AAA Gaming is Over

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[@fokker1138]

Women are not 50% of gamers. Mobile games are not gaming. They're time eaters.

[@hiiambarney4489]

Mindless time waste for a mindless audience. I'm not saying they are stupid. I just find most, if not all women I've interacted with in my life (which are many, believe it or not) are super adapted to learning what is being told. They are successful in our current School system and very susceptible to political indoctrination for a reason. But they lack the ability to think critically in a lot of cases. Genetically and historically speaking, this makes a lot of sense, though in the current twist of events this turns out for them to go against you because of a perceived majority of people, which they will always side with. (Again, this was always the case throughout history)

[@wbkxx]

They are slot machines - and that is coming from someone who wrote a version of Candy Crush for King!

[@Rellikan]

99% of mobile games are but you would be ignorant if you don't follow the massive surge in popularity of Mobile Legends in Asia. Particularly SEA. SEAs are too poor to afford regular PC rigs or consoles so the competitive online gaming has funneled into the easy access of competitive mobile titles like Mobile Legends. There's also Diablo IV which recently hit 1 million total revenue.

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

​@@Rellikan Diablo 4 isn't a mobile title

[@fokker1138]

@@Rellikan I must have imagined all the SEAs that I've gamed with over the years in PC titles.

[@arisaga822]

I’d like to thank woke culture. I’ve saved so much money from only playing old games, watching old movies, and reading old books. Thanks!

[@Andri474]

Yeah but it destroyed almost all of the potential for modern sequels to old games. They just make sequels, and they're all bad. I played the old games, I wanted something more, but I can't have that anymore.

[@cryptotharg7400]

@@Andri474 Correct. Femi-Gay Wokeism will not allow us to have nice things.

[@bartsanders1553]

Woke culture made sure Seven Days to Die still has 36,000 players 11 after it's beta release. This year it released Alpha and it's still being updated.

[@CNotez-uo8kp]

Gotta take those silver linings when you can...

[@bwilson774]

Wait until you read a history book from before the 1960s

[@ChillyJack]

"Squirrel With A Gun" If only Peanut had had one.

[@FreerunningGamer]

They'd have put him down anyway because you can't defend your own life in New York.

[@MINKIN2]

"I just wanted to play video games" ~Carl Benjamin

[@maxstrike3022]

"Beware the man who wants to be left alone"

[@martinzemek5798]

We all did.

[@ramblingimbecile2295]

Woke video games saved Carl. He put the controller down, lost a load of weight, started to groom himself and now he is super successful

[@Clembo]

"I just wanted to paint." - Austrian shouty man

[@Anotherguy1st]

As do we all!

[@F0reman371]

Yes, because they're pitching it as AAAA gaming now. Ten times the price, one tenth the content. And you don't even own anything (and we'll be happy)

[@ApophisTw0Thousand6309]

One tenth the content for ten times the file size.

[@Andri474]

And will last about 4 times less. Brilliant strategy, games "industry"!

[@Treblaine]

Well, I'm happy to not buy it.

[@sik3xploit]

Their arrogance has put their heads so high in the clouds they forgot they need the regular consumer to actually pay them.

[@MelissasArt]

I've been pretty much a lifelong gamer. Was born in 85. So I grew up during the Nintendo vs. SEGA era. I miss those days.

[@jaysonrees738]

My last game purchase? Factorio: Space Age. I'm not giving money to get preached at to be gay.

[@rayvg7709]

Yippee space colonisation and bug fighting.

[@HunterStiles651]

I ended up returning three games in one week back in September. Persona 3 Reload, A Hat in Time, and Black Myth: Wukong. The first two ran like absolute dog crap. Black Myth: Wukong was just 128 GB and I decided I liked my PC unmolested by CCP spyware.

[@EndGamer1075]

The factory grows.

[@baileygregg6567]

Huh… why do I bet it’s coming from Asia

[@I_am_that_one_guy]

Oh, corporate communism didn't force you Morley to conform? Shocking, force will need to be applied like always? Wow.

[@jgfitzpatrick]

Sargon has a lot to be proud about with that transformation

[@acmhfmggru]

A lot indeed. A tonne even. At least several stone, for sure.

[@sezcam79]

He's wearing well

[@RossKempOnYourMum01]

Looksmaxxed

[@traiforse5777]

I was surprised at his "Right Wing Vaush" era. I've only heard his voice by that period.

[@leroyrobertson5221]

I never made the connection before. Cool! Carl is embarrassing me ... he is doing my aging progression, but in reverse.

[@vincetyler8416]

Carls appearance went from the humble blacksmith to philosopher king. Great job man, you've spent about a decade kicking ass. Love to see it.

[@napoleonfeanor]

He looks like just another suit

[@Gunzy83]

​@@napoleonfeanorApplebee's?

[@ThatGuy-ky2yf]

​@@napoleonfeanor Don't deny his Swindon swag

[@mikelitten7489]

We may have to tolerate it at work We may have to tolerate it at school We WILL NOT tolerate that woke bullshit in our games.

[@Hadgerz]

wait, why do we have to tolerate groomers and anti-ytes at work and school?

[@BobBurnham-o6w]

@@Hadgerz We don't.

[@livedandletdie]

I'm glad I work as a cleaner, I do my work, and I don't have to communicate with anyone at all.

[@hiiambarney4489]

And we shouldn't have tolerated it to begin with.

[@mikelitten7489]

@ Agreed, but we don’t have a Time Machine. We can make our stand and make our fight right here and now though 👍

[@bobmathews9072]

I still chuckle at the greatest own goal in gaming history , Far Cry 5 and Ubisofts song "Keep Your Rifle By Your Side" . They thought they'd take the piss out of Christians , "Right Wingers" & survivalists . But the "right wing" loved it and adopted it as their anthem , leaving egg all over the face of Ubisoft , who shut the comments down on their KZbin video when they twigged what was going on 😂

[@ozfifer7392]

Well, we Americans did the same thing with Yankee Doodle Dandy. Histor just rhymes don't it?

[@alexrennison8070]

That song is actually brilliant.

