I’m going to be really honest: I think video games are better now than they’ve ever been. That’s not to say that every new game is better than every previous game – but I’m pretty sure the average quality of games you can buy is much, much, much better than even 15 years ago. I definitely pulled more fun out of a $5 indie horror game I got on Steam than I had done with a $40 copy of Solar Jetman on the NES in 1991. That’s not really a fair comparison, but I don’t care. Games are so good now. We are drowning in quality. And such a great time for games shouldn’t feel this bad.
Of course, there are a lot of reasons to feel bad right now. I get that. The world, she is not good. Civil rights have become optional. I won’t get into politics here because this is a site for video games and also because I don’t want my parents’ address DM’d to me again by an anonymous weirdo. So, it’s understandable that this time of high-quality playtime software isn’t going to be sufficient to raise our collective spirits. But there’s something about games – or, rather, the culture surrounding them – that just feels oddly bad right now. It’s always been weird. But there’s just this miasma of sadness around it.
Everything In Gaming Is Too Much Of A Gamble
A massive part of this is obviously the video game industry being in crisis. A lot of the independent developers creating my favorite games are stuck living in a metaphorical casino (and actual garage) where a hit could change their lives forever and a flop could wipe out their entire savings.
I definitely feel good that the indie scene has produced the games I’ve been loving the most. I definitely feel bad when I hear about just how hard it is to succeed and how much of a crapshoot it is. It’s just impossible to play the amount of quality, and it’s sad to understand how much of a struggle that is for talented people to have to live on a hope and a prayer.
Yes, that’s how art works. I’ve worked in entertainment my whole adult life. Everything’s a crapshoot. But it’s strange to also see the flip side of a lot of triple-A studios suddenly not knowing how to find their ass with their hands. Ubisoft is essentially collapsing because two or three games didn’t pass a little blue line on a chart for investors. This is a business. Businesses run on money. Sure, yes. No money, no business.
But it breaks my heart when I see incredible games like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown struggle because of little promotion and weird release schedules – and that then means we won’t get any new PoP games for a decade. Meanwhile, their corporate overlords are making the same mistake: putting all their eggs in one games as a service basket and firing all those eggs when the basket doesn’t win Basket of the Year.
We Shouldn’t Be Happy When Things Fail
Again, yes, yes, this is just the gamble of creative ventures. And, boy howdy, I can tell you that the television industry feels just as bad right now, if not worse. But I shouldn’t feel guilty for not supporting a game – knowing that somehow a triple-A company spent hundreds of millions on a live service boondoggle but they can’t afford to pay for someone to answer the phones. I shouldn’t feel bad when a game fails. But I do, because I know that rather than the company taking time to fix it or learn from the experience or get started on the next thing, a lot of people will just lose their jobs fast.
None of this also addresses the fact that a game doesn’t even get a few weeks before it’s thrown into the garbage disposal. If I’m interested in a game, it shouldn’t ruin someone’s life if I don’t plah it on day one. I know Highguard isn’t my cup of tea, but did we really need to drown it that fast? Did Riot need to pink slip a bunch of people because 2XKO didn’t instantly change the fighting game scene forever? No. Nothing gets a chance. Everything is watched with suspicion. Could this be the next Concord? Are they trying to Concord us? What if this is a woke game? That woman riding a bear in the trailer looks like she went to college and we don’t like that!
Yeah, I respect not liking a game’s style. I respect thinking a concept is overdone. But the CELEBRATING that happens when they struggle. And we all get something stuck in our craw. I was not particularly nice to the Silent Hill interactive TV show. I’m a hypocrite here as well. But the way people want a game to fail based on the trailer or a name they don’t like and the joy when it does… Ii’s not a healthy way to embrace an artform. We shouldn’t be happy when people we never met lost their job for a game we didn’t even play.
To be fair to people who’d never give me the same benefit of the doubt, it’s not all toxic fans – but they are definitely not helping. And lord knows I’ve been toxic, so I’m not free from criticism. Remember how I wasn’t particularly nice to that Silent Hill interactive TV show? But have any of you tried saying you enjoy something recently? Just went onto a social media platform (your Discord group doesn’t count) and said, “This is a good video game”? Boy oh boy do people get really weird! They need to tell you why it’s bad, even if you don’t know them and their reasons don’t make any human sense.
We Don’t Need To Be Such Downers
As much as we love this artform, there are people whose entire lives revolve around finding video games to get angry at and it does have a negative effect. As I said earlier, it feels like some fans will watch a trailer and just decide a game isn’t just bad, it’s a horrifying moral evil that must be stamped out. Between videos about the actual features of a game you have to wade through a swamp of YouTube videos about how a company killed a franchise by not giving the lead character the face and body of a Bratz doll.
Folks, the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons was not aspirational. In a world in which so many people in video games are struggling to make ends meet, it’s so annoying to have so much negative content. Hell, here I am doing it right now! I’m always part of the problem! Remember? How I wasn’t particularly nice to that Silent Hill interactive TV show?
Or, to put it another way, video games are so good right now that everyone from corporate executives to fans should be so happy they’re bouncing in the room like Daffy Duck screaming “wahoo wahoo”. No, I’m not saying we should blindly take everything. But I am saying that big companies need to stop making this industry feel like it’s run by the Grim Reaper. Grievance grifters need to stop making this industry feel like it’s an evil woke conspiracy.
Will either do that? No. I’m not an idiot. Executives still get bonuses when they close developers down. But I just wish a gentle wish that video games could be this good without it feeling like the idea of video games is two years from ending. That’s all. It doesn’t need to feel this bad.
- Released
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January 18, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Montpellier
- Engine
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Unity
- PC Release Date
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January 18, 2024
