The state of the gaming industry.

[MonkehMaster]

while im likely not the person best to articulate (forgive any mistakes in the writing, proof reading, typos, grammar, wrong words, or steam format from note pad) this, or have more than basic knowledge of business/ect.. and w/e other observations in my years playing games, here are my "thoughts" as a gamer since the early 80's.

i have thought about this since i noticed the decline in the past years, more so in recent events and with the addition of a speech i heard about innovation and how stagnant its become.

As majority of gamers know, the gaming industry has been in decline for quite awhile (more or less than a decade?).

keep in mind, this is why data harvesting exists in most software.

i believe it started somewhere down the line of dlc, then evolved through into hundreds of skins, hundreds of dlc created by stripping the base game (leading into games that cost into the hundreds or even nearing 1000), plus more mostly encompassing multiplayer games, not to mention the worst of it being monetizing singleplayer games and even putting anticheats in them, then selling exactly the things you would cheat for (for stuff as ridiculous as clearing the map so you can see everything...), in-game purchasable currency, the ridiculous pricing schemes for varying versions, or simply very high prices, ect.. the list annoyingly goes on.

also adding, stuff like drm, antitamper, ect.. though some may be fine, or not (circumstances depending), but... at the very least, "everything" being required to run the game, should be made known before purchase, customers need to know these things.

adding here, we also have all these third party launchers, that simply bypass steam to under cut and push advertising and data harvesting, among other "rationalizations" for it.

not to mention forced "signups" to sites of the company for number padding (between platforms), data harvesting, ect..

wont even go into the state of eula's and the constant changing of its terms at a whim to hold the customer under thumb with as little accountability as possible.

the insane pricing and monetization brought along the sales culture, almost everyone will wait for sales or buy elsewhere if cheaper.

remake after remake, remasters are fine if not the changes arent extreme, not to mention the various naming schemes used, when doing remakes/remasters, to cover not being innovative, ect..

on the topic of cheating, we are enabling cheating in multiplayer with the skins/ect.. market, its the number one reason people cheat, because they make money, while getting banned and coming right back, it ties in to the phishing/scams that hijack steam accounts and pilfer everything from the account, then proceed to test cheats, or cheat, or even sell to other cheaters, on these stolen accounts, yes users should be more responsible for themselves 100%, but imho they shouldn't be punished by losing money, items (because you are held accountable), or worse, or even being game banned, among other stuff.

steam allows people to freely create accounts, but it causes more harm than good and i dont personally see a need for more than one, or i just cant think of a good reason, imho...

yes ofc, we have people that will lie, but that doesn't discount those who may have been an actual victim.

adding that, anticheats are getting extremely more intrusive at the expense of the legit players, because of cheating and the enabling of it through economic gain and whomever the circle of money ends up...

myself ofc, i haven't had any issues like the people falling for scams/phishing (even web/downloading safety) and learned long ago that security starts at the user and anything extra is a safety net, thus im fully responsible for my own actions, but i have been false banned (got removed) once by an anticheat with zero explanation or apology for the embarrassment (mark on account and name posted on a site, all eventually removed), so i at least have that experience... i guess lol (despite never cheating in a multiplayer game in my life, singleplayer is another story).

with note to anticheat, we as customers at the detriment of cheaters, should not have to go above and beyond to suit removing them, i have seen people mention ids and various other identifying forms to link them, but we should not have to go this far.

back to the industry again, we come to the gaming companies, more important to the topic, all the classic companies that made so many of our past great games, favorites among majority of gamers today (older, but more importantly, the younger generation we see enjoying our now labeled "retro" games "of the past" and even devs seeing this , bringing them back, be it new with varying older style graphics, or old ones ported back.

with the ports of our older games, or not ports (i will get there) we have ports pushed out with updated graphics (most like, some dont, but both agree having a mode to play with the old), or changes in mechanics (most dont like, except for QOL improvements and objectionably bug fixes), or even devs selling emulators and roms of their games to customers, while complaining exactly about emulators and roms and their complaints surrounding them.

which brings me to game preservation, the industry (mostly seen from the big studios) is desperately trying to kill it, because they cant innovate anymore, among other ties mentioned above/below tying into this, but most notably money/politics over allowing us to play older games we bought.

we have companies actively in one form or another, trying to actively remove people from playing older games, to force them to move to their new games because "money" and other various things (good or bad), broken launchers stuffed into games years after not updating them, or even in-game ad nonsense that valve (thank you) banned devs from doing, simply breaking their old games, or even coming down to compatibility or other nonsense as tech/software move forward (maybe we can keep them working? if they have problems, so that money isnt wasted, cause our history matters and is what shaped us today as human beings).