[@ozfifer7392]

@@alexrennison8070 Which one though?

[@StevenMeti]

The FC5 cult songs in general are just surprisingly good

[@Mankepanke]

NOOOOOO! IT'S SATIRE! DON'T YOU SEE THAT THE SONG IS TAKING THE HEKKIN' PISS OUT OF YOU! ARE YOU COMPLETELY MEDIA ILLITERATE!? Yes, we know. It's a banger though.

[@inglepropnoosegarm7801]

You have to be a bit strange to pay for your own indoctrination.

[@jaideepshekhar4621]

That's called college.

[@tomwinterfishing9065]

Taxification

[@LordTyph]

Cults tend to do that.

[@anonymous3637]

The Western World is paying for its own replacement, this is rookie stuff

[@BattleBro77]

That's called taxes.

[@stev3548]

I work in AAA and i'm pleased to report our studio isn't insane and everyone's either apolitical or actually pretty reasonable and it does not come into our work at all. However I am privy to the HR department's internal chat/meetings, so I have to watch a bunch of they/thems talking all day about how gay their favorite pokemon are while the rest of us actually do work. What these people actually do i have no idea, i've never interacted with any of them either professionally or not. The HR people are like a priestly class of developmentally stunted children we've given a weird holy status over everyone else. Baffling.

[@dragonhold4]

HR Department = 'Barbarians at the gate'

[@gossamera4665]

@@dragonhold4 More like inside the gates.

[@stev3548]

@@dragonhold4 Well yeah, but officially i have no idea

[@Rellikan]

HR is supposed to guide hirings and firings in line with labour laws and recently, quotas.

[@Psyche_TH]

Yes, whether or not your particular HR department is any good is another matter but generally the purpose of HR is to advise and counsel on decisions to do with staff so that if and when something goes wrong the company cannot be sued because they did everything right. The company's bottom line is their ultimate interest, whether or not the individuals you interact with seem like good people.

[@nathanc5778]

Gamers are now successfully boycotting Sweet Baby Inc.

[@nikodimus86]

I'd like to agree, but Veilguard was on the list and too many people bought that.

[@boobah5643]

@@nikodimus86 _Veilguard_ wasn't a Sweet Baby game. Their most recent offering was _Unknown 9: Awakening._ Is _Veilguard_ everything one would expect from a Sweet Baby game? Sure. And it's certainly under performing considering its pedigree (it's assumed the mantle of a _Dragon Age_ title) and the money EA pumped into it over eight years. Some people _will_ buy it because of that pedigree, however. You were insane if you thought it would disappear the way _Concord, Dustborn,_ or _Unknown 9_ did.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

@@nikodimus86 are you sure given the development cost is 250 million and they cant even crack 4 million

[@crazymcgee3604]

@@nikodimus86 75,000 concurrent players would be very respectful for a game with 1/5th the budget but this is an EA game that took 8 years to make. It will not pull a Concord level of financial failure but this game's sales - which will drop off considerably as the weeks go on - has made this IP useless to EA.

[@hiiambarney4489]

@@nikodimus86 Veilwhat? I was too busy playing Dragonball and Throne And Liberty.

[@cale4331]

The small fact that the left overlooked about gamers is that we enjoy conflict with enemies.

[@greatclubsandwich5612]

"No peace... I want problems always!" The biggest thing is that you can't control old games that are already great. We can play older games longer than these companies can stay solvent... Then we'll make our own.

[@antihebrew]

You like female homosexuality, provided the women are hawt, but male gayness still grosses you out.

[@RinaRavyn]

They picked a bossfight they couldnt win.

[@TrivialCoincidence]

"Unfortunately for you, I'm used to fighting hideous orcs!"

[@dragonhold4]

@cale4331 👍 Well said

[@Mr_Gently_Benevolent]

Come on Carlgon, give Josh a raise he was complaining he couldn't afford his games a few weeks back and now you're rubbing it in with a gaming segment.

[@gowanlore2434]

#getjoshgames

[@mattyice852]

Give Josh a raise! Everyone say it! Give Josh a raise!!

[@acmhfmggru]

Fire Connor and give Josh a raise.

[@swyjix]

Give Josh a Gaming Segment!

[@MrDUneven]

I can't believe Josh has this many alt accounts

[@urphakeandgey6308]

I don't play video games much anymore, but what made me truly fall out of it is how almost every game by ~2016 was hell-bent on combating "toxicity," which basically just meant prepare for a perma-ban and being forced to buy the game again under a new account if you talked even the mildest crap to someone. Call me a misogynist, but I kind of blame the growing number of women in gaming. When it was mostly guys, the chats were literal anarchy. As soon as "female gamers" became a thing, that's when all this "toxicity is a problem" BS became a huge thing and it ruined the social aspect of online gaming. That's why no one talks in-game anymore unless they absolutely have to.

[@techpriest6962]

More like Female Consultants, Activists, and Self Proclaimed "Developers." When it comes to female "gamers" if you remove mobile phones they are only 14% of players. With 70% on handheld devices (Nintendo) and 28% on console (Mostly Nintendo), and like 1-2% on PC. So there is really no reason to market the entire industry to that single digit percentages that play Xbox, PS, or PC. Since most girls are playing on their phones, handheld, and other Nintendo products. They are using Japanese females to try and suggest the rest of the world is the same.

[@HeroSword_P]

Yep

[@techpriest6962]

This users reply has been _____ by Big Brother for speaking the truth.

[@submachinegun5737]

In most of these cases it’s probably not the group itself causing the issue, but woke morons virtue signaling on behalf of said group. Eg I’m sure most Puerto Ricans laughed at the trash island joke and only the corporate press and twitter wokists raised a fuss.

[@Skitch213]

Agreed. Back in the early days of online gaming on consoles, those lobbies were like the Wild West. They were where I developed my sense of humour, bonded with my buds, thickened my skin, and honed my wit for making comebacks. Unironically, having squeakers scream about fornicating with my mother and people screaming racial obscenities made me a stronger, more resilient person.

