Update: How Does Gaming Ever Improve?
Added 2024-08-06 22:56:45 +0000 UTCHey everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates. I just haven't had anything majorly going on that I've felt the need to update people about. I was just grinding away at the adult animation video for a while, and I took a bit of a break before starting up a new project. The new project I've decided to start up is probably the most nebulous and hard to describe idea ever. The video is gonna suck, honestly.
The rough idea is that video games have evolved really, really quickly. They keep getting better and better. And I just wanted to talk about that. I wanted to cover how fast games seem to improve every year, and how games like Elden Ring come about as an evolution of previous titles. I wanna talk about how much of this improvement comes from the developers and how much comes from the audience that plays the game. And how games can evolve and learn from each other. I'll probably cover the importance of developer teams being able to keep their jobs for a long time and how that gives us really good games like Tears of the Kingdom. I might touch on that fake ass Shigeru Miyamoto quote. The video is all over the place. Probably pretty short.
So give me your thoughts on this broad subject. Anything you'd like to see talked about in a video like this. Any ideas for clickbait titles and thumbnails. I'm all ears. Hopefully it doesn't suck too bad.
Comments
Indie games will be the only thing pushing the industry forward. As stupid as "AAAA games" is as a term, those are just going to keep getting more and more expensive to make for very little return as far as value for the customers. The internet has made everyone armchair developers and critics. Games that would've been regarded well 10 years ago are shit on and picked apart by social media and youtubers farming views. This is happening in movies and TV too everyone just wants to complain about everything and when everyone complains all the time it never means anything. Big studios are never gonna listen to the noise because there's always noise nowadays and they're just gonna do whatever makes them the most money.
Graham Naquin
2024-08-19 18:00:06 +0000 UTCMost of the comments here talk about big budget games, and it's true that games have evolved both *technically* and in terms of story telling. However, in terms of gameplay, the mainstream games have stagnated. From the other side, dev tools have become so simple to use that the indie game scene has exploded. As with everything, most games are derivative and/or mediocre, but the sheer amount of development means you will find some games that try something new, usually for a niche of gamers, and make great advances in the field.
Tomer Altman
2024-08-18 14:49:28 +0000 UTCIt's hard to enjoy games right now because of the sheer scale of the industry. The big players have their hands in so many pies that if one project fails, you can rely on cash cows like COD or Fortnite to rake in billions in revenue. I get some report from my friends about my incessant replaying of specific games, but it's kind of all I got atm as big budget AAA produced games don't really grab me the same way like Uncharted 4 did, or Witcher 3. I'm not gonna say that gaming is dead, because it's becoming more and more accessible every year. What I am saying is that I just want more simple games. Hi-Fi Rush was my absolute highlight for 2023, a fun rhythm action game that had great music, artstyle and voice cast. But marketing for that game was absolute an absolute desert, I wasn't even aware of when it first dropped. Niche markets are suffering more than ever right now, and success is extremely limited to either complete failure or runaway success. For execs and investors there is no middle ground.
Zan
2024-08-09 00:10:18 +0000 UTCI think the best analogy for the current state of video games is the current state of television. Tonnes of extremely high-budget series that are simultaneously aiming for mass appeal and the status of High Art. If something is going to be that expensive, it needs to do big numbers to recoup costs. That's a tricky balance to find, and it ends up with a lot of prestige dramas with expensive actors doing absolutely nothing in viewership, while whichever of them catches the zeitgeist gets all the viewership. Meanwhile, of course, the low-budget game, talent, and reality shows are still raking in viewership regardless. It feels like there's a 'missing middle' in both industries - games/shows that are thoughtfully constructed, but not hugely expensive, and aimed at slightly nicher markets.
GalileosBalls
2024-08-07 14:33:43 +0000 UTCI don’t think I’m the only one with the sentiment that games were more fun when they were just simpler. Every time I get to see my little cousin, he always wants to play skylanders with me. And honestly, they’re still fun games. Most of the time I play with my dad, it’s gears 1 or 2. I think there’s something to be said for a lot of newer games having a higher barrier to entry. It’s really hard to just get into a lot of them. I do think think that they’re necessarily harder these days, I think demon souls could be considered an old game at this point. Games are just a lot more complicated now. There has to be an end point right? You can only push the envelope so far before there aren’t any addresses left to send it to.
