A͏s͏mongold Reacts To "The Decline of Gaming" | By The Act Man

[@RuffledRowlit]

the death of gaming to me was when it became so big and made so much money that they started taking ideas from the PR department and investors rather than the developers and passionate people working on the video games.

[@aion425]

To be fair, that already happened late 70's/early 80's with the video game crash. Though it was more related to overproduction of unplayable games and unsupervised releases.

[@zakore11]

Damn good to see you here ruffled, this was relevant to what we’re going through with pokemon at the moment lol

[@stevenharkema5456]

God damn I remember this... I was so annoyed. Now i wouldn't even bat an eye. I think the problem with games is the philosophy behind them now: games are designed to try bring in max money regardless of how fun they are. Before games were designed to be fun in hope that a byproduct of that was that they would sell well and make money. Seems like this turning point was when people took notice of the sports genre (EA) taking in cash putting out games every year and making millions. I believe that in combination with the Sims (expansions that really were dlc), FIFA, and mobile free to play game design. Seems like it's hard to find a magic game these days...

[@spacejunk2186]

When PR takes over management, it usually all goes to shit.

[@GamingDualities]

or when competitive spirit was mixed with being toxic. and when selective moderation come in

[@Maethendias]

"the future of gaming lies within the small developers" the truth has been spoken

[@pompommania]

They get bought by bigger companies. Look at Oculus.

[@EddieB-ready]

@@pompommania ahem... Japanese games. You're welcome

[@pompommania]

@@EddieB-ready How many quality Japanese MMOs do you know that actually make it to the western side? Please don't say FFXIV.. Big companies buy smaller companies and usually ruin the products, it is the way its been recently and that is why companies such as Intrepid studio are developing such a huge momentum

[@glorioustigereye]

Zun the creator of Touhou has to be one of my favorite developers.

[@popkhorne5372]

@@EddieB-ready yes, you mean their most popular games, gacha games, the worst form of microtransactions ?

[@shaunslays2151]

Its so crazy to think that 15 years ago you would buy a game and that was the game. There were no day 1 patches or hotfixes. Companies actually had to put time and effort into releasing a good game because there wasnt a redo button.

[@MrRJWidowMaker]

Simple: Marketing in gaming was limited to word of mouth. You had to make a good game to have Timmy tell his friend to buy it.

[@schwartzy65]

@@MrRJWidowMaker well there were still reviews and magazine /forum coversation... It wasnt just word of mouth tough it was big deal since people spend time together and talked..

[@schwartzy65]

@@xbon1 idk but i have never had game braking bugs on ps2 games... I cant remember any major bugs in any old games like last 10 years has had

[@shaunslays2151]

@@xbon1 I can almost guarantee Ive played games longer than youve been alive. My favorite as a teenager was zombies ate my neighbors on SNES. Those games wernt bugged and didnt have patches. Im not sure what awful games you bought that you claim had gamebreaking bugs since I dont remember any being posted in gaming magazines growing up, but do you have any examples other than saying "did you even live in that era?" . Why would I lie about being old?

[@RantKid]

Nintendo 👏🥳

[@gbd797]

“You add finances to art you get fart” This is the big brain content I’ve been looking for

[@SCP-001DatabaseAdministrator]

NFarTs

[@izzmire1]

Except it's worse. You thought it was a fart but everyone knows it was actually shit.

[@mildlyangryguy6292]

I prefer "You add shareholders to art, you get shart."

[@somethingclever4563]

​@@mildlyangryguy6292lol yeah that's better

[@bokajon]

Video should be called "The Decline of Triple A Games", because there are soooo many awesome indie games

[@benlomen179]

That is very true. Indie developers are some of the last people left who acctually give a shit. There are still a few decent triple AAA studios left. But they are rare as hens teath.

[@triplehelix3207]

Most are shit but there are a lot of fantastic ones and even ones that go unnoticed if you're willing to dig a little

[@pangbangdang3672]

There is still a good amount of good AAA JRPG games like dragon quest XI

[@christianbethel]

Name three that aren't 2D or sidescrollers and do not involve platforming.

[@bokajon]

@@christianbethel Divinity Original Sin 2, Project Zomboid, 7 Days To Die. Played all of them for more than 150 hours. Let me know if you want 3 more.

[@Crabmaster4774]

5:10 Absolutely true. Look to Deep Rock Galactic as a great example. The devs have been completely open from beta to release with things and listening to the community that DRG has become a game that truly feels like it was made by people who want to play it too. They released season 1 and are going to release every season after with a completely free battle pass and lots of cosmetics that reward you for playing the game. They do have paid dlcs but they make sure that a lot of work goes into them so that it is actually worth getting. Most players use the dlc stuff because of how much care was put into making it worth the money. When Ghost Ship Games is asked how we can support them they respond with, "Buy the game, buy the dlcs if you want to, and spreas the game to other people." There us no other way to give them money and created such a healthy communuty and game.

[@ParagonMitchell]

rock n stone brotha

[@manukass5250]

If you don't rock and stone, you ain't coming home!

[@thorin4406]

I was thinking of DRG when watching. You are 100% correct. Every time Ghost Ship Games release DLC, it's an INSTANT purchase from me. I love the devs to pieces because I feel like they "get it", i.e. the way games should be designed, for fun. If anyone reading this hasn't tried Deep Rock Galactic or even heard of it, take a look, RIGHT NOW. It's absolutely fantastic. The community is amazing and I guarantee you will feel welcome playing, even with randoms, because the game is so well designed for co-op it's a blast even with complete strangers. (Steam/XBOXONE/PS4/PS5). Can I get a ROCK and STONE?!?!

[@TherosonDragonstoungue]

Objection! DRG doesn't have DLC content. It is purely cosmetic and applies no observable performance benefits. HOWEVER, I can assure you you will feel like a dripped out king when your armour is as shiny as the bitter gems you hope to find. :D

[@lhart9938]

rock and stone to the bone

[@largeman2891]

what asmon says he likes about gaben: hes a billionaire what asmon actually likes about gaben: he wears the same shirt everyday

[@patrickpichette6116]

LoL

[@raggo1955]

Asmongold has been showing his double standards in these videos, he just not aware of it.

[@warlerker]

@@raggo1955 ?

[@kuhnandreas5694]

5:16 Team cherry, a small team, that gives you Hollow knight, a masterpiece of an metroidvania, for just 15$. All DLC's are free, no microtransactions included. Just throwing that out there.

[@warped-6173]

Metroidvania kekw

[@freedomofpeach9790]

sidescrollers were tired in the early 90s bro.

[@_alreph]

@@freedomofpeach9790 Clearly hasn’t played Hollow Knight.

[@akmalfaza428]

some people just wanna TripleA graphic games xD

[@Jacob-sb3su]

I mean its a pretty niche genre imo.

[@lycanthropic1122]

I was born in '89, so for me, gaming was great from about '97-'05 and remained mostly okay until about 2013.

[@kc87557]

I was born in ‘05, were video games really as great as they say back then?

[@cryptobungus5778]

@@kc87557 I don't think gaming was very good until the late 90's.

[@cryptobungus5778]

@@kc87557 That being said though yes the old games from 1995-2008(ish) were absolutely amazing.

[@thegamerfe8751]

@@cryptobungus5778 yeah, that was also the golden era of JRPGs, from (mainly) everything Square Enix (cause now they don't make that many JRPGs anymore) to Atlus' Persona and SMT (still golden to this day).