[@MrBasedLevi]

All the video games I have bought recently are at least 6-7 years old. I am not interested in any new games.

[@PumpkinHoard]

Quite a few good games these day, on PC at least. But they are mostly indie games. Baldurs Gate 3 is legitimately the closest thing to a really good AAA title recently. All the big game developers have been completely corrupted beyond redemption.

[@mrdrybonestv]

@@PumpkinHoardBalder’s Gate is woke too though.

[@lolcat5303]

@@PumpkinHoard You're not wrong, but also a lot of the indies are woke af as well, like Dustborn. It's not an AAA/indy split in that sense.

[@PumpkinHoard]

@@mrdrybonestv It's really not. Are there gay people in it? Sure. I think probably the closest thing to something actively woke and setting breaking is a gnome man that has a husband. Sure, you wouldn't have seen that in old D&D, but D&D and rpgs in general are all about freedom to do as you want. I have no problem, in this setting with some degree of reasonable inclusion in this regard. It doesn't break the setting to me. That's not the case with all games though. In this instance it makes sense to create a world where people can be what they want to be without real consequence for it. BG3 absolutely knocked it out of the park on the freedom element. You can be an absolute monster in this game if you want to. Compare that Veilguard where they won't even let you say something mean in a dialogue. BG3 lets people do what they want without ramming it down your throat. You can be a girl with a dick in BG3. However if you don't choose that you're never going to encounter that. You can be gay in BG3, but there is absolutely no requirement for that nor will such things be ham fistedly rammed in your face throughout the game. Just the same as you can slaughter the druids grove full of innocent Tieflings or brutally murder beloved party members. It's all down to player choice, which is precisely what and rpg should be

[@jacobesterson]

@@mrdrybonestv It isn't too in your face about it though. It's visible enough to be annoying, but it's not so intrusive that it negates the fact that it's an amazing game outside of the fact. If you want something even less woke though, try Larian's previous title - Divinity: Original Sin 2. I personally enjoyed it more than BG3 and it's a similar quality game. Much harder as well IMO.

[@blowfish1702]

Their mistake is in thinking women approach hobbies in the same way men do. They are trying to attract a market that largely won't blow cash on frivolous things involving games.

[@youngwt1]

I see women play mobile games on the tube regularly, but I can’t ever imagine anyone would block out an hour of their day just for a mobile game, I also can’t imagine anyone paying good money for one, they are just distractions from the tediousness

[@Rellikan]

Mobile gaming is extremely profitable. Women are the actors of 80% of wider market purchases. Women definitely purchase cosmetic character options in gaming as much as men do. There is Mobile Legends which has its own South East Asian tournament. And you have other games like Diablo IV (probably mostly male) that hit 1 million total revenue.

[@indiomoustafa2047]

Yeah women are easier to fleece, what else is new? Lol

[@PrincessTidge]

You really did Carl dirty with this one, Dan 😂😂

[@longiusaescius2537]

@PrincessTidge Kino avatar

[@PrincessTidge]

@@longiusaescius2537 Aw, thanks

[@Raffinari]

Tidge is still alive? Wowee I haven't seen you since 2018.

[@OseronPhaer]

Oh no, not Chubby Carl™.

[@BobBurnham-o6w]

Dirty Dan

[@_uncredited]

My simple strategy is to not buy anything that meets any one of the following criteria: Live Service. Modern Audience. £40+

[@joba4848]

Quite right. And I only buy games when they are on sale on Steam, and then only if they’ve been positively reviewed by those I trust. Most of my games are from independents.

[@dmtaboo_truth7052]

The only new game I'll be buying on release at full price is Kingdom Come 2. Polish developer who don't bend the knee to wokeness.

[@IndexLibrorumProhibitorum]

@@dmtaboo_truth7052 They are Czech, and the game is about Czech history. Never call them Polish ever again lmao. On a side note, the most popular Polish dev studio, CDPR, is hyper woke and ESG compliant so it really means nothing.

[@dmtaboo_truth7052]

@@IndexLibrorumProhibitorum Lol, my bad. Knew it was eastern European but don't know why I thought Polish.

[@vadandrumist1670]

Putting Silksong in the thumbnail gave me such false hope that something had finally come up with it.

[@Uppernorwood976]

Bait used to be believable

[@superplayerex2431]

Silksong is NEVER coming out. I gave up waiting for it years ago, so nowadays I just treat it like Half-Life 3 -- a mirage, pure vaporwave.

[@nathanmcdowell4731]

It'll release about the same time that The Winds of Winter releases

[@Tredenix]

Ah, see the thumbnail gave me false despair that the woke mind virus got to it, so I'm glad to see nothing of the sort in the full segment.

[@Boss-_]

​@@superplayerex2431Half-Life 3 is actually more likely to be a thing soon (by Valvetime) than it probably ever was. I know that doesnt say much, since Valve could just finish 95% of it and scrap the whole thing because they didnt like a soundeffect in a one-off event like usual, but still.

[@TheWisdomTree77]

Not only does the gameplay just suck in modern games, the yellow paint is everywhere, and the dialogue sounds like the HR commissar always in the room with a loaded gun

[@nathanperquin9910]

and the yellow paint is because people are to braindead to try and interact with their environment otherwise, plus because they keep just upping graphics, back in the day interactable walls and ledges tended to somewhat stand out due to graphical limitations. but yeah most of it is just because players ability to intuit out how things work is dropping so they need to be handheld like babies

[@trevorp8124]

My favorite part of SW Outlaws was right before the Rebels show up, where there's like literally 15s of dead silence with no dialogue and a single fixed camera angle as the crew just leans around inside the cockpit, flicking switches and hitting buttons.

[@harbl99]

SW Outlaws Carl: "It looks nice." That's promotional artwork dear boy, not in-engine footage.

[@MegaShiels]

It didnt show her face

[@PsychicAlchemy]

​@@MegaShielsI think they improved the face, though I didn't play it myself.

[@MegaShiels]

@@PsychicAlchemy Did they?man that face was ugly as sin couldnt believe that was supposed to be the main character when i first saw it.

