Gaming is Dead, and Here's Why

[NakedFaerie]

You forgot to mention that most games come out incomplete and buggy, and we end up being beta testers waiting on patches to fix launch problems.

I forgot about that. We are buying beta games these days. Proof is Day0 patches. If it was finished and tested there would be no need for a Day0 patch. Its not like they have many devices to make it for, its the exact same console so no good reason to release it in beta. Thats also proof they are after money releasing it to the public to be free beta testers and get it out at the announced date not at finish of making the game.
Perfect example is Kilzone Mercenaries on Vita. It came with a 1.5GB day0 patch proving the cartridge is a beta.

 

[Subzero100]

Woah are u writing in response to the topic or typing out your essay??

 

[Sefi]

How did console prices "seem more reasonable" to you? With inflation they are close to what today's consoles sell for (on average). Playstation today would cost MORE than Playstation 4.

http://kotaku.com/36-years-of-console-prices-adjusted-for-inflation-1485353267

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I would reply to NakedFaerie, but I'm guessing his post will be deleted fairly soon, so I'm just gonna go ahead and skip that trainwreck.

Ryu, you're getting older. That's pretty much it. I know a lot of people have already said that, like they've said that the problems you mention have been in existence for longer than you think. Of course, there are problems with gaming nowadays. There always have been, and there always will be. Some people don't like oldschool platformers that require you to be at the exact edge before you jump or you die over and over. That's fine. Some people don't like games that are mostly if not wholly QTE-based. That's fine, too. Gaming, like everything else, follows trends. You need to either adjust with the gaming trends, give up gaming, or get some Prozac.

P.S. I hate coming across these articles late. My opinions are always written already by people like Foxi and Gahars. Damn you two...

 

[zeello]

I forgot about that. We are buying beta games these days. Proof is Day0 patches. If it was finished and tested there would be no need for a Day0 patch. Its not like they have many devices to make it for, its the exact same console so no good reason to release it in beta. Thats also proof they are after money releasing it to the public to be free beta testers and get it out at the announced date not at finish of making the game.
Perfect example is Kilzone Mercenaries on Vita. It came with a 1.5GB day0 patch proving the cartridge is a beta.

wow and this right after hearing that AC Liberation has mandatory AR mini games. The Vita full retail library just keeps looking like more and more of a mess.

Also the saying is "a delayed game is eventually good but a bad game is bad forever"
It seems game companies do not take this to heart. They may be in it for money but they do not seem to realize the extent they genuinely seem to be destroying their own brand by systematically releasing unfinished games every time.

 

[chyron8472]

NakedFaerie - I'm not sure that people are going to stop.

A lot of people complain that GameStop is primarily responsible for the used game market taking money out of the hands of console game developers. The truth is that it is the fault of people who sell their games to GameStop for pennies on the dollar.

The game cost $60 when you got it. If you sell it to GameStop, you'll be lucky to get $10 for it. SO DON'T DO IT. But people will do it anyway because they are foolish. It's not GameStop's fault for capitalizing on their foolish spending habits.

 

[zeello]

I was considering trading in the 8gb memory stick at GameStop straight out of the box, problem is they'd make my sign up for some pro rewards bullshit that I don't want to deal with. And I did sign up once but they got it wrong or something. And the last time I traded games they gave me a puzzlingly low amount. Like I expected low but this was low.

I liked GameStop because you could get PSP games for 3 bucks. They sell a lot of cheap games so I like them in principle.

One problem is that GameStop tries to push preorders on everyone. Even for digital games you can preorder. What the hell is that. And peoole actually do it. Gaming is a joke. People act like "oh I bought the disc I deserve all the content, not pay for dlc", but that's suggesting that a game is a tangible object or that gaming is about things. Its not. Buying a game is akin to going to a concert. It's a social thing in a way rather than a tangible product.

 

[hollowpnt]

Sure is the popular thing to do to call industry or platform "dead" nowadays, especially since gaming has reached an all time high in popularity. If you want to complain about the lack of innovation so be it, but "dead" is a very inaccurate word to define the current state of the industry.

 

[assassinz]

Gaming isn't dead. It's just that there aren't too many good titles worthy of our time and money on any of the latest consoles.

