Gaming industry needs to be changed.

[Nihilist74]

The problem is that computer programmers are bad story tellers and the ones who are doing the story telling is businessmen. Neither are very creative people. That's the same way its working for movies, TV shows and music right now in America at least. Maybe one day when there are more powerful computers or software that allows more artistic people who are not inclined to be good programmers to create games that will be more interesting.

[May90]

The only difference I see between gaming industry nowadays and 20 years ago is that 20 years ago people weren't as spoiled and complained less.

[epLe]

Pre-WoW, gamers didnt have any communitcation with the developers, a game was released and how it was out of the box was final.
Blizzard changed this abit into WoW, were they started making more and more changes to please the vocal majority.
This has been a dual-edged sword, which has made the game both better and worse.

I also believe the whole gaming industry changed with this, social medias have had an impact that shift the focus at the developers.
As in early Blizzard games, the developers made games with the goal of making something themself would enjoy - This caused qualty games.
Nowadays, the goal has shifted to please the facebook/twitter generation (the same developers' offspring) instead.

The social media "Look@Me" syndrome, has really crippled the classic RPG elements in WoW.

[Tech614]

The problem is that computer programmers are bad story tellers and the ones who are doing the story telling is businessmen. Neither are very creative people. That's the same way its working for movies, TV shows and music right now in America at least. Maybe one day when there are more powerful computers or software that allows more artistic people who are not inclined to be good programmers to create games that will be more interesting.

This is false, in AAA gaming there is programmers, designers and writers and those jobs rarely overlap. The guy writing game scripts did not go to college to be a programmer is more cases then not, he went to school for writing.

This isn't the 90s anymore where you just have a couple programmers that make the entire game themselves. Companies hire legitimate writers to write the scripts, even have directors for the voice acting and motion capture work and have designers specifically trained in art design.

Thanks for the laugh on calling guys like Neil Druckman, Ken Levine and the likes "programmers" or "business men". They are neither.

[Mormolyce]

I've been playing since the 80s and gaming is in a better and more exciting place than it has ever been. Easy to think back and only remember the classics from the 80s and 90s and forget all the shitty things about old games that got better over time.

[Alexeht]

Well you have to take in consideration that games today are made by highly skilled teams, and also amount of people working on AAA title is so large that company that runs such a business have to milk theirs products so games devs could drive theirs Ferrari. Also because of that you can feel in some games that someone was making it for money instead for giving fun to players, like it was in the past. Only way to change gaming industry would be ... to become game developer yourself! If you have spare time and interesting idea to make a game DO IT! Just spend hour after hour, try make indie game which would be fun to play for YOU, and then maybe someone else would like it and buy it!

[Alvito]

I don't mean here also nostalgia, but also fact, that today most of online games, are maked only to milk money from players, which is not cool. But when it was started?

You are fooling yourself if you believe the goal of the game design companies has ever not been to make money. Some companies then and now might put more emphasis on money over the quality of product, but all of them want to make money at the end of the day. The only game designer I know of that really wanted everybody to play his game, the guy that made Tetris. Even with that he might not have made money off of it but plenty of companies have and will try to any way they can.

- - - Updated - - -

The only difference I see between gaming industry nowadays and 20 years ago is that 20 years ago people weren't as spoiled and complained less.

People want things to keep getting better while also so how paying the same price or less then they used to. I truly enjoy the people that complain that not enough features are being added to things then flip out when many things are added but the price jumps.

[Pull My Finger]

Yeah, well, today's games mostly really suck ass. A lot of those that everyone's going crazy about actually really suck ass. Witcher 3 is a perfect example. But that's just the direction the medium has developed in I guess. Some people just grow out of it - or rather stop keeping up. Gaming in the 80ies and 90ies, early 2k even, was for me. Gaming today isn't. It's just a different thing. The really young folks perceive it differently, they have different gaming values and different ideas of what makes a game good. Internet and social media also changed a lot.

[vindicatorx]

OP I think games back in the late 90's were more complete. Now, every game has a season pass you have to buy if you want what you used to get for your initial $. Day 1 DLC at a price is the norm now. Where we have annual releases on certain franchises other than sports games. I don't mind the VR stuff at all I do however expect the shit to be fun when I play it or else what is the point.

