3 ms·

A few possible causes: - Game prices have not kept up with inflation. - Games are more expensive than ever before. - More games now have online multiplayer,

by pitaj 5y ago

A few possible causes: - Game prices have not kept up with inflation. - Games are more expensive than ever before. - More games now have online multiplayer, requiring constant funding.

honkycat 5y ago
I have family and friends who work in the game industry, and I can tell you it is none of the above. Here is the answer: Crappy gatcha games and skinner boxes branded with a popular IP marketed towards kids are: 1. Much easier to make 2. Makes A TON MORE MONEY. A gatcha game is basically a slot machine, which is basically a website with a fancy front-end. This means you can shovel out these games with low-skill labor, make your money, and then re-skin the same website with another property. A lot of the gaming companies that used to be owned by a visionary leader are now owned by VC firms that don't give a shit about games, they give a shit about the money machine. So they produce the same crap over and over again, employing behavioral psychologists to develop the most addicting loop possible.
- machiaweliczny 5y ago
  Should we ban this?
  - honkycat 5y ago
    I don't think it is realistic to ban, honestly. I think there is probably some precedent from gambling laws we could apply to protect minors from predatory behaviour.
mehlmao 5y ago
Games are more expensive to make and prices have not kept up with inflation, but units sold are at least two orders of magnitude than they were twenty years ago, and individual free-to-play titles have playercounts that dwarf the total userbase of all games at the turn of the millennium. Multiplayer does not require constant funding, unless you want to lock the game down so you can sell microtransactions. I can fire up the original Quake or UT99, pick a server, and play online; it doesn't cost id a cent. On the other hand, I recently tried playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist again, a game released in 2013, and their centralized online services don't work. Developers have made an effort to keep players from hosting their own servers, which has introducing many new problems. For example, the lack of community moderation / 'toxicity', homogenization of gameplay options within a title to support a matchmaking pool, and stagnation due to lack of new maps, modes, and mods that used to be created by the community.

by pitaj 5y ago

A few possible causes: - Game prices have not kept up with inflation. - Games are more expensive than ever before. - More games now have online multiplayer, requiring constant funding.

honkycat 5y ago

I have family and friends who work in the game industry, and I can tell you it is none of the above. Here is the answer: Crappy gatcha games and skinner boxes branded with a popular IP marketed towards kids are: 1. Much easier to make 2. Makes A TON MORE MONEY. A gatcha game is basically a slot machine, which is basically a website with a fancy front-end. This means you can shovel out these games with low-skill labor, make your money, and then re-skin the same website with another property. A lot of the gaming companies that used to be owned by a visionary leader are now owned by VC firms that don't give a shit about games, they give a shit about the money machine. So they produce the same crap over and over again, employing behavioral psychologists to develop the most addicting loop possible.

machiaweliczny 5y ago
Should we ban this?
- honkycat 5y ago
  I don't think it is realistic to ban, honestly. I think there is probably some precedent from gambling laws we could apply to protect minors from predatory behaviour.

mehlmao 5y ago

Games are more expensive to make and prices have not kept up with inflation, but units sold are at least two orders of magnitude than they were twenty years ago, and individual free-to-play titles have playercounts that dwarf the total userbase of all games at the turn of the millennium. Multiplayer does not require constant funding, unless you want to lock the game down so you can sell microtransactions. I can fire up the original Quake or UT99, pick a server, and play online; it doesn't cost id a cent. On the other hand, I recently tried playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist again, a game released in 2013, and their centralized online services don't work. Developers have made an effort to keep players from hosting their own servers, which has introducing many new problems. For example, the lack of community moderation / 'toxicity', homogenization of gameplay options within a title to support a matchmaking pool, and stagnation due to lack of new maps, modes, and mods that used to be created by the community.