here leads in to, "ownership"... where we have companies rendering games unplayable in some form, when its quite easily from the start or after, leaving your product, in an unsupported mode (or w/e?), rendering it playable (be it singleplayer, or in the case of multiplayer, private/public owned/rented servers allowing them to continue playing), but some refuse to do it because "money", even if we lose our money/product in the process, or even companies out right stating "you dont own your games" and yes im saying this while knowing (and still against) the nonsense licensing in their terms..., simply because if we wanted to rent games, we would still have millions of game rental stores on every corner and would have zero use for digital, over physical (which is a very real point).

then we have "online" singleplayers, which in some cases have lead to an unplayable game when they stop supporting/updating it, some not and clearly some companies view customers differently...

now as we move to more currents, where studios are outright dishonest about a varying many things (we all know what is going on, so i dont think i need to go on a rant about their blatant dishonesty), silencing complaints at every step, treating customers as if they aren't where they get money from, complaining about customers complaining about predatory practices, or people daring to speak up on the narrative programming/dei (out dated policy) and political nonsense, being put in games, instead of doing exactly what a company should be doing, making product "everyone" will buy, so they make money and continue being a business, without thinking funded programs are more important than your customers.

if they believe they need to push that stuff in games, why not make completely separate games, instead of going through big companies, hmmm?

i wont go into detail why, the current issues are in big game companies and not in their own company creating games, but im sure most can easily see what's going on, this isn't just a gaming industry issue, its a issue in companies outside of gaming, more so in the US that i personally know of, its gone way out of hand and im honestly surprised at, how little people stand up for themselves, or the defense of company actions, that are clearly bad, with bad attitudes, or worse... seriously.... you work for and buy from these companies lol.

forgot to add.... advertising, its coming out of every hole you can imagine, not just in games and its a real problem, some ads have been reported to be literal scams (outside of games) even.

adding, companies forgoing optimization, in favor of forcing customers to upgrade to their low standards and brute force performance, even if its still runs horrible... or devs saying "just upgrade your computer"... or the console performance metric used to cover up bad optimization, cause pc's 100% didnt magically get less powerful, its the games getting less optimized.

edit: adding this to the OP.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/601899933994364219/?ctp=6#c530969911486354331

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now i know many other things, that can be said around questioning some, though i may or may not agree with you, thats fine.

that's off the top of my head, i may add more if thought about, or not if mentioned by another.
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but in summation, the industries current state and the constant high price and siphoning of the gamers pocket, disrespect for customers, among other pressing matters, is ruining the gaming industry.

but also add, that the indie market has been quite great and even more so, while actively avoiding these big companies who "hate gamers" and do all they can to siphon our money, while actively telling us to buy it up and get mad when we "vote with our wallet".


with all that said, what does everyone else feel about it? got any ideas? or did i miss or forget something? are gamers right for standing up for not being used as rugs and money farms?
does the industry need change? i await your replies.

side note: up front i will not partake, or engage in purposeful dishonest engagement, if thats why you are here, please save it, im here for honest discourse and expect everyone else is as well, and any bad apples will be reported.

as well for moderation, please dont lock my thread for bad apples, handle them not the thread.

have a nice day and be kind

[MonkehMaster]

(reserved for space) char limits and such..

[xBCxRangers]

In short, the gaming industry that used to be about fun, has become a vile greedy business model, that is more in tuned with "taking" from their consumers, than giving. And in that, the Triple A industry in deep doo doo.

Thank you OP

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

In short, the gaming industry that used to be about fun, has become a vile greedy business model, that is more in tuned with "taking" from their consumers, than giving. And in that, the Triple A industry in deep doo.

Thank you OP

hopefully the gaming industry gets some love sometime soon

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

In short, the gaming industry that used to be about fun, has become a vile greedy business model, that is more in tuned with "taking" from their consumers, than giving. And in that, the Triple A industry in deep doo.

Thank you OP

Weird statement considering stated experience is a handful of PS2 games.

[Boblin the Goblin]

The gaming industry has been "dying" since 2016. It's seems to be a yearly cycle.

[Mad Scientist]

Indies seem to be doing fairly well as they tend to want to make a great product people will enjoy. AAAs tend to just do whatever.

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Indies seem to help doing fairly well as they tend to want to make a great product. AAAs tend to just do whatever.

true, lets not forget the self proclaimed AAAA's

[xBCxRangers]

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

In short, the gaming industry that used to be about fun, has become a vile greedy business model, that is more in tuned with "taking" from their consumers, than giving. And in that, the Triple A industry in deep doo.

Thank you OP

hopefully the gaming industry gets some love sometime soon :gk_smile:

Right well, idt they want to be loved. They want to be an ATM machine, whilst coming out with under par games, and wishing and hoping gambling addicted people will continue to buy their copy paste rubbish.

Or else, even giving the games away to try and lure people into that cycle countin on MTX to pull them through..

At the same time, small independent developers i feel are making strides, but the EA projects are going thru a lot of heat in being accused as charlatans looking for quick money grabs.

I think what's keeping the industry viable is only the fact, games are now more accessible than ever before.