[Mormolyce]

The only difference I see between gaming industry nowadays and 20 years ago is that 20 years ago people weren't as spoiled and complained less.

Yeah 20 years ago I couldn't go on steam and download a gajillion games for $10 or less without having to leave my seat.

But oh no the industry is ruined today not like the Good Old Days (TM), according to many a thread on these forums.

[Yoshimiko]

I think you're wrong on almost everything you said.

I don't think most SNES/NES games looked ugly. Infact, I quite enjoy those games aesthetically. FF5 is one of my favorite games, and sound + aesthetics play a large part in that. There's only two art styles I really disliked from the past - claymation and N64/ps1 polygon graphics. That being said - You can still see the impacts of how popular some of those games are - looking at you FF7.

You mentioned all games, then pointed at online games. You then placed the blame on WoW. That's just silly. WoW wasn't the first MMO nor the first MMO to break 1 million subs. Everquest, Lineage, and FFXI all did it - hell even UO was doing amazingly well at the time. FFXI even directly competed with WoW and DOMINATED them until late classic - early BC. Competition made WoW better, I think, but I digress. These all, except FFXI, had a subscription.

WoW was beat down. A lot. It's not even close to the biggest MMO - in numbers OR in money, and if they have another bad expansion I can see them falling behind 3 other big MMORPGs competing with them. Guild Wars did not even compete with WoW. It was never even in the same arena. GW1 never had the numbers WoW had, even in WoW's infancy.

Games created purely to be fun *always* or at least *almost* always fail. Let me ask you: What is fun? Now go ask 10 other people to answer that question. Tell them to think about it for more than a minute before responding. What is fun? Is it getting scared out of your pants by animatronics - FNAF? Is it dropping blocks and making lines disappear - Tetris? Is it mindlessly grinding on something like various MMORPGs? Is it demolishing your opponent? Finding a characters true love? overcoming the baddy? becoming the baddy? Is it finally getting down that impossibly hard level after over 100 hours of attempts - Touhou, Lunatic? Is it creating an exact replica of an entire f'ken country - minecraft? What is "Fun"?

Here's a dirty little secret: Creating games around fun is a TERRIBLE idea. Fun is subjective. What one person will enjoy - will bore someone else to tears. What one person defines as "fun" someone else might define as a traumatic experience.

I don't like VR, either. I've found hundreds of great games that I've greatly enjoyed. I was so excited to pick up Sonic '06 - I played the hell out of it, laughing my ass off the entire time - while most people consider this one of the worst games of all time. I've seen all Undertale has to offer and I think it is one of the best experiences gaming has ever had to offer. I've played thousands of hours over many years of Minecraft, WoW, and Terraria and I still find myself coming back to them having a blast.

You're not a gamer caveman. You might just be growing out of love with games. Take a break, man. Don't become jaded. Don't worry - the games will all still be here once you want to jump back into them. They're not shrinking but rather ever-growing. When you do come back, sit down and decide on what you want to play. What do you enjoy? What is 'fun'? Once you do that, you'll see there's literally thousands of games that fill almost any niche just waiting for you around every corner. From steam, to fanmade stuff, from AAA titles to the one-man indie studio living in their mom's basement, trying their best to meet fan-deadlines.

What do YOU see as fun? Answer that - and I guarantee you'll find hundreds of games that match your description just waiting for you.

[May90]

Yeah 20 years ago I couldn't go on steam and download a gajillion games for $10 or less without having to leave my seat.

But oh no the industry is ruined today not like the Good Old Days (TM), according to many a thread on these forums.

Oh, I remember, back in 1999, going with dad to gaming market every Saturday, asking, "Do you have Age of Empires 2?" - "Sorry guys, hasn't been released yet". Then, when it finally showed up there, it felt like a real treasure; it was great to just hold the CD box in our hands.

Nowadays, it is click->click->Wait a few minutes for download->Wait a minute for install->Done! Maybe the sense of games being precious is just gone for some people, when you can get zillions of games in just a few clicks - so they no longer appreciate what they have?

[Barnabas]

I think the OP needs to find something else to play because grinding is a part of the mmo genre.

[Sentynel]

This is only my personal thoughts, my apologies for that.

