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Compare the annual gross sales of video games vs. Hollywood blockbusters. Yet gaming is given short shrift. My kids are all on their phones watching tiktok and

by greedo 4y ago

Compare the annual gross sales of video games vs. Hollywood blockbusters. Yet gaming is given short shrift. My kids are all on their phones watching tiktok and youtube. They were traumatized when a prominent YouTuber died this weekend of cancer. Movies? They used to be into the MCU when it was relatively fresh, but now it's stale, like Harry Potter. My youngest went to see TopGun Maverick with me, but wanted to spend time with me more than seeing an old boomer movie retread.

majormajor 4y ago
Gaming seems to get the same sort of short shrift as sports. Which is to say, they're competing for entertainment dollars, but not necessarily as much as cultural referents. And note that on HN you'll see much more discussion of movies than of sports... so it should be easy to see where that blind spot would be different (either opposite, or ignoring both areas). It's an interesting thing because some games are much more narrative, and others are much more competition-oriented. The latter seem to be driving a lot of the current $$$$. Youtube and social media exist in a new sort of advertising-dollar-pie-expanding competiting-but-also-newly-different genre of free content. And kids will eat that shit up since they aren't rolling in money for increasingly-expensive movies. A lot of movie genres have basically just moved to cable and streaming. Funny that yesterday's "free" kids entertainment (cable, since parents were subscribed anyway) is today's paywalled streaming content. Is Hollywood, by itself, threatened by Tiktok any more than it was by MTV? Between streaming and theatrical, Hollywood is doing great. The streaming bubble has to deflate some, though - it's been running at a loss for a decade - we'll see how big a hit that is.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  It sort of makes sense that competitive games get more eyeballs than narrative ones, right? Most single player, narrative focused games are designed to be beaten, anyone interested in enjoying those plots can get that experience on their own. Most of us can't get the experience of being good at DOTA or whatever it is people watch nowadays.

by greedo 4y ago

majormajor 4y ago

Gaming seems to get the same sort of short shrift as sports. Which is to say, they're competing for entertainment dollars, but not necessarily as much as cultural referents. And note that on HN you'll see much more discussion of movies than of sports... so it should be easy to see where that blind spot would be different (either opposite, or ignoring both areas). It's an interesting thing because some games are much more narrative, and others are much more competition-oriented. The latter seem to be driving a lot of the current $$$$. Youtube and social media exist in a new sort of advertising-dollar-pie-expanding competiting-but-also-newly-different genre of free content. And kids will eat that shit up since they aren't rolling in money for increasingly-expensive movies. A lot of movie genres have basically just moved to cable and streaming. Funny that yesterday's "free" kids entertainment (cable, since parents were subscribed anyway) is today's paywalled streaming content. Is Hollywood, by itself, threatened by Tiktok any more than it was by MTV? Between streaming and theatrical, Hollywood is doing great. The streaming bubble has to deflate some, though - it's been running at a loss for a decade - we'll see how big a hit that is.

bee_rider 4y ago
It sort of makes sense that competitive games get more eyeballs than narrative ones, right? Most single player, narrative focused games are designed to be beaten, anyone interested in enjoying those plots can get that experience on their own. Most of us can't get the experience of being good at DOTA or whatever it is people watch nowadays.