i am hoping for an industry crash, a reset of this whole mess, gaming as it is now its bad, you have to look outside the whole mainstream media and sites for good releases of indie games, triple A games are mostly generic, boring copy pasted versions of each other or remakes that capitalize on nostalgia, and lets not forget, multiplayer games, its good to have some uncompromised fun from time to time, but where are the mainstream single player, rich in story and world games? im not asking for the 50th open barren world, im asking for something creative, captivating, for me gaming is not a passtime its something that can teach us, like a book or a movie
>>28267>triple A games are mostly generic, boring copy pasted versions of each other or remakes that capitalize on nostalgiaI. e. gaming has become just another business.
What did you expect was going to happen? That's the most natural progression of gaming business. The entire point of AAA games is to be "high-budget." As the ceiling of the "high budget" increases the publishers are forced to appeal to the lowest common denominator. AA games are what AAA games were in the past, it's just that our definition of what AAA represents has shifted along with the increase in the publishers' capital.
The fundamental mechanisms of capitalism haven't changed. It's just us who never learn the lesson.
Gamers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your lootboxes!
>>28300>If GTA 6 failsIt'll bring Rockstar down, not the whole industry. Now, if Valve fails…
Valve, Xbox, Sony, Nintendo. These huge platform holders. If they crash, the whole industry is gonna go crushing down.
>>28319BTW I don't get this argument about small studios not being allowed to exist
The internet has probably democratized video game retail more than anything
All you need is a website and a PayPal account
>>28320What do you mean
>>28319>home computers still let indie studios thrive during that era but you never hear much about itbecause they never thrived that much
>>28321>What do you meannot the guy you're replying to, but internet distribution wasn't much of a thing during the 90s, you had to physically distribute your games, which meant retailers had to sell your shit if you wanted to make it big on the PC market. there was a seizable PC niche alright, but I wouldn't call it a thriving scene for indie developers. it's a relatively new phenomenon still.
>>28322>Not because they have le pleb taste or whatever either, but because to most people video games are just mindless shit to do when they get home from workBecause they don't get invested they have le pleb taste, simple. It's not about whether they have le pleb taste. It's about why they have le pleb taste. It's not about whether they are alcoholics. It's about why they're alcoholics.
In conclusion, consumerism is cringe but it's also a direct consequence of our capitalist system.
>>28433Roger Ebert is literally a movie reviewer.
Also, art can technically mean any form of creative activity, I find it really annoying how people conflate art in general with "high" art. Neither do I like the pretentious bourgeois "high" art either, those snobs who obsess over high art disregard any heart and uniqueness low art may have because it isn't "complex" enough.
Fetishization of high art is a spook. Art is made to excite the audience and to be aesthetically admired, not to be a bloody bourgeois status symbol.
Good art is good art. Good art is valuable, even if it's not perfect. Nothing is.
>>28437>I find it really annoying how people conflate art in general with "high" artEbert doesn't do this. What heart and uniqueness does reskinned FPS/RPG/whatever #2802484 have?
>>28438Putting things in greentext doesn't make them true. I know this is hard to understand for the average imageboard solipsist but it will be a valuable lesson to learn for life.
>>28442>The most noteworthy video games aren't even more complex or emotive than a Marvel movie.And yet movies are considered art and games aren't.
Many games have better stories than anything that's come out of cinema in say the past decade alone. Who the fuck thought Blade Runner 2049 had a good narrative or was artistic in any way?
>>28442>The most noteworthy video games aren't even more complex or emotive than a Marvel movieThis comparison is downright disgusting.
>>28447>What is the point of this discussion other than postulating that one kind of cultural product has more value than the other?That's the point I'm making, my friend. The bourgeois cultural values have instilled the arbitrary seperation of high art and low art in the public's consciousness. To the libre culture advocates all art made with passion is valuable in and off itself. Art is a cooperative effort so even if it's not that great it can always be improved.
It's all the copyright's fault. The copyright takes the work away from the public treasury and leaves it to rot while reinforcing the idea that noone, NOONE is allowed to change or improve or share anything EVER.
Let me give two examples: Sonic Adventure games and Alpha Protocol. Sonic Adventure games are laughed at by journos but it is clear to me that the games were made with care and creativity. Same with Alpha Protocol but while with Sonic Adventure games the fans managed to patch out bugs, glitches, gameplay mechanics and graphics Alpha Protocol didn't get that treatment unfortunately and there's nothing we can do to save it.
Copyright and proprietary software corrode our culture, murder beauty and doom all projects that in the beginning had potential. And Hollywood and Silicon Valley are the ones to blame for this.
>>28449>mindless entertainmentMindless entertainment are shitty reality shows on cable television.
Again, are you aware about the distinction between casual games like Candy Crush and hardcore games like Elden Ring? Casual games are mindless entertainment indeed. I admit it. Because they're
designed that way. But you're gonna paint all games with one brush without even bringing up such basic distinctions.
