Do you remember the feeling of rushing home from school to log into your favorite game? Do you remember not being able to wait to get home to slay the minions of hell in Diablo 2, to grind Clay Golems in Helbreath, to raid The Black Temple in World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, to practice holding Long A on de_dust2 in Counterstrike 1.6, or to jump on Ventrilo with your friends and play Dota in Warcraft 3 Custom Games (along with an OG Wintermaul Wars while you waited for your last friend to hop on)?
These were the days where we would talk about games with friends during recess and at lunch. Where we would use the five minutes between class periods not only to go to the next classroom, but also to discuss leveling strategies, cool new locations, and funny easter eggs we found in games. These were the days where immersion and exploration were fundamental to the gaming experience, and concepts like creative monetization, loot boxes, and min/maxing didn’t exist yet. These were the golden years of gaming, and they are gone.
I don’t necessarily remember every person I hung out with in my 2001 summer sports camp, but I certainly remember the incredible journey I had that summer on Playstation 2 when Final Fantasy 10 came out. I remember Besaid Island, Tidus’ cool blue sword, The Calm Lands, the beautiful musical score, and playing (and hating) Blitzball. I remember being blown away at how incredible the graphics were, and the fact that characters were actually speaking the dialogue instead of just text pop-ups I had to read. I remember that one CG scene where Tidus and Yuna finally kiss and “float” down into the lake, in love. I remember thinking this was the future of gaming, and what a time to be alive. I remember what album I was listening to on my silver and blue stereo system from Costco when I dodged 200 consecutive lightning strikes by pressing X right as the edges of the screen lit up white to get Lulu’s ultimate weapon. Take Off Your Pants and Jacket by Blink 182, which came out that summer as well! These memories are so foundational to my childhood because they meant something at the time. They were emotional journeys of learning, exploration, trial and error, imagination, and pure fun. I’m sure we all have similar games, memories, and journeys. And even though the specific game, time, or memory might be different, it’s beautiful and amazing that we all have this emotional and ethereal string that connects and binds us together as gamers and players and dreamers!
There are a few games that still scratch that itch, notably in recent years Elden Ring, God of War (2018), Baldur’s Gate 3, and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey have been fantastic! They were immersive and let the player learn about a vast, complex world in their own way. They have brought back the feeling of wanting to share your experiences with your friends, and looking forward to coming home from work to see what happens next. But the lulls in between beating or getting a Platinum in these games feel greater and greater. [Link to it’s okay to have lulls in between games article]
Maybe it’s partly because we’re getting older? Maybe responsibilities take so much of our time and energy that gaming feels less approachable and less desirable now? [Link to gaming in your 30’s article] Maybe our parents were right, and video games are a stupid waste of time? No, that can’t be it. Maybe games have evolved so much that we spend more time in-game thinking about what we’re supposed to do next, or in what order to achieve the best results, that we can’t just sit and explore and play for fun anymore. Or maybe we’re chasing a feeling that’s dying in the gaming industry. Whatever it is, it’s a damn shame, because I used to love gaming. Now, even though I still play games, I feel like the experience is a ghostly shell of what it used to be.
Part of the problem is that game developers are so homogenized now. For the most part, they’re all large businesses that are creating games as a vehicle of economic return, and not as a vehicle of true passion, creativity, and desire. [Link to chat with EA executive in business school that called Battlefront 2 a huge success]. Don’t all successful entrepreneurs and CEOs say that they achieved their financial success after years and countless hours of focusing on everything but the money? They were obsessed with delivering the best product, service, or experience to their customer, and over time this allowed them to be successful. They didn’t focus on Return on Investment or Free Cash Flow. These big game studios have gotten it wrong in recent years. Their success has led them to apply a specific formula of gaming – whereby they create homogenized products with similar systems, monetization strategies, and, therefore, experiences to the end user, because the returns are predictable and the risks are relatively low. [link to Vince Vaughn saying the same thing about movie industry on Hot Ones].
It’s not all pessimistic, however! There are still bright spots in the industry. Studios that are focused on creating the best product possible for the gamer. Developers that are still taking risks with their systems, worlds, engines, styles, and experiences. And many of them have been awarded for their risks! Elden Ring took the SoulsBourne concept and applied it to a massively expansive and robust open world. Baldur’s Gate 3 decided to let the player do anything they freaking want to instead of creating player-choice decision trees that all essentially link back to the same two or three paths. God of War (2018) decided to let you explore the world in almost any order and pace you want, with zero need to look up any guide or online resource because the point of the game was to experience it in your own way. These studios all took risks beyond the “re-create the same game every year with predictable leveling/progression systems, loot boxes, pay-to-win perks, and we’ll make some money” paradigm [link to creating the same game every year article]. And they all were awarded Game of the Year in their respective years. And they were magnificent games. I know we’ve heard this a million times, but the onus really is on us, the players, to help direct the market in the direction that we want. If we keep buying the disappointing new AAA title game from the big studio every few months and pouring a ton of money into pay-to-win progression or cosmetic items, then we’ll keep getting more of that. Even if we go on reddit and make a ton of noise about how bad or stale or empty these games feel, the studios will consider them massive successes (because financially, they are) and make more of them. If we don’t buy those games, and only spend our time and money on the meaningful, material, creative, and genuinely enjoyable games, then we’ll eventually get more of them!