Dumbing down: bright future of gaming?

[Whisper]

Anyone notices that trend to dumb-down games not only continues (it is obvious) but - like galaxies running away from each other in space - continues to do this faster and faster?

I got several angry pm's from Guild wars 2 funs after i posted comment about "puzzle" you need solve in this game: it involved multiplying 2 x 2 (or 3,8 x 5,8, do not remember).

What kind of "puzzle" is this? What target audience developers had in mind when designing this puzzle?


Not talking about GW2 here, its just one of AWESOME games that will be forgotten by crowd in few months, when they move to next AWESOME game.

Anyone notices that this Flavour of the month AWESOME games are getting dumber and dumber each day? Few years ago no game designed for grown-up (or even "T"eens as in case of GW2) would offer to solve 2 x 2 as puzzle.

It is just one example, but i do speak a lot. I am surprised fellow codexers - people with refined tastes and of intelligence - support such games, instead of more mature, deeper ones.

 

[Whisper]

Buying game like Diablo 3 you are one of reasons we will get more Diablo3 clones in future, instead of better games.

Buying game like GW2 you are one of reason future puzzle in next games would be 2x2=? or "what is more 1 or 0".

Buying game like /insert next AWESOME/ you are reason why we get AWESOME game instead of mature, deeper game which doesnt cater and designed with lowest common denominator in mind.

 

[Angthoron]

Sup Ragnar, upset that you're not Jade and nobody's buying your game?

I have a suggestion for you - gender change! Become a hot tranny, you'll get a lot of customers like that, no matter how DEEP your game will be.

 

[SuicideBunny]

sorry whisper, but considering the math stuff a while back, such a simple multiplication is challenging enough for a majority of codexers.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Well yeah, games are dumb because dumb people are falling over themselves to buy the current dumb games. I've always been saying this - our declining standards in entertainment aren't causing society to decline, society is already declining. Shitty games and movies being pumped out is just a symptom of people already being dumbed down.

 

[Kane]

we definitely had a shortage of this threads

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

(or 3,8 x 5,8, do not remember)

22.04

Could even calculate that in my head.

 

[Telengard]

If you're going to design games for everyone and their grandmother, then that means everyone has to be able to play them. That includes dumbshits. If you pitch a game at dumbshits, then dumbshits and everyone smarter can all play it. So, that way you can get money from everybody.

Thus, everything should be pitched to a 5th grade education level.

Take better things away from people, and many will accept the lesser thing even if it isn't a fully satisfying thing, so that they can be at least partly satisfied. Or in other words, for some gaming period is more important than good gaming is.

 

[Jadeite]

Or in other words, for some gaming period is more important than good gaming is.

So fucking true. I had a friend who played shit like Phantasy Star II and Lands of Lore growing up. Now he plays Diablo III with a fucking battle tag and his real name. 0.001% of the population can appreciate video games as art. Thank fucking God games were developed by actual gamers and men of integrity at one point. And that graphics restricted how fucking stupid and unartistic they could make their games look. I've never seen games look worse than shit like Diablo III. Completely uninspiring. I'd rather play Centipede on my Atari 2600. Have these fucks never played Donkey Kong Country, Space Harrier, OutRun, After Burner? Games that suck you into another dimension when you play them? What are they even trying to fucking achieve, fucking slackers and drop outs with no imagination or common sense? Kids these days take fucking forever to mature. The lack of SINCERITY and PURPOSE shines through in every game they make these days. It should be mandatory to have a wise old man with a beard on every design team, to say, nope, this shit's not artistic, it's not timeless, it adds nothing to gaming. Go play Space Harrier and see how one fucking game can live through the ages as an unstoppable juggernaut. Yeah, that game was made back in fucking 1985, unbelievable.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

The dumbing down of games is a result of devs reaching out to a broader and their growing obsession withwanting their games to imitate movies. Codexers continue to buy these games because they either still have some hope of getting a pleasant surprise or don't want to suffer from accusation that they can't judge a game if they haven't played it yet. Games that appeal to the basement dwelling neckbeard crowd just don't make big money.

 

[MaroonSkein]

Expect big games to get another drop in quality within two years when PS4 and Xbox 720 launch and development costs see another increase. The more your game costs to make, the more people have to buy it, and dumbing down is the only way to rapidly expand the audience.

Just say no to console and non-indie PC gaming and get a handheld.

 

[Trojan_generic]

Not talking about GW2 here, its just one of AWESOME games that will be forgotten by crowd in few months, when they move to next AWESOME game.
[...]
Diablo 3

Oh yes you are.

All the MMORPGs are mostly played by people (usually kids) with little to no brain. You are one of the very few "supporting" these games here.

 

[Angthoron]

Oh yes you are.

All the MMORPGs are mostly played by people (usually kids) with little to no brain. You are one of the very few "supporting" these games here.

