Talking about Why Concord Failed

I share my thoughts about Concord and why it failed, as well as other topics like DEI and wokeness in games.
Twitch - / painrelievers
Discord - / painrelievers

[@cwjkeyes4322]

The popular hero shooters like Overwatch, Apex Legends and Valorant that you mentioned DO have extremely diverse casts and have since their launches. From what I remember it was part of the marketing and appeal of them. It seems like you were correct initially in saying they just took too long to develop the game, and the market was oversaturated once it was released. TBH it's kind of weird to hit the nail on the head in less than 30 seconds and then veer off to into ranting about something largely unrelated like character designs for twice as long.

[@lukesoddlife]

I agree that people shouldn’t be paying for a hero shooter in this day and age where the hero design is lacking creativity or uniqueness. What I don’t agree with is the fact people now think they have an excuse to be racist, homophobic etc. I know you’ll always get that and you’ll always get the “anti-woke” agenda, and I know that this game was made with that whole “modern audience” in mind - but even they didn’t want to play it because again of the price, game type and design.

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

You pretty much hit the nail right on the head with Dustborn. I wouldn’t care if the main character had a different skin color or was the opposite sex of me. Just make the game fun, and don’t belittle anybody, especially not the people who will decide whether your game is a success or a failure.

[@NRV0]

I only feel bad for the people who worked hours to make this game. I feel for them seeing all their years of hard work only lasting two weeks. The people at the top honestly just got to stop this BS of chasing after the same thing and let their developers be unique and create things.

[@PainReliever]

It is sad to see so many years of work amount to nothing. I'm sure many of those developers were passionate and proud about what they were creating.

[@OriginalRocketJock]

@@PainReliever Moreso, imagine deluding yourself to think "Everybody's gonna love this!"

[@Nightwinger5100]

I think the game flopped because it was bad, not because it was inclusive.

[@itskelvinn]

It was bad because dei was forced to

[@vancedburn3796]

lets see if this comment holds up when marvel rivals launch

[@Nightwinger5100]

@@vancedburn3796 but they aren't even comparable games

[@Nightwinger5100]

@@itskelvinn it's bad because it was bad

[@vancedburn3796]

@@Nightwinger5100 the only difference is that marvel has established i.p It's same price, same game modes, same genre...

[@Sandman10032]

Who was the game for is my thing? Every hero shooter niche is filled. Overwatch is the team based fps (as well as doing the diversity thing right until mostly recently). Apex is the battle royals. Siege and Valorant are the competitive small team gun fight ones. And oh God I forgot about Duskborn thankfully

[@Deppie_____]

Characters were not interesting at all to me

[@Phantom_Ashes]

people talk about "man i feel so bad for the developers, they tried their best and it only lasted 2 weeks" if this is the best they can do, then maybe they just arent good developers. they got paid their salary, the only people who woulda lost money was ea. i dont feel bad in the slightest

[@attenonmj3708]

I've never heard of any of those games...

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

Praise your lucky stars for that, especially with Dustborn.

[@EvanSnowWolf]

It's simple: make the good game first, add DEI as a detail after the fact. Do not make a DEI first, then worry about if it is good later.

[@Silverizael]

And yet the vast majority of people that complain about DEI (or CRT or "woke" or SJWs) complain about the most minor of details and their issue is with any form of inclusion at all. Like how they whined about a tiny trans flag existing in the background of a screen image in Celeste.

[@EvanSnowWolf]

@@Silverizael It isn't the vasy majority at all. It's a LOUD minority. Do not confuse the two.

[@moominboobin1594]

@@Silverizael why does it need to be in though?

[@Wabit-b6k]

I completely agree with your take on inclusivity it’s not that I hate a gay character it’s that I hate that feel I need to know this every second

[@BabysitterSky]

"I'm not racist, I have a black friend" You're that guy

[@vancedburn3796]

have you seen the velma series on hbo? its the same thing. The main problem is the way they are pushing things when the characther is solely based on 2 traits, gender/race the lack of depth shows and the lazy writing gives you the ick. I actually tried forspoken and it could have been a good game but the writes kept going on the "im the bad b**ch from NY" all the time

[@OriginalRocketJock]

@@BabysitterSky You sound like tons of fun to be around socially.