[@vhslofi]

Back when a single purchase would include everything

[@thundageon5962]

Nintendo is one of them

[@arigat-s0244]

@@thundageon5962 _was_ one of them..

[@thundageon5962]

@@arigat-s0244 STILL ONE OF THEM

[@thundageon5962]

@@arigat-s0244 I mean Nintendo is still selling high quality single player games for $60

[@thundageon5962]

GTA San Andreas was a complete package

[@Ch4pp13]

The turning point for me is when companies started selling the awesome shit you'd get for completing a challenge for $20. Really takes away a big reason to play a game when all the cool stuff is locked behind a paywall... especially... ESPECIALLY... when you already have to buy the game full price. No. I don't want to play this shallow experience where the main source of progression is the FOMO store that conveniently has a huge button with shining lights to show where it is.

[@Noobzlikeu]

Fun fact about EA and Activision: when you buy games from them that have DLC, you're not actually buying the full game -- see, what they do is they release their games in sections, essentially. They fully develop the game, but they lock portions of it away to be unlocked at a later date by branding it as an expansion when, in fact, it's actually a part of the original work. So when you buy games from them, you're not buying the full game. You're buying a part of a game for the price of a full game, then paying EVEN MORE later on for another part of that same game.

[@Sonowske21]

I miss the days when you could go to the store and a game could catch your eye and actually make you want to play it

[@somegamer4071]

That was prime time gaming... I have picked up so many of my favorite games from doing just that. Heck I found an imported (Wasn't sold in my country) copy of demon souls pre-owned at gamestop once, and it started my souls journey before even knowing what a souls game was. but alas gaming is mostly for casuals, just look at all the car games and football games selling over the years

[@Viroh]

@@somegamer4071 did you enjoy demon souls straight away? to be honest when I first played dark souls 1 on pc, it was okay at the start but when I started facing too much challenge I downloaded a dark souls trainer which boosted my level to +400, and then laughingly completed the game. now that I have been reading Berserk, I have started dark souls 1 again and enjoyed the idea of struggling and challenge, the feeling of beating Ornstein and Smaug legitimately after 2 days of trying felt euphoric, I was so god damn happy with sweaty hands haha

[@somegamer4071]

@@Viroh I played until the dragon burned my ass on the bridge, then I gave up because I ran out of arrows to shoot it XD I then tried Dark souls 1 and got... to the undead parish and then gave up on the gargoyles. I gave up on the character select in Dark souls 2, gave up on the cleric beast in bloodborne. Then I was about to quit to Vordt in DS3, but a friend was like "No no, keep fighting!" and I did, eventually beating him, then a momentum started, and I killed every boss eventually (nameless king cost me 30 deaths and a pair of pants) but eventually I won. then I went back, and from knowing the formula of DS3, I beat every other game pretty quick

[@ReizokoRyu]

​@@Virohahhh your story of struggle reminds me of me fighting Melenia (BLADE OF MIQUELLA) .. I attempted for several days, gave up, then came back maybe 2 weeks later and started trying again. After 2 days of attempting for a few hours I finally did it and my hands were clammy and shaking and I was over the moon with joy ! What a triumphant feeling 😄

[@RetreatSequel]

Still happening you just gotta look harder

[@anarchicnerd666]

"Where was the turning point where you perceived the decline?" It's a somewhat retrospective answer, but the 2008 financial crisis. The same year the crash happened was also the year that the entire games industry eclipsed Hollywood in revenue as an industry. And of course investors were being pressured to preserve their ill gotten gains, so they diversified their holdings by investing in our industry. The same financial gurus who caused the crash (who have never finished a video game in their life) have now wormed their way into executive positions at many publishers, influcing decisions that are forced on developers about content, gameplay and monetisation. Which has led to the current quagmire the industry finds itself in. At least, that's my take.

[@noinfo6181]

interesting take. not many are mentioning the factors outside of the industry that has to have had a impact.

[@Ohhelmno]

I actually kind of think it was the success of mobile gaming when touch screen phones came out proving out the model for micro transactions/f2p games on a massive level. Then mainstream companies adopted those models after seeing the success.

[@nomadic4130]

I agree with this. 2008 was an amazing year for gaming, the best in my opinion. Interesting coincidence that it was the same year as the financial crisis, must be connected that it went down hill after that

[@skultech]

Interesting point of view there. This would then also explain the insane amount of focus nowadays on the profit margins every quarter. It's just been a slow eroding towards making gaming another regular business where the gamers are like cattle.

[@Ohhelmno]

mayrana2 yeah, but most big AAA studios hadn’t adopted it until mobile gaming showed it could be successful here as well, at least in my opinion.

[@saphironkindris]

It's amazing how games are getting more innovative, bigger in scope, more beautiful, and yet less fun all at the same time.

[@baldrick1199]

Both the comment and reply is pretty accurate description. Also it's been decades but my favorite games still remain titles such as chrono trigger, ff7 just to name a few. No nostalgia with newer games.

[@museluvr]

They are empty.. after so long, the game ceases to be enjoyable. Not a loss on my part for quitting.

[@baldrick1199]

@@mix1ro true but I will never feel nostalgic even after decades from recent games. Guess that was the point

[@RetreatSequel]

​@@baldrick1199 Maybe it won't have the same nostalgia but I love those games and there are still games that give the same feeling like Witcher 3 Baldur's Gate 3 or fromsoftware titles. We also got GTA f***ing VI on the way.

[@MrMazvaz]

I think I started to realize the decline of gaming when Diablo 3 came out, that's when you felt even the mighty Blizzard had lost its edge. But it was definitely with the mobas and f2p models that made money-people realise how profitable the gaming industry was. Games used to be art. It used to be developers making their vision/dreams reality and sharing it with others through games. It used to be about having fun. Now its mainly a business, an industry. Games have lost it's soul. It's like watching your amazing hole in the wall burgershop make it big and turning into another chain like McDonalds. Instead of the burgers being made from scratch by some greasy but passionate dude, they now come in frozen and are just assembled by some 16 year old earning minimum wage. Its just sad. There are some breaths of fresh air, some beacons of hope here and there. But the majority of games you can just feel the greed oozing a mile away.

[@PetterNe]

The industry started its decline before mobile and f2p games. I guess the industry just got too big which lead to companies “playing it safe” rather than following their visions. Except for Fromsoft. They’re my last hope, pretty much.

[@BlueRidgeBubble]

Iiiiiiiiii think you're romanticizing things based on your own survivors bias here Games have been about making money since Mario, dude lol

[@overbeb]

@@BlueRidgeBubble Sure they were about making money, but there was actual care and artistry put into them. It wasn’t just purely about profit. Unfortunately in a capitalistic system once anything grows big enough the vultures swoop in to maximize short term gains at the expense of the product until they can move to the next profit center when it’s destroyed.

[@KillerCanuck]

"Where was the turning point" Oblivion armored horses

[@ConvictedHeart]

it's ALWAYS been Bethesda's fault. Their bugs were so strong, they escaped the games they made and invaded the real world, warping reality and destroying the minds of many, rendering them incapable of thinking rationally. Or perhaps, people are just stupid.

[@ZaiTsk36756]

@@ConvictedHeart let's see here it's all bethesda's fault: check talk about how buggy the games are and nothing else: check talk about them like a super villian fooling millions into liking their games: check assume everyone who likes bethesda and their games are stupid and are irrational: check looks like someone has been watching skyrim/bethesda sucks videos and is a sheep :)

[@sanadrin8359]

@@ZaiTsk36756 Bro i love Skyrim and Eso and Oblivion but i think he is right, Bethesdas bugs both in-game and their website/app are SOOOO strong they warp the fabric of the universe causing a mental wave brainwashing other companies to desire the same things they do.

