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> This, and the rest of the suggestions reads as "don't build a hand-tailored experience, instead build more random permutations of generic content." There's ev

> This, and the rest of the suggestions reads as "don't build a hand-tailored experience, instead build more random permutations of generic content." There's even suggestions to find ways to monetize some of those permutations. Chess, PUBG, CounterStrike, and soccer fall into this category. It is the art of systemic game design. Saying games should tilt more systemic doesn't mean they get worse. It means they are different. In the commercial history of the game industry, we've seen entire genres fall out because they stopped making financial sense. Often, they come back later, when the finances make sense again. I really think you are filtering the entire article through a lens based on your assumption that I am advocating for a world where Uncharted and Edith Finch can't exist, and every game is a lootbox-driven roguelike or something. That world would actually make me very sad.

falcolas 9y ago
"Horizon: Zero Dawn", "Final Fantasy 3", "Nier: Automata", "Opus Magnum", "Bastion", "Transistor", "Tomb Raider", "Redout", "Mass Effect", "Hellblade", "Braid", "Divinity 2" ... these do not fall into that category. Not everyone is driven by competition. The niches which fell into oblivion were driven there by the fact they are niches - their consumers too small a group to justify the investment. Crafted, story-driven games are not niche. They are not running the razors edge of being barely profitable, instead some are becoming profitable well before they're expected like "Hellblade". They are funding future games like "Bastion". They are being held as the pinnacle of a genre considered to be a dead horse like "Horizon: Zero Dawn". Whether you're sad or no, the practices advocated by your article doesn't include these games, these experiences. Your comment here even condemns them as not making financial sense, being doomed to only be revisited at some point in the future. And yet, these games are being released today, are being funded by major and minor publishers and developers alike for tomorrow. That, more than anything else, is a compelling argument for the gameplay you recommend is not the only way forward.
- jblow 9y ago
  > And yet, these games are being released today, are being funded by major and minor publishers and developers alike for tomorrow And most developers making these kinds of games today fail to make their money back and go out of business. I was in charge of one of the games you listed, so I know something about this topic.

falcolas 9y ago

"Horizon: Zero Dawn", "Final Fantasy 3", "Nier: Automata", "Opus Magnum", "Bastion", "Transistor", "Tomb Raider", "Redout", "Mass Effect", "Hellblade", "Braid", "Divinity 2" ... these do not fall into that category. Not everyone is driven by competition. The niches which fell into oblivion were driven there by the fact they are niches - their consumers too small a group to justify the investment. Crafted, story-driven games are not niche. They are not running the razors edge of being barely profitable, instead some are becoming profitable well before they're expected like "Hellblade". They are funding future games like "Bastion". They are being held as the pinnacle of a genre considered to be a dead horse like "Horizon: Zero Dawn". Whether you're sad or no, the practices advocated by your article doesn't include these games, these experiences. Your comment here even condemns them as not making financial sense, being doomed to only be revisited at some point in the future. And yet, these games are being released today, are being funded by major and minor publishers and developers alike for tomorrow. That, more than anything else, is a compelling argument for the gameplay you recommend is not the only way forward.

jblow 9y ago
> And yet, these games are being released today, are being funded by major and minor publishers and developers alike for tomorrow And most developers making these kinds of games today fail to make their money back and go out of business. I was in charge of one of the games you listed, so I know something about this topic.