"woke" aside, it is very weird how so many games with 100+ million budgets flopped hard lately, what do you think is going on behind the scenes?
Is it a problem with the higher ups? The devs? The market researchers? It just doesn't make any sense
>>38927They're dying because of Zoomer hyperonline
PCmasterRacism
Sigma Male grindset antiFun
Piracy
>>38942Wow thank you. When I said
making rather than copying is what is expensive I did not know that 3D scanning fictional places was not on the menu. I thought I could just go out and film a fictional place I made up for my upcoming game project. Again, thanks for your valuable post, my fellow redditor. If only I could meet you in real life and pay you in real rape dollars.
>>38928>Biden RegimeThat's right. Take your estrogen or go to the reeducation camps. The Democratic People's Republic of America will not tolerate your kind.
I hope this guy is trolling.
>>38931It took them this long to ask this question?
>their takeaway is to keep making multiplayer games but stop worrying about making everything ultra 16k 120fps raytraced with grit filtered texturesEh, it's a start. I guess they can't admit what they already make lacks something, so if that's what it takes to overcome sunk cost fallacy then so be it.
>>38995>Fuck off /v/erminTake off your paranoid goggles, radlib. DEI
is marketing, no matter if you think opposing it is reactionary or not. But hey, I can't criticize it because that makes me a reactionary rightoid somehow. I am an anarchist progressive and an anti-fascist so stfu plz, you don't know me personally.
>>38999There is no such as DEI you brainrotted reactoid
Whatever /v/ermin calls DEI is literally just blacks, gays and wymmyn in gamerinos
>>39000>brainrotted reactoidkys, you're as annoying as actual racists.
>Whatever /v/ermin calls DEI is literally just blacks, gays and wymmyn in gamerinosNo? It's literally reactards just misusing this term bc they hate women and queer people. Doesn't mean there aren't legitimate uses of this term.
I hate talking on this board sometimes, at least people on The Anarchist News are capable of tolerating different opinions sometimes. Here I'm just bombarded with insults, spooks and zealotry, I'm so tired. I'm a Schroedinger's reactard: a reactard to some, "le SJW cuck" to others. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE THEN?
>>39004A debate addict that chose a inflammatory and jargon drenched approach to start a conversation
>prople on The Anarchist NewsBecause journalists write full essays and let their ideas cook rather than soundbyting it, and your articles are probably a lot better at sparking dialouges than this nothingburger DEI babble.
>>39005>A debate addict that chose a inflammatory and jargon drenched approachYou can't really escape inflammatory jargon nowadays, you should know this as a socialist. You say you're a communist to a liberal and they're gonna have a panic attack, I think if we're gonna be that sensitive towards language we will run out of words.
>uyghas found out about porkies hiring consulting firms for the first timeIt's good that you mentioned it because it integrates nicely into a larger problem of listening to focus groups too much, that DEI thing is just a part of pandering to normies/casuals too much I already mentioned, the companies are so big they're trying to expand their market reach to people who never actually liked games. It started with realism and open world in the sixth gen and Nintendo Wii in the seventh gen and that DEI thing can be argued to be an extension of this direction. The signs of the AAA gaming collapsing were seen a mile away: as the business expands it becomes unsustainable unless it expands its consumer base. As consumer base is widened, what made that business's product special gets lost in the process.
I'm not hating casuals, I'm hating businesses trying to pander to them because it's just shallow and hinders artistic vision.
>>39015>it's pandering to super niche demographics.Super niche or not, the fact that big execs think it's profitable is enough. It was never about what normies actually like, their tastes are shaped purely by marketing firms, they don't have a taste of their own, they are passive consumers.
It was mentioned in another thread that marketologists named the Microsoft's console as Xbox One because they thought people will call it "the One" (as in "the only one") because people called Xbox 360 "the 360." That's how stupid marketing is, its whole existence is a shame humanity will never wash away.
Here's a vidrel. I know the author sounds like an elitist Randoid but he's somewhat correct, he's just mistaking cause and effect (as all rightoids do).
>>39037 (me)
Scratch that, some Japanese studios like Konami and Koei Tecmo also suck and Nintendo and Square Enix, while publishing great games, are greedy assholes. And Sonic Team's quality control fluctuates wildly. And all of them are in bed with Denuvo. So even Japanese AAA is not all sunshine and flowers.