[@jeanbethencourt1506]

@Psychic nope.

[@foamige]

WORTH A BUY! Mack is a legend. Ive been supporting him for years. Get him on the show!

[@JagdgeschwaderX]

Same it was awesome to see him clipped on The Lotus Eaters

[@Trazynn]

'AAA' gaming turned into a genre onto itself. The same formula of intricate environment filled with chores and endless well acted cut-scenes. Change the IP and you still have the same mass-produced slop.

[@ryanmoore4920]

imagine if even a third of the people that constantly say vote with your wallet, actually did......

[@SwiftGuyver.]

It's slowly but surely started to happen this last year or two, Suicide Squad, Concord, Star Wars Outlaws, Forspoken, Saint's Row reboot etc were all huge financial flops and I'm sure Dragon Age Veilguard, AC Shadows etc will follow suit. More and more normies are waking up and noticing.

[@troyrenlen6459]

@@SwiftGuyver. Those games did poorly because they were bad games, regardless of the politics. A lot of people have the mindset of not caring what agenda the game is pushing if they deem it to be a good and fun game. That's the problem.

[@TheReal_birbwizard]

​@@troyrenlen6459 the agenda came first instead of making a good game. That was the problem. Their Priorities are in the wrong order. Should be 1) make good game 2) money 3) anything else. They currently have make good game last as a priority.

[@troyrenlen6459]

@@TheReal_birbwizard I'd agree to there being more than one problem. They hired people based on checkboxes rather than merit which led to those people with a lower skill producing a lower quality product. But then you have examples like BG3 that disprove the claim 'go woke, go broke.' Most people didn't care about how progressive BG3 was. Any inclusion of pronouns or 'body type' is ideological, and even Elden Ring included it. But people didn't care and bought it anyway.

[@bakedturkeys2132]

@@TheReal_birbwizard their politics are abhorent though. I could understand and even get behind a good game that suports the taliban as the protagonists because their mindset and views are simple and easy to understand. The left's politics literally make no sense as it's in constant contradiction with itself. Believe all women, but they don't know what a woman is. Protect women, unless there is a trans person or immigrant in the equation. Green energy but they use the most expensive inefficient and toxic forms of energy as opposed to nuclear. MGS 1 and 2 fight against the proxy forever wars mirrors the right wings lay person's stance against such wars and that's why ideas like that make sense and people loved it for that.

[@lukeporras1288]

Man, Carl is looking so much better nowadays. He looks happier, healthier, and so much more dignified.

[@Silath01]

What do you mean?

[@dodgywheelsandropeywiring5697]

@@Silath01 Well he looked a right f'ing scruff when he was younger.

[@pbh81]

Somehow he looks younger

[@mercurymachines4311]

Correction - Western AAA gaming is over. Japan, Korea and China are killing it.

[@hiiambarney4489]

Honestly, Japan is slowly starting to slip, not only in gaming politics (Crapcom is a great example here) but overall politics. But I agree, overall.

[@mercurymachines4311]

@ Capcom have been killing it for the last few years.

[@Coconut-219]

@@hiiambarney4489 yeah. Sony and SquareEnix are two companies I'm not buying anything from, censorship and trash writing / localization. (Nintendo too but not for the same reasons.)

[@troyrenlen6459]

Dan explaining Frostpunk 2 is the best sales pitch for a game I've ever heard.

[@harbl99]

Carl: "Is this a video game or a man!festo?"

[@PosranaRegistrace]

And it sounds really cool, but if it is just like first Frostpunk or IXION, it is a hard pass. I loved the settings of these games, but the gameplay is a letdown because of nonsensical mechanics put into game just to make it harder.

[@Dionach]

Yes, I looked the game up on Steam based on Dan's description of it lol

[@BattleBro77]

​@@PosranaRegistrace it's worse than the 1st game

[@RosaKaraline]

Female gamer here. SNES was my first game system and I played DOS games on pc when I was 6 lol. Grew up with various consoles and played some pc games, Tomb Raider being my favourite of all time. I also had an older brother I used to play games with all the time (so many fond memories of the Streets of Rage series). I loved that masculine energy in the gaming sphere and I never wanted it to change, but I would say unfortunately that's not true for all female gamers. It was when I was young because there were few of us and we were into it when it was "uncool" and niche.but now idk. The culture around gaming is completely different, though a lot of it stems from the pervasive ideology out there now.

[@Buddy-nt6rd]

Our country has become a sick joke at the expense of the indigenous population…..

[@Buddy-nt6rd]

Radical Islam is a poisonous snake, moderate Islam is the grass in which the snake hides…

[@m.h.4907]

But your ancestors fought for exactly that. Enjoy the art of the Frankfurt school of thought

[@hiiambarney4489]

@@m.h.4907 Frankfurt? What is that? I only know Frankmenistan.

[@dmtaboo_truth7052]

@@hiiambarney4489 It's where the Kalergi Plan was thought up.

[@magentaurous4025]

Stop crying and writing cringe comments and do something

[@aaronmerijanian4720]

Gamers are sick and tired of politics being put in our games and we are voting with our wallets

[@gharm9129]

You were warned about it before gamergate, you all ignored it and said everyone who noticed is a tinfoil hat wearer. You told them to shutup. Now it's too late. What's it feel like to be this dardedd?

[@Skumtomten1]

​@@gharm9129Gamers are pretty stupid tbh. They will never learn. I could predict how the industry would a evolve to now back in 2012-2014, the writing was on the wall.

[@sureokk]

Blasphemous 2 just got a great expansion for free. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 comes out in 3 months. I'm eating, boys.

[@jamesh1758]

We need to make sure Warhorse studies gets the love it deserves. I literally haven’t heard a bad word from anyone about KCD and have somewhere near 1000 hours. It’s disgustingly good

[@jonlannister345]

I forgot how big Carl used to be. Mate, well done

[@TerrorKingMugen]

The fact that games made to please investors is ruining games and making investors upset because it doesn't sell is whats most hilarious to me about the failure of AAA games

[@CWCvilleCop]

I started playing Hogwarts Legacy recently. I was told that it was based because of JK Rowling or something, but I am coming to find that almost every NPC is nearly insufferable and it's painfully obvious the kind of people who wrote them. Also, my English wizarding fantasy looks like Mogadishu, and that makes it nearly impossible to actually find immersion in a game that's painstakingly built to immerse you.

