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Ok GAF, let's save the game industry

CherryFalls

Banned
Its not just the industry's problem to fix everything, but its partially the fault of the players too.
Players will see poor animations, detail, physics, dialog, design etc and think its acceptable.

Saying games like starfield or suicide good are good just emboldens devs to continue to be lazy.
So at some point, you kinda get what you deserve.
 
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CGNoire

Member
There's too much incentive to stick with shorter games for this to be true.
Wait your previous reply said that they think its not what customers want so there making them longer? How can there be an "incentive" if there not even aware there wrong about it? Which was my point.

You keep saying its what the customers want. How would you know that unless your just reading devs actions as proof? If there response to the market was always the right one then they would never underperform yet they often do proving they often read the market wrong. Why trust there vision then since its been shown to be nearsighted?
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
When you start deemphasizing story and give more attention to game mechanics, you naturally get longer games.
Well, yeah. But even a short game with 5-10 hour of content can sell well if it emphasizes mechanics over story, that's more or less the whole formula behind roguelikes.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Wait your previous reply said that they think its not what customers want so there making them longer? How can there be an "incentive" if there not even aware there wrong about it? Which was my point.
All the incentives are there for these companies to learn why expensive projects fail to meet projections. They do data analysis and market research on all their products.

All their costly effort to learn why games fail have led them to create longer games.

You keep saying its what the customers want. How would you know that unless your just reading devs actions as proof? If there response to the market was always the right one then they would never underperform yet they often do proving they often read the market wrong. Why trust there vision then since its been shown to be nearsighted?
The market doesn't lie. The best selling games every years have been 30+ hour epics. That wasn't the case 15 years ago.
Well, yeah. But even a short game with 5-10 hour of content can sell well if it emphasizes mechanics over story, that's more or less the whole formula behind roguelikes.
Roguelites are long games though. They promise dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of content.
 

Doom85

Gold Member
Ban the color purple for ten years.

I’d allow it…..unless that means we return to the brown/gray era of gaming, in which case:

JfLLCBl.gif
 
in the businesses eyes nothings broken…

These companies make money hand over fist. You just need to make perpetually living ecosystems and communities ie. Gaas and mtx. And addict the masses

For the enthusiast and thread purposes…. Fund 100 small scale teams instead of 1 blockbuster.
 
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Guilty_AI

Gold Member
Roguelites are long games though. They promise dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of content.
Technically a run of a roguelite can last as little as half an hour. They're just designed to be highly replayable, and any formula good enough is highly replayable by default. For similar reasons boomer shooters can also live well beyond their normal playtime, despite usually having 10 hour campaigns.
 

RavageX

Member
Stop following Witcher 3 / Assasins Creed formula of open world game design.

Reward my curiosity to explore open world.
I think Morrowind handled open world exploration very well. You got directions that were not always clear but that would cause you to explore. Sometimes you ended up somewhere you shouldn't be, and you paid for it. There was danger and reward.
 

Arachnid

Member
Got inspired by this post:


@Hugare rightfully mentioned how lazy and uninspired color-coded enemies are. In the world of uninspired game design and the same mechanics since 2005 just coated in different pain we post our ideas here for meaningful change in game design. I will start:

1. End with corridor design and walk-action-walk BS: once again we are helped by the newest Dragon Age trailer where we have the illusion of a busting city, however every nook and cranny, every alley not relevant to our heroes is blocked off and inaccessible. The only solution is to continue to advance forward and listen to some stupid banter.

What to do? More verticality, lower horizontal map coverage - SCALE THE FUCK DOWN

Who does it well? ACII (fuck, can't believe I'm saying this), Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077

2. Give the characters some spine: enough with PG-rated dialogue that makes everyone sound the same. Give them some emotions - am I playing a merry band of undercover stoics? Remember that time when Dak'kon realized the Nameless One invented his whole religion? Good stuff.

Who does it well? I wanted to say Witcher 3, but the best example is Cyberpunk 2077 - V. banter with Johnny Silverhand is exactly what I am looking for.

3. Less systems, better developed ones: Listen, I don't need ten different advancement trees in my games, I want 3 that will radically change how I play the game and effect I have on the world. Does that +1 to a random attribute have any impact on how I play? Are the skills lazy +X% to damage or give you new abilities?

Who does it well? Cyberpunk 2077, but they needed 2.0 patch and complete overhaul to get this right.

What are yours?
Woman character?

Make her hot. Boom. Point added.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Technically a run of a roguelite can last as little as half an hour. They're just designed to be highly replayable, and any formula good enough is highly replayable by default. For similar reasons boomer shooters can also live well beyond their normal playtime, despite usually having 10 hour campaigns.
When I say "long games" I mean how many hours a buyer thinks they'll spend with a game before getting bored.

It just seems very obvious that short games aren't as competitive on the market anymore, yet we still see "Make short games" comments for some reason.
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
When I say "long games" I mean how many hours a buyer thinks they'll spend with a game before getting bored.

It just seems very obvious that short games aren't as competitive on the market anymore, yet we still see "Make short games" comments for some reason.
I mean, by that metric they never were competive at any point. And what people mean by shorter games is to not bloat them unnecessarily.
 

-Minsc-

Member
I'm still doing my part by playing the groundbreaking 2001 game "Phantasy Star Online". ~*~*~*~*~ (>^_^)> <(^_^<) (>^_^)> <(^_^<) ~*~*~*~*~
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Try developing for advanced hardware, not every fucking platform just to maximise profits.

That way fidelity, environmental design and NPC ai can be improved upon.
 