>>3899060 fps is enough unless you're playing high precision stuff like Celeste, and that can run on an old laptop easy.
That said high framerates aren't really that expensive on their own, just when you add the other stuff.
>>39054>60 fps is enoughHigher framerates are good because devs can't do motion blur for shit. It can be especially jarring when it's in VR where anything less than 90fps will send you on a motion sickness trip to the restroom.
>unless you're playing high precision stuff like CelesteNot sure why Celeste is an exception, I completety Super Meat Boy in 60fps just fine, I don't get it.
>>39006you people have no idea what it was like AAs was the norm and the industry pumped out like 10x the number of games it currently does.
You played a game. And you moved on to another game.
>>39096millenials pendulum swung hard
look at saints row, the first two games? made by gen x, then u get these millennials in, and it's a low trickle, by the time we see the new remake? all millennials on staff
>>39122Through steam yeah any game that does this will suck guaranteed.
On mobile, I'd prefer a login screen over using a google account or something. This way I have less things tethering me to google.
>>39125This
I didn't have a log in acc for my proseka account and I lost all my shit when I got a new phone. I was seething
>>39234 (me)
Also, the American competitor to Game Boy and Game Gear was… freaking Game.com. Just think about it for a second. Even the French Atari was more successful than American console manufacturers before Xbox came along.
>>39235>Ok weebJapan is a conservative neo-feudalist hellhole but you gotta give the Japanese some credit where credit is due. Especially when it comes to anime and video games. And I didn't say the Western devs always suck, I'm just saying that the Japanese AAA devs are better than American AAA devs on average.
Except for Konami, that company can burn in hell.
>>39240>it also helps that Japanese devs only make like 3 genres of game in total nowadaysOkay, let me list all the genres the Japs make from the top of my head:
>action-RPGs (duh)>first-person shooters (Metroid Prime 4)>third-person shooters (Splatoon 3)>platformers (Super Mario Wonder, Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, Astrobot)>kart racing (the new Mario Kart, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds)>fighting games (Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising)>hack 'n' slash (Devil May Cry V, Bayonetta 3, Elden Ring, Stellar Blade)>survival horror (Resident Evil VIIIage)>bullet hells (Touhou)>rhythm games (DDR, Project DIVA)>puzzle games (Puyo Puyo)>visual novels (duh)>eroge (duh)And that's not counting the remakes and remasters. I think that's still quite a lot.
>>39236 (me)
>Even the French Atari was more successful than American console manufacturers before Xbox came along.Well, the 3DO was cool but it was expensive af, even Neo Geo (also a Japanese console) sold better. But one does wonder what could've been.
>>39385I'd just stop buying games at this point.
The only game I've bought that was 70 was Infinite Wealth.
>>39385If you put a cap on how much you are willing to pay for a game that's basically a quality filter. It's possible for a game to be overbudgeted, and every AAA past [arbitary time period I'm probably just nostalgic for tbh] is overbudgeted.
>>39386Most expensive game I got was Guilty Gear Strive.
I just try to keep to Indies or AAs, which is pretty easy with this price hike the AAAs are doing. Only non-valve AAA I have that wasn't free for an aniversary or something is Cities Skylines. Kinda not what I was wanting out of it, and pretty sure it was the final nail in my old laptop because that game isn't optimized at all.
People like to laugh at how bad Sonic games are but now I look at other long-running franchises and realize that they too have many bad entries too. Crash, Mortal Kombat, Rayman, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Spider-Man, Tomb Raider, whatever. Why is Sonic so unique in that regard? No industry veteran other than Nintendo had a consistent level of quality. And I'm not talking about 3-4 games. I'm talking about more than a dozen. The more games you pump out, the worse your track record looks to people. And we live in an era where one bad Mass Effect and Dragon Age game is a complete PR disaster. But we took bad entries for granted back in the day. "Huh. Another shitty AAA game, who would've guessed?"
>Rayman, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Spider-Man
You know, maybe that's an issue with men…
>>38927It's a mix of expensive graphics, scope, and rampant mismanagement.