[@SamahLama]

Lesser known fact: Bethesda wanted to release horse armor for free, but sony said they'd charge for the update. So Bethesda released it as a DLC.

[@skechyassmofo]

@@Hangnailer47 my currency was never wasted

[@MsPysoul]

is these times we've got ghost of tsushima. With literally no microtransactions. God bless SP.

[@TheTiredPirate]

You mean shadow of war reskin?

[@HighKingOfSkyrim37]

God of War (4) and Doom Eternal with no micro-transactions.

[@someguy9970]

@@HighKingOfSkyrim37 GoW4 belongs to the streets.

[@HighKingOfSkyrim37]

@@someguy9970 That game is fucking awesome.

[@lawlrd6655]

@@LLAAPPSSEE you can cut bamboo. "Bamboo strikes" are around the world

[@Ethanshmeethan00]

The decline for me was after black ops 2. They sold skins for like 50 cents to a 1$. Every cod after that started raising the prices ever so slowly, until now we have 20$ packs with a key chain and a camo. Digital items for 20$. Other game companies followed suit too and now it’s just out of hand. Miss the old days

[@clarinetmaster5990]

Literally my exact thought. BO2 had way too much dlc and after that, like you said, games got really crazy with their digital items.

[@AleXxTM123]

Yeah i was also trying to pinpoint it to a game. I was never a COD boy back then so for me it was between BF3 and 4. 4 started with lootboxes in the BF franchise. Thinking about it it could have been the cops and robber game they made too. i think it was hardline or smthg like that

[@shelteredwaffle4665]

Asmon in reference to oblivion: "Those were the days, you had no microtransactions, just games" Me: horse armor

[@staplesfoley]

Haha wasn't that in a later edition? Don't remember it when I was playing

[@skechyassmofo]

Plus the 3 story DLCs. I know it's not mircotransactions as such but having the amount of missions it had behind an extra paywall for the time? 😬

[@vayneglory655]

Yup. Bethesda started all of this with horse armor.

[@kidren50]

YEAH LOL. Oblivion was the reason DLCs and microtransactions as we have today exist.

[@LordVader1094]

@@skechyassmofo Expansions are not the same as MTX

[@iryef5514]

Shoutout to fromsoftware for still making pure masterpiece made by passion and respect. true art. Can't wait for elden ring"

[@abyss9256]

This man is spot fing on

[@iryef5514]

@WaddleSteve yeah ds2 is shit and broken but not made by miyazaki. As a console player i apreciated the remastersince it was my only way to play ds1 but taking the og dark souls off of steam was a dick move. My point was mostly that fron always try to better themselves with each new game and you can clearly see improvements as they learn from there mistakes. they arent making triple AAA titles for the money but by passion and thats why bloodborne is now a legend and elden ring might justy be the best action rpg ever made.

[@iryef5514]

@WaddleSteve true that

[@avenged-khaos]

same with Kojima death stranding may not be everyone's cup of tea but its a passion project and it shows

[@finncox6753]

To be fair they are kinda just making the same general game but they’re still good lol

[@Jaaj2009]

The turning point for me was when companies started to charge extra for stuff we expected to come as standard. I was used to buying PC games and then buying an expansion a year or so later. At some point this changed to you buy one of five diff versions of the game and you get diff content from each. Ubisoft was the worst for this and still likely is today. Shortly afterwards it was you pay more to be able to play multiplayer, or you pay for microtransactions to save time. This utterly destroys game design, pushing games towards less curated content and more mindless grinding. Outside of this there has been a pretty obvious change in quality of triple A games on release. You can basically expect most games to be buggy as hell on release even as game cost continues to rise. I first encountered this with a Ubisoft game, Watch Dogs, the thing basically wouldn't work because of their shitty launcher being offline, then when I finally got into the game it was so buggy graphically that I couldn't play it. Unfortunately, gamers are so obsessed with their hobby they reward bad behavior all the time. These days when I look at new games, I can feel the marketing department in the game design. I think that's why so many people have trended towards indie devs - its the only place you can pick up a cheaper game, spend some time in a world and then move on with your life. In the triple A world if you are not still playing the thing months later and buying cosmetics, mission packs, xp boosts etc the game is somehow a failure.

[@RantKid]

Nintendo

[@reapaknight3611]

I actually thought the decline started with the rise of EA. I learned in PSM magazine that EA's plan for making money was to make 10 games at a time expecting 9 of those games to fail and they'd make their money back on the 10th. They rush them out on an assembly line with limited budgets because it was profitable because people have to buy the game to find out it was trash. They'd not really lose much on the fails and sometimes it would make it big. They'd also buy up smaller companies like they they were going out of style. The number of great companies destroyed by them is in the hundreds. Unfortunately most of the big companies see the money they make and they started thinking I want in on that too and now here we are.

[@Noobzlikeu]

In all fairness, there was a period of time where EA made good games (looking at you, SSX 1 & SSX Tricky). But I do feel like they really went downhill after that.

[@rajder656]

@@chicken29843 wasn't it fifa ultimate team ?

[@IIchicgo]

What about Command and Conquer? The old NFS games, a few Star Wars games from way back when and many others were well developed and not pushed for the sake of shareholders wanting to earn a quick buck. EA used to be a really good publisher. Just like Ubisoft. In my opinion, Blizzard set it all in motion with WoW, but the decline of gaming began when the put out Warcraft III. It was so much more PG13 than the classic Warcraft games. Diablo followed suit. F

[@dylanhunsel5489]

@@Noobzlikeu i mean i liked SSX 3 to be fair

[@jhomastefferson3693]

Ea had a cool fishing computer game back in the day. It was like, 2001 at the latest. It was a real game. Maybe it's just that i only played it as a kid, but it wasn't bad at all. The mechanics were solid, there weren't glitches and stuff. as far as a "fishing game" is concerned, it wasn't bad. Thats a really niche and kinda boring genre, but, it wasn't bad. And the old madden games weren't bad. The problem was they beat them to shit. A new madden every year is just shit. A blatant money grab. But, back when they were new in the early 2000s, it was cool. They were a decent football game with decent controls and real people represented in it.

[@AllOutNoobHater]

Holy shit... look at the Activision documents. "If player purchased item, place first player item in a gameplay session for which the item is effective" They even have a Micro-transaction engine!

[@ForgottenMyth]

Gotta trigger that reward system in the brain, keeps you coming back to buy more stuff. Its literally like a drug.

[@Linusthegreat]

There's so many REALLY good games out there. The problem is that they're all smaller indies. 'The mortuary assistant' for instance is crazy. But it's smaller creators that really care about the feedback of the players that make these games great.

[@llamaczech]

Mortuary Assistant is average at best, it just wasn't literally the same indie early access horror game walking simulator that's sustaining Gabe Newell.

[@Lotrick]

They all are digging too deep. The answer is right on the surface. As in any other industry, in gaming it works the very same way. At first people who make decisions are those who are good at creating the product. Then when the company development reaches a certain point people who make the decisions are those who are good at managing a company. Thus the quality of the product goes down.

[@MochiMac17]

Yep and that's why we have seen the explosion in indie games/AA games, the people who are good at crafting the product also make all the decisions.

