The Decline of Gaming

I've been playing video games ever since I was three years old when my parents substituted a Game Boy Color and pokemon blue in place of a babysitter as I grew up there was so much to love about gaming I got to play and experienced countless amazing titles and witnessed the industry as it grew and evolved after playing something like oblivion or Bioshock halo 3 I would just kind of sit there and wonder what's next however in the last nine or so years it feels like in many ways the quality of video games and especially triple-a titles has declined the industry is always creating something new innovative and epic gaming as a medium has evolved very quickly in the 35 or so years that's been around and while there are so many great aspects to love about this hobby just consider this a more pessimistic take on the state of gaming so what is it that has caused the decline of gaming no it's not these old flash cartoons but they did inspire the name it's the same thing that ruins so much of this beautiful world of ours insatiable greed implement microtransactions into Star Wars Battlefront 2 just to clarify these are my opinions based on the facts that I've researched and observed if I get something wrong please feel free to let me know which I'm sure you all will for every negative thing that's happened to videogames you could argue an equally positive benefit has occurred and that's a fair point greed is the driving force of this decline but it gets tricky because greed in this case takes on several forms no it's not an overweight Italian man with the ridiculous mustache it's something both subtle and straightforward let's not waste any more time on a pleasant intro let's jump straight into this perceiving the decline is it in our heads it's challenging and overwhelming to tackle the core issues that plague a multibillion-dollar industry with so many different companies developers publishers programmers spread all over the world is it possible to categorize and identify this decline all we need to do is follow the money so let me just list some things you probably noticed and will elaborate on them down the line one an increase in buggy glitchy games big-budget releases often have a botched launch and are forced to rely on updates to fix their issues number two an overabundance of remakes remasters and sequels number three the corporatization of gaming the conduct of major companies publishers and developers and of course number four the obvious influx of RNG loot boxes being forced into every genre of game and increasingly aggressive monetization schemes it could be that our own minds play a factor in this as well possibly we see the game industry as being worse because we had it so good in the past is all the disappointment we have caused simply by a scrolling older and more jaded it's entirely possible the negativity we associate with modern gaming is outweighing the more positive innovations that have been made games look better the story's more epic characters are represented so realistically animation vastly improved my point is try not to become too overwhelmed with nostalgia for the glory days and remember that your perception plays a huge part in this decline what do and don't you have a problem with that's for you to figure out but now that we got a solid base for this topic let's dive deep into the decline of gaming complacency pleased especially with oneself or one's merits advantages situation often without awareness of some potential danger or defect self satisfied complacency is probably the biggest deterrent to innovation in quality game design the perfect example is valve [Music] once known for their unconventional methods of game design and their repertoire of critically acclaimed releases so many instant classics that to this day are viewed as some of the greatest games of all time but what about since then looks like there's been a change of plans well valve is not made a new game since portal 2 eight years ago and the last time they even launched a new IP was left for dead that was 11 years ago but let's take a quick look at the games they've launched since then csgo a remake of counter-strike source which was a remake of the original counter-strike dota 2 a remake of the dota mod for Warcraft 3 counter-strike online to Koreans only Counter Strike Nexon zombies free-to-play zombie shooter no thanks left 4 dead survivors Japanese only the lab a series of 8 VR minigames that was more or less just an experiment dota under Lords a mobile version of dota Auto chess do I need to elaborate this is the same company that made half-life 2 and yet valve is just content with developing these unremarkable titles you can really sum up the disappointment gamers have had with this company in the artifact reveal everyone was so hyped to see what val was working on it had been so many years since they came out with a new kick-ass game and when they revealed it everyone lost all interest a dota2 card game now the question is why did valve stop making actual games what happened to their ambition well as of March 2015 valve makes 18 million dollars per month off dota 2 alone valve is also by ratio one of the most profitable companies with the fewest employees in America earning roughly $300,000 per employee they make 30% of every stale off steam they're just rolling in the moolah right now the chimichangas the gold bars if you're making tons of money selling the same thing for seven years and you're a businessman well why would you stop why would you take the risk in time to develop and sell a brand new product when you can simply maintain your current products and watch the profits get dumped straight into your bank account oh hey Bethesda how's it going buddy didn't see you there you still selling Skyrim there's no question that Valve fans will eat up whatever new game they put out provided it's a type of game people want as a consumer you'd buy portal 3 you'd buy left 4 dead 3 and you'd most certainly buy half-life 3 long-awaited and pretty much dead half-life 3 is a perfect example of complacency I got nothing