There have always been flops, as far back as E.T. in 1982. The problem is that AAA developers are making fewer and fewer games that are more and more expensive and require higher and higher sales to break even, so even a single failure is devastating.
Until companies address the bloat problem the industry is fucked. Thankfully there's enough good indie games coming out every year to still sustain the hobby.
It's not crashing. Just pivot back to game principles of the 90s or early millennium and they shall be fine. The games were already very racially diverse back then when it appeared legitimate (like fighting games) and nobody gave a shit.
We allowed capitalists to astroturf our struggle by pushing the racial tensions and other isms to a point where they were all we had to talk about.
The best proof of that is how Blackrock has been buying complete territorial sections of Ukraine at a bargain price, at the bloody expense of countless Ukrainians and Russians. Just see how the media kept us locked in this masquerade when the whole plan was just for the same rich pigs to become even richer while we were goaded into taking sides on a pseudo cold war repeat.
The European economy was brought to its knees and there again ready to be bought for pennies, Zelensky got filthy rich, Russia just solidified their deals with other nations and in the end Europe will limp back at Russia begging for oil and gas anyway but forced to accept humiliating prices.
>>38931But little Timmy won't ask mommy to buy the game if it looks ugly. At best they will cap the advance because good graphics have become prohibitive for both studios and customers.
>>38933So BG3 was woke? There was a tasteless bear joke and that was it.
>>39932moids could never make a female version without thinking about
SÉX or le innocence
>>39934>moids could never make a female version without thinking about SÉXIt's gynesexuals in general.
>le innocenceYou know that traditional gender norms were commonplace back in the day (they still are in conservative countries)?
>>39935>gynesexualsso according to you gynosexual women can't help but objectify themselves
>traditional gender normsthey're at the root of the problem. what's your point?
>>38927On top of what others have said, I'd just add that when the economy goes south, discretionary spending is the first to go.
I'm pretty out of the loop and removed from the gaming marketing-o-sphere but seems like Marvel Rivals is all the rage these days. On a related note, the top 5 most played games on Steam are all F2P. I'd wager the same is true in the larger gaming market where mobile games dominate
>>39936>so according to you gynosexual women can't help but objectify themselvesHow does that even make any sense? I assume if you're gay you're not attracted to yourself or your relatives, how does that even make sense in your tiny brain?
>what's your point?Gender norms have nothing to do with one's gender, they're a cultural thing. The more progressive the culture is, the less relevant these gender norms become.
>>39938>I assume if you're gay you're not attracted to yourselfhence they CAN make a female version without thinking about sexuality or its absence QED
>your relativesrepression =/= absence
>Gender norms have nothing to do with one's genderdo you not get how ideology works?
>The more progressive the culture is, the less relevant these gender norms become.no there's a shift from direct enforcement to a multiplicity that nevertheless reproduces the nuclear family or at least some form of hetairism. the tomboy meme is a perfect example of this faux irrelevance of gender norms
>>>/anime/2692>BUT SHE HAS TO BE SUBMISSIVE IN BED THOUGH. Why are we derailing a thread with idpol again?
>>39939>hence they CAN make a female version without thinking about sexuality or its absence QEDHow did you even make that conclusion? It's just armchair psychology where you assume that straight males draw hot women because they aren't sexually attracted to themselves as women and the lack of that sexual attraction in lesbian women necessarily leads to not drawing hot women somehow.
>repression =/= absenceWell, you can say the same about being attracted to oneself. Again, armchair psychology.
>do you not get how ideology works?Gender norms are
social constructs, they define gender, not the other way around. Conservative femoids are just as willing to re-enforce these norms as conservative moids do. What you're doing is just another bioessentialist nonsense.
>the tomboy meme is a perfect example of this faux irrelevance of gender normsOmg, there are remnants of conservatism on the Internet and in certain regions? Progressive values don't spread evenly and meet resistance? Holy shit, I had no idea! 😲
>>39941>hot womensigh
>the lack of that sexual attraction in lesbian women necessarily leads to not drawing hot women somehow.women identifying with other women is the most clear-cut case showing it's not "gynosexuals in general". do you deny moids unique preoccupation with women as an object of either sexualization or infantilization (or sometimes both) makes their female characters often turn out as caricatures?