[@SQron188]

"Mogadishu" lmao I see what you mean it's just that the metaphor tickled my funny bone

[@Muxxyy]

The last game I bought was 'Dragon Age: Inquisition' 10 years ago. I've also played and thoroughly enjoyed 'Dragon Age: Origins' and 'Dragon Age 2' as well. Those games had such fantastic writing and very dark setting. I am not, under any circumstances, buying the latest 'Dragon Age: Veilguard' which came out just days ago. I am NOT paying to watch badly animated characters lecturing me about pronouns! It's outrageous! P.S. I am a female.

[@EliteRock]

One of those activist "consultants" did say that their objective was to "burn the gaming industry to the ground", so in a sense they've won.

[@slavicsandvich5967]

Whoever put Silksong in tue thumbnail, that was a dirty and cruel move🤡

[@h8.the.Cens0reship_]

Well done with the transformation Sargon.

[@Batmans_Pet_Goldfish]

Concord has now taken a spot in the Museum of Failure, (yes that's a real place.)

[@Dezzasheep]

"He just wanted to play video games".

[@ozfifer7392]

@@Dezzasheep "Look what you've done."

[@rccola5167]

How cute. 😄 Carl being self-conscious.

[@jamesliu8095]

Stormtroopers aren't clones unless they're vaders boys. Otherwise yes, special forces lads in impact resistant armour with energy absorbing bodysuits underneath. Beaten by a middle age-ish woman in a single punch.

[@harambae7014]

Carl has undergone an unparalleled glow up. I'm used to seeing him regularly these days so the throwback clip from the gamergate days reminded me how far he's come. Ageing like fine wine.

[@Cattensu]

I am a female gamer. And I don't play mobile games. They're a waste of time. I play Zelda, Pokémon, donkey kong County, some Mario, the Batman Arkham games, and Digimon game O can get hold of, and the varius versions of Spyro the Dragon.

[@maxstrike3022]

Zelda and Pokémon are my go-to games for consistent dopamine hits. Nintendo is the only gaming company to successfully raise multiple generations of loyal fans, all because they give us ( mostly) what we want

[@Hajile_Ibushi]

That's Sargon?!?! I didn't actually know him before lotus eaters o_0

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

It was a different time😅

[@rayblack2004]

What gets me is that we are expected to buy big expensive consoles / pcs, in order to play amateurish games, which are being passed off as the standard, because it "Takes too long" to make new games, despite the demand and payoff being overwhelming. It reminds me of an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, where Ramsay is struggling to feed everyone fancy food, so he tells the staff to just hand out bowls of strawberries. We are in an expensive restaurant, and being fed strawberries.

[@techpriest6962]

@@rayblack2004 Yep, the larger the corp the more time and $ gets wasted to do even simple things.

[@Capt.Thunder]

Was not expecting old school smooth-faced soygon.

[@SwiftGuyver.]

Western AAA gaming is over but Japanese companies such as FromSoft, Capcom, Atlus, Ryu Ga Gotoku, Nintendo, Nihon Falcom (probably more AA) etc are still putting out great work and there are new devs from South Korea & China popping up and releasing bangers now as well.

[@Theranthrope]

I agree and disagree at the same time. Capcom, SquareEnix, and Sony's gaming division are being run out of their American branches (or are run by people who believe Twitter/X is real life in the case of SquareEnix) and as a result are being run into the ground. These (formerly) Japanese companies were run much better when they were run as Japanese companies who didn't bow to faddish California sensibilities.

[@superplayerex2431]

To be honest, even some of those big Japanese companies are bowing down to western sensibilities, just in way more subtle ways. That happened decades before with game localizations and is happening even today if you pay extra attention to what's being put into some of their games. If not for the incredibly controversial nature that wokeness has, they'd be sprawling it fully into their games if given the chance. Big companies are about big money from their big audiences first and foremost, after all.

[@SwiftGuyver.]

@@Theranthrope I agree which is why I purposely left out Sony (complete lost cause at the moment, basically a Californian company) and Square Enix (still put out good stuff but are definitely starting to listen to woke Western consultants far too much). I haven't personally noticed anything bad in any of the recent Capcom games I've played (Resi 2, 3 & 4 remakes, Resi Village, DMC 5, Dragon's Dogma II, Monster Hunter World, Rise & Wilds beta) though.

[@MuffHam]

Altus is by far the best. All there games are great. I just bought Daybreak. I own all the Legend of Heroes games. All the Persona games.

[@Theranthrope]

@@SwiftGuyver. With Capcom, it depends on the franchise, as Monster Hunter is fine, but the censorship and presentation of Street Fighter has been getting worse and worse. I'm a fighting game fan and I have zero interest in SF6 because of Capcom USA's mishandling.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

I'm personally very optimistic about the future, not just gaming but in general. It WILL get worse before it gets better, but better it will get.

[@jonslade17]

I agree. All this bad stuff cannot continue forever

[@joaocherrydon9413]

But is that because when you hit rock bottom there’s no more down for you to go??

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@@joaocherrydon9413 Oh, no. We won't get that far on the grand scale of things.

[@Kadamitas-II-HATF]

Exactly, but because AI.

[@Raffinari]

Not in our lifetime. It is going to be awful for at least a century.

[@WideMouth]

Nintendo still makes AAA games that appeal to real gamers.

[@MagicPork]

We also getting xenoblade x coming to the switch in a few months time

[@_Dovar_]

The most fun Lotus Eaters video in quite a while.