to say about half-life despite the critical acclaim and unrelenting hype for this title you'd think half-life 3 would be at the top of Valve's priority list but it never was instead we're getting a VR game and while it's cool they're finally making another half-life all I can think is what about the games that people want you see valve and even some other companies need to take lessons from bono you know don't ever stop trying to be in the limelight keep pushing forward to infinity and beyond Bethesda and Rockstar are another two clear-cut examples of how complacency has creeped into the video game industry the undisputed masters of Ries on the same product in as many forms possible after Grand Theft Auto 5 Rockstar basically did nothing except update the game and port their old games to different platforms until five years later they released Red Dead Redemption to now again I'm not saying these are bad games but if you look back in the five years from 2001 to 2006 they were putting out hot [ __ ] like GTA 3 Vice City Midnight Club 2 manhunt Red Dead Revolver the Warriors and bully Rockstar used to experiment and try new things developing several IPs at a time and building a library of games to their name but now they've gotten complacent but there's the meanwhile had a five-year wait between oblivion and Skyrim that felt like forever but oh my god it was worth it Skyrim was amazing it flew off the shelves like crazy all my friends were playing it and now it's been eight years since Skyrim and we basically have no news gameplay or anything regarding Elder Scrolls 6 after new Vegas it took Bethesda five years to come out with fallout 4 a product that was very polarizing amongst the fallout fan base and then 76 releases do you see this decline it's this complacency this lack of desire to innovate and create new things that has led to some of our favorite game companies releasing new games far more infrequently and when they do it's either something you don't care about or it's just another sequel despite nearly every single game company fallen prey to complacency almost none of this applies to Nintendo who have stuck to their roots and continued to evolve and release new games that blow us away Nintendo is still doing things the old-fashioned way and making a [ __ ] ton of money while these other game companies are doing things the easy way because if it's broken but makes a shitload of money why fix it the abundance of remakes and remasters it's a fact that gaming has followed certain trends throughout the years he had arcades where you paid quarters for entertainment in the NES days it was all about side-scrolling platformers the SNES and Sega Genesis were all about graphics eventually we had online gaming rhythm games battle royale so many trends have come and gone some have stayed but occasionally a certain style of game is perceived as no longer profitable or appealing to the mainstream 3d platformers for instance have long fallen out of favor outside of Mario in this case instead of developing a brand-new game and a genre that's considered dead companies will choose to remaster remake their old ones and would you look at that they become hella popular who would have thought Spyro reignited an insane trilogy where incredible remasters and since those were so successful don't you think people would be even more happy to see a brand-new game star in the purple dragon or lovable bandicoot but there's been no such announcement aside from a remaster of Crash Team Racing you can do pretty incredible things with a remake sometimes it turns an outdated game into something completely new effectively remaking it to be as good as you thought it was back then remakes are a great way for new gamers to experience the magic of the past without the daunting task of playing something that looks like this or it can be a method for the developers to add onto their old project and give it some new bells and whistles a remaster is capable of bringing old games up to speed with several quality alive changes and making it the definitive way to experience an old title it can be pretty awesome when they port something to a newer console so that you don't have to buy it an old expensive copy of it like Symphony of the Night and other Castlevania games be imported to Xbox that shit's cool the problem arises when companies become more content to resell you their old games than they are to make new ones it's become a meme how many different versions of Skyrim Bethesda has churned out legendary edition Skyrim special edition remastered Skyrim on switch Skyrim now with mods Skyrim for VR in April 2013 Bethesda announced via their blog that they were moving on from Skyrim and preparing to work on other projects yeah that's a [ __ ] laugh Skyrim pinball edition at moments some remasters just Bank off your nostalgia and try to parade their old game as something new by slapping an HD at the end of the title all I'm saying is there weren't a whole lot of remakes or remasters back on the n64 PlayStation Xbox ps2 or GameCube and that's because they were focused on creating new games in fact I can only think of one remaster from those consoles conker live and reloaded which made the game looks so freakin sexy the visuals are still impressive to this day and they even launched a brand new multiplayer mode that was just awesome but nowadays some remasters are just a shameless cash-grab where you can see a side-by-side comparison and notice no difference but hey at least they added some extra dirt on the glass for Bioshock remastered take my $40 remember the original port of Dark Souls on Steam yeah it was so [ __ ] lazy and busted they didn't even swap out the button prompts from the Xbox 360 version I mean holy [ __ ] and then from software comes out with Dark Souls remastered an actual real port of the game and they charge people 40 dollars to play Dark Souls with a revitalized pvp community an even DS remastered didn't bother to fix several game breaking glitches highlighted in this wonderful Inferno Plus video companies will also take it a step further EA