[@thetalantonx]

"A man has an idea. The idea attracts others, like-minded. The idea expands. The idea becomes an institution." - Top Dollar, The Crow

[@aureate]

Oh please, let's not pretend like there aren't droves of players who _willfully_ preorder games and pay for MTX. Whatever you subsidize, you get more of. If people didn't pay for preorders and MTX, this shit wouldn't exist.

[@kecs2]

the gaming industry was ruined for me when i noticed content being intentionally left out of games and refurbished as "DLC"

[@bootlegcaesar7481]

FF XV all the fucking dlc should have been in the game from launch

[@vonb2792]

Europa Universalis 4 !!!! They put all the stuff from the Europa Universalis 3 into DLC... If you buy EU 4 and all DLC its like 500 $

[@hexoson]

@@vonb2792 Dude, I'm telling you it's Paradox. It's the same thing with Cities: Skylines. Hundreds of dollars just for some parks, buildings, important features for cities, etc. Fucking ridiculous that this shit is acceptable. Games like No Man's Sky are the last games that have yet to introduce paid-content. It's one of the reasons why I respect Hello Games so much. Free content updates aren't necessary, but having DLC pre-planned before the game is released and selling preorders for season passes (I'm looking at you Gearbox) is bullshit.

[@simplytk5251]

I agree with this videos main points 100%. I still try to enjoy gaming so I wait until a games properly tested and fixed before buying it. That's usually way after the games initial release. So I also save money. I figured this out so many years ago. I thought if everyone did this preorders and games broken on release would fade away, but they didn't.

[@TrebleAmp]

The decline of gaming was when games had the ability to EASILY patch... this meant gaming companies could easily ship shite and patch later...

[@TaIathar]

but then they never patched it cuz it wasn't worth the money cuz they'd rather spend that money making a new shitty game

[@aaron.6923]

Yesssss

[@AlexK-sk4qb]

That's just one reason, and the true problem is that people accept it as an excuse. The games are rarely improved all that much, but people believe their promises anyway. Sometimes fanatically so. If you criticize anything about Mount and Blade, which is being sold at $50, the fans will tell you that every single tiny problem will be fixed because it's only early access.

[@justsomeguywithnoeyes7303]

the decline of gaming is mainly from the decline of gamers' standards. If theyre willing to shell out money for games that will be finally fixed 2 years from launch, why would game companies care about shipping a complete working game?

[@TaIathar]

@@justsomeguywithnoeyes7303 True. It's very unfortunate how society has become a collective of people waiting for their next hit of dopamine so they can appreciate their life while pretending they're not depressed. Life isn't the problem; money is the root of all evil.

[@conot4006]

Surprised no one talks about standard edition, special edition and legendary/masters edition game sales. They might as well say pay $59.99 for 80% of the game, $79.99 for 90% and an amazing $99.99 for 100% of the game. It’s literally a paywall before you get the game that forces you to pay more or loss some content forever.

[@JellyGummy26]

Id disagree, most games include a few extra quests and cosmetics, sometimes even boosters to help you level up faster. But I wouldnt consider the standard edition 80%

[@Deminese2]

@@JellyGummy26 you should because most games have some bullshit season pass with dlc that isn't even close to worth the season pass cost. Do we forget how good dlc used to be back in the day? Witcher 3 is like the only game I can think of where the dlc is actually fucking dlc.

[@Unholy187]

@@Deminese2 Fallout 3 and new Vegas had some great DLC content aswell. Probably some of the best. Which sounds crazy nowadays because of the way Bethesda operates now.

[@valizeth4073]

@@Deminese2 Excluding MMOs of course, mainly speaking of Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, the DLCs or "expansions" are well.. actual additions to the games.

[@leandrodelmistro2238]

I like motion capture animation and good graphics makes it looks amazing and helps pull me into the world they are building.

[@OhImSaucy]

Yeah he’s also wrong on motion capture as it’s easier to throw on a 1k suit and have the scene animated extremely realistically for you instead of having to animate it for hours yourself.

[@aniket8350]

True but a lot of game companies use motion capture and "realistic" graphics as a smoke screen to sell their shitty game.

[@Koozul]

yeah that was easily one of the shittiest takes he had “Well I don’t care about graphics so why would anyone else”

[@baylordeo3636]

I find it interesting that when I recently watched an interview of a developer at ATLUS (jp not friggin' SEGA). I was happy when the dev said he liked working for ATLUS because they do not try to cater to everyone and that allows the team to keep sticking to their vision more stubbornly.

[@Noobzlikeu]

The Japanese gaming industry is a far cry from the North American one -- most Japanese game developers pay attention to the things their fans and consumers say. A shining example (and a rather popular one, at that) is Square Enix. Not all of their releases have been perfect (FFXV and Type-0 were shitshows), but a number of their games in the last decade or so have had mechanics in them that were originally suggested by the fanbase. And the only one of their games that I can think of in recent years that has had any DLC or expansions is FFXIV. And FFXIV has a free trial, and the base game is rather cheap to boot -- the complete opposite of how most NA developers would handle it, overpricing the shit out of the base game for something exorbitant, probably around $80-$90 or so for it.

[@samthebagman4643]

Fun fact: This year, the hit popular game Team Fortress 2 will be 15 years old

[@jerryhu9005]

Beautiful graphics and animation work is always welcome, but it should be the cherry on top, not the driving force of the game. A really compelling story and good game design can usually make up for lackluster visuals, but the reverse is not true.

[@VektusAlvoraan]

The Last of Us: Part 2 in a nutshell.

[@prodrt1]

i just dont care about graphics at all. all the best games that ive played were pretty bad looking

[@aceambling7685]

Last of Us started a trend of making interactive movies. Graphics are easy to sell to normies. Gameplay... Not so much. These games that are a third cutscenes with brain dead gameplay are perfect for selling to bugmen.

[@youareasock9752]

@@VektusAlvoraan You didn't play the game

[@youareasock9752]

@@aceambling7685 Yes Uncharted just doesn't exist

[@antaresthirdeldenlord4840]

The big turning point for me was around 2015, with Black Ops 3. When I personally noticed when loot boxes were the big thing.

[@tbird8964]

45:30 sad thing is Star Wars battlefront 2 was making so much money even after ea left the game to rot. The game built back a loyal player base and became top 5 most selling game during some months on both pc and Xbox. Ea had a gold mine of a game that was still making tons of money but cancelled it because it wasn’t making as much money as fifa or madden with their pay to play packs

[@TheNewton]

copypasta - The Perfect game. 17:41 "I would only make games if I knew that my games had the capacity to ruin somebody's life because if I didn't think that I could ruin somebody's life with my game it's not good enough to be worthy of that privilege. Like I would want to have my game be so good that people would forsake and ruin their own lives in order to play it. Like that's how you can tell if a game is good by the way if a game is good you'll see CNN and ABC News specials about concerned parents with their children ruining their lives playing the game. You saw that with world of warcraft and you saw that with fortnite. What's gonna be the next game? You'll find out at 8 p.m. on Fox News. The game that makes people ruin their life.. think about it.. that is the biggest advertisement you can possibly have for a video game: 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 ."

[@Kynareth6]

Except I find Fortnite boring and weird.

[@ditchfood8047]

@@Kynareth6 it used to be a blast of a good game. Now it's just boring trash.

[@ditchfood8047]

I used to dump my everything into games. I'm kinda fuckin with what little life I have with ffxiv tho.