>they define genderisn't that why they have everything to do with one's gender? culture dictates individual consciousness
>Progressive valueswhere are those "progressive values" exactly?
>>39943>do you deny moids unique preoccupation with women as an object of either sexualization or infantilization (or sometimes both) makes their female characters often turn out as caricatures?Making caricatures instead of real female characters is more of a problem of bad writing and straight males not actually talking to real women than anything. But yeah, I guess straight males are more likely to get it wrong since they're… well, not women.
>culture dictates individual consciousnessMy lord, such essentialism.
>where are those "progressive values" exactly?I say the US and Europe are partly progressive, partly conservative depending on the country and state. The Deep South and Eastern Europe are obvious conservative shitholes.
>>39945>My lord, such essentialism.There is a relative degree of independence and means to immanently critique your cultural standpoint, but it's definitely not as independent as you're making it out to be.
>I say the US and Europe are partly progressiveWhat do you particularly see as progressive. The drafting of women into the labor force, individual property rights and the choice to forego marriage? While women in conservative shitholes are explicitly forced into marriage, "western" women now have the choice to be directly exploited by captitalism (still at lower wages than men), thus losing the economic protection the family unit would have provided them. Modern tradfaggotry, which has been coming for a long time, reflects this with its "voluntary" adoption of sex roles. Instead of a pressure to marry, they coincide with unchanged economic pressure and broader societal expectations of femininity being leveled at women. Look at this specimen
>>39946 who considers joan of arc unfeminine because she isn't protrayed like her modern fate counterpart.
Flood detected; Post discarded. >>39951>>39952But you get that saying someone is a lesbian
sounding awfully like euphemism for "failed" woman in that context because they look kinda butch is lowkey misogynist, especially for a historical figure?
>>39959Both are me…
Lol. Most men aren't legendary warriors either. I wouldn't call every man a warrior man either. Women who are kicking asses aren't doing their makeup and all that. You guys AND gals want some porno representation of model-esque women fighting wars, but it don't work like that. Fighting wars is a very "butch" activity.
>>39960You're implying that by
>kicking assesand not
>doing their makeupor being
>model-esquethey're somehow less of a woman.
>>39962I mean they even stop menstruating, isn't that making them more masculine? Their testosterone is raised.
Anyways besides the point, now you're going to make me advocate for gender-essentialism. I believe they're women no matter what they do. Just pointing out how stupid this idea of women with high bodyfat percentages and no muscle as warriors is.
>>39964That's what is required from soldiers globally
Soldiers are required to have a lot of stamina so most are just skinny really
The roided freaks are just amerimutts, some euroaches and other countries buckbroken by hollywood garbage
>>39965Also soldiers aren't just hyper patriarchal standards of manliness, absolute majority are just normal thin men
I would be lying the garbage mysoginistic standards weren't encouraged but claiming "not having a dick to piss" makes women inherently unfit to be even outside is mysoginistic garbage
>>39946>>39947What in the fuck am I reading?
>>39950>it's definitely not as independent as you're making it out to beThis is a mindset of an unconscious egoist who only sees abstractions instead of individuals.
>What do you particularly see as progressive.Progressivism is a relative term. Certainly the position of minorities under capitalism is miserable but it's better than it was before and certainly better than in conservative countries.
>>39946>Joe of UrkWas only a flag bearer, didn't fight much if at all. Ended a roastie.
>>39947Looking for trigger points I see.
That said yes, physically
on the average and even mentally I wouldn't trust them to be equal to men, too much emotion and hystery boiling under their thin skin.
>>39953>The Wonderful Legacy of the LGBTQ+++ in the Middle AgesIt's just a little bit forced?
>>39962More like they're not helping themselves get picked by men and fucked to make babies, technically, perhaps because of cultural norms.
Fit and lean ladies could become a new norm in a more combat oriented culture that is also more welcoming to women being tough, but frankly that would be looking for exceptions and trying to draw generalities out of this.
Most women simply are very sensitive and mentally break very easily.
Whether you are OK with this or not is another topic.
>>39965Stamina alone doesn't cut it when considering the average weight of proper gear.