turned Dungeon Keeper into a blatant pay2win dumpster fire mobile game activision not only released modern warfare remastered bundled with infinite warfare but later added loot boxes and paid weapons into a game that didn't have those things in 2007 some games like Sleeping Dogs Last of Us will come out with a remaster one or two years after it released you expect me to believe technology advanced so far in that time span that a 1 year old game is now considered out-of-date it's nice to improve a game stability frame rate and resolution but is all that really worth buying the exact same product again my point is a lot of companies aren't willing to take risks anymore it's disheartening to remember a time when the original Xbox was a haven of original awesome exclusive titles and now the Xbox one doesn't even seem to be competing this trend of lazy remasters and remakes brings me to my next point chasing trends early access hey guys please excuse the shitty quality of this section my video is still in early access you can donate to my patreon to help fund my willingness to sit at a computer and edit in an effort to capitalize on whatever is currently most popular plenty of game studios will just shamelessly rip off others or rush out some basic ass shell of a game remember lawbreakers man didn't do so hot trying to copy overwatch so how about boskie productions just copies fortnight and pub G and launched a shitty Battle Royale that should bring in the money radical Heights good God oh wow this battle royale craze has really taken off let's release a brand new game that's completely [ __ ] abandon our old one and alienate our fan base the calling to prove just how desperate some developers really are of course it would take too much time and effort to fix pub G before porting it to Xbox so they just oh my god burn it burn it all they somehow made it worse it's kind of shocking how a company that made all the money in King Tut's Castle didn't use any of it to improve the game instead they just wanted more an in titanfall made advance movement popular well [ __ ] of course call a duty in Halo has to adapt that into their games even if the developers don't understand what makes the movement good even if it compromises the design style and identity of their franchises just copy it I don't care if it works if it's unintuitive janky and sucks s just copy them do what they're doing a lot of these games series used to kind of just go their own way and I missed that the term early access has now been hijacked by companies who are too lazy to call their games complete or admit they're never gonna finish them it used to mean you had early access to the game and often it was like an indie title led by a small team but you understood didn't have the big budget some other games have and needed additional funding but now all it means is the game is going to be a buggy mess and he can't be mad at them because hate it's just an early access even if they make billions of dollars blue hole and epic will continue to call fortnight and pub G early access titles then you got all those shitty ass zombie survival games my buddy brought over 7 days to die one time and after playing it for 5 minutes I was like dude you got [ __ ] scammed you buy this [ __ ] from Jose in the back alley behind a strip club like what the [ __ ] is this once eSports released to take off developers start tailoring their games to be competitive everyone wanted their product to break in the eSports territory and that can really mess with the project's vision when all you're worried about is chasing the most popular trends in the cash flow you get all these half-assed games releasing and suddenly the desire to create something new is replaced with the desire to copy others games as a service updates online only broken launches etc the ability to patch a game after its release was one of the biggest revolutions in game development allowing teams to continue their work before going gold bug fixes balance updates and more we're now possible even when a game comes out and you buy it on launch date it has an update because the developers are still working on it after they started shipping copies nowadays you can fix tweak and save your ass as a developer with this luxury of post launch support overwatch is a prime example of when it's utilized well it needed several updates to become what it is today without them most people would have gotten bored of the game the idea of constantly adding new content and features to engage players and keep them coming back is good for both the gamers and the companies however it's when the games as a service philosophy starts enveloping every stage of design when developers rely too much on fixing the game and adding to it after launch that we see gaming decline halo 5 guardians straight out the gate had like a 7 month plan of content why didn't you work that into the three years of development you had you compared spec ops and modern warfare 2 & 3 and there's no mistake that everybody prefers those versions to the 2019 version where it now takes Infinity Ward one month to get to missions out ten years ago they launched a game with 23 of them the difference is crystal clear and how games are developed you look at something like kotor 2 halo 2 and smash bros melee these games all had hellish development cycles that devoured the lives of the people working on them these heroes sacrificed time with their family just to complete the game when it was supposed to be done so that we the consumers got the best product possible despite the many bugs glitches and general lack of polish in these three highly anticipated sequels they turned out phenomenal because neither obsidian Bungie or Nintendo could depend on simply fixing the game after the fact not having that luxury put the pressure on now with the luxury of post-launch support compare the content from Halo 2 to the latest game guardians at launch halo 5 at 4 game modes the lowest in this series and it took a whole year of updates to make halo 5 a somewhat complete package what halo 2 accomplished in its