Back in past, well it was 1996 when i get my first console but nvm. Games are kinda fun, yeah they look now ugly, i mean mainly here NES games but point is, they gived us more fun than games today? I don't mean here also nostalgia, but also fact, that today most of online games, are maked only to milk money from players, which is not cool. But when it was started?

2004/2005 with WoW release, yep i blame Blizzard for that with paid subscription to WoW. Most of devs i heard in past, tried beat WoW, and allways failed. Well maybe exception is Guild Wars, which if i good heard, GW1 is still popular?

I wonder and asking... Did people really forget for what games are created for? Satoru Iwata quote.



Now all i see in games, is grinding in MMOS, or dissapointing in SP matter games. Where is all fun in that?

Should i start consider myself, to be an gamer caveman? Because i don't like VR or Oculus so?

There are still fun games to play. You just need to look for them!

On the other hand, DLC packs need to go. Cancer of the gaming industry.

[Mister Cheese]

20 years ago a game wasn't released and then you're told "It's better than nothing" by the game's director.

[Tech614]

20 years ago a game wasn't released and then you're told "It's better than nothing" by the game's director.

20 years ago you had no idea what game developers where saying about games because social media and breaking news didn't exist.

[stellvia]

20 years ago you had no idea what game developers where saying about games because social media and breaking news didn't exist.

Yes and no. Blizzard had a website as early as 1995 as far as I remember. Beta testing Starcraft1, we would get regular testing objectives from the devs and file online reports with them, etc. Certainly it was a lot more limited than today. I do feel cheap/seamless online updates and social media has led to a major lapse in QC and a "fix it in post" attitude, however. As well as the tail wagging the dog where they chase after a broader and broader audience, which leads to less and less engaging gameplay and more "shiny".

[Tech614]

Yes and no. Blizzard had a website as early as 1995 as far as I remember. Beta testing Starcraft1, we would get regular testing objectives from the devs and file online reports with them, etc. Certainly it was a lot more limited than today. I do feel cheap/seamless online updates and social media has led to a major lapse in QC and a "fix it in post" attitude, however. As well as the tail wagging the dog where they chase after a broader and broader audience, which leads to less and less engaging gameplay and more "shiny".

You completely missed the point. You may have gotten replies to your feedback but developers where not being probed by the press 24/7 for comments nor did twitter exist for most humans to confirm they are in fact stupid and/or assholes.

20 years ago the vast majority of video game news was still broken by magazines, which was weeks old information being relayed to you and developers got to read articles long before they went out to the public to shine them in better lights. The 90s are not even comparable.

The best part of his entire post is he is talking about a developer who was around 20 years ago. He didn't magically change just because you hear comments from him now and didn't before.

[Deleted]

This is only my personal thoughts, my apologies for that.

Back in past, well it was 1996 when i get my first console but nvm. Games are kinda fun, yeah they look now ugly, i mean mainly here NES games but point is, they gived us more fun than games today? I don't mean here also nostalgia, but also fact, that today most of online games, are maked only to milk money from players, which is not cool. But when it was started?

2004/2005 with WoW release, yep i blame Blizzard for that with paid subscription to WoW. Most of devs i heard in past, tried beat WoW, and allways failed. Well maybe exception is Guild Wars, which if i good heard, GW1 is still popular?

I wonder and asking... Did people really forget for what games are created for? Satoru Iwata quote.



Now all i see in games, is grinding in MMOS, or dissapointing in SP matter games. Where is all fun in that?

Should i start consider myself, to be an gamer caveman? Because i don't like VR or Oculus so?

You should start considering yourself a pointless whiner. If you don't like games, maybe its you who needs a change? Do something else for a week, month, year? Don't blame the industry for YOU not having fun.

Or learn to code and make fun games. Challenge the industry if you feel like YOU have been treated badly.

This is the most self-centered thread I have seen here. Just sad,

[stellvia]

All I know is that the market moved away from gamers in the traditional sense, and now chases the Farmville crowd that has zero impulse control. No matter how poorly designed and tested or how many yearly sequels a company shits out, they always go right back and buy the next one. This is the generation that dubbed the term "tryhard" for people that actually play the game. Idonteven.

Yeah, there's nothing I can do about it, but I sure as hell can be mad that all those lazy impulsive motherfuckers are ruining it for me