[@true_plays_games]

@@Kynareth6 Game was revolutionary for fun for a long time

[@sethiddings7293]

Game companies don't think like this anymore. It's all about how much money it will make

[@TanisPav]

I always love when Asmongold reacts to Actman's videos

[@Demkkai]

That one person who said it all started when “free games became the norm” is actually right, can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.

[@nobod354]

It's a bad thing but also a good thing. I agree and disagree. For example my personal game sc2, would've died if it didn't go free to play and it increased players ten fold. But I agree with 90% of games that it's bad

[@elmerR6]

@@nobod354 is SC2 alive again? I stopped playing a while ago from stagnant ranked games, but I'd hop back in a second if that F2P move was actually a good one

[@firstnamelastname6520]

I personally don’t agree. From what I’ve played PoE and Smite are better than the games I would have to pay for in the same genre. I think MOBILE GAMING is the problem when it comes to free to play.

[@nobod354]

@@elmerR6 Alive sure but not popular. I can find a ranked game really quick, but blizzard has done so much garbage to the game. They fixed all of it but it's too little too late. They need to just make sc3 but they won't because they're greedy

[@Ottobot2]

Free to play gaming is a great concept and lets people play games they wouldn't otherwise try. The issue is the large portion of playerbases that justify greedy microtransactions because the game is free to play. Valorant is a very good recent example of this. They are selling a skin pack for 5 guns for 100 dollars. No gun skins no matter how good are worth that amount of money. Good thing we have companies like CD project red that spend 8 years on a game and only charge you 60 dollars on a full game. People need to wake up stop feeling insecure about not having skins and learn the real value of a dollar in the gaming industry.

[@pcgameboy8407]

Half Life Alyx was the opposite of a gimmick, it absolutely set the bar for VR gaming, and is one of the best games this year.

[@dogman_2748]

A "bit" late but I don't agree with his view on VR at all.

[@MuzgontarAco]

@@Scarecr0wn I will not take VR seriously until its made open standard.. imagine buying a game and it's only playable on an LG TV.. Half Life Alyx might have been a good VR game, but to buy a VR headset for a limited number of VR games that are further split between headset brands.. end even inside brands.. that is the change that needs to happen before we can talk about VR being mainstream imo.. until then its a gimmick..

[@Ultimataco]

It literally got people to buy a vr, and the game people said no one wanted ended getting nothing but praise. I also heard it helps set up half life 3 even more. I’m willing to bet with how many headsets alyx sold that half life 3 might even be vr. Every half life game has been a huge leap for gaming, at least pc gaming. What else is the next big leap other than VR? I’m willing to be wrong, but I fully believe half life 3 is more liking going to be a VR game than actually coming out as not that.

[@SpiritHealer1]

I think part of this is our own nostalgia of the times back then and us being older and changing as well.

[@Peckh]

19:45 fun fact, gabe has been specificly focusing on projects relating to this and has come out saying that we are a lot closer than people think to this. He also says it will be an apocalyptic level event for any media company once it is completed and anyone who isnt working on it will be soon.

[@an_on5954]

Where is Asmon's reaction to "why dark souls 1 is a masterpiece"!!!!!

[@Dylan-ji7ni]

Wait did he react to it?

[@GrrillaFinger]

When the sun is high and the moon is low, the bass gather beneath the shade of the mighty willow

[@aaron.6923]

Ahahhahaha

[@yahya6842]

nice profile picture. I just finished watching lain what coincidence

[@an_on5954]

@@yahya6842 Let's All Love Lain!

[@BloodfelX]

(49:20) I love how the chat's response to "pre-orders are bad" was "YO DUDE I PRE-ORDERED CYBERPUNK 2077 - THE HYPE IS REAL" And of course, living in current year... (or just living then at the time with a modicum of foresight and self control) the release state of Cyberpunk 2077 is a well documented thing.

[@felipe8511]

the turning point was around 2010-2012 when gaming became mainstream and suddenly pretending to be a "nerd" was socially acceptable, you know what i mean, we are a small percentage compared to the average geek consoomer, and these companies are all about raising stock prices and appealing to the broad audience

[@chloegrobler4275]

try not to attach the gamer identity too deep in your brain friend.

[@theobell2002]

"Back in the good old days when I was ostracized for liking comics and video games. 😎" Nothing but soy in this comment section. Video games are not dead. Stop being so overdramatic.

[@bernardodortenzio5172]

Truth: Nerd is not a big bang theory sheldon

[@Rotinaj37]

Video games were mainstream well before 2010 dude. Gaming was popular in the 80s and only continued to grow, people just look back on gaming of their childhood very fondly. Yes greedy capitalists will continue to homogenize and strip games of their individuality so they can sell it to as many as possible, but there are still good games being made and I'd argue many of the greatest games of all time were made after 2012.

[@Gastrostomi]

8:30 When he talks about motion capture, sure there might be not much added in the case of player enjoyment. But animators and the game development at large save an insane amount of hours from doing motion capture instead animation everything manually.

[@MaMastoast]

I don't work with mo cap myself but during my education as a cg artist i gained some insight. Honestly.. while mocap gives results almost unachievable by hand made animation, it does require a ton of cleanup.. oftentimes animators will use the mo cap as reference and animate to match it.. it is tedious and awful work. The animators I know would much rather express themselves through animation than clean up key frames in mo cap

[@LordVader1094]

Save? They don't save shit. It costs more if anything.

[@Beejayvei]

@@LordVader1094 its more like a sidegrade. saves time at the cost of more resources

[@madkittehz]

Its like a second option thing from just doing it by hand, different types of hard works; Clean up tediously? Or handmade tediously? But in my opinion the actors can immerse and get more into their act in mo-cap, rather than just only voice over, which can make the game characters even better.

[@yutyrannus5209]

8:00 motion capturing is much more time saving then just normal animating keyframe for keyframe if u want lets say good looking animations (on things like Movement)

[@propheinx2250]

Yeah, but that just means you need to finagle your position all the time. Constantly needing to step back in order to step forward again in the right place is getting annoying. I'll take janky movement animations any day over constantly being an inch off from where I wanted to be.

[@Steamcrow]

Seriously I'm so glad he found Act Man! I love seeing my favorite streamer, watching and giving opinions from watching one of my all time favorite content creators on KZbin.

[@ImperiumVFX]

8:08 Something people never see or understand about game development is the developer's perspective. Animating 3d models and getting fluid animation that doesn't look absolutely awful is incredibly difficult, especially when you're working with real life humanoid models. Motion capturing isn't just about making a better product, it's also about not giving us developers carpal tunnel after hundreds of hours of trying to perfect an animation.

[@Nathan93x]

Nothing wrong with this. Just don't release the game until its complete? Not rocket science is it?

[@TricksterSquad]

Holy shit man, I haven’t heard a soul utter the words “Command & Conquer” in like 15 years. I’m 22 and I used to play with my dad on our old ass laptop. Red Alert 2 was one of the best games to come out from C&C imo and if I’m not mistaken, it may have been my first video game ever. Outside of Generals doing pretty well. God what I’d give to find a pc nowadays with low enough specs and an original copy of Red Alert 2 to be able to play that game one more time. I wish C&C didn’t randomly stop existing when I hit my teen years.

[@plumbervslife4812]

The the decline of gaming happened when high speed internet connection was available and they didn't have to release a game fully done they could just keep putting patches in and updates

[@freedomofpeach9790]

This is not true. Because patches were only on computer games for YEARS before the consoles got online as well. It all started with fucking unlocks in multiplayer games. Free at first, but after a few years you had PAY TO WIN

[@PIGVoiZZer]

As long as there will be "ideal customers" who purchase FIFA/NBA every fckng year - the corps will keep going current way.