three years of development back in 2004 halo 5 needed an extra year after it was already out in 2015 but this isn't just exclusive to halo it happens to every game series where the gears stopped turning and something as simple as launching a game in a playable state becomes an urban legend a myth Bad Company 2 launches perfectly and works fine then dice drops battlefield 3 for in Battlefront 2 which all had nightmarish issues and simply didn't work it gets so ridiculous to the point where you wonder if the games they put out are actually illegal because the product doesn't work as advertised then you got something like Cod World War 2 where even the menus didn't work you look at how Mass Effect 1 came out back in 2007 pretty damn good Mass Effect Andromeda ten years later somehow looked the worse and was a glitch ridden disaster Diablo 1 & 2 absolute masterpieces Diablo 3 is coming out people have been waiting over a decade to experience this game it releases an era 37 you can't play the game until Blizzard figures their [ __ ] out then you had Dead Island for the developers completely [ __ ] up and released the wrong version of the game how does that happen SimCity was made to be always online except you couldn't connect to EA shitty-ass servers Batman Arkham Knight was knowingly pushed out onto PC despite the publishers knowing it was a terrible port with horrific framerate issues I'm not saying every game from the glory days launched in a perfect state but these playable disasters happen far less frequently and at the time I was way more forgiving of them and then we arrived at the Master Chief collection which was a testament to just how broken you could release a game and somehow not be investigated by the Better Business Bureau this atrocity was so unplayable I'm surprised there was no class-action lawsuit filed the new cutscenes by blur were jaw-dropping but it's hardly any consolidation when nothing worked menus were [ __ ] game glitches everywhere impossible to find games ranking system constantly resetting 343 needed like three or four years to make MCC a consistently playable game three to four years after I bought the game I was finally able to play it the way they promised I could so halo 2 anniversary will contain the original halo 2 multiplayer exactly as it shipped 10 years ago though this is a subjective point take a look at these MMORPGs world of warcraft changed the gaming landscape as we knew it and really gave rise to the games as a service philosophy with monthly subscriptions new expansions it was a nice source of cash flow and for players that enjoyed the game it was the greatest thing ever Wow has been consistently supported for like 15 years and that's great but here's an important point hardly ever mentioned Warcraft as a series has been an MMORPG longer than it has been a real-time strategy despite three games with multiple expansions the reason Warcraft 4 does not exist is because wow does similarily the reason why Knights The Old Republic 3 does not exist is because the Old Republic does Elder Scrolls 6 does not exist yet because they've been working on Elder Scrolls online for better or worse these incredible series of games have converted to the games as a service philosophy they've turned their backs on their roots EA is infamous for shutting down several game studios including visceral who were working on a single-player Star Wars game but because single-player games can't really be made into a service ea saw this venture is not as profitable and shut it down it's actually surprising when something like Jedi fallen order comes out with no caveats and is a genuinely great game but in the six or so years EA has had the rights to Star Wars this is the first single-player game they've put out flashback to the early 2000s Oh baby Jedi Academy Republic Commando kotor 1 & 2 episode 3 game Lego Star Wars bounty hunter obi-wan Force Unleashed battlefront 1 & 2 empire at war Star Wars games were off the [ __ ] hook but EA is just complacent now we live in a time where the updates a game goes through are more impactful than the actual release and it's the ship it now fix it later mentality that is allowing companies to churn out so many titles that sucks straight ass when they come out a video game should never be a gamble where the consumer doesn't know if it's gonna function or not corporatization anti-consumer probably the worst thing about the decline of gaming is the corporatization of it the game industry is becoming more and more controlled by some board of directors who don't see this hobby as you or I do they aren't thinking how can we make the best game possible how can we make our fans happy they're thinking how can we make the most money with the least amount of effort there are investors to please deadlines to me game development used to be just a bunch of nerds pooling their talents and creativity to make something incredible something they would want to play corporatization has been sucking the life and soul out of gaming and this is illustrated by the complete lack of originality in the cover art of games check out this video by Nikki jakey it's really good but it showcases a greater point the lack of soul it'd be foolish to condemn all pre-order bonuses microtransactions DLC etc because only a Sith deals in absolutes but you're the consumer what do you want do you want cool meaningful cosmetic unlockables that showcase your accomplishments okay what's the ideal way for the player to unlock them ask yourself this question first is this good for the playa is it good for the player to unlock gameplay altering abilities or cosmetic items and monetized randomized loop boxes is that a form of progression and unlocks that is beneficial to the player of course not so why do companies include it because the well-being of the consumer and the quality of the experience is secondary to what's most profitable back during the 360 ps3 and Wii generation players noticed there was a lot more downloadable content than the previous generation in fact the Gamecube didn't even connect to the Internet but now