Esppiral

Member
1- Bring back SEGA
2- Kill arrogant Sony
3- Send MS back to Windows and office only
4- Make Nintendo do appealing hardware again.

Basically back to the 90's golden age of gaming.
 

CGNoire

Member
They do data analysis and market research on all their products.
So. They also make dumb ass decisions that cost them dearly based on that same research.
The market doesn't lie.
Thats a catch phrase that completely ignores there "ability to read" the market.

Still no examples of AAA 12-20hr games which where well marketed that flopped "Lately"?
You said "lately"...your words not mine?
 

Griffon

Member
The industry is already saving itself.

It's one of the rare cases where the free market actually works as intended. Bad devs die, good devs thrive.

Make a good game that has appeal and gamers will come. It's been proven over and over with indie megahits coming from nowhere almost every month.
 
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2. Give the characters some spine: enough with PG-rated dialogue that makes everyone sound the same. Give them some emotions - am I playing a merry band of undercover stoics? Remember that time when Dak'kon realized the Nameless One invented his whole religion? Good stuff...
in this moment, media creators' single greatest fear, beyond all others, is the fear of being offensive, of being 'hurtful'. it's what killed the edge in insomniac games, among others. to the point where my neighbors in animal crossing: wild world are more 'alive' than the totally interchangeable crew of bantering plug-ins that now populate gaming...

The dialogue is one of the highlights of Wild World: It’s interesting and unpredictable. Villagers will bring up some odd topics, and they can be bizarre and genuinely funny. These aren’t the bland personalities you’ll find in New Leaf. Messages posted to the bulletin board are also quite entertaining. And unlike the newer games in the series, these villagers don’t hold back. They can be quite rude and insulting at times, perhaps even more so than in the original game...
static-fathead.jpg
https://www.jvgs.net/acwwblog/review/#:~:text=The dialogue is one of,ll find in New Leaf.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
This whole thread is retarded lol.

The only advice I can give devs is to just make the games they want to make.

Stop hiring extra companies to rewrite or check for inclusion. Stop asking for player feedback to test your game for you. Stop chasing trend or making a game up to predefined norms or standards you THINK gamers want.

Instead— just make a game you’re passionate about that you and your team love.

Whatever it sells, it sells. But know that what you made that you love, that anyone who buys it and likes it too, you spoke to that person and gave them something memorable.
 

Kupfer

Member
First of all, we should all cancel our subscriptions and stop using the in-house stores. Buy your games physically, force the manufacturers to tear down their paywalls by being absent.

The whole industry needs to be straightened out.

Look at Netflix and its ilk, quality no longer matters, content is watered down, the main thing is to release something new with flashy thumbnails every week.

When the big players realize that players want sustainable quality and not one GaaS / forumlaX game after another, we can talk about games
 
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Remove ALL slowed down walking segments, and bullshit like "press X to move the obstacle" and then the character goes into another cutscene to move the obstacle. Fuck that right off. Next, focus on FUN. If you have to sacrifice graphics, do it.

Start pumping out fun games again, and not spending 6 years on a literal movie. You want to make movies? Form a movie studio, dumbasses. Stop turning muh games into cinematic, ultra realistic, boring ass movies with some button presses here and there.

Fuck off shareholders. They can piss right off. Then, only release games when they are 100% ready, enough with this broken on release shit that's been so prevalent the last few years.

Sack off large open worlds for a bit and start making more linear games again, platformers, literally anything. Just give them some focus and cut the length to like 15-20 hours. Enough with this 100 hours to finish a game bullshit, I'm busy, got shit going on, sack that straight off. Ain't got time for it.
 

NahaNago

Member
I'd go with first they need to remember that attractiveness of characters sells. They don't need to look like someone on a maxim cover or the girl in the hip hop video but they at least need to be pleasant to see or want to be. Simply put make guys and gals cool and attractive.

2nd issue would these large publishers need to make games of all sizes. Sprinkle some smaller to medium games into what these big publishers make. This is really a Sony issue. Sony used to mean quality and now they mean big budget quality.

Work on making the world feel more alive. Squareenix absolutely sucks at this. Their little towns feel so fake and like a walled off area you can only look especially in ff16. They focused so hard on the cutscenes and spectacle of the big fights that the towns felt dead. They should just create another traveling game with them roaming a wilderness so fewer towns to create but make some caravans to visit.

If you are going the diversity route with people of color for a game try aiming for a culture or community to go with that skin color. Create new fantasy types to include different races and make it cool. Don't verbally attack white people as a whole just because they are white. The goal is to show different people, communities, and cultures in a nice light.
 
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1- Bring back SEGA
2- Kill arrogant Sony
3- Send MS back to Windows and office only
4- Make Nintendo do appealing hardware again.

Basically back to the 90's golden age of gaming.

The golden age of gaming.. When SEGA almost went bankrupt, Nintendo was asking £70 per game, SNK went tits up, NEC pulled out of the hardware game and of course, loads of gaming studios went bust or just faded away
One has got to love those rose-tinted glasses because no studios ever closed down and every game was 10 out of 10 back in the golden age of gaming....


Simple facts are... layoffs and studio closers have been a part of gaming, almost since the start.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
So. They also make dumb ass decisions that cost them dearly based on that same research.
They still have much better track records than literally anyone else in the universe.
Thats a catch phrase that completely ignores there "ability to read" the market.
Maybe, but again, nobody reads the market better than these companies.
Still no examples of AAA 12-20hr games which where well marketed that flopped "Lately"?
You said "lately"...your words not mine?
Again, no one wants to make longer games. They all do it because the extra effort & cost yields better results.
 
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