T Peter
2024-08-07 13:18:39 +0000 UTCHonestly, do we get more enjoyment from playing Elden Ring now or Jet Set Willy back then? Like yeah, they’re richer experiences that play our brains more intricately. But I think of the big reset created by the early mobile gaming: games were extremely limited and brought a resurgence of old classics reinterpretations but they were at least just as enjoyable as games on other platforms. Way more limited for sure, but sharper in a way. Also if games continue to improve like that, soon they’ll be indistinguishable from reality. VR is going to be scary. Or fun. Probably both. Like adult animation, the whole thing hinges on exploitation of its workers. Here, the developers. Money only flows up.
Tomagochi
2024-08-07 07:46:18 +0000 UTCHonestly, I'm just glad to see someone talk optimistically about modern gaming. I feel like when people talk about modern gaming, they focus so hard on things like micro transactions, free-to-play models, and seasonal models that they forget how far games like BotW, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, God of War, or even Sekiro have been pushing both their genres and the medium as a whole forward for years. Idk enough about the development cycles of some of these games well enough to comment on it tbh, just glad to see more positive commentary. I would however especially like to see commentary on the importance of dedicating ample time to game development, allowing developers to experiment more freely and following their vision, and allowing dev teams to tell shareholders off the way the Monster Hunter team did recently in regards to MH Wilds
Zeldasavvy
2024-08-07 00:15:10 +0000 UTCThe only idea I can put forward is maybe keeping the video centered around a theme of community or communication; games might be able to make bigger leaps in quality if there's consistent support from both the developers and players, etc.
Gourmet Grape
2024-08-06 23:58:47 +0000 UTCIt's changed so much so quickly that laws haven't been able to keep up. Even AAA companies haven't been able to keep up, they have ballooned their costs so much that anything short of a breakout hit fails to meet expectations, it's insane. Then on the other end are indies which were were barely on people's radars in the early aughts and now the knowledge and tech is so ubiquitous and accessible that pretty much anyone with an idea can make a game. And for $100 you can put it on Steam and almost certainly get eyes on it. It's wild! For Zelda TOTK specifically, this talk was wonderful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-dPDsLTrTE Nintendo knows that yeah tech is cool, but you know what's cooler? Stable jobs, polish, and charm. They see that the tech exists, and just don't bother, they'll make a less powerful console and just optimize the heck out of their engines and choose simpler-yet-still-beautiful artstyles that fit the tech. Anyways, excited for the video!
Matias
2024-08-06 23:50:39 +0000 UTCI've been trying to write my thoughts on this for about three times now. And the problem every time that I do I keep coming back to the same thing, is we only perceive time in our time. I remember from software back in the day when they made really crappy games for the PS2. So when demon souls and dark souls came out. I laughed when everybody said it was good because that developer I hated. But you take a company like grasshopper manufacture, it is really only been because suda has been able to make the games he wants to make. But even would you say that he has made good games, take a look at Travis strikes again. Did we need that? Did we want that? No but he needed to get a game out so he could get interest for no more heroes 3. And I bought it day one and I will buy it again. Because I don't care what Suda makes, I know that it will have the love and passion that he has. But maybe is that the story? Take tetsuya namora, think of every spiky haired protagonist that we have had to deal with because he just has to have things his way. Are the games good? Is his style good? Would you buy a game just because it had his name on it? So what makes a team you'll never look up? Who was the assistant director on a game you don't think? Oh boy! I really loved the fourth chair on a particular orchestral piece. No like that's not what it is. You agree that a team that has been together has a higher likelihood of success, but as I watch bungee die, And and stare at the slow death of Sega. I mean you have to ask yourself what could have happened if yu Suzuki didn't make shenmue? And that team continued to make the afterburner games the virtua fighter games. Would we have what we have now? I don't know you got me thinking too much about this
DCFatCat
2024-08-06 23:38:02 +0000 UTCI think that improvement in tech has also really helped with that improvement together with it being a more profitable business allowing people can dedicate careers to games. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on the indie scene for sources of improvement as indie devs are more likely to take risks and throw ideas out there. I think the tech has matured enough now that leveling graphics is no longer enough. Improvements have to be made elsewhere with more wild and interesting ideas that inspire the next generations
Ted
2024-08-06 23:29:54 +0000 UTCIt's an interesting topic, and I'm curious to hear your take. I think it's more nuanced than most people appreciate. If you'd like to talk to any actual devs in the process, I can make connections - been in dev 22 years myself and I'm happy to talk or make introductions.
Dashiel Nemeth
2024-08-06 23:00:22 +0000 UTC
