I’m sure some of you will want to reply to this post and say “don’t you really mean single player games are dying ?” While that’s partially true I think there is more to it than that.
Games use to made with world building in mind. Characters , stories arcs maybe in some cases a message to share. Games did this with a combination of a story and a single player campaign to get you acquainted and a multiplayer component to keep you coming back. Yes in many cases multiplayer was just tacked on but in many cases it added value and further established world building. In the end you’ve at least experienced a cool story.
To me these days most games are made in service of a battle pass or an excuse to release a permanent “early access game”
Oh look a new battle royal survivor game with the unique twist of combining other games mechanics into one. You can play with your friends ! You can farm things and make things ! Does making these things really move any needle in any significant way? Does the farming open up new locations and enemies to fight ? Or better yet special story moments ? Most of The time nope. And the worst of times you just get a shiny new hat!
I see little value in investing time into another game when I can see bar move another 3 percent. I understand there a social aspects but I’d argue the games do little for them and those social aspects can be had without the game to begin with. Or everyone playing their own game. To me all you’re doing is killing time with yet another run of the mill game.
I’d like to see a resurgence of games made with a singular intent and purpose. In service of telling a story and building a world. And seeing profits come in from there. No battle pass no service …
No nothing was ever perfect and there was always junk games. To me now it just feels like it’s getting worse.
Any way I’ll go back into my retirement home now and stop yelling at that cloud…
At PAX 2017, I was disappointed by the overwhelming number of battle royale games. There were a handful of games that stood out for story or in-person party play, but the biggest booths were all for MMOs and battle royale games.
I've long said that MMO games are so common because storytelling and world-building are hard. Also, Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is shit.
I'm guessing the downvotes are because people fail to see or deliberately ignore the generalization. Of course there are stellar story-driven, single player games still coming out, but 90% shit is to be expected.
My only shred of disagreement here (more of a qualification) is time-wasting. Of course games are for sucking down time. It's one of the circuses in "Bread and Circuses." But the same applies to novels, hobbies, and lush green lawns. :D
Another qualification I'll add: I think we're just getting more of everything with better coverage and more ubiquitous advertising, so it's easier to see the shit games. It's easier than ever to build a game, so of course the tide of garbage rises. But so do the standouts, unfortunately in roughly equal proportions. :D There have some great story-driven games recently as one other commenter noted. For me, "The Expanse," "Cyberpunk," and "Become Human" leap to mind (yes, I'm a very late adopter). Two of those are basically visual novels with choices, but the stories hit hard and get into complex moral and social issues.
When you're ready, I'll be out on the retirement home patio with a cold one waitin' for ya. We'll gripe about it some more.
Sorry to get all "ok grandpa time for your meds" on you, but 2017 was 9 years ago. A whole decade has passed in the industry and the art form. XD
It’s also been 50 years since the first home console came out. Your point ?
I'm just pulling the leg of the guy above me. Granted, at their expense, but we're both "on the retirement home patio" so to speak.
So, you can't see the woods for the trees. You honed in on the anecdotal example of industry trend, but didn't refute the trend.
I’m glad a few people are willing to see through specifics and look at the outright trends. And you are right algorithms and current social media make certain things more apparent then others.
But my general point still stands, it feels like there is more garbage than there has ever been before.
As for the wasting time, I see people are taking this too literally. I’m taking about (subjective) worth for putting time and money into a game. I feel like the ratio of value to time in modern games has drastically gone out of balance at least for me personally.
Yeah it's a shame how hard lemmy shredded you. The trends are apparent to anyone who has been around for a while