Gaming is more mainstream these days with every man, woman, and child toting around a smartphone, but I feel there aren't enough new game ideas being introduced. Just new technology with higher specs but lacking quality titles.

But I guess age does have something to do with opinion. For the youngsters, the latest consoles and games are some of their first experiences with gaming genres and styles the adults have seen done before. So the younger gamers aren't as critical, but they also don't have as much expendable income as us "experienced" gamers.

 

[gifi4]

I absolutely loved The Last of Us. The game was definitely worth my money.
I've heard the DLC is just as great. Did I buy it? No.

Most times, I can't justify the purchase of DLC unless it's full blown like the GTA IV expansion DLCs.

 

[CompassNorth]

I'm assuming you mean on the amount of DLC. Yes, DLC is everyone's favorite thing in the world, paying for extra content that doesn't ship with the game.

Yes, and no.

I'm not really sure when you picked up Payday 2, but when the game released it stirred up a lot of controversy.

Overkill promised things that were not included in the game upon release.
One of these was safe house customization, as you know when you start up the game and first go to your safe house Bain informs you that upgrades will viable in the future. The devs did say that safe house customization would be in the game, but later went back on their words saying they never promised the feature angering many fans.
During the cloaker updater Overkill thought it'd be nice to insult those who wanted the feature they promised.
"I got your safe house right fucking here, now go to the forums and cry like the little bitch you are"

Another one was having more weapons such as sniper rifles and more shotguns, but those were not released in the game, instead they came out as DLCs.

The games release was surprising to a lot of people due to the fact that it came out straight after beta. Consumers/Players were confused and furious and they decided to take this out on the forums since it wasn't that different from beta., but all they got were bans. Even the non-hostile consumers/players were banned.

And beta/non-DLC Payday 2 feels like an incomplete game, the game was either rushed or the developers are liars, and now they're relying on DLCs to get the experience. They said the game would only have 5 DLCs, we have 7 paid ones. So while I don't have a problem with DLCs, I dislike how Overkill is using them to get the experience that they promised the consumers/players would get in the base game.

And then there are the minor things such as the "exclusive items" from the higher priced criminal edition that turned out to be...not exclusive!
And then there's overkill using the community to save as much money as they can such as asking them to translate and do voice acting for the game.

 

[Vipera]

What was the big innovation between PS1 and PS2? The high definition was not that high, yet it had great games.
If we had games that don't take many risks nowadays is because gaming has become too much of a big deal to make false steps. And when you do you are going to get trashed anyway, or no one will play your game but they will sure as hell be bitching about how great you were 10 years ago when the game no one played came out (hey, just like art!).
I see the price as fair as in the past. My uncle bought the PS1 for around 1.000.000Lir (that's around 568Eur) when it first came out. The games were cheap (from 30.000Lir to 50.000Lir -15Eur to 25Eur-) because CDs were cheap, and if you wanted a SNES game you had to pay triple that price.
As for the DLCs...really? You are going to take a music game as an example? That's probably the only genre that deserves to have DLCs!
If you want to see innovation, there are too many risks involved in both hardware and software. And that's entirely most of the consumers' fault, as they would bitch about a game when it comes out, pirate it, bitch some more, and after half a decade they say it's the best thing ever. How many copies do you think Xenoblade, Solatorobo, Madworld and The World Ends With You sold? With so many praises from the internet you'd think they made more money than Half-Life 2, but in reality we were lucky enough they were released outside Japan in the first place.

 

[CathyRina]

How many copies do you think Xenoblade, Solatorobo, Madworld and The World Ends With You sold? With so many praises from the internet you'd think they made more money than Half-Life 2, but in reality we were lucky enough they were released outside Japan in the first place.

I really like to see where you live because where I come from literally no ass is talking about these games.