[@DiMacky24]

Out of curiosity, I did a bit of an analysis of SteamDB. It is fairly well known among devs that between 1% and 3% of purchasers of your game will review them on Steam, so review count can provide a rough estimate of sales. So, using reviews as a proxy, there are some rather disturbing findings I have found. 1. Although more games are released on steam each year, games that receive over 500 reviews have effectively plateaued at around 1100 games per year since 2020. 2. At the upper end, games with over 50000 reviews, aka, the best selling games on steam, peaked in 2018 at 44 titles and has since fallen to only 26 titles in 2023, which means sales are more dispersed among more games, fewer games are making it into the general gamer zeitgeist. 3. Roughly 1/3 of the most successful games are indies and not AA or AAA titles, which means with much lower financial investment, smaller teams are competing with massive companies with massive budgets. The correlation of money spent to money made in video games is breaking down. Not my study, but there was another study I read that found that the average PC gamer plays games that are 8 years old. The average console gamer plays games that are 4 years old, with only Nintendo gamers playing games that are 2 years old on average. So every new release is not just competing with other new releases, but also with the roughly (after omitting shovelware) 40,000 games that have been released in the past 20 years. There are a finite number of gamers with finite amounts of time and money and with the global population expected to start dropping in a few decades, we will soon hit the peak number of "core-gamers" to exist in our lifetimes. The future of gaming is the indie and AA space, most AAA studios will be purged through vicious market forces.

[@jameslee-pevenhull5087]

Does anyone remember 'Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards'? by Sierra On-Line. The crazy thing is, the start of the game was outside 'Lefty's Bar'.

[@BillyRockets-dn8ov]

Wow, Carl used to look like a lead software developer.

[@astrahcat1212]

'Indie' today is teams of 10-20 many times with publishers, yet in the 90s and 2000s that was just called a video game team. Quake 3 Arena was created with 20 developers, Grim Fandango with 20 developers, Unreal Tournament with 20 developers. Today these would for some reason have been called 'indie' games. Palword is called 'indie' and there were over 50 developers and it took longer to make than most 90s and early 2000s games. 'Indie' is a made up term that gives this false perception that the so called 'AAA' development studios are somehow 'elite' in some regard. Yet, these so called 'AAA' mega conglomerate developers are slower, make games that have clunky simple gameplay, have a focus all on visuals (a game isn't just visuals it's gameplay, sound and narrative as well). Final Fantasy 7 was created in 1 year for a system that's far harder to develop for, the PS1, when you had to pay attention to low level memory allocation using plain C and no Google search to help you. What I'm trying to say in short, is that everybody has become incredibly lazy and nihilistic, they don't care so much, and they view players like consumers using that dumb term 'gamers' which basically has come to mean 'sheep' as far as I can tell, and these mega conglomerates like Blizzard Activision view themselves as the elites. They need to fall apart to be honest.

[@jackmcslay]

Unfortunately that's a widespread problem in software development, not just games. Developers today keep bloating softwares using the wrong libraries for the task at hand, made worst by the latest trend of anything that has a fancy graphical interface to use an HTML renderer instead of a dedicated backend resulting in massively inefficient software such hardly anything that runs on the background will eat less than 250MB of ram.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Yup

[@astrahcat1212]

@@jackmcslay Reminds me of hand drawn anime in the 90s vs the awful digital loli fetish stuff today

[@spartanonxy]

@@jackmcslay It isn't just libraries bloating stuff. They often fail at basic compression. One example is Titanfall 2 more then half its file size is poorly or uncompressed sounds and graphics.

[@Steven9567]

@@spartanonxy i sometimes think its done on purpose to eat up space so you don't download the competors game

[@jamesflowers1295]

Most serious gamers have a backlog Decades in length. I'll just go back and play my old shit I own solid copies of.

[@coryskipper909]

Dude, Carl cleaned up. looking sharp now.

[@RossKempOnYourMum01]

"Peter jackson Fd an ewok" 😂

[@bud389]

New Blood Interactive is the best gaming studio right now.

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

They decided to use it for tax loss harvesting

[@LoneWolf_Cub_Ogami_Itto]

Hollow Knight Silksong on the thumbnail has yet to come out

[@Zetact_]

It's also not really an indie game when it's basically guaranteed to have a marketing campaign worth like seven figures.

[@LoneWolf_Cub_Ogami_Itto]

@Zetact_ true to an extent, it'll likely still be a small dev team, but most of it's marketing is on good word of mouth of Hollow Knight which i do think is the best game of the 2010s decade but I'm also a huge 2D MetroidVania fan.

[@tau-5794]

Hollow Knight was made by like, three people. Silksong is obviously going to have a bigger budget given how successful the first game was, like having music made by an actual orchestra instead of being almost all digital, but I wouldn't expect the total dev team to exceed double digits.

[@LoneWolf_Cub_Ogami_Itto]

@@tau-5794 I've been ready for this game to release nearing 5 freaking years. I have the Collector's Edition physical for Nintendo Switch & Hollow Knight Wanderer's Journal.

[@lowenstaat]

Though it is entertaining to see the emperor’s current new clothes fall off in real time.

[@Neoentrophy]

FACTORIO: SPACE AGE: the factory must grow

[@craxd1]

Paganism and witches came out at about the same time as Gamergate, and, at that time, they "cast curses" upon a certain presidential candidate. Not long back, they said that their curses "didn't work because he is being protected." I kid you not. Funnily enough, that was made popular by a few "witch" college professors.

[@skald9]

They are not pagans, they are cosplayers...

[@TheReal_birbwizard]

They're infidels and heretics. They're not pagans they're literally just not true believers in anything.

[@gabrielclark1425]

_shrugs_ I cursed my aunt's when they stopped me from bringing my Grandfather to the Hospital until a minor problem became life threatening, cut him off his life support, and then screwed my father over on the inheritance. They all now have cancer.

[@richard_from_england333]

tf are you talking about?

[@christopherbravo1813]

They're either fraudulent or ignorant of the possibility that they have outright confirmed the existence of God.

[@mr.personalspace7831]

3:36 Banana is not a good example. It's a scheme run by the developers to try to flood the Steam marketplace with junk items.

[@mr.personalspace7831]

@@Xxx-r5m9g Just profit. They're not financed by anyone but the players. The game produces a truckload of cheap marketplace items, and every time one is sold, the developers get a third of the profit. People are using it as a speculative currency, like crypto- there is no actual game aside from the clicker itself.