[@dustinarmstrong9516]

The ability to reserve games prior to release for rewards. Specifically, when it became possible to patch games post launch. This started the trend of pushing out unfinished titles. People get hyped and pubs/devs take advantage of this.

[@matyashe]

I guess the decline begun when mobile games start to sell "time" and "probability" in their store boxes. After that, some company start to do the same on pc and console games.

[@OmnicoranGaming]

i love how his chat starts exploding about Asmon's opinion of the high def cinematics, when i can't help but agree with him for my own reason. I don't need a scene thaat looks better than the game itself i'm playing lol let ME play the story, not watch a movie.

[@nobodyimportant_23]

Maybe it's nostalgia, but the old games were so fresh. I remember playing SimCity until my wrists hurt, it was that fun. Flight sims, RTS, first person shooters, RPGs with great stories (eg Fallout), they were all great

[@killertree7958]

The number 1 problem: Developers caving to Publisher demands or changing their company to the publisher mindset. The number 2 problem: Making entire genres and series into cookie cutter copies of EVERY other game to "appeal" to a bigger audience. Realize that people played Assassins Creed liked stealth and the story (Remember when the plan was three games with a 4th where you played as Desmond in the future using ALL the skills he learned from his ancestors). My Animal Crossing loving wife doesnt NEED to like Dead Space or AC. Number 3: Microtransactions and bit piece DLC. Horse armor was terrible but in my eyes the ONLY DLC that was acceptable to me was full expansions to older PC games...such as Brood War for Starcraft. Or C&C Red Alerts' Counterstrike and Aftermath. Or Diablo 2's expansion.

[@Greensiteofhell]

When a game come out, I usually wait atleast one year before buying it, so I can wait for the bugs to be fixed, read evaluations and perhaps get it cheaper - kind of weird how it is this days.

[@yannickclaes90]

As most games are online multiplayer these days, people don't wanna miss out. It's all psychology on how to suck the most out of people with putting the least amount of effort into something and afterwards hyping it up with fake reviews, paid streamers and so on. Oh yea, it's not only in gaming but everything in life.

[@Rev0cl0ud]

I am the same, plus got me savewizard for ps4 to kill the manufactured grind.

[@Rev0cl0ud]

@tired soul you are trying to troll argue with me? I consume what i want however i want. If you want you can buy me all the games day one then my criteria goes out the window since it is your money.

[@DarkeningDemise]

The decline started in 2009. DLC was out of control, mobile was taking over, live services started popping off. There wasn't much innovation at that point. It was the peak of war shooters and preorder bonuses at different stores for different rewards making everything into a mess. Ubisoft started to decline and in 2012 went down the Far Cry 3 rabbit hole and never came out of it with the copy and pasted formula. Not to mention the charts for different game versions like basic, deluxe, gold, etc.

[@mikek9352]

18:31 i remember hearing when I was a little kid that Everquest was so addicting that people would quite their jobs to play it all day. All that made me want to to was try it cause I thought wow that must be an amazing game lol

[@RipMinner]

Dude people played that game so hard that they killed themselves to play it. Like literally playing till they dropped dead.

[@freedomofpeach9790]

@@RipMinner I always thought WoW was evil based on how much LIFE it demands to be sucked out of its players to enjoy it. Fuking dailies...give me a break! monthly subscription to play PC game online??!?!?! LOL FOOLS!

[@stef2090]

"WHEN DID BOBBY KOTICK GET HIS OWN YUGIOH CARD" OMG IM DEAD XD

[@kennedygeraldo3137]

Just stating a fact: The Actman is a Legend!

[@KyleCook]

I felt the decline in mainstream gaming when mobile gaming began to take off - the consoles and PC studio's were trying to keep up with the micro-transactions or just get on that wagon to grab some cash. Chinese studio's that re-skin and release 20+ games a year just keep putting fuel on the fire, at consumers of the gaming industry only we together can put the brakes on this disaster and reclaim our own heritage.

[@zawapants819]

Yeah this isn't in his stream, but the "event" that he's asking about which started the "decline" @2:50... forced "Online" gaming. It introduced SO much bad, and unfortunately it's very tied to Steam and that requirement to be "online" (at least once every 30 days) for what exactly only their accountants could tell you.

[@xXYannuschXx]

For me the decline happened somewhere in the later half of the PS3 life cycle, so about 2012-2013. Valve stopped making games, my favorite platformers from the PS2 era were dead (including R&C which was supposed to stop having sequels made), my two favorite arcade racers were either dead (Motorstorm) or just produced shit (NfS), Little Big Planet started dying, etc.

[@smackfanxion]

People still paying over and over and over to just play more WoW in 2020... "complacency" by definition. PS: Game company bigbosses do nothing but watch the asian markets all day(namely China) and they see how mobile games are a bigger market than NA's population. They see this sht and dream about the day when they too will roll in fields of cash from thei mobile, card, moba, battle royal garbage. This delusional representation of the games industry leads them to present sht like 'Artifact' with a stage, fancy music, a live crowd and everything. Or that Diablo mobile 'dont you have phones' bullsht. They dont get what gamers want. But it doesnt matter. Its easier to convince a market that they want what you have than it is to actually craft a quality product. The job of a businessmen/salesmen is not to make a good product, its to sell the one in stock.

[@smackfanxion]

@@Lavrec LOL!

[@wagwan6935]

“16x the detail” shit like that is just a waste. The detail we have now is good. A fun and functioning game is all that really matters.

[@redbear2113]

It wasn't 16x the detail, it was .7x the detail.

[@WarrenLeggatt]

The start of the decline is linked to wide availability of say ADSL or other "faster than dial up" connections in the home. This allowed companies to shovel out unfinished shite and fix it later. Before that you HAD to fix most of the bugs or you killed your game. In the days of cartridges there was no bug fixing after the fact so it had to be as good as it could be.

[@PretentiousLatinName]

McCool is right, Cata was the first time I told myself "well I guess I dont need to keep playing world of warcraft" feels bad man

[@Pkbucket]

I think I started to notice the decline when Blizz focused more on the Esports side of OW instead of making the game fun. I remember when OW even went months with out a decent update and now when holidays come around they dont even really try to make those fun or interesting anymore they just put out old content that they'd had sense the beginning. :/

[@newvidahall]

I agree that the future of gaming lies with smaller developers, but I wonder what happens when they become successful. They’ll inevitably become larger, right? They’ll become more ambitious, which isn’t inherently a problem. It’s that ambition though that leads to partners, shareholders, and a lot of other causal factors that lead a game developer to implode. We, as consumers, also play a part in perpetuating this cycle. Dunkey’s part two of the game critics video highlights why. I just wonder how we can fix this. We are just trapped in a cycle

[@SrKing-dm4ku]

The main problem isn’t large studios, it’s publicly traded ones. A large, private studio can be happy with sustainable high quality. But a public studio needs to appeal to stock holders, and stockholders don’t want constant great games, they need growth for the stocks to rise. So, they cannot be happy with lots of profit, they need micro-transactions and abusive monetization to give the stockholders more growth.