[@Wabit-b6k]

@@OriginalRocketJock yeah honestly he has a really good point and he respectfully commented on my post

[@Wabit-b6k]

@@BabysitterSky how? I said I don’t hate gay people and I never mentioned race

[@NovaG0]

Words of wisdom

[@Stealthpaw1]

This abstract concept of some woke conglomerate forcibly dragging games down into bad territory is silly at best and downright hateful at worst. "Forced diversity" doesn't exist, it's a term that was popularized to make it slightly more acceptable to share racist viewpoints. All this stuff you're saying at the end about DEI potentially ruining games, that a broader focus on inclusion and proper representation isn't worth sacrificing the overall quality of the game for IS technically true but it's not something that actually happens. The team of writers working on a AAA game isn't responsible for the gameplay. The art directors aren't responsible for any bugs in the game. The marketing team didn't somehow infect the game with a virus that makes people hate it. These departments that are completely insulated from what makes a game actually good or worth playing, like designing the core gameplay loops or adding mechanics to make the player experience more fun. Concord flopping is absolutely 100% NOT related to the fact that the cast is diverse nor the character designs being mediocre and furthering this idea that it somehow IS is holding us back as a community. Very disappointed to hear this from you.

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

One problem: he didn’t say Concord failed due to forced diversity. He said that about Dustborn, which is absolutely valid because that game is basically written around being an easily offended 2016 SJW. God, I haven’t used that term in a while, but considering that game also started production in 2016 as a response to that election, it’s a fitting term, I suppose. No, if you watch the video again, he said Concord failed because it entered an oversaturated market way too late.

[@Stealthpaw1]

@@DoomsdayMachine_888 My mistake for conflating what he said with why Concord failed. Regardless what I said can largely be extrapolated to many, many other games where people attempt to point out that actually they're bad because "forced diversity," or "the writing is too woke," or "it focused too hard ''''''being political''''''' which clearly doesn't belong in and has never been involved in art in any way at all;" some of which are points touched on or alluded to by PainReliever in this video in reference to other games. It's not a criticism of the game, it's a criticism of ideology that's being poorly disguised as criticism of the game. The people spreading these talking points just don't like seeing so many gosh darn colored people in their games, and they're aware that they have to throw a thin veil over what they're saying in order to get it passed as not racist. What happened to all the boilerplate straight white folk they could always relate to no matter what? It doesn't accomplish anything but encourage mudslinging and an over-usage of buzzwords.

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

@@Stealthpaw1 It’s warranted in cases like Dustborn because games like Dustborn are made primarily with ideology in mind, not gameplay. So criticizing the game for focusing on ideology at the expense of the quality of the game is perfectly acceptable. And that’s the kind of criticism PR gave: whether you wanna be diverse or not, make the game good, first. But you have some developers who are flipping out at the fact that their poorly made games are not successful, and they blame racism, sexism, and every other ism rather than looking inward at their own failings. Also, the quality of their writing gets shafted for the sake of checking as many diversity boxes as they can. When it’s actively ruining games, it’s perfectly fair to criticize it for doing so. Not every game that has diversity in it is a bad game because diversity in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. But when that’s the only thing you’re concerned about, and that ends up resulting in a terrible game, it’s bad.

[@Stealthpaw1]

@@DoomsdayMachine_888 Have you played Dustborn, or have you only seen clips of it? Watched a full playthrough of it?

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

@@Stealthpaw1 A friend of mine bought it, actually. It plays like ass, and the writing is utter trash filled with exactly the kind of crap I’ve described.

[@midnitdragoon]

They didn't have enough woke people between the release of Concord and Dustborn. Those 500 people can't handle two games at once.

[@Gtflybmx75]

Yeah I definitely agree

[@diceking7469]

You mean besides everything?

