Corporate Gaming

T

tsumake

Member
I've been thinking about all the new consoles and the new titles and the Next Big Thing, and I feel apathetic. Games feel so corporate - design by committee, commidify as many mechanics as possible, market test to make the content as "common denominator." The critics are in on the fun because they need access from the developers and thus are an arm of their marketing departments. These points have been discussed before, and I don't think this is the end of gaming, but I look at the current climate of gaming and it's just not for me.

On top of it all, they want to charge $70 for the privilege.

I'm not yearning for the goode olde dayes, I want to see real development in mechanics. I don't give a shit about "cinematic experiences" because there are these interesting long form videos called movies. I want to experience something that is unique to the medium. While I think gaming will go to interesting places, what mainstream games are now are truly soulless endeavors, skinner boxes writ large.

Lord help me I express a subjective thought here.
 
Sometimes it is nice to eat at the local mom and pop and sometimes I like to go the the chains, because I know what I'm getting.
 
I mostly agree with what you saying.

The current direction in which AAA gaming has generally gone has kinda soured it for me mostly. There used to be a time when you could tell a AAA game was developed with a pure creative vision and care in mind. Now, most modern big budget games are practically drenched with business-driven design choices. Everything from how the games are played and down to the box cover layout reeks of it. Its pretty telling the business departments hold a strong influence over the course of development.

Soul vs. Soulless might be a meme, but I think there's some grain of validity to it. I think that there's already a sizeable group within the community who have noticed that something is "off" about the current gaming landscape in general. Some probably acknowledge it while others choose to handwave it away.

I'm still preoccupied with 7th gen and plan on acquiring an 8th gen console eventually. But, I don't see much reason to go beyond that. Re-releases, remakes, remasters, re-imaginings, and reboots don't really do it for me and the 8th gen was already abundantly stacked with them. Not to mention gameplay innovation has practically stagnated and very few try anything new.

If people are willing to pay up 70$ for a remake then that's their call.
 
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Hypereides said:
I mostly agree with what you saying.

The current direction in which AAA gaming has generally gone has kinda soured it for me mostly. There used to be a time when you could tell a AAA game was developed with a pure creative vision and care in mind. Now, most modern big budget games are practically drench with business-driven design choices. Everything from how the games are played and down to the box cover layout reeks of it. Its pretty telling the business departments hold a strong influence over the course of development.

Soul vs. Soulless might be a meme, but I think there's some grain of validity to it. I think that there's already a sizeable group within the community who have noticed that something is "off" about the current gaming landscape in general. Some probably acknowledge it while others choose to handwave it away.

I'm still preoccupied with 7th gen and plan on acquiring an 8th gen console eventually. But, I don't see much reason to go beyond that. Re-releases, remakes, remasters, re-imaginings, and reboots don't really do it for me and the 8th gen already was already abundantly stacked with them. Not to mention gameplay innovation has practically stagnated and very few try anything new.

If people are willing to pay up 70$ for a remake a graphical facelift, and the whole shabang, then that's fine.
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I was really hesitating saying "soulless" because it's so cliche, but I can't think of better way to describe it. Mainstream game development is so divorced from a developer's interest and passion that modern games really feel like they lack a soul.

The most interesting next gen game is a remake of a PS3 title. This is the cinema equivalent of "A Star is Born."
 
Experimentation happens in the indie and lower budget scene mostly, then the successful mechanics and ideas are adopted and rise up into AA and eventually AAA games and become refined....

There is very little room in AAA (100 million + budget games) for failure. The closest you will find to experimentation is a game like Death Stranding and we all saw how people reacted to that just because it wasn't a load of action and shooty shooty..... also, a lot of people say they want different stuff but never try what is there.... like Divinity II, Civ 6, Planet Coaster, Tetris Effect, Just Shapes and Beats, Concrete Genie, Dreams etc.
 
With indie gaming in an all time high and Nintendo still being, well, Nintendo, how can you feel like this "now"?