[@newvidahall]

@@SrKing-dm4ku Well put! All I’d add to your point is that large private studios are rare enough, thus making their impacts infrequent. While companies like Blizzard, activison, etc. flourish regardless. Larian studios is a great example of a private studio, and it’s already been said that they won’t sell out, but who is to say that applies to all private studios? Many things can happen that could radically change a studios outlook on their goals concerning game development

[@trpdrspider8372]

The turning point. Its the same with comics, movies and table top games. Once the nomies thought it was cool to appropriate geek culture. That is where it changed.

[@trpdrspider8372]

@Hello All obvious sexist troll is obvious.

[@trpdrspider8372]

@Hello All What do you know of truth? Are you saying that only women are normies. Are you saying that there has not been quality women playing rpgs in the past?

[@trpdrspider8372]

@Hello All You can put that gender card back in the deck. I did not mention women at all. Name a game that says (current group believed to be marginalized) can't play this RPG or Vido Game. I speak only of normies who are following current trends that my culture is now 'cool'

[@jackofastora8962]

“Normie” found the 4channer

[@trpdrspider8372]

@@jackofastora8962 Personal attack aside. Even if you dislike the source the pattern is there. Once a thing becomes popular it gets watered down.

[@raldrid8264]

8:00 I think he is kinda wrong about this. Due to the fact that a game is made good by the game play. But the experience surrounding it is what makes it exceptional. The game play of god of war was good but it was the immersion that made it exceptional. And that immersion was done through the characters feeling real. Making you feel like you were playing a real character. At least thats what I think. A game e.g. league, can be perceived as good or bad but it is not what I would call immersive. Whereas if you play the old ratchet and clanks you feel like you are experiencing a friendship between ratchet and clank with the bickering and everything. The game play was okay but the characters created the immersion.

[@Dropla]

for me, I noticed the change, when EQ2 was hyping EQ Next. They sold packages for the founders packs where we got pre release access to "Landmark" where we got to playtest in beta for Next in this "Landmark" game and possibly contribute to things that might actually make it into the actual next iteration of Everquest, which was supposed to be "Next". However, They sold it. Daybreak games bought it and scrapped the entire project Everquest Next. We were all left with "landmark" only, which was NOT what we wanted, our hopes for EQ Next were dashed, our hearts were broken and we got our first glimpse of what paid early access could turn out to be.

[@QualityQuad]

Its hard to give an exact date of when the decline of gaming began. Assuming you agree that there is one, I believe that it is just the nature of corporate growth. With any public business, having a profit/economic downturn is typically something that is not accepted by the board and upper management. Generally speaking, I think this decline began once continued growth was the mandate, which usually correlates with companies going public. This pressure to grow the business and its revenues can usually cause management and decision makers (in this case game developers) to opt in to the least risky and most profitable models. Even though this is rational, and not done in spite of gamers, it just so happens that gamers interests and the best interests of a profit driven firm do not always see eye to eye. T'is the nature of "selling out".

[@WieldMyWord]

I would say 2012 is the turning point of games, where things started to get shaky. It was the first time lootboxes got implimentet as an experiment in the Mass effect 3 multiplayer. Although Mass effect 3 had some really great stuff, it was also the first time if I recall a company had to fix an ending through a DLC (fortunately it was free)! It was the last great/mixed bag game Bioware have made, all games after gradually went to shit. It was also the year we got Diablo 3 which was mixed bag, and the Mist of Pandaria expansion which was a continuation of the downfall of Cataclysm. We had new IP like Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning which had great gameplay, but got fucked by bankruptcy. 2012 was the year we got games of variety quality (some bad, mediocre, good, great) like: Far cry 3, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Assassin's creed 3, Halo 4, The Walking Dead Season 1 telltale game, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Guild Wars 2, Journey, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, max payne 3, Prototype 2, Darksiders II , Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Hitman: Absolution , Legend of Grimrock, The Darkness 2, Spec Obs: The Line, Sega Binary Domain, FTL, Sleeping Dogs, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2, Hotline Miami , Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Yakuza 5 (Where the Baka Mitai meme started), Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Cry of Fear, Persona 4 Golden (PSVita), Slender: The Eight Pages, Asura's Wrath , Lollipop Chainsaw , Paper Mario: Sticker Star , Skullgirls, Gravity Rush , Dead or Alive 5, Resident Evil 6, The Secret World (MMO), Quantum Conundrum , Soulcalibur 5, Ninja Gaiden 3 , Game of Thrones RPG, Kinect Star Wars (meme joke game), PlanetSide 2, etc. From 2012 a decline in quality and a slippery slope of bad practices started, ofcourse there are some hit gems here and there, but we started to see a pattern of something bad happening. In 2013 we got games like "Gone home" which was the start of things going SJW which later led up to Gamergate in 2014. Not to mention all the microtransaction, mobile market, etc. Anyone agree?

[@GazMatic]

Yep. I just made the comment before I read yours. I haven't enjoyed a game released after 2013

[@hexoson]

@@Bound4Earth I still played SimCity a lot, but now looking back I realize how terrible that game was. Online required? Game crashed, loads of bugs, no balancing, graphic errors, random disconnecting on servers, etc. Cities: Skylines is a way better city-builder for sure, but my god the DLC and micro-transactions are out of hand.

[@Purplehairedpimp]

I love 7 days to die. There aren't that many voxel survival games out there, much less with zombies. It'd be amazing if the AI wasn't so janky and there was more to it, but there's nothing quite like it.

[@Cyrus_Bright]

7DTD and Project Zomboid are my favorite zombie survival games.

[@0xbaadf00d]

7d2d is like a good unity game. People are prejudged to think it's bad.

[@KratukSC]

I feel like the decline started when MMOs began to adopt microtransactions and free-to-play moved into prominence. When that happened everyone and their brother wanted a taste of that microtransaction digital gold. At that point it became more and more pervasive in other games.

[@doomslayer9149]

Thank you for saying what everyone else has been thinking about the casuals that don’t care if the game is bad or not and continue to buy those games every year.

[@kirby9124]

Jeez dude, 2 minutes in and I'm already laughing. Thanks for such a good and honest reaction video.

[@XyTeRx]

The turning point was bethesda's horse armor dlc. That was the start of the snowball of shit that is triple AAA greed.

[@Sparky3298]

Minecraft was one of the first major videogames to be released as ‘early access’, and so many people played it that once the numbers came in big companies started to follow the same business model. Then you have mobile gaming which exploded with thousands of free to play games with in game transactions. Also bonus points to FPS games MMOS that started including beta test keys as “pre-order bonuses”

[@XyTeRx]

@@Sparky3298 that might be true, but horse armor dlc showed devs and corporate that they could do something like micro dlcs which then became micro transactions.

[@jmeistur2879]

Yeah but again the horse armor dlc stupid as it is, was and is completely optional to buy

[@XyTeRx]

@@jmeistur2879 doesn't matter if it was optional, people still bought it and that showed developers that they can do stuff like sell optional stuff that were as small as cosmetics for your horse.

[@mattm9396]

Joe Alexander the man the myth the legend Todd Howard

[@dml5121]

So glad to see this react. Great uploads lately!

[@tony.h321]

7:58 I'm constantly having this discussion with a buddy who is obsessed with graphics. Impressive CGI is worthless without good storyline, characters, music, and especially, gameplay, so it doesn't really excite me until I see rest of the game. On the other hand, certain games are vastly improved by it. The God of War games, and others, are made to be "cinematic". And games like FIFA, and many others, benefit greatly from motion-captured realism. Red Dead Redemption 2, though, I think (ironically) is one of the very few modern triple-A games that "redeems" the use of (ultra) big budget (and GTA, though personally didn't enjoy the characters and story of GTAV much). Ie. Rockstar in general, though expensive games, is one of the few that still delivers your money's worth. Otherwise, there are a small handful of big-name developers who still have the right stuff. But agree 100%. The future lies with indie developers.