>>39966>I would be lying the garbage mysoginistic standards weren't encouraged but claiming "not having a dick to piss" makes women inherently unfit to be even outside is mysoginistic garbageBut women need to duck and cover to piss.
(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) >>38927humans only need one game and that is counter strike on a russian server
the rest is redundant
The reasons why AAA games suck that we listed are:
>hypermonetization>restructurization>exploitation>enshittification>wokeification>DenuvoizationBut let's talk about another contributor into the downfall of AAA's quality: casualization. AAA games are simplified so much today that they ectively break immersion. All these unnecessary enemy markers, all these abilities to see enemies through walls even if you're a regular-ass human being, all this one-button gameplay where all your actions lack variety in terms of input and happen instantly even though they should realistically take several button presses to complete, straight-up magic where it shouldn't exist, arcadey power-ups that make the combat look stupid, constant hand-holding even after the tutorial sections, etc., etc. All this to just keep the casuals' attention. Is a game even a game if it's so rail-roaded? And how can one have fun if the gameplay breaks your immersion and the combat isn't fun 'cause it's simplistic af? Why can I see through walls? Are we playing Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed?
>>39017 (me)
Also, Upper Echelon's point about grinding being a signature of hardcore gaming is fucking retarded. Grinding is a casual mechanic, it exists to compensate the lack of content the game has. The problem with WoW is not that Blizzard reduced the grind but rather that they reduced the grind in a way that feels unrewarding and shallow.
(USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST)>>40058I disagree with usage of the word "casual" here. It operates under old dichotomy of casual vs hardcore gamer, which existed back before video games went full mainstream, casual meaning players who dont spend much time on games. But current industry target demographics is not that, but, dont know what to call it, I guess an average consumer. People who do invest time and money on video games, and consume adjacent contend (reviews, articles, videos), engage in fandoms, post on social media about products. But they are not "hard-core" gamers, because of their aversion to deeper engagement, to anything challenging or complex, or artistically meaningful. They want a game that jiggles keys in front of their eyes, occasionally asks them to push a button and then tells them what a good job they did.
And I know I sound like a bitter neckbeard writing this, but first time I became conscious of this type of person is on Total War subreddit, where majority of userbase is genuinely upset at the idea that a strategy game should ever expect them to strategise.
>>40062>meaning players who dont spend much time on gamesYou're equating "grinding" with hardcore gaming too. You don't really need to spend a lot of time on games to be a hardcore gamer. After all, someone who spends hours on a toilet playing Candy Crush can't really be considered a hardcore gamer either. True, hard games require time investment, but I play just fine on the hardest difficulty settings even if I don't play often.
>I know I sound like a bitter neckbeard writing thisYou really don't, it's okay to criticize consumers, just as it is okay to criticize reactionary proletarians.
>>40064>You're equating "grinding" with hardcore gaming tooI dont. As I wrote, I equate it with deeper engagement with mechanics and desire for challenge. That inevitably requires time investment. That time investment can be spread out over a long period of IRL time, but still, you need to put lot of time into one thing to get good.
>After all, someone who spends hours on a toilet playing Candy Crush can't really be considered a hardcore gamer either.I havent played candy crush, cant comment on it. But people dont spend hours a day sitting on a toilet. What I am trying to do is make a distinction between people who play Candy Crush 10 minutes a day sitting on a toilet (casuals), or people who play for 3 hours a day and also use whatever monetization there is in that game.
From game design and marketing perspective, casuals are not averse to challenge (for example might play challenging puzzle games), but are averse to steep learning curves and complex mechanics, because then getting into the game requires more investment then they are willing to give. What they want is being able to jump in and jump out of the game. Yes, individually there might be people who game for average of 15 minutes a day and spend two weeks of their gaming time reading manual and trying to figure out controls and crunch numbers for optimal build, but that is simply not a significant demographic.
What "average consumer" looks for in the video game is entertainment and power fantasy. They are willing to spend lot of time in a game, experience lot of contend, but are averse to negative feedback, to failure, or too much pressure and effort. Which isnt a bad thing in itself, but is fundamentally at odds with hardcore players seek.