 

[Blazer]

^Xenoblade and TWEWY are definitely critically-acclaimed games

you have to be on "the right part of the internet" to hear about them but still

that aside

I disagree with the first post

gaming might seem like it's dying to you and it's probably not nearly as good as it used to but there are still some good things coming out here and there

just don't expect systems with as great line-ups as the PS2, PS3, Wii, and DS anymore, because the costs to make games is significantly higher and the way of making them has changed (focus on money over gameplay etc. unless you're into indie games which often lack the budget, experience, or execution to actually be good--not entirely true but there are just as few gems in indie games as there are non-indie games, lol)

in other words, IMO gaming is not dead it is just not in any kind of golden era anymore as innovation has hit somewhat of a stump and developers/business priorities and decisions... aren't going so well, to say the least (though if you ask me the 3DS has got some great games, the Vita is a great piece of hardware that could be even more awesome if it had more games, and the Wii U already has a great line-up of games and is about to get a bunch more amazing ones)

 

[pasc]

I mostly agree on this....

The GBA was the last handheld I enjoyed (truly)....

The devs aren't trying anymore, and smartphones are the biggest killer ever

RIP gaming.

 

[R4Liam]

I know it's been said already a few times but I'd say that the curse of growing up has something to do with it, and you're slightly younger than me so it makes me sad to notice I'm not the only one feeling that vibe. The way I'd put it is it's like visiting a theme park you used to love as a kid and finding all the rides have changed and they were a lot bigger and faster back in the day (of course they looked bigger because you were smaller). When we are young we are experiencing brand new things for the first time and they are a pleasure to our senses but as we get older we kind of become anaesthetized to it all.

That being said I can't stand all the DLCs that are unjustified and the micro-transactions that plague the mobile gaming systems (I made a thread about it the other day actually). E3 was so boring for me this year and I won't be getting a 'next gen' gaming console any time soon. Currently I am invested in the PC gaming side more than anything, prices can be great; look at the Steam summer sale and a little site called G2A.com which gives you the option to give some of your money to charity. I bought Burnout Paradise for like £1 on that site! I still have big hype for some games like the Ruby and Sapphire remakes and I even hold a torch for the new CoD coming out! I know!

But yeah, I kind of agree with the OP on this one.

 

[Arras]

I forgot about that. We are buying beta games these days. Proof is Day0 patches. If it was finished and tested there would be no need for a Day0 patch. Its not like they have many devices to make it for, its the exact same console so no good reason to release it in beta. Thats also proof they are after money releasing it to the public to be free beta testers and get it out at the announced date not at finish of making the game.
Perfect example is Kilzone Mercenaries on Vita. It came with a 1.5GB day0 patch proving the cartridge is a beta.

To be fair, they can do testing, then decide it's good and ship it, but when it's being manufactured (which can take months) they may find more bugs (because it's IMPOSSIBLE to find all bugs nowadays. Don't delude yourself into thinking it's simply laziness. Games and all software really have gotten so complex with so many different interactions that it's impossible to test every single case.) and quickly release a patch before the game gets to the general public. If anything that's a good thing.

 

[yuyuyup]

Yeah the Wii U is just a Wii with a tablet controller, that's brilliant

 

[Bimmel]

Hm.. I'll make this short. The things you speak of are real and for the most part truth.

As I read your article it reminded me a bit of myself. A year ago there was a point were I thought I could not get into gaming again. And until today I don't think I am. Not really at least. Before I could play for hours, not getting tired of it. Today I play 1 or 2 hours and I have enough for the week. Something changed - not only with gaming - with me. That's nothing bad 'cause I can use my time for something else, but thats how it is I guess.

Or are you sure that you did not change over that time?

 

[ibis_87]

I'd pour a little oil in the fire and say that modern gaming is what most gamers want it to be. A lot of people in the theread are crying out for innovation - but look at the sales figures. CoD games sell a bunch. NFS games sell a bunch. FIFA games sell a bunch. "Dudebro" hits sell a bunch. Innovative games may sell well or may sell quite poorly - look at all those innovative games that have flopped, like The Wonderful 101, Hotel Dusk, Madworld . Years ago, after the 80-s game industry crises innovation was sparked by people's refusal to buy clones of several game concepts on a whole lot of different platforms. We do not see this now - those big-budget hits we are cusring still sell a lot. So, it's just what the majority wants. We are the "old school minority", and thet's just it. Motion control gaming, the only real innovation of the last generation was not accepted. Stereoscopic 3D was not accepted. But HD-graphics were. An Average gamer can never dish $400 for a console that doesn't have a CoD game, a FIFA game, a Battlefield game or an Assassin's Creed game or a Mario platformer. There's no real demand for innovation - that's why it has mostly gone indy.