[@fleshautomatonanimatedbyne6327]

Concord had a billion reason to fail "wokeness" wasn't one of them, pretending like games are getting worse because they have gay people in then now is absolutely ludicrous especially considering how many "woke" games are considered absolute succeses, alan wake 2? Tlou part 2? Baldur's gate 3? Disco elysium? Extremely stupid take.

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

That wasn’t his point about Concord, though. With Concord, he primarily said that the developers took way too long for the market of games they were trying to compete in (hero shooters). It was Dustborn that he was talking about with the failure of the forced diversity crap. And if you’ve seen literally anything from that God-forsaken game, you would absolutely not have offered that comment at all. Rewatch the video.

[@fleshautomatonanimatedbyne6327]

@DoomsdayMachine_888 "forced diversity" Im sorry you had to see a black woman, I'm sure it was devastating. That game sucks because the writing is ass, the writing isn't ass because of DEI the game could be entirely straigh white guys and it would still suck, the writers are just bad, the Woke boogeyman destroying videogames doesn't exist, bad writers do.

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

@@fleshautomatonanimatedbyne6327 Bro…the entire point of the game *is* forced diversity. They made the game as a toxic response to the 2016 election, and the whole combat system and most of the interactions are so absurd with their self-righteous “YoU’Re rAcISt” crap, “trigger” is an actual option for discussions, “bullying” is presented as a literal power for the main characters, that song has extremely disgusting lyrics and a horrific sound, I mean it just goes on and on. On a technical sense, you’d be right that the characters being white guys wouldn’t change the writing from being ass, but the writing itself is a wet dream of forced diversity. Do you think I hate TF2’s demoman? No, because he has such a hilarious and fun personality that him being black is an afterthought. That’s the point: diversity isn’t something you should prioritize, but quite a few developers have that as their top priority, if not their exclusive priority. It’s retarded. Oh, well. At least you realize that he wasn’t talking about Concord. Now all you need to do is understand that Dustborn is an example of game quality being sacrificed completely in the name of being “diverse”.

[@difference3maker36]

@@fleshautomatonanimatedbyne6327it’s actually both cmon you have to have seen the whole SBI situation They are literally the woke boogeyman every game they touch turns to trash Some devs the company and others have literally admitted they hate white people and they want to inject this into our games

[@DoomsdayMachine_888]

@@fleshautomatonanimatedbyne6327 First of all, to your first point attempting to belittle me as much as the Dustborn developers belittled gamers for not playing, I say this: as a Coach (L4D2), Louis (L4D), and Demoman (TF2) enjoyer, kindly shove this 🖕 where the sun doesn’t shine. Second, it’s ass writing *because* it’s so pretentious with its self-righteous DEI crap. It’s the aggressive push for diversity only for the purpose of diversity and nothing else, removing any merit, charm, or personality from the game in the name of surface-level “inclusivity”. And the main character is a garbage, self-centered, unbelievably evil C U Next Tuesday. Third, glad to see you rewatched the video and realized he wasn’t talking about Concord, but I have to ask: how’d you miss that the first go-around?

[@BabysitterSky]

You're mad there's diversity in games now? Really? Never thought I'd hear "DEI" and "Woke" from you. Whats next? Are you going to talk about CRT being taught to children....even though its only an elective college course?

[@PainReliever]

I literally mention at the end of the video that I feel different groups of people should be represented, but not at the expense of gameplay, lore, or player experience.

[@BabysitterSky]

@@PainReliever End of the video? The rant started about halfway through and went for the remainder. Please sir, in what was the alien shooter game "woke" or had "dei"?

[@vancedburn3796]

@@PainReliever you do dbd content, should have expected some backlash from the "safe space" community dude. Did you expect basic interpretation on the internet ? 😂😂

[@fluffyg12]

@@PainRelieverbut like… is that really why this game flopped? I don’t think it being “woke” is as important as a lack of a timely release, lack of interest in the genre, lack of marketing. People make such a big deal about being woke they don’t know what they are saying. Saw a trailer for a new Civilization game, and people are already hoping it isn’t “woke”… A game about worldwide leaders going against eachother. Like c’mon

[@OriginalRocketJock]

It was a shit game. Accept the facts.