You simply don't know what you're talking about while trying to pretend that you do.
>>28442>Compare that with… musicFunny you bring up music because music, like games with no plot or abstract art, is incomparable to narrative-driven media. Yet you judge video games based on movie criteria while not applying the same logic to music. Hypocrisy.
The thing is, games and music can impress you even without the plot. That's their point. Unless you're deaf to the music.
>>28463>Very deepApplying movie criteria again. Read what I wrote.
There are many different elements in hardcore video games and some elements are more flashed out than others, Therefore calling it mindless entertainment like cheap soap operas is very condescending to all the artists who worked on the games to flash out their setting, lore, landscapes and levels.
If all you care about is the narrative then don't tell me that you admire great music or paintings. Because you're just saying that to look like you have a refined taste in them to appear smarter.
If you told chess players that what they do is mindless entertainment they would probably point you in the direction of the front door.
>>28467Shitposting or not, there is some truth to the anons post. Especially for someone who is (rightfully) trying to sublate "bourgeois cultural values", you should recognize that casual-hardcore dichotomy you argue for is also a product of bourgeois consciousness. In fact, your argument here
>>28458 can easily be applied in defense of other "bourgeois cultural values", such as genre - those are also designed for.
If you want to argue Elder Ring has a communist aspect, e.g. proletarian character, then you will have to actually provide your reasoning because I'm not seeing it. Likewise, your (and others) attack on film seems confused. Popular, bourgeois mediums like, yes, Citizen Kane and The Good, The Bad, The ugly, are trite film because they are subject to the bourgeois limitation.
The same goes for virtually all video games. However, the same can not be said about film. Rare as they may be, films like Saló, Mayday: MAYDAY, etc. prove that there exist film with communist aspect. Personally waiting on the same to happen to "video games", and help it along myself as much as I can.
>>28472Actually forgot about Disco Elysium. Fair point. Disco to me lacks an active quality though. On the other hand, while writing my reply I realized there is still a lot of confusion among the bourgeois about Disco, so maybe it was not as easily subsumed as I assumed.
>it can also just be communist by virtue of it being produced in a communist country.My argument precludes that the proletariate produces communist works (as proletarians necessarily exceed the bourgeois limitation if not frustrated).
>>28471>you should recognize that casual-hardcore dichotomy you argue for is also a product of bourgeois consciousnessThe guy was saying that games in general are "mindless entertainment." I've simply made that distinction because he's not entirely wrong but rather overgeneralizing. Casual games are
designed to be simplistic and addictive, their only goal is for you to waste your time on a bus stop. That's their design goal, there's no way around it. Many include microtransactions and grinding to suck you out of your money as well. Just look at the mobile gaming market.
Bourgeois not in the sense of ideology but rather in what cultural medium is used by bourgeoisie as a status symbol. As you may know, Western art music was played primarily to kings, it wasn't particularly accessible to commoners unlike folk music. Which means that those who pretentiously try to paint themselves as Western art music connoseurs while putting down popular music composers are simply snobby pseudo-bourgeoisie who want to feel special.
>>28480But hey, the Resistance in Sonic Forces is a democratic council. So I dunno, I dunno.
The plot is still shit.
>>28478>Bourgeois not in the sense of ideology but rather in what cultural medium is used by bourgeoisie as a status symbol.I must insist you have not understood this. They are the same thing.
>>28480There is nothing communist about either game.
>>28471good insight. but how many people, proportionally, are communist in your country? most games are submerged in bourgeoisie morality, even unintentionally
be vigilant for indie studios, who sometimes are more motivated by being able to exchange ideas rather than profit. i think thats the side of the industry with more marxist potential
>>28276/v/ wants the industry to crash because they think it'll fix an oversaturated industry filled with soulless corporate games.
I want the industry to crash because my backlog is too large and I need to stop buying new games.
>>29203An author identifying as communist is irrelevant. It is about the work doing communism.
>i think thats the side of the industry with more marxist potential"Indie" is just another leg of the industry, make no mistake. It is possible for communism to spontaneously occur, but I do not agree it is more likely to happen with indie devs. Whoever does it, under present conditions it would be a fluke. A happy, little accident. Again, see film.
>>29283AAA gaming being shit does not even have much to do with ideas than with the fact that they appeal to shareholders that fund and supervise the studios: people, who like every porky worth their salt prioritize maximization of profit over delivering a well-made product.
Microtransactions have de facto supplanted pure retail sales and even selling extra content in profitability while requiring almost no risks or new content input, and so we see AAA-scale studios invest more into live services and other easily milkable venues than boundary-pushing, high-quality games like before the mid-2010's, where that kind of focus on monetization was mostly restricted to browser games like Evony or Farmville.
One can hope that the recent legislations against microtransactions across the world might help stop this plague, but as long as China, Worst Korea and other "whale" countries that provide most of the MTX revenue do not step up to seriously combat and discourage the practice, I think it will not have much effect.
Unique IPs: 23