[@thomgizziz]

No. Banana has a money incentive... it isn't crypto it is cash. People are thinking that rare bananas that can drop are going to be desirable and they will make money. It is kinda like NFTs but much smaller and just as unrealistic. You can't flood steam with junk items because they are all under the same game and divided out. The devs make rare bananas and sell them for money.

[@mr.personalspace7831]

@@thomgizziz I'm calling them junk because they're being treated as a speculative currency by the people who are trading them. And that's what most speculative currency is- junk. There is no game there. It's ONLY about the marketplace items, and the devs give out the rare ones to people in their inner circle.

[@thomgizziz]

@@mr.personalspace7831 speculative currency may be junk but junk doesn't mean speculative currency and Im not a mind reader.

[@maddogmcgraw5987]

Sargon proving that men age like fine wine.

[@Rellikan]

If you put in the work.

[@matthew5226]

We have been in a golden age of indie gaming for a while. Shoutouts to Megacrit, getting ready to release Slay the Spire 2!

[@debogeneral]

This comment made my day. I loved slay the spire

[@richardhockey8442]

Space Marine 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance - there are a few 'AAA' games which are worth the time

[@jaydamalley3398]

Drawing me in with a HK: Silksong thumbnail, and not referencing it once. I feel dirty now. Good thing you redeemed yourselves by mentioning KC:D. KC:D2 is one of the bright spots ahead.

[@k2k4]

Congrats to worthabuy! He really is fantastic.

[@DudeSoWin]

Internet was something like 93% literate. Then the smartphones came out and butt dialing mouth breathers spam so many one-liners you cannot even find a comment.

[@terrylandess6072]

I'll never forget the day Obama said "everyone gets a phone" knowing all the people that said 'I don't like computers' would be suckered into the worst case scenario involving them.

[@napoleonfeanor]

​@@terrylandess6072America isn't the whole world

[@Tundra.]

@@napoleonfeanor And yet the whole world will CRYYYYY whenever America says or does something "because it will affect everyone else." Pick a lane.

[@Majima_Nowhere]

​@@Tundra. "America isn't the whole world" brainlets when you respond with "okay, so you don't need us in NATO then"

[@luciahaskins3170]

I love that you used a worth a buy clip!

[@GmanTheTank]

Space Marine 2 is pretty rad.

[@ul.biggit217]

For the Emperor!

[@sethd.8381]

If you're at all curious about Star Wars Outlaws, MauLer uploaded a supercut of him and his friends playing it to his second channel. It's a very fun watch. The game might look good in screenshots, but as soon as things start moving the "quality" of the game really starts to show.

[@_DarkEmperor]

For fans of single player FPS - Witchfire is a good game. For fans of large scale RTS - Beyond All Reason.

[@MrTax-mp4ju]

Witchfire is really great recommendation. BAR too.

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

Enshrouded was incredible, as well as halls of torment and they were both under 30$

[@HiArashi13]

Rimworld. Best game of all time. Barely any graphics or sound, but the enjoyment is immense. It is often dubbed as "Warcrimes simulator" in the community, because of the nature of the game (Basically, Firefly - that early 00's sci-fi show). Best way to describe the community is this dialog from reddit long before the release: - Why wouldn't Tynan add children to the game? - Yes! Infinite leather hats! - And that's why...

[@chriscompton3228]

I play City of Heroes/Villains/Praetorians, a game that is 3 months older than WoW... CoX was a dead game reborn on Homecoming server. The old players loved the game so much when is was shut down in 2013 that some operated a pirate server for years until the secret got out. It went public and the folks running the Homecoming server got permission from the owners to run the game as long as they don't make any money off it. It's supported by volunteers, and donations to pay for server space and bandwidth.

[@Ilythirri]

1st MMORPG I ever played. When NC killed it, that was when I really started noticing the way games were going and I didn't like it one bit. Went on to play Neverwinter until they started treating players like atm machines. After that, I just went back to playing Diablo 2.

[@prestonknudsen3111]

The only new games I’ve purchased recently are either Indie or Nintendo lol

[@Orchestration1983]

Star Wars game don't need Jedi at all. There are plenty without them. Dark Forces 1, X-Wing & TIE Fighter series, Rogue Squadron series, Empire at War, Galactic Battlegrounds. Jedi are really over used.

[@showmemoviesnow]

Coming from someone who used to love Star Wars and now despises it, what is the purpose of Star Wars still existing if not for the Jedi? It is the only really unique thing about the setting aside from the cool spaceship designs. If Jedi are overused it is because Star Wars is overused and needs to be abandoned.

[@boobah5643]

Because used futures are fun places to set stories. And force users make banger enemies.

[@benderbendingrodriguez6375]

Also Republic Commando, Bounty Hunter, Podracer games, Shadows of the Empire.

[@CircleOfTheSeptagram]

14:00 What a glow up. Remember what Shoe said: "If you're not cringing at yourself, you're not growing."

[@tinyknott]

Dan, admit it, this was just an excuse to torture Carl with old clips of himself. ALSO, SCREW YOU FOR REMINDING ME OF SILKSONG! AAAAAAARRRRRRRHHHHHHHH. WHEN WILL IT BE FINISHED? I NEED IT!

[@valiantthorr7577]

Kingdom Come Deliverance!!! Part 2 is coming out soon!!!

[@Eddie73Glasgow]

I've got it on pre-order. I can't wait to be Henery again. 👍👌😁

[@bartsanders1553]

​@@Eddie73Glasgow Oof. Let me know how that goes. The first and last preorder I did was Fallout76.😬

[@PosranaRegistrace]

"Henry's come to see us!"

[@terrylandess6072]

I hope they get a better handle on that immaculate mess they released. Classic love/hate relationship with software.

[@drbalbon7332]

The first game was a diabolical mess.

