Remember the old days of complaints people had against the industry?

[Fallen Soldier]

But you havent explained to me what you consider a risk. All you ever do is shit on AAA developers because they are AAA. But what are these risks you speak of, what makes Indivisible a risk when all it is is a simple turn based rpg.

What risks are being taken that doesnt exist in the AAA space?

Maybe because most AAA games these days are either open world games with crafting mechanics, interactive movies with sub par gameplay but with pretty graphics and FPS shooters. Obviously not every AAA game is like that but when the big publishers air drop a AAA game every year it’s almost always the most unimaginable and generic AAA game we seen before.

What’s that another CoD game? What’s that another generic Ubisoft open world game that isn’t far too different from one other? What’s that another Naughty Dog/Hideo Kojima walking sim with basic gun play but pretty graphics?

Honestly it’s kinda hard to be excited for some of these big budgeted games when they feel like games you played one or two last gens ago.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Maybe because most AAA games these days are either open world games with crafting mechanics, interactive movies with sub par gameplay but with pretty graphics and FPS shooters. Obviously not every AAA game is like that but when the big publishers air drop a AAA game every year it’s almost always the most unimaginable and generic AAA game we seen before.

The lack of a budget does not make a game risky. @BrawlMan Specifically said, that risk is whatever AAA is NOT doing, but I dunno The Last of Us 2 was pretty risky. And what you are describing applies to more of the Western Developers and not really the AAA-industry as a whole. Plenty of wild shit comes out of Japan.

And if you want proof you can sse it in the drop out in ugly brown FPS that used to get pumped out by the dozens during the PS3/360 era.

For better or worse, the games industry does change, and does evolve and sometimes it's not great but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Indie games are like small boats, they ride their own trends usually like the emphasis of non-combat horror games, Slenderman, Amnesia, Outlast, FNAF, etc. Then you have the platformy souls-likes such as Dead Cells, Salt and Sanc, Blastphemous, etc.

The difference is indie games can pivot and dart around with different game types like a fast speed boat. Quick turns, because there isn't a lot of weight behind them.

Meanwhile AAA-company are like giant Cargoships, they can turn but it often takes hours to change course because they are huge and there is a lot involved in changing directions. So what typically happens is a slow turning of the ship over years, which you see happen in many games with small changes that gradually change the shape of the games overall. For example, Assassin's Creed gradually tried to change itself to become more open and more spread out, until it needed a break to shift into Assassin's Creed Origins. They were already changing the series with 3 and beyond, eventually leading to this new direction. And there are even changes through Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla to the point that Valhalla has a very different feel to it than Origins did. Just ask @Dalisclock

 

[BrawlMan]

The lack of a budget does not make a game risky.

Depending on the circumstances. Not everything is 1:1.

Specifically said, that risk is whatever AAA is NOT doing, but I dunno The Last of Us 2 was pretty risky.

Other story and character, there was not much of a risk. The game did more than great in the West. Now it did bomb in Japan though.

And what you are describing applies to more of the Western Developers and not really the AAA-industry as a whole.

Capcom, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and Konami have all screwed up in some way, made the same mistakes, or tried to screw the consumers over too. Capcom at least learned something, and Namco occasionally tries not to screw up too much. DLC, overly expensive season passes, and other shit they copied from Western AAA companies. Sometimes doing it even worse or scummier.

Plenty of wild shit comes out of Japan.

1. Japan is nowhere near as big as it was during the Golden Age and 6th generation. You're talking like it's the old days.
2. While the Japanese are willing to take more risks by comparison to Western studios, they still have plenty moments of either playing it safe or not taking that many risks.
3. A lot of Japanese companies nowadays are either the size indie or AA studios. Some work in-housing with bigger Japanese AAA companies, coloaborate with them, or the company out-sources to them. That's what Capcom has been doing since the 7th generation with a lot of the big and small projects.
4. The only Japanese AAA games that I know that took more risks than any of the companies I just mentioned are Nintendo (85% of the time), Grasshopper Studios, and especially Platinum*Games.

 

[BrawlMan]

Remember Online Passes that was made to kill or tax the used games market.

Remember On-Disc DLC?

Remember Pre-Order Bonuses based on different retailer chains you go to?

Remember the complaints against continuous sequels to multiplayer games that felt like glorified map packs?

Remember.......The Dumbing Down of Hardcore games to appeal to a casual audience (We want Dragon Age 2 to appeal to the Call of Duty crowd)

Watch this. The best part of the punchline is at 2:14.

​

 

[Gergar12]

Because EA, Activism, and Ubisoft somewhat are full of assholes from business schools who think they are the masters of the universe.

 

[immortalfrieza]

The "old days" are today, only in worse-if-slightly-different ways; what's your point? That our complaining only caused the industry to double down with worse monetization practices? "The Industry" has one agenda: money. We've only made it worse on ourselves by making "money" easier for The Industry to come by when we lowered our expectations and accepted that we'd buy anything they put on offer. If Halo 6 was literally a wet shit in a DVD box, it'd still probably sell millions of copies and those who paid for it would b*tch about the stench while complaining about the changes necessary for Halo 7.

