I was writing this out on my local !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk and realised I was basically making a patient gamers post, so here’s a copy and paste:
Despite everything you might read from gaming journos about corporate greed destroying the gaming industry I still think it’s an amazing time to be into video games. I’m absolutely spoiled for choice with games to play and I think it’s just down to not caring about online multiplayer or getting caught up in marketing hype.
You don’t have to pay through the nose to buy a fancy machine to play half-finished blockbusters, there are decades of classics that you can still play. Borrow a friend’s old console and play some old games-of-the-year, find some random classics on Humble Bundle or GOG, see what random freebies I’ve posted in !freegames@feddit.uk, stick an emulator on your phone or find one that runs in a web browser.
Example: I played Metroid Prime after seeing a Lemmy post talking about. I could either:
- Dig out a GameCube or buy a Wii on eBay for £5 and find a copy of the game at CEX if I fancy the retro experience
- Buy the remastered Switch version if I fancied splashing out
- Just pirate a ROM if I feel rebellious
- Dump my own ROM and play it on PrimeHack if I feel like tinkering
This is just one example of a great game that passed me by, there are thousands of others out there. We have a crazy amount of choice not only of what to play but how we choose to play it. The bittersweet part is that this could all change so enjoy it while you can!
The only problem of gaming is my time, i just don’t have enough of it. There’s like a tons of game i haven’t play and the free game claimed from epic is untouched, but here i am, replaying Subnautica for the 4th time, slowly making progress.
So you do have the time but decide to just not play different games.
It’s like with watching TV Series. Why am I going through Firefly again instead of trying something new? Or reading The Expanse again?
The equivalent community seeded on the site that starts with R and ends with eddit recently (a month ago) made it a rule that people can’t make “therapy” posts which means people posting topics can’t make them primarily about their grievances with personal time or with the industry. And the baseline quality of topics in that place went way higher.
I think there’s a lesson to take from that: Try and not give a shit. Just find games you like, and play and talk about them. Make that the top priority, and make these concerns secondary - and you’ll have a higher quality time with the hobby.
I personally have 0 idea why the news circles gave two weeks of attention to something like Suicide Squad. Game looked bad, reviewed bad, openly had manipulative features built in AND attached to update promises, and then releases and, whoa, turns out, surprise surprise, it IS bad. And yet, two weeks. Two weeks of random place just bringing up the bad game that is bad with a lukewarm stance. Fucking even Skill Up, which I avidly consume content of, gave it a whole hour of attention split across two weekly roundups. That is unhealthy. Games do NOT deserve attention just because they’re marketed. And, in no way I can convinced of otherwise: It’s objectively stupid to give it that. I just skipped any discussions related to it, will probably skip any discussion related to turtle rock, the studio, henceforth that doesn’t start with “they made a return to form! XYZ is the best game they’ve made!” and my life feels unsurprisingly unaffected and I feel personally, unsurprisingly, less stupid.
Try and not give a shit
Good life advice all round!
Just like all other subjects in life, you’ll be a lot happier if you stay away from news and tabloids
This sort of sentiment needs to be pinned at the top of every comment section on the web!
I honestly don’t understand that sentiment. People keep complaining about all of these manipulative games, yet I have so many games I own and on my wishlist (100 on each) that I just don’t have the time for, so I’m good for the next couple years at least.
So yeah, maybe gaming will suck in a few years, maybe it won’t. There are still great games coming out that totally respect my time, and I don’t see any reason for that to stop. So if your friends are complaining about no good games, point them toward some of your favorites. Together we can show the big studios that traditional gaming is still very much in demand.
15 out of the 150 unplayed games in my library were released in the last two years. Two are AAA (Persona 5, Elden Ring) and two are what I‘d call AA (PAYDAY 3 (worst offender in pulling crap), Trine 5), the rest are indie games. Basically all of those games were bought on a discount during sales.
The only full price AAA game I‘m even considering buying in the next two years is Monster Hunter Wilds.
My biggest trigger regarding games at the moment is Paradox wanting 45 bucks for this year’s DLCs for Crusader Kings III; I fucking love that game and don‘t know what to do since I know that‘s an absolutely insane price tag.
But generally if you‘re patient, don‘t get baited by the newest shiny toy, and aren’t some sort of giga lawful consumer that won’t ever utilize emulation, you can have a blast with games now more than ever.
I think it’s going to get even better in the next few years, too. The tools for 3d modeling are poised to improve in a way that makes it dramatically easier to create very high quality graphics. Nanite is one component of this, reducing the need for multiple levels of detail in polygon-based rendering. But 3d reality capture is improving too, both thanks to hardware like depth sensors and software like Gaussian splatting and NeRFs.
Indie games are just going to keep getting better, basically. As will AA games. I think the days of the AAA blockbuster may be numbered.