[@errantvice7335]

This is why I love Helldivers, sure, the missions are all similar in concept, drop in, kill stuff, touch buttons, leave But there’s never a dull mission, because the game just pours enemies on you. It’s wacky how the developers didn’t bog down the experience with QTEs or Quirky Dialogue

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

I just wish it was an ODST game and not Temu ODSTs

[@scottbrady2301]

Yeah I love Helldivers!!! Cant wait for the new faction

[@alexrennison8070]

That’s why I still play Left 4 Dead 2 versus. Classic masterpiece multiplayer game, cost less than a pound on Steam & still has a player base.

[@thecoolestofthe834s2]

hell divers sucks go play star ship troopers

[@isaacfreeman1]

The Starship Troopers game is base defense. Helldivers is Starship Troopers.

[@Illumirage]

Been a pretty consistent gamer since the 90's. I haven't played a video game since July 2024, it's now november. That just shows you the drought....

[@thegeth4293]

For any younger guys there are plenty of legendary games from 2015 and earlier that are like $10 on steam or can be emulated for free here's some of the greatest games ever made that you should buy: Fallout 3 and New Vegas Mass effect 1 2 and 3 Halo 1, 2, 3, odst, and reach Call of duty 4, world at war, MW2 (the 2010 one) and black ops 1. Sonic adventure 1 and 2 Sonic unleashed Witcher 3 There's a lot more but these are just the most memorable for me. Believe it or not, there was a time before wokeness in AAA gaming

[@dirkvanvelden8378]

Many amazing RTS games from back in the day as well. Also loved the old builder games, like roller-coaster tycoon and Pharaoh.

[@pbh81]

Victoria 2 and the XCOM 1 and 2

[@firefox5714]

Female 18-year-old punches Storm Trooper in the head and knocks them out.... meanwhile Clone Commanders and Captains being able to punch and rip the heads off CIS Droids. Storm Troopers armor is basically reinforced plastic while Droid armor is full metal.

[@bartsanders1553]

If it was a trans droid they wouldn't stand a chance.

[@tau-5794]

The difference is that clones are genetically altered copies of the best bounty hunter in the galaxy at the time, all given rigorous training and in peak physical condition, while B1 battle droids are made as cheap as possible, their limbs are held on by magnets to save on welding costs.

[@firefox5714]

@@tau-5794 Considering that Clone Wars is meant to fill in between Star Wars attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The fact that there are scenes where the droids get shot into pieces and they spark in certain areas would likely mean that those are not magnet connections and more wiring.

[@tarektechmarine8209]

​@@firefox5714 it's more likely plasma interacting with the metal. Induction and all that.

[@firefox5714]

@@tarektechmarine8209 Plasma would melt metal correct? If so that would not spark it. There are plenty of scenes where the areas that are shot show molten metal around the hole.

[@tetraquark2402]

The 'New' values are just so miserable

[@ericmandia3835]

Dan had convinced me to give Frostpunk 2 another chance, but it may be after my current addiction to Factorio is cured.

[@scmomcquad1007]

Says “She” , does 10000 push ups as self punishment for misgendering . ???????????

[@MaximilianonMars]

Someone should mod it so that character can do pushups all game and every cutscene for being obnoxious.

[@DecadantHandshake]

I am fully subbed to this channel, and this video is NOT IN MY SUBSCRIPTION FEED!!!

[@antonioperestrelo986]

to be fair, there's plenty of good star wars without lightsabers. The bounty hunter and scoundrel archetypes are fan favorites. StarWars Dark Forces introduced us to Kyle Katarn, a former imperial navy officer, turn alliance freelance covert operator. Originally the one to steal the plans to the death star from A New Hope decades before disney came out with rogue1. Good jedi-less star wars CAN and does exist. What is important is being good to begin with.

[@boobah5643]

Didn't Kyle Katarn turn out to be force sensitive and went to Luke's Jedi school? Or am I getting him confused with Corran Horn again?

[@nathanperquin9910]

ah yesh kyle katarn who turns into , a jedi with a lightsaber

[@antonioperestrelo986]

@@nathanperquin9910 to be fair that was mocked at the time in several places where apparently finding a lightsaber in a garage is all it takes to become a jedi. It also happened those games were also pretty good at the time. BUT...The first game, which is what i mentioned, is good on it's own right and he is neither a jedi, nor has a lightsaber, and no enemies are sith or remotely like sith, so point remains.

[@cynickicksass]

LOVE YOU GUYS from Alabama!

[@dirtytarquin6383]

PLAY BEAUTIFUL KATAMARI

[@MaximilianonMars]

Lovely game and series

[@TengouX]

Goddamnit lol, putting Silksong in the thumbnail like that. I thought we finally got a damn release date! You have wounded me more than I ever thought I could be wounded The wait continues.

[@beerasaurus]

Most of the people playing banana are actually auto clicker farming bots

[@NOT_SURE..]

or chinese prisoners, i saw a vid couple of weeks ago where the prisoners are forced to play minecraft 12 hrs a day to collect mine coin or something , the prison was getting about £1000 a day

[@thomgizziz]

No. Banana has a money incentive... it isn't crypto it is cash. People are thinking that rare bananas that can drop are going to be desirable and they will make money. It is kinda like NFTs but much smaller and just as unrealistic. You don't have to autoclick. You only have to click once every 18 hours to get the maximum amount of drops. You also don't know what you are talking about.

[@thomgizziz]

@@NOT_SURE.. Minecraft doesnt have coins... diamonds that are mined in the game are usually used as currency. I don't see any sites that sell diamonds in game because the servers aren't that big and the server owners probably wouldn't be happy with that happening. You watched nonsense and instead of thinking or actually looking things up you just listened and believed the nonsense. What other things do you do that for?

[@NOT_SURE..]

@@thomgizziz and another kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYOWhWt_eMhnr9k

[@NOT_SURE..]

and another kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmfde4yjm6-hjJI

[@mattanderson6672]

Excellent analysis Thank you Sir Interesting... very interesting Wonderful discussion Thank you Gentlemen Brilliant discussion I love these discussions, you do brilliant work Thanks Lotus Eaters

[@FruitMonstersTCG]

Try playing fruit monsters trading card game if you want an anti woke game!