WhiteShark wrote: ↑
June 28th, 2025, 18:11
It's funny you say this as a zoomer to a user base that's mostly millenials or older (i.e. people who lived through the past you're talking about). Can't you see that pretty much everything is on a downward trajectory? The games industry is no exception.
psychic_dream wrote: ↑
June 28th, 2025, 13:47
They cherry pick the big hits from older generations and are like, “See? Gaming was way better before the PS3/Xbox 360 era. We got smash hit after smash hit every year!” as if all the B tier slavjank and licensed junk never existed.
It's about the ratio of good games and who's making them. It used to be that big game studios could and did make good games. Now they don't. Good games now mostly come out of the indiesphere, and, for every good one, there's a mountain of trash. Nobody's arguing that bad games didn't exist before or that good games don't exist now.
To put it in concrete terms, it used to be that I could walk into a store, pick a game based on its box art and promo text, and walk out with a pretty good game. I remember, in particular, that every game I bought for the DS turned out to be good to excellent, and I bought a fair number of them. That wouldn't work these days.
psychic_dream wrote: ↑
June 28th, 2025, 13:47
Then they blame the industry’s decline on things like bloated bureaucracy from over hiring and DEI. I don’t recall people ever being openly hostile toward industry workers back then, because why would they be?
So you acknowledge there's a decline? Have you considered that we weren't so mad at the game industry back then because it hadn't declined yet?
Nowhere in my previous statement did I present it as, “The past has always been this bad, buddy. Stop looking at the past through rose tinted glasses.”
The thing is the pre modern gaming scene wasn’t as flawless as many here assume. I’ve known older millennials who had this view, e.g., being disappointed by what Wind Waker turned out to be compared to its early tech demos.
Was it better than it is nowadays? Yeah definitely. I’m not going to pretend that gaming “has never been better than ever before” like many Redditors assert. But it wasn’t perfect either.
I believe the deep dissatisfaction with the gaming industry stems from a broader disillusionment with nerd culture. Once these loosely connected hobbies went mainstream and the stigma around them disappeared, the enshittification of our escapist refuge began and it never really recovered.
On top of that, the strange and often unhealthy attachment to consumer products and turning them into an identity comes from Western culture slowly losing meaning. Many young men cling to fictional, made up worlds as something to relate to. Endeavor made a video about this topic, and I recommend watching it. It’s highly informative.
To address your second point, it corresponds to what I said earlier about gaming becoming too big. The ratio of decent to terrible games looked better at the time because you didn’t need hundreds of employees or massive marketing to profit from a title on handhelds like the PSP or DS. Same goes for the PS2, to a lesser extent. That model isn’t viable anymore. Modern games that aren't indie require huge investments in graphics, voice acting, sound design, marketing, etc.
Also, much of the discontent with major franchises today comes from people who were introduced to them during a less corporate era.
“Man I grew up on Metal Gear Solid and God of War. To see the former become an open world snorefest and the latter turn into a cinematic slog where you raise someone else’s son is pretty depressing.” I get why some feel that way. The blame falls on both the industry and the devs. Is it sad? Sure. Am I emotionally stunned by it? Not at all.
To conclude, no, I’m not going to ignore the damage caused by hiring useless, incompetent employees who do nothing but busywork, or the impact of DEI and ESG nonsense. It’s a serious issue but not the core problem. I’ve seen people genuinely think gaming went to hell solely because of Sweet Baby Inc and the mulatto woman who runs it. That misses the bigger picture. Gaming today is beyond saving. It’s grown too huge to be left alone. The only thing that might change that is a full societal collapse. Obviously no one is going to destroy civilization over video games or movies.
Despite our disagreements, I appreciate that you gave a well thought out and reasoned reply. Some users resorted to childish lash outs and name calling, presuming I’m some crypto Marxist trying to ruin their space out of spite.
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