SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
its funny you mention the ps360 era because just yesterday i was listening to the soundtrack of Mass Effect 2, and it took me back to that era where every game felt like a new game. Every sequel felt like a huge leap forward. Bioware at its best. ND at the peak of their powers. Rockstar the most productive they've ever been. Ubisoft literally laying down the blueprint for open world games with AC2, Far Cry 3 and Black Flags. Bethesda reinventing the open world RPG genre with skyrim. Rocksteady reviving superhero games. Bungie doing bungie things. And so many more western devs just at the top of their game. And now? Aside from some rare exceptions like Larian and Sandfall Interactive, all these studios have just lost their way.
it's called croissant
Jokes aside, about the "lazy devs" trope, which im guilty of using.
To me it started with Wukong. The game was mercilessly ridiculed when they showed it first because it was impossible to do (according to western standard), it was just vaporware made by those deceiving asians, etc.. Then it released and was great, of course there was still some level of bullshotting with trailers and stuff, but overall the chinese devs held on to their word and delivered.
Add to this western game development has become a battleground for political warfare by people that doesn't even really seem to like or care about videogames (from both sides of the political spectrum), and the collusion between the industry and those that are supposed to report on it (the journos). All this made the image of western development (which for me had taken the worldwide lead during the PS3/xbox360 era) take a big hit.
I ended up seeing the western devs as a bunch of crybabies that endlessly complain instead working like their asian counterparts, because they simply couldn't compete anymore. Of course this caricatural view is wrong but there is also really something wrong with western devs (i should say USA devs actually) complaining for anything and everything on twitter, organizing protest because the boss closed a discord group within the company, etc..
And asian devs show us that a lot of what is said impossible by the western devs is actually doable (in an overcompetitive society that sacrifice workers without pity if it can make things more efficient, i should add since i know the cost of doing this type of work and im actually on the side of laziness myself - but i made sure to choose a job according to my laziness so no one is impacted but me...).
Some of it has to do with virtue signaling on twitter for sure, but i think we lost a lot of talent during that ps360 and early ps4 era that they just havent been able to replace. They either burned out and went to different industries, or just retired. I am talking exclusively about game design here. I think in terms of graphics, western studios have been mostly good so far this gen, with sony stu8dios being the sole exception.
And yes, anti china rhetoric is common in the west. You look at their architecture, bridges, airports, trains, buildings, etc and they are light years ahead of the west. Or at least the U.S. It's all propaganda because we cant stand that these dudes who were literally dying of famine 60 years ago (up to 50 million by some counts) are more talented and hard working than we are. People look at all these different systems and mechanics in one game and think oh it must be fake because we cant get more than one of these mechanics in our DLC esque sequels from our prestige western studios. Nah, we've just been trained to except the bare minimum and pay $70 for mediocrity.