it seems like loop boxes are far more numerous that's because companies realize DLC was only a one-time purchase but what if there is a way to turn players into payers consistently doing that would yield high results then you got all those season passes where companies want you to put up 50 dollars based on a promise as video games become more and more expensive to make the price of a new release has stayed the same for decades and while any business big or small needs to make a profit the lengths some companies go to to ties their games is absurd sometimes being so greedy to the point where they will compromise the design of their game 343 and creative assembly went so far in this direction crafting a mode specifically to integrate loot boxes into Halo Wars - and create a pay to win model Madden and FIFA Ultimate Team Wow those are so cool ruined by pay to win loot boxes battlefield 1 and for offering literal shortcuts through the progression system think about that for a second the designers created the system of XP how it has earned how much it takes to unlock things and then decided to monetize a way for players to skip it entirely Bungie literally cutting and reselling parts of Destiny 1 and 2 as DLC making shaders consumable so players will have to buy them again was not a decision made for the benefit of the player Forza 5 offering just as many payable cars as ones you earn in-game the list of DLC for the sims alone is [ __ ] staggering Middle Earth shadow award a single-player game chose the loop box method of delivering rewards to players Dead Space 3 interrupting the game to ask you to buy more parts train simulator 2015 offering over 4000 dollars of DLC purchasable weapons in black ops for givin people an advantage Microsoft charging you to remove ads on solitaire [ __ ] microtransactions in solitaire them for some games it can get so bad that functional micro transactions become more important than a functional game I couldn't get into matches in cod world war 2 when it came out but you bet your ass I could buy loot boxes and then fallout 76 Wow easily one of the most embarrassing blatant empty cash grabs the industry has ever seen do you as a player want to have sections of the video game you bought sealed into randomized crates that are paid for with real money hell no there's always a better alternative titanfall 2 is the shining example it might not make the most money but there's no [ __ ] involved what you see is what you get and the game isn't any worse or better off the cuz of it companies have tried seemingly every slimy underhanded tactic to get you to pay just a bit more metal gear survived had the audacity to charge people $10 for an extra save slot in modern warfare 2 you had to grind for those extra custom class slots but in recent games you could just buy them like is that where we're at now valve and blue hole opened up avenues to skin betting selling and trading with other players which leads to gambling websites and the notorious shitlords like team martin and pro syndicate trying to make money off this infamous csgo lotto scandal the increasingly aggressive monetization of video games had gotten so out of hand that it attracted the attention of several world governments I mean if you look at those leaked patents by Activision it tells you everything the intent is right there adhering to these patents they want to make you as addicted as possible to spending money they want to control you that's why Bungie decided to throttle how much XP you got I bet they wouldn't have done that if they weren't trying to sell me bright engrams the decline in gaming has manifested in so many different ways and it hurts to talk about the game industry I knew and loved has just gotten complacent with lazy titles trend chasing garbage half-assed remasters corporatization over monetization and a lack of drive to create something new games as a service and early access become crutches for developers to lean on and when fans get upset how dysfunctional and empty their latest releases or wonder why game breaking issues continue to exist they use early access or we're working on it as their shield don't get me wrong the good stuff is still out there but you have to find it amongst all the noise but with all this [ __ ] that's changed for the worse in gaming it's starting to feel like a soulless assembly line production and the way companies treat their consumers is making me lose faith in this industry and that is how gaming has declined [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Act Man

Views: 4,160,993

Keywords: the act man, act man, gaming, gaming news, valve, half life alyx, half life 3, rockstar games, ea, electronic arts, activision, nintendo, microsoft, sony, microtransactions, gaming decline, video games are getting worse, games are getting worse, game breaking, worst game launch, call of duty, Halo Infinite, Halo MCC, loot boxes, loot boxes in gaming, microtransactions in video games, modern warfare microtransactions, worst video games, glitchiest video games, the decline of gaming

Id: 2sFrG02xpAw

Length: 30min 35sec (1835 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/HotFightingHistory]

*Edit* - This is by no means the only subject the video touches on

This is a great watch! It's unquestionable that the games as a service model has lead to greater funding and development in those titles rather than new single player IP and some long awaited sequels. I'm glad that the narrator points out the recent Respawn Entertainment Star Wars game as an exception to this trend. I believe this is because Respawn was fully aware of this practice by EA and other potential publishers, and did all they could to protect themselves when the entered into their publishing agreement when they finally settled on EA. Many new developers are trying to emulate this approach, or taking a queue from CDPR and going the self-publishing route. The latter option has become less challenging in some ways, but more so in others.

[u/HongHarryHoe]

This would be told better by someone who didn’t start gaming on a Gameboy color.