5 ms·

It's a mystery to me how the gaming industry exists in its current form. I subscribe to Humble Monthly and occasionally buy a Humble Bundle. This all costs me $

It's a mystery to me how the gaming industry exists in its current form. I subscribe to Humble Monthly and occasionally buy a Humble Bundle. This all costs me $20-$30/mo and I get my hands on enough good games to last me a lifetime. I very occasionally will buy a cool looking new indie game, usually for $30 or less, when they come out. In general if a game looks like it has some interesting/novel gameplay I'll give it a shot. Most of them come from small indie developers, aren't super well known, and will run just fine on a 7 year old gaming laptop. Meanwhile there is this enormous multi-billion dollar world of dozens of AAA publisher FPS titles that all look basically the same. People apparently line up in droves to pay $60 for these titles and the publishers are now so confident about their revenue stream that they don't want to release gameplay footage before they sell you the game? The #1 thing I do before buying a game or installing one I already own (since I own hundreds, thanks to Humble) is look at gameplay videos on Youtube. No gameplay video = not touching it. What insane alien planet is this? It's certainly not the Earth in the dimension I live on, and it sounds much lamer.

JauntyHatAngle 7y ago
>Meanwhile there is this enormous multi-billion dollar world of dozens of AAA publisher FPS titles that all look basically the same. I'm also not someone who buys many new titles unless they are offering something beyond the norm, but what fps titles do you mean? I guess I'm a bit disconnected from the hype cycle, but I'm struggling to think of dozens of AAA FPS titles released in the past year. It's mostly Battle royale games that are FOTM, and there are only 3 AAA titles that do this that I can think of. (And the answer to those ones are: kids.) That said, I agree with you that there is a lot of rubbish being released prematurely without gameplay vids and embargoed reviews that rely on preorders and the uninformed to purchase before people catch on.
- hnick 7y ago
  > FPS titles that all look basically the same. I found Dunkey's satirical take on this amusing. He spliced together footage from multiple FPS titles and reviewed it as a single game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK158ih4smY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK158ih4smY
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esoterica 7y ago
Many games are sequels, if you’ve played the previous iteration you know already know what the gameplay is going to be like. Also all the review sites that get early copies will have their own gameplay videos out by release day so you can easily look those up before purchase.
munchbunny 7y ago
Setting aside the Skinner Box aspect of the gaming industry for a moment, I think you're missing the social dimension of gaming. A lot (if not most) of these new AAA games that are coming out have a strong social aspect. The game is a way to hang out with friends, the same way going to see a movie in the theaters might be, or checking out a new restaurant, or trying a new board game, etc. The novelty of the new game helps to decorate the shared experience.
- taurath 7y ago
  IE - marketing works, especially to generate hype and word of mouth.
  - ohithereyou 7y ago
    Partially that, but as an example of the social aspect of video games: my college friends and I have scattered across the country for work and relationships. The cheapest way for us to stay in touch is a weekly video game night. We play old stuff, emulator stuff, new stuff we all like, all on PC connected over Discord for voice and occasionally video chat. It is our primary way of socializing with our friend group, often digressing from the video game we're playing into what is going on in our lives. It's much cheaper than plane tickets, we can all drink the booze we like and have whatever dinner we want, all for the low price of one $60 game a quarter, at most.
    - pdimitar 7y ago
      I get you fully, but none of that requires a modern $60 - $150 AAA game.
      - ohithereyou 7y ago
        Agreed. I even said as much in my comment. We get a lot of games on sale from Steam and GOG for less than $20, often less than $10.
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Fradow 7y ago
While I do mostly the same (except I'm cheaper), what you said implies you live in a bubble. Same as TV presenters belittling MMOs or Twitch for being fringe, despite both of those being a bigger market than their own shows (ironic). I'm personally very glad the industry exists in its current form, even though I don't participate. This mean in 5 to 10 years, I'll have great beautiful games I'll be able to play for cheap (lately, I enjoyed Vanquish for example, which used to be a AAA game). They are participating to the growth of the market, meaning there are more indies whose games I enjoy trying their luck. They participate to the industry improvement.
Bakary 7y ago
I have roughly the same consumption pattern as you do but I don't think it constitutes a reason to feel superior to people who want those AAA titles.

JauntyHatAngle 7y ago

>Meanwhile there is this enormous multi-billion dollar world of dozens of AAA publisher FPS titles that all look basically the same. I'm also not someone who buys many new titles unless they are offering something beyond the norm, but what fps titles do you mean? I guess I'm a bit disconnected from the hype cycle, but I'm struggling to think of dozens of AAA FPS titles released in the past year. It's mostly Battle royale games that are FOTM, and there are only 3 AAA titles that do this that I can think of. (And the answer to those ones are: kids.) That said, I agree with you that there is a lot of rubbish being released prematurely without gameplay vids and embargoed reviews that rely on preorders and the uninformed to purchase before people catch on.

hnick 7y ago
> FPS titles that all look basically the same. I found Dunkey's satirical take on this amusing. He spliced together footage from multiple FPS titles and reviewed it as a single game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK158ih4smY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK158ih4smY

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esoterica 7y ago

Many games are sequels, if you’ve played the previous iteration you know already know what the gameplay is going to be like. Also all the review sites that get early copies will have their own gameplay videos out by release day so you can easily look those up before purchase.

munchbunny 7y ago

Setting aside the Skinner Box aspect of the gaming industry for a moment, I think you're missing the social dimension of gaming. A lot (if not most) of these new AAA games that are coming out have a strong social aspect. The game is a way to hang out with friends, the same way going to see a movie in the theaters might be, or checking out a new restaurant, or trying a new board game, etc. The novelty of the new game helps to decorate the shared experience.

taurath 7y ago
IE - marketing works, especially to generate hype and word of mouth.
- ohithereyou 7y ago
  Partially that, but as an example of the social aspect of video games: my college friends and I have scattered across the country for work and relationships. The cheapest way for us to stay in touch is a weekly video game night. We play old stuff, emulator stuff, new stuff we all like, all on PC connected over Discord for voice and occasionally video chat. It is our primary way of socializing with our friend group, often digressing from the video game we're playing into what is going on in our lives. It's much cheaper than plane tickets, we can all drink the booze we like and have whatever dinner we want, all for the low price of one $60 game a quarter, at most.
  - pdimitar 7y ago
    I get you fully, but none of that requires a modern $60 - $150 AAA game.
    - ohithereyou 7y ago
      Agreed. I even said as much in my comment. We get a lot of games on sale from Steam and GOG for less than $20, often less than $10.

deleted 7y ago

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Fradow 7y ago

While I do mostly the same (except I'm cheaper), what you said implies you live in a bubble. Same as TV presenters belittling MMOs or Twitch for being fringe, despite both of those being a bigger market than their own shows (ironic). I'm personally very glad the industry exists in its current form, even though I don't participate. This mean in 5 to 10 years, I'll have great beautiful games I'll be able to play for cheap (lately, I enjoyed Vanquish for example, which used to be a AAA game). They are participating to the growth of the market, meaning there are more indies whose games I enjoy trying their luck. They participate to the industry improvement.

Bakary 7y ago

I have roughly the same consumption pattern as you do but I don't think it constitutes a reason to feel superior to people who want those AAA titles.