Don't worry about him, his butt is just hurting that his favourite MMO of the month has already failed.

 

[JarlFrank]

I don't even understand the whole broader audience shit.

When I was a kid and only me and a couple of other pals owned PCs, we'd share games among each other, some pals without PCs would visit so they could play too, etc, and we were totally amazed by games that were reasonably complex, and we tried to figure out how they're played, and we had hours of fun trying and failing until we finally figured out how to properly play the game.

Complexity never ever made us shy away from a game. Instead, we were like "wow, look at all those options!"

What the fuck happened to kids today?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

What the fuck happened to kids today?

One word: Feminisation.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Computer or rather X-bawks in every :patriot: Prol home. is bitching about the Diablo III being unispired shit but it was Diablo 1 which started the .

 

[MaroonSkein]

What the fuck happened to kids today?

Nothing. For every kid that was like you and your friends, there were two kids who thought you were colossal nerds and played football instead. That's the target audience of the major publishers these days. But that's not the problem.

The real problem is that major publishers pressure the smaller developers who would like to make a game that you and your friends would enjoy into increasing the budget and courting the dudebros, instead of letting them make a less expensive game targeted at a smaller audience and selling it for 30-40 dollars/euros. This never works out of course: the dudebros are not impressed, and the older fans feel betrayed. As a result, the game undersells for its budget, and the publisher concludes that it happened because it was too complex, leading to more dumbing down.

We won't see more quality WRPGs until Western publishers start selling games at a wider range of price points.

EDIT: Crap, I accidentally deleted a part of the post. The reason behind my conclusion is that Western publishers only know 2 price points: 60 dollars for AAA games and 1 dollar/F2P for iOS/Facebook/browser games. RPGs can't compete in either category. The kind of production values that is expected from 60 dollars games can't be achieved in a 40-70 hours long RPG, and the Facebook crowd plays games to relax and unwind, not to think.

 

[Telengard]

I don't even understand the whole broader audience shit.

When I was a kid and only me and a couple of other pals owned PCs, we'd share games among each other, some pals without PCs would visit so they could play too, etc, and we were totally amazed by games that were reasonably complex, and we tried to figure out how they're played, and we had hours of fun trying and failing until we finally figured out how to properly play the game.

Complexity never ever made us shy away from a game. Instead, we were like "wow, look at all those options!"

What the fuck happened to kids today?

This isn't a new phenomenon. In the olden days of board games, a wickedly complex board game like Flattop would sit on the store shelves unsold. A minorly complex game like Jutland would sell a few copies. And Pictionary would be in every single household.

What you've got is steeply rising dev costs in video games which drives devs to investment money (instead of personal loans or savings). Investment money is driven by standardized marketing theories, and the investors are looking to maximize their return. If you want their money, you better not be making Flattop. They might invest in Jutland, but it will be a very different game after they are done giving you all of their "recommendations." But what they really want to invest in is the next Pictionary, and so that's where most of their money will go.

I and my friends played Flattop and Jutland. But it's not like we could interest anyone else in school with them.

Or you could just take a look at the relative size of the chess club vs the football, soccer, tennis, badminton, golf, bowling teams at a school at any time.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

What the fuck happened to kids today?

They are fans of interactive movies, not games. That's what happened.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Does the abyss have an end? Will the decline reach a point were it can't get any worse? What will games look like when the end of the abyss is reached?

 

[Infinitron]

Does the abyss have an end? Will the decline reach a point were it can't get any worse?

Where have you been in the past half year? It's already happened.

Expect big games to get another drop in quality within two years when PS4 and Xbox 720 launch and development costs see another increase. The more your game costs to make, the more people have to buy it, and dumbing down is the only way to rapidly expand the audience.

I don't believe this will happen. There is no audience left to expand to. Everybody who could possibly play console games already owns one.

 

[MaroonSkein]

Expect big games to get another drop in quality within two years when PS4 and Xbox 720 launch and development costs see another increase. The more your game costs to make, the more people have to buy it, and dumbing down is the only way to rapidly expand the audience.

I don't believe this will happen. There is no audience left to expand to. Everybody who could possibly play console games already owns one.

Then the price of games will increase. Publishers will need to find a way to offset rising development costs.

 

[Infinitron]

Then the price of games will increase. Publishers will need to find a way to offset rising development costs.

Yep. It's called "DLC".

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Does the abyss have an end? Will the decline reach a point were it can't get any worse?

Where have you been in the past half year? It's already happened.

I don't think we've reached that point just yet. Until most AAA games mimic Heavy Rain I won't consider the likes of DA2 to be the worst it can get.

 

[DraQ]

Then the price of games will increase. Publishers will need to find a way to offset rising development costs.

It's not sustainable. There is going to be a point when no amount of sales will be achievable to cover the development cost regardless of pricing and the industry will go down in flames.


Thankfully.