Is the state of gaming really as bad as people claim?

[Trotsky]

Sales have never been better and even codexers buy the latest shit despite griping all the time. I'm not sure what to think anymore.

 

[Siel]

Yes it's shit.

 

[Sranchammer]

We are adrift in a sea of blood.

 

[ghostdog]

It's subjective. Throughout all the years, ever since the dawn of gaming, there have been shitty trends and shitty games. Many of us codexers are old grumpy dudes that are filled with nostalgia about the games that we loved in our youth. After your cherry has been popped by certain games in your youth you'll never feel the same way again. Certainly, the AAAA over-budget market has gone too far into derpiness the latter years, but this shit has always happened in various degrees. There definitely are some very good, new games.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

As always it depends on genre e.g. fans of proper PC centric fpp shooters are fucked.

 

[KK1001]

Every single AAA game of the past decade has been mediocre at best and absolutely garbage at worst.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's subjective.

Not it isn't, and everything is indeed shit.

 

[Jigawatt]

i herd that games r gr8

 

[Zed]

Games are shit because game studios are shit and are run by idiots, hiring idiots doing idiot shit.

The problem with the games industry today is that developers don't give a shit beyond doing their job. Yeah, they work overtime for scraps but that's attributed to the bad management of game studios and not the ambition of employees.

There aren't any young creative designers picked out from the Q/A-department to design new games like in the old days. It's like in music. Take almost any rock or metal band, and you'll see that their best album is, if not their debut, one of their earlier albums. Young, highly influenced and ambitious. That's when creativity shines.

The games industry and studios shits on people who aren't already established.
And everybody who are established and working in cRPG design today are old and impotent, shriveled up and dry, senile and confused.

The only way for people to break in are through indie games development and who the hell would submit themselves to that?
There was a glimmer of hope when people could create modules for NWN and such, and get hired that way. But there isn't anything like that today, because see the previous paragraph.

Not even crowdfunding could save this sinking ship.
The only thing that can save it is a nuclear explosion at E3 2016.

EDIT: I thought this was a crpg thread but this goes for any genre.

 

[tred]

Unfortunately it is indeed pure shit. With each new release (Wasteland 2, POE) we see more clearly that the light is gone.
Can you name a crpg that was released in the last ten years that is truly superior to it's predecessors (besides graphics)? I wish I could. The last game I paid for was Fallout 2 fifteen years ago and I have no regrets.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I just shelled out some 60€ for MGSV:TPP and Stasis, so clearly everything is total shit.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Unfortunately it is indeed pure shit. With each new release (Wasteland 2, POE) we see more clearly that the light is gone.
Can you name a crpg that was released in the last ten years that is truly superior to it's predecessors (besides graphics)? I wish I could. The last game I paid for was Fallout 2 fifteen years ago and I have no regrets.

the witcher series?
still it's just a drop in the ocean.

 

[Ermm]

I think the ps3 and xbox360 years were worse.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I just shelled out some 60€ for MGSV:TPP and Stasis, so clearly everything is total shit.

I actually like how comments like this actually prove what they are attempting to disprove.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Nobody cares what you like/dislike LS.

 

[Serious_Business]

Yeah no. Just a reflection of the members' reactionary positions or their lack of mental health in general. Whatever happens the paranoia and defensive attitude will be cultivated, because it became a question of identity. There isn't any truth value to it. The idea in itself that everything is bad doesn't mean anything, you can keep working on that idea and proving it in all kinds of different ways - the burden of proof disappears when you can just twist things and always see something lacking, which there always will be. But this is good, because it proves indirectly that video games have an artistic potential - this kind of debate always was central in the history of the arts. There always were assholes who said that art was slipping and humanity failing, forgetting that good works of arts are rare in all eras. This shit isn't rational; it's a form of rationalization at best

 

[Orion]

There has been a sharp decline in average IQ of PC owners since the 1980s with the democratization of tech and cheaper prices. Games are just following the market.

 

[Excidium II]

There's way too many people playing games and way too many games.

 

[laclongquan]

Can you name a crpg that was released in the last ten years that is truly superior to it's predecessors (besides graphics)?

Fallout New Vegas~

 

[tormund]

As always it depends on genre e.g. fans of proper PC centric fpp shooters are fucked.

This.

Certain genres and subgenres get a steady stream of new releases, from AAA, indie or KS sources. Others, like any sort of PC centric shooters, from Doom to Unreal, are dead, and players that enjoy those games are limited to mods for old games. Singleplayer squad based shooters like RS or SWAT 4 are another example.

 

[Morality Games]

Sales have never been better and even codexers buy the latest shit despite griping all the time. I'm not sure what to think anymore.

Gaming journalism developed mostly independent of mainstream journalism, a pretty big business that is backed up by some pretty big conglomerates which allows them to spit in the eye of some pretty powerful people and organizations from time to time. The average politician needs the press far more than the press needs the average politician. Gaming journalists started life as a bunch of nerds running blogs. They couldn't stand up to big publishing houses like EA or Ubisoft in the same way, so the companies got license to do pretty much whatever without much in the way of condemnation coming from the press.

 

[Naveen]

Of course not, they have never been better

Spoiler

No popular culture product has declined. None!

Spoiler

And it's not like we have heard CEOs talking about streamlining, simplifying, following demographic trends or anything like that. And certainly no one has reduced gameplay to give a more cinematic feel to their games. And no one would dare to create something as comical as a... "walking simulator" and receive a Game of the Year Award for that.

-------------------------------------

True, I may suffer a bit from gamer hyperbolic dementia, but I think the main argument still holds true.

 

[Whisky]

It's shit.

That being said this year has been quite good respectively.

 

[felipepepe]

2015 is a hell of a lot better than 2005, that's for sure.

 

[Delbaeth]

You have:
1. more people coming into games
2. more games
3. more sales

So should we be happy, then?
Instead, you have:
1. only a few number of games monopolizing the audience
2. almost the whole audience doesn't know what a real video game is (or just don't care)
3. most of new games are scams
4. most of sales are done during big sales or bundles

Big publishers are struggling and instead of increasing quality, they increase the number of ways to pressure customers (microtransactions, DLCs, unfinished games and so on).
Big mobile developers are struggling, their 'honeymoon' is coming to an end.
Indie developers are struggling, the indie bubble is coming to a crash, with Steam no curation.
Crowdfunding is struggling, we aren't in the Kickstarter mania anymore for 2 years.
Big Indies or AA are struggling, not sure what they should try, a few sticking to heavy prices, while other go full DLCs like AAA publishers.
Video arcade games are almost dead.
Even pachinkos are struggling.

How could be expect quality when most of people only play TF2 or f2p mobile, and don't care about anything else?
Sure you can buy a game for $1 or $2, but is it a good thing in the end?
And if retrogaming is a thing for years, it proves that modern gaming isn't good as expected.