.

You forgot to mention/blame all the streamers/influencers who basically get paid for luring vulnerable viewers into this abusive monetisation/gambling systems by streaming them.

I still remember when Horse Armor came out. It was mocked endlessly in /v/. Like "who the fuck would pay money for just a piece of cosmetic armor?"

This video makes me sad, but also helps explain why I'm so stuck on continuing to just play the games from growing up, rather than continuing into newer games. ~1987 through 2000 was the true golden era imo

the obsession with realism and being cinematic is what killed most of gaming to me

Not only have these practices ruined games, but they are leaking into other things as well. Professional software that used to be a one time purchase is now a monthly fee with micro transactions. Cars are locking things like heated seats and horsepower behind a paywall. Streaming services make you pay to use the service, pay again to remove ads, pay again to watch specific shows. Airlines deliver a framework for transportation and nickel and dime you for bags, seat choice, priority boarding, wi-fi, food and sometimes even drinks. Everything that was once a one time purchase is now a monthly fee, and they'll punish you for taking a break from the purchase by not allowing you to sign back up for a set period of time.

"Morality is a poor man's quality" is a statement that hits hard when looking at the current climate in the video game industry. Why hire a team of skilled writies, programmers, and artists when you can hire a team of marketers and psychologists that abuse manipulative and questionable practices?

One thing I would add about Maplestory's Gachapon: It wasn't JUST the gambling, it was also that the BEST items in the game could be found there. Some of the most rare scrolls and absolutely ridiculously strong weapons (with often super random requirments stats, making them EVEN stronger) were all found in the Gachapon. Unlike something like Overwatch, where the lootboxes were purely cosmetic.

Gardenscapes has this feature that runs Monday to Wednesday where you can earn a chest full of boosters as you beat a certain amount of levels in a row. I got so good at the game that I knew I could easily play for hours every day of that period. But because it was only a three day period every week, I felt like I HAD to keep playing in that time frame. I would sit there wishing I was crocheting or reading or doing any of my other kajillion hobbies, but felt like I had to be playing, cuz it was only a limited time. By the time I finally deleted the game, I got to the point where I was actually relieved to lose a level and have the chest reset, cuz it meant I had a viable excuse to stop playing.

I used to build the website for the University of Texas' business school. They had a PhD program, and part of my job was maintaining the section of the site that they posted their doctoral theses on. There was a few years where every single PhD thesis was about how you could increase profits with microtransactions. Every thesis covered the psychological manipulation in depth, taking no care to hide the immorality of it all. They seemed to revel in it. One paper was entirely about how you could drive a certain type of person (they even used the term "whale") to bankruptcy using these methods and how fantastic that was for your business. I've never been so disgusted at work in my life.

The interesting thing about the FOMO mechanic is that it encourages retention of players you already have, but discourages new players from joining because they think they have missed too much.

This is the best explanation I've heard. I have never been more depressed about the state of gaming. If only indie devs had the budget to advertise like AAA studios.

Total buscuit was vocal about this a decade ago already. RIP.

I cannot even possibly express the immense thankfulness I feel towards the independent development scene in the larger landscape of gaming. The massive boom of indie game devs releasing absolute banger titles while completely disregarding pandoras box is the thing that will keep gaming alive.

Step 1: introduce an anti consumer system in a game. Step 2: get backlash Step 3: continue to do it anyway Step 4: wait for a new generation of gamers to join the market. They’ve never known games without this system so they accept it, and even defend it. “That’s just how it is”. This cycle happens every time. Most of the things people were outraged about are now considered the norm in games. All companies have to do is wait it out.

We really need the world governments to get together and put rules onto this. Especially US, Europe, AUS and BRICS.. 1. In-game coins can't be sold in packs, players should be able to buy whatever number of coins they desire. 2. Paid XP multipliers and battle passes banned, all players or no players deserve to get these awards for playing. 3. Items that aren't entirely cosmetics (new characters and vehicles) can't be bought. 4. etc

I remember when games came complete and bug free once you paid for them. Those were the days 😊