The indiscretions of the PS3/360 era are nothing compared to what came in the PS4/XBone era and continue to get worse to this very day. The Industry found out what they could get away with and continue to push the envelope. At this point, I'm not even mad at The Industry anymore; I'm mad at gamers who don't demand better, and the fact that we've now a generation of gamers who don't even KNOW better, so the incentive for appreciable change is all but nonexistent.

What the video game industry found out was that, by instead of wasting time and effort trying to make great games that make their consumers give loyalty because they deserve it, they could instead make lazy zero effort games which only had being shiny as a draw. This is because people like us, the kind of people who care enough to notice and go on websites like this and post about the crap the industry is pulling are a tiny microscopic minority now. Instead, the audience that the industry is seeking to grab is the casual gamers whose only interest is in picking up any random thing that will kill an evening or two, not about the actual quality.

The gamers DO demand better, but it's like a dust speck trying to scream loud enough for the International Space Station to hear it. The video game industry keeps getting away with the crap it does because the people who don't know or don't care are the ones the industry caters to. The kind of people who won't listen to people like us.

And that's the way it's always going to be, now that the video games have moved from the shameful thing only pathetic losers living in their mom's basement do to the mainstream that everybody that doesn't live in third world countries with no electricity are doing in some capacity.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Watch this. The best part of the punchline is at 2:14.

​

Brink makes me sad.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Maybe because most AAA games these days are either open world games with crafting mechanics, interactive movies with sub par gameplay but with pretty graphics and FPS shooters. Obviously not every AAA game is like that but when the big publishers air drop a AAA game every year it’s almost always the most unimaginable and generic AAA game we seen before.

What’s that another CoD game? What’s that another generic Ubisoft open world game that isn’t far too different from one other? What’s that another Naughty Dog/Hideo Kojima walking sim with basic gun play but pretty graphics?

Honestly it’s kinda hard to be excited for some of these big budgeted games when they feel like games you played one or two last gens ago.

Well technically, Kojima has only made one walking sim. MGSV doesn’t count because although it’s open world and there is a lot of traversing involved:

-It is chock full of gameplay mechanics, tools, strategically varied companions, vehicles, etc.

-It is the most replayable game in the series thanks to the above, and also because of its
drop-in mission structure. I know this because I’ve put over two hundred hours into it so far and am still not bored

-You can also run full tilt sans stamina penalty


Now, if we’re talking about Death Stranding, yes it could technical be called a walking sim at its core, but again, the amount of thought put into those mechanics makes it a walking sim on steroids. I mean, what other walking sim can take a nearly two hour video to explain them -

 

[Dreiko]

I think most of those are still there, we just have new stuff to add on top to those.


But yeah as for an oldie but goodie I remember the dark ages of Japanese games being dub only in the west. Now we live in the best future where everything is dual audio if not just in the original language but the dark dub ages were definitely a harsh environment.

 

[Gyrobot]

I think most of those are still there, we just have new stuff to add on top to those.


But yeah as for an oldie but goodie I remember the dark ages of Japanese games being dub only in the west. Now we live in the best future where everything is dual audio if not just in the original language but the dark dub ages were definitely a harsh environment.

We are also living in a time where pandering to niche JRPGs and Japanese isn't as viable and even Sony realize that and start mistreating you weebs hard enought that some are jumping to Nintendo in hopes of being their savior.

 

[BrawlMan]

Brink makes me sad.

Not me. I saw the writing on the wall, the moment the first gameplay trailer was revealed. I learned the easy way not to get too involved with the hype. I knew a guy in college who was ssssooooooooo disappointed with Brink. Played it for 3 weeks and traded it in for something else. I'd had never seen someone so heartbroken with a game before.

 

[Dreiko]

We are also living in a time where pandering to niche JRPGs and Japanese isn't as viable and even Sony realize that and start mistreating you weebs hard enought that some are jumping to Nintendo in hopes of being their savior.

It's more pc than nintendo actually, since western pc publishers are releasing a lot of uncensored stuff that even in Japan was pixelated. Like for example we just got full metal daemon muramasa in English, and this is a game we've been asking for 12 years now.

 

[Trunkage]

You know what got my posting on these forums? ME3 ending.

Those were the days, weren't they?

 

[Jarrito3002]

I think I get the gist of your post. Like back then all that stuff was fuckshit but now today it feels like its even worse. Like I don't want to deal with that shit again but if given the option of less shit I will take those olden day complaints over all this "live service", and now this weird ass NFT nonsense integration the hell the suppposed to be.

But that attack on used games can fuck off forever.

You know what got my posting on these forums? ME3 ending.

Those were the days, weren't they?

There was no winners in that everyone was holding a big L. No one was without sin during that debacle.

 

[Eacaraxe]

...MGSV doesn’t count because although it’s open world and there is a lot of traversing involved...

The irony of this being, the MGS series is one that's gotten progressively easier and felt simpler as the series progressed, due to technical limitations being lifted, the games adapting to newer industry trends, and mechanics shifting to account for theme, with each installment. The apex of that contrast is between Snake Eater and Subsistence, where improved guard behavior made the game a bear to play in the series' original overhead view whilst stripping players of permanent radar, but interactive third-person camera all but trivialized it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

There was no winners in that everyone was holding a big L. No one was without sin during that debacle.

As someone who never even finished the first Mass Effect, I effectively had no opinion on the ending of the trilogy!