Maybe 10, 15 years ago. But today the industry has something for everyone in all shapes and colors, from handhelds and mobile to VR.

Experiment and find that spark again mate! 😉
 
Not a sentiment I share, thankfully. I'm enjoying gaming more than ever and I've been gaming a lot since NES with a little Atari before than when very young.

My tastes just shifted to loving narrative-driven games, and especially cinematic ones with top graphics/production values, so at least that AAA trend has meshed well with my tastes. I don't mind paying $10 more for them this generation as game prices had been stable for ages and I'm glad to get those kind of AAA games when there's so much more money to be made with lower budget online service games that are heavily monetized.

That said, even for people with different tastes it's a great time to be a gamer with tons of Indie games and Nintendo still doing their own thing as others noted. The only people left our really are people who want pure gameplay games with AAA level graphics and production values. There just isn't much of a market for that so you just have to deal with Nintendo, some lower budget AA games and indies to get your fix there.
 
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Just stop reading reviews and looking at video games ads. You need to get in touch with what kinds of games you truly like and then go search previews and youtube videos, faqs and fan sites.. and then take a risk and give some game critics think is shit a chance. That's how you find a great game.

I like RPGs myself, and I won't bore you with the details, but more or less I know what kind of world, battle system, characters, themes, etc. I like and don't like. I also have a rough idea of about 20 different game directors, designers, musicians, etc. that I like. I put those parts all together and I can get a good idea if I will like a game or not just by knowing who made it and watching a 1 minute video.. it doesn't matter if it has a 6 or a 9 average on metacritic, the scores are meaningless.
 
Daymos said:
Just stop reading reviews and looking at video games ads. You need to get in touch with what kinds of games you truly like and then go search previews and youtube videos, faqs and fan sites.. and then take a risk and give some game critics think is shit a chance. That's how you find a great game.

I like RPGs myself, and I won't bore you with the details, but more or less I know what kind of world, battle system, characters, themes, etc. I like and don't like. I also have a rough idea of about 20 different game directors, designers, musicians, etc. that I like. I put those parts all together and I can get a good idea if I will like a game or not just by knowing who made it and watching a 1 minute video.. it doesn't matter if it has a 6 or a 9 average on metacritic, the scores are meaningless.
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Btw, OP. I urge you to take this advice. I sincerely think you'll likely get more enjoyment out of gaming that way. Very few journos actually act in your best interest.
 
Hypereides said:
Btw, OP. I urge you to take this advice. I sincerely think you'll likely get more enjoyment out of gaming that way. Very few journos actually act in your best interest.
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Yeah, if I trusted review scores and only played >90 metacritic games I would have missed on some great games like Yakuza 7 or Dragon's Dogma.
 
Hypereides said:
Btw, OP. I urge you to take this advice. I sincerely think you'll likely get more enjoyment out of gaming that way. Very few journos actually act in your best interest.
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Oh that? I stopped listening to critics a long time ago. As bad as it is in gaming, it's even worse in cinema.

Call me conspiratorial, but I'm more annoyed with the astroturfing shills you find in comments sections and enthusiast boards.
 
-Says the gamer who only plays AAA games

OP, there are tons of innovative indies and AAs that will aid you in your pursuit of distinctive content.
 
Woopah said:
Luckily indie gaming has never been healthier! That's where you'll find your innovation.
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Yea I mean the barrier to entry for releasing a game is way less than it used to be; you can self-publish indie games or mobile games nowadays.

There's more *and* less corporate gaming. There's simply more gaming, period.
 
It's just like the Movie Industry. The greatest movies and games are garbage with huge budgets.

However, just like the movie industry, you can find indie games and indie moves and ignore the mainstream shit.

I understand it can be a pain for people who value graphics because you're only going to find superb graphics in triple AAA games. If you value gameplay, however, there's a whole world of untapped gaming waiting for you.
 