[@leoniapaintballteam]

The decline of gaming for me was when Brink came out. I remember peak parkore craze. My 15 year old brain couldn't handle the idea of cod with parkore WOAH cant wait. I remember being so excited and it was just a heap of rushed garbage. This was when I started noticing games just being rushed and a cash grab. So 2011

[@Matanumi]

Meanwhile Nintendo released the 3ds unerwhelmingly, drooped the price and released Banger after Banger on limited mobile handheld hardware despite the cellphone gaming competition

[@rx-3160]

Fuck now I remember Brink. I vacuumed up every piece of information on that game leading up to its release. Damn.

[@luke9349]

2007 was the beginning of the end, when the iphone was launched, along with the app store

[@totem311]

I don't agree

[@PotatoMan518]

Not true

[@Pavel-wj7gy]

Late 90s and early to mid naughties are one of the best periods for gaming - Morrowind, KOTOR I and KOTOR II, Bioshocks, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, WC3, WoW... Dude, I even learned my English from KOTOR, especially the Revenge of the Sith, which had such a well-spoken English language with complex grammar. Miss those games, miss the humour of those times, when people weren't clamouring publicly about being offended. Upd.: forgot to add Bloodlines - the masterpiece, that was so bad on release that you couldn't actually complete the game without proper patches. Upd2: Gothic I and Gothic II.

[@MarsLonsen]

Rdr2 is crazy good! Only game ever to make me shed a tear.

[@ryanw7142]

I think one of the major issues with "unfinished" games being released and the final stable product not be available until multiple updates, is due to too much hype/marketing. The marketing for games is ridiculous. You hear a game in development at some event being shown off. It seems every time this happens, the company is forcing the developers to make some amazing looking game in a few clips but the overall game is bug ridden and garbage at that moment. Then they proceed to make further promises that more and more features will be implemented as if their trailer or gameplay footage was showing nothing worthwhile. Then they set major release dates a year before they are finished assuming they have enough time to finish the final product AND actually test it among multiple systems, thousands of players, and ect. This is also why i think some games that are not free do micro transactions. They made way too many promises for the time/budget they had, the game is starting to tank in the ratings, so they of course come out with updates. Where do they get the money though to do updates over a year after release? Of course....micro transactions. This is why some games only do things like skins or non mechanic affecting purchases.

[@EvilNecroid]

indie games r the only things keeping the industry from crashing again

[@grogu411]

That’s so stupid. We have so many great games it’s insane. Gaming is better than it ever was. Gamers are just entitled and like to cry and whine about everything

[@whoknows8264]

I wonder if motion capture is actually cheaper than trying to animate by hand.

[@brianvanmaanen1897]

Turning point is simple, Bethesda Horse Armor in Elderscrolls 4: Oblivion. Paying for DLC : OK Paying for expansions: OK Paying for a very minor addition to the game... oh boy that was one slippenslide down to hell.

[@brianvanmaanen1897]

@@Thormedor Reading this made my day, you really stuck the landing there mate. I was like: EHR I disaa.... okey yeah no agree and very true xD

[@Kenny-yu6gc]

I think motion-capture tech streamlines the process of animating character models for gameplay and cinematics where if not for motion-capture devs couldn't include the same amount of cinematics in the same given time frame.

[@CrystalPrelude]

I remember Daggerfall when it came out. You could spend days playing a save and suddenly, for no reason, it became corrupted and you had to start all over. Not to mention the massive amount of bugs. BUT. It was such a fun game that you continued to play anyhow. I remember getting patches to Daggerfall through the PC Gamer mag which came with a CD.

[@magnussthered]

I feel like the decline was with achievements. I just remember when WoW got achievements I was like wtf it took by surprise. And w/ the next gen consoles where developers could just push updates and fixes to games instead of releasing them complete and working.

[@dwarfminerwillie]

Its the same thing as what always happens with success, success brings satisfaction, satisfaction brings complacency, complacency invites corruption and weakness, and finally that invites a downfall. Its happened with leaders, businesses, even civilizations falling in the exact same way.

[@superninja7977]

i have to disagree with asmon on the gow thing of the graphics and motion capture. to me it adds so much to the game's story telling and narrative. if you can see the emotion on a digital characters face then that makes it a win for me. now I will agree that graphics do not determine if a game is good or not, but if you can nail it, to me, it adds a lot of value to the game. it does need to be said that if only graphics are good it doesn't mean shit, but the voice acting as well as the realistic representation together that adds to the game tldr: I think that graphics and cinematics add a lot to a game if done correctly

[@WrenchMonkey91]

When Madden and other EA sports games implemented the ultimate team stuff, that sorta sucked the magic out of gaming for me. One of my favorite games ever, shadow of the colossus, launched for $40 on ps2, cheaper than the norm at the time. I miss that kind of wholesomeness being more common.

[@SunsingerDarkdrinker]

Still consider it the greatest title of all time. That game had so little (next to no voice acting, no Cutscenes, no mobs and even the story was sparse) and yet left me in awe when I played. The feeling it brought out of me will never be forgotten. I remember buying a second copy, the collector edition on Ebay for £30, just for the artwork on the fold case.

[@Kynareth6]

I feel like 2012 was the year, the turning point when things became worse. In both games and hardware side of things.

[@Erickhetfield]

Blaming the "dumbos" or casuals for the decline of the gaming industry, just proves how "gamers" are completely blind. Casual players don't buy pre-orders or invest hundreds of dollars in cosmetic items. Casual players don't participate of dedicated communities like reddit, and defend their beloved games and devs, like it's some sort of cult. They won't buy DLCs or expansions or 5 different version of Skyrim or Street Fighter 4. You know who do invest way more time and money than they should on games? Hardcore players. Fanboys. People they are unaware they are addicted. People so obsessed with a single franchise, that they'll buy everything they released. They can't just play something else, or do something else entirely. Because they are addicted. It's always the same cycle: They'll create an unrealistic and unjustified Hype. They will buy pre-orders, special edition, season passes... If the game is good, it justifies their compulsion. If it's bad, they'll complain about it on Twitter and KZbin, but will buy the next release or comeback once the issues are fixed.

[@reaper8113]

I couldn't have said it better. I always had a hate for streamers/youtubers for all that dumb fake hype they make for a game

[@jackdaniels5819]

I honestly think you're on to something. Took them cutting parts of RE 3 remake to make me notice that. Huge RE fan boy but village was good so I'm holding out hope of they do another remake

[@OkieMcSmokie]

"You accidentally said something really smart." LOL

[@Evilfetus15]

"When did bobby kotick get his own yugioh card" nooo im dying hahaha

[@Sprite_525]

39:16 this part is my only problem with the video - they talk admiringly about the fact that the life of developers used to get “devoured” for the sake of making a game by deadline. it’s not good when peoples’ personal lives get crushed for their jobs. The best solution is a midpoint between the old way of crushing GameDevs and the new way of coasting on patches and fixes and remasters

[@Cullenprime]

Half-Life: Alyx is a pretty good game and I think you would like it and it might even change your mind about VR. I don't care how I look playing VR. I just like having fun and being in a VR environment actually makes me feel like I am in the game.

[@kek1247]

It literally advances the story by half a second