>>40066>casuals are not averse to challenge (for example might play challenging puzzle games), but are averse to steep learning curves and complex mechanicsHardcore gamers can be averse to that too, some hardcore gamers prefer the "easy to learn, hard to master" approach. Not many people like flight sims, racing sims or fighting games for example. When I refer to casual mechanics I'm talking about those mechanics that either make everything into a one-button press or feel more like cheats that dumb things down. Enemy markers, x-ray vision and autoaim are the examples of this.
>>40068>one thing lot of old fans were upset about was removal of ability to grind, because you can no longer simply brute force your way by overleveling the enemyRPG players are their own breed, nobody genuinely understands RPG players except for other RPG players. I despise grinding in RPGs but I absolutely love Super Meat Boy and Devil May Cry. Grinding requires zero skill, classic WoW players for example are only hardcore gamers because they actually organize boss raids and shit. That's a skill I can respect, it's kind of an RTS element in classic WoW.
>>40069 (me)
This video describes precisely what I'm talking about. It's not about having less mechanics. It's about having more mechanics that are stupid.
>>40068Fuck, messed up my own definitions, average consumer vs hardcore is what I mean to write.
>>40069For me what separates good and bad grind is sense of progression. Having to grind make my numbers go up to meet enemy numbers going up, so in the end nothing changed except I wasted bunch of time. On the other hand I love Mount and Blade, which is entirely about grinding, but its gameplay loop evolves with progression.
This video is probably the biggest waste of my time ever. The takeaways are:
>You can't compare Concord with Overwatch because artstyle different
>Nobody would care about the designs if the game was a flop
>Liking Overwatch's designs is just nostalgia blindness
>Why is the character design more important than the price tag?
>You can't put the blame on the developers, blame the executives
I'll answer them one-by-one.
<The reason people compare Concord to Overwatch is because Overwatch's character designs are good, this has nothing to do with the artstyle
<Overwatch 2 also had a disappointing launch (though this atrocity is sadly still alive) but even it had good character designs because Overwatch has good character designers and 3D animators (who still haven't left Blizzard for some reason)
<See above
<It is not, no reviewer only critiques the anti-consumer practices, reviewers give and take away points for story, gameplay, audio, graphics, technical issues, monetization and replayability, all aspects of a game are important
<I understand crunching and executive meddling negatively impact development but someone looked at those models and said: "Yeah, this is fine," not to mention it was SIX YEARS IN PRODUCTION
His other points are perfectly valid but as usual he spends most of his videos talking about irrelevant shit he doesn't really understand. If his video was short and his points were "Complaining about not being able to goon to characters is silly and one should take the artstyle into account while designing characters" it would've been fine but it feels like he was unnecessarily defensive about the game he himself doesn't like. Maybe it's all just to pan out the runtime.
>>40110 (me)
You know what? I agree that gooner slop is not good design. As I look through the """improved""" redesigns I realize that they try to be sexy but end up being bland and forgettable. Concord's designs suck ass but at least there's an attempt at creativity (a failed attempt but an attempt nontheless). That doesn't mean a sexy design can't be good but conservatives seem to think that fanservice = good design and that's just not true. Some characters like Bazz and It-Z may work well with a fanservicey design but others like Emari? No. Just no. It doesn't really work… Unless you really double down on the Amazonian physique. And remove the armor from her abs like with Doomguy.
>>40115Personally just taking a female character's clothes away isn't sexy to me. I think it functions largely as a design shortcut to make a character "sexy" when there's nothing else particularly interesting or attractive about them, the female equivalent of the generic anime/harem protag.
Which isn't to say I'm opposed to scanty clothing per se. I can't pretend I don't enjoy Ivy, Mai, or 2B. You know, it's like the difference between candy and real food. Sometimes you want a simple treat, but too many empty calories without the substance of a real meal makes you sick.
>>40120>Personally just taking a female character's clothes away isn't sexy to me.Same. I think conservatives ironically became massive coomers themselves.
>I can't pretend I don't enjoy Ivy, Mai, or 2B.Same, these are good designs. Eve from Stellar Blade too.
>>40110>Why is the character design more important than the price tag?This one is valid though.
It's very hard to justify the live service model without being F2P nowadays.
That's not to say that F2P would have saved the game but likewise "good" designs wouldn't have either. It was a double whammy.
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