There are plenty of great games out there if you know where to look. My favorite game this year is Hades which is pretty far from the AAA gruel you describe in your OP.
 
Sony killing off their internal AA studios and games is the biggest bummer about them, (in addition to censorship). The whole reason I liked Playstation in the past was their quirky fun titles like Tokyo Jungle, Gravity Rush, Demon's Souls (the original), etc. Under Jim Ryan we're just going to get our 2-3 AAA titles every 15 months. If you don't like those games, oh well!

Indies have stepped up a bit, but most big indie games with decent production values are all derivatives of existing games and genres (and frankly too much Adobe Flash-esque art, procedurally generated content, and rogue-like bullshit).
 
Pejo said:
Sony killing off their internal AA studios and games is the biggest bummer about them, (in addition to censorship). The whole reason I liked Playstation in the past was their quirky fun titles like Tokyo Jungle, Gravity Rush, Demon's Souls (the original), etc. Under Jim Ryan we're just going to get our 2-3 AAA titles every 15 months. If you don't like those games, oh well!

Indies have stepped up a bit, but most big indie games with decent production values are all derivatives of existing games and genres (and frankly too much Adobe Flash-esque art, procedurally generated content, and rogue-like bullshit).
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High Five. Tokyo Jungle is one of the best Sony games ever, so much fun. I actually felt inspired to play it after the pandemic imagining a doomsday scenario where animals take over and it was so much fun to replay it. The chaotic nature of it rocks, and Sony had a lot of quirky ideas that are now buried in the past, unfortunately. I miss Parappa as well, it's still one of my favorite series ever. I fucking hate this cinematic focus.
 
Rising development costs in the post-HD era have stifled big-budget creativity. Everyone's got it play it safe when one or two titles bombing means shutters for the studio. And it's only going to get worse as we keep pushing for more advanced tech. It sucks.

lock2k said:
High Five. Tokyo Jungle is one of the best Sony games ever, so much fun. I actually felt inspired to play it after the pandemic imagining a doomsday scenario where animals take over and it was so much fun to replay it. The chaotic nature of it rocks, and Sony had a lot of quirky ideas that are now buried in the past, unfortunately. I miss Parappa as well, it's still one of my favorite series ever. I fucking hate this cinematic focus.
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Yeah Tokyo Jungle is honestly the only reason I bought a PS3. Worth it, for me!
 
Open world is one of the best but also one of the worst things to happen to 'corporate' gaming. It's not even because open world inherently equals bad design - you would expect that technically being able to go anywhere and do anything would be exactly what people want. The problem is that so many AAA games are not just open world, they are also adopting a very narrow formula of open world design. 'Ubisoft towers' to climb, hundreds of collectibles, inane side quests to do, ridiculous amounts of story padding dragging a 20 hour game out to 50+, skill trees that don't really impact anything, mile wide inch deep environments etc etc. You reach a point where if you've played one, you've almost played them all. Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, Assassin's Creed, Witcher, GTA, Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon, all are becoming pretty interchangeable aside from the setting and weapon used.
 
Rumpleforeskin said:
Open world is one of the best but also one of the worst things to happen to 'corporate' gaming. It's not even because open world inherently equals bad design - you would expect that technically being able to go anywhere and do anything would be exactly what people want. The problem is that so many AAA games are not just open world, they are also adopting a very narrow formula of open world design. 'Ubisoft towers' to climb, hundreds of collectibles, inane side quests to do, ridiculous amounts of story padding dragging a 20 hour game out to 50+, skill trees that don't really impact anything, mile wide inch deep environments etc etc. You reach a point where if you've played one, you've almost played them all. Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, Assassin's Creed, Witcher, GTA, Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon, all are becoming pretty interchangeable aside from the setting and weapon used.
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That's probably the trend I hate the most. I enjoyed playing Shadow of Mordor but the mandatory padding of Shadow of War turned me off. All of these games make me feel like I'm on a hamster wheel.
 
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