Cross platform, stream services, phones (a huge industry right there) that continue the status quo for many of these studios and publishers.

But we are starting to see consumers voting with their wallets, and in that many studios laying off due to their under performing flops.

Lets hope they can right their wrongs, before we see a gaming crash that we may now even be in the midst of come to fruition.

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

hopefully the gaming industry gets some love sometime soon

Right well, idt they want to be loved. They want to be an ATM machine, whilst coming out with under par games, and wishing and hoping gambling addicted people will continue to buy their copy paste rubbish.

Or else, even giving the games away to try and lure people into that cycle.

At the same time, small independent developers i feel are making strides, but the EA projects are going thru a lot of heat in being accused as charlatans looking for quick money grabs.

I think what's keeping the industry viable is only the fact, games are now more accessible than ever before.

Cross platform, stream services, phones (a huge industry right there) that continue the status quo for many of these studios and publishers.

But we are starting to see consumers voting with their wallets, and in that many studios laying off due to their under performing flops.

Lets hope they can right their wrongs, before we see a gaming crash that we may now even be in the midst of come to fruition.

ya, i have so many great indies, sometimes it hard to choose what to play (with the addition of some being inclusive without forcing it down someone throat)... the big companies, with stifled innovations and predatory monetization just become easier and easier to ignore, while still letting them know, they are destroying themselves..

if indies can make games with out all the bs, why cant these big companies do it.... well we know exactly why, even with current situations, including the politics.

thinking maybe big studios might need to drop the activists and go back to their roots, before indies take their place.

[xBCxRangers]

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Right well, idt they want to be loved. They want to be an ATM machine, whilst coming out with under par games, and wishing and hoping gambling addicted people will continue to buy their copy paste rubbish.

Or else, even giving the games away to try and lure people into that cycle.

At the same time, small independent developers i feel are making strides, but the EA projects are going thru a lot of heat in being accused as charlatans looking for quick money grabs.

I think what's keeping the industry viable is only the fact, games are now more accessible than ever before.

Cross platform, stream services, phones (a huge industry right there) that continue the status quo for many of these studios and publishers.

But we are starting to see consumers voting with their wallets, and in that many studios laying off due to their under performing flops.

Lets hope they can right their wrongs, before we see a gaming crash that we may now even be in the midst of come to fruition.

ya, i have so many great indies, sometimes it hard to choose what to play (with the addition of some being inclusive without forcing it down someone throat)... the big companies, with stifled innovations and predatory monetization just become easier and easier to ignore, while still letting them know, they are destroying themselves..

if indies can make games with out all the bs, why cant these big companies do it.... well we know exactly why, even with current situations, including the politics.

thinking maybe big studios might need to drop the activists and go back to their roots, before indies take their place.

Yep, the indies are where it's at for me. I'm a proponent of Early Access, and myself never had an issue. I do have to "research" the game before buying it, but i have put in many hours on very enjoyable games.

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Originally posted by MonkehMaster:

ya, i have so many great indies, sometimes it hard to choose what to play (with the addition of some being inclusive without forcing it down someone throat)... the big companies, with stifled innovations and predatory monetization just become easier and easier to ignore, while still letting them know, they are destroying themselves..

if indies can make games with out all the bs, why cant these big companies do it.... well we know exactly why, even with current situations, including the politics.

thinking maybe big studios might need to drop the activists and go back to their roots, before indies take their place.

Yep, the indies are where it's at for me. I'm a proponent of Early Access, and myself never had an issue. I do have to "research" the game before buying it, but i have put in many hours on very enjoyable games.

i enjoy a rare few early access, been burned by a few (one i was burned by devs shutting down, but still like the game, despite being only half finished), so im very picky and watch them before buying.

not only just how often they update, the gameplay, its quality, good and negative reviews (baring steams spam review nonsense), the forums and the devs behavior, all leading to a buy or no buy, for everything really, but with the addition of buying on deep sales.

gotta way my risks and money now a days with these game companies.

[Boblin the Goblin]

I like how this went from implying the game's industry circling the drain to talking about the games industry have great games.

[xBCxRangers]

Originally posted by Boblin the Goblin:

I like how this went from implying the game's industry circling the drain to talking about the games industry have great games.

Unless you feel a few small indie games on Steam is going to fuel the whole gaming industry. I hope we're not insinuating that.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Originally posted by Boblin the Goblin:

I like how this went from implying the game's industry circling the drain to talking about the games industry have great games.

Unless you feel a few small indie games on Steam is going to fuel the whole gaming industry. I hope we're not insinuating that.

"A few small indie games."

If there was only a few and they were small, it wouldn't be a talking point.

[MonkehMaster]

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Originally posted by Boblin the Goblin:

I like how this went from implying the game's industry circling the drain to talking about the games industry have great games.

Unless you feel a few small indie games on Steam is going to fuel the whole gaming industry. I hope we're not insinuating that.

seems to be a bad faith argument, best to ignore.