Honestly “it’s this game but with that.” could be a pretty good way to innovate unless you’re totally phoning it in IMO.
Metroid was created when people at Nintendo wanted to combine the skill-based platforming of Super Mario Bros with the exploration of a Zelda game. That ended up being one of the two founding games in the Metroidvania genre.
System Shock was created by people who wanted to make a game with the same “emergent gameplay systems as a puzzle/playground” aspect of dungeon crawling RPGs like Ultima, but in a SciFi rather than fantasy setting. What we ended up with was something that combined fast paced shooter gameplay and a tight narrative presentation on the one hand, with letting the player make their own solutions to levels by manipulating open-ended gameplay systems on the other. This is very similar to the situation with metroid IMO, in how it tried to combine two very differnt styles of gameplay. Today we have an entire genre of games inspired by System Shock called immersive sims (though its more of a design ethos than a genre IMO).
The famous level design and exploration of Dark Souls was inspired by the 3D Zelda games, and while I don’t have a source for this its hard for me to believe that the lock-on mechanics and basic idea for the movement weren’t at least a little inspired by Zelda too. Or, in other words, Dark Souls is basically a 3D Zelda game but with the tone and difficulty of their earlier King’s Field series.
Now, I don’t mean to imply that combing two good things is a guaranteed way to get something good. Or even that, if you do hit upon a good combination, that that’s the only thing you need to put into your work. The games I’ve just talked about are all absolute classics and obviously a lot went into that. For example, the genesis of the iconic multiplayer aspect of Fromsoft’s games came about during the development of Demon’s Souls, when Miyazaki was trying to drive up hill in a bad snow storm. There was a line of cars, and when one began to spin it’s tires then ones behind it would intentionly push on it to help it up. This all happened without the drivers being able to talk to each other, and, seeing this, Miyazaki wondered what became of the last car in the line, but knew he would never get an answer since he would never see these people again. It was this experience that inspired the creation of phantoms.
However, what I am trying to say is that taking something you like and understanding what makes it tick, then making it work in a new context, can end up creating something that then seems wildly innovative in that context.
As an aside, both Zelda and King’s Field were inspired by a dungeon crawling game called “Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord”. Both Wizardry and Ultima were derived from earlier games that were basically “Dungeons and Dragons, but on a computer”. Some of them were even named “DND” on the early computer systems they ran on.
DnD itself was created when people wanted to do wargames with a greater emphasis on unconventional warfare (such as spying, diplomacy/intrigue, propaganda, etc) that by necessity required roleplay. After one of these kinds of games was set in a half Conan the Barbarian half Gothic horror medieval fantasy setting with a spooky underground labyrinth beneath a town we got the trope of dungeon delving and returning with treasure to a (relatively) safe town just outside the dungeon entrance.
That seems like a lot, but that’s <$12/user in microtransactions and ~$43/user in games. That’s like… 2 microtransaction purchases and a couple indie games each.
Similar to the early Blizzard approach in some ways. A focus on delivering a vibe done to a very high level of quality and visual coolness, while leaving risky innovation in game mechanics to others.
Not only that but GW2 also can link items and skills in the chat so that someone else can view them. And the best part is that this also works with the wiki command.
So, for example, you found an item and want to know what it is and what you can use to for, just link it after /wiki and you are redirected to the full page of that item.
Unfortunately, I lately have issues with firefox in which the first wiki command somehow screws with my firefox and thinks that it needs to restart before being able to work correctly.
I realise i must be an edge case but i think my steam account of 10+ years is positive money wise. Got thousands of hours in the same few games and sold my old €100 CS inventory for about €500 PayPal when the market boomed.
The amount of money I’ve spent on my system to play those few games at more fps tho, lets not calculate.
Lmao. I mostly play the free games. I also have the heroic launcher and I’m signed into gog, epic and prime on it and so far, they’ve given me 85 free games. I have a lifetime supply of games.
20 million divided by 1.7 is about $11 per person, which isnt really that high.
I also think theres a distinction to be made between microtransactions in f2p titles and microtransactions in AAA premium titles. I logged something like 4000 hours in Mechwarrior online and I bought mech packs because I wanted to support the devs.
I feel like a lot of the microtransaction revenue is DLC as well. But like someone else said, there are the rare games that are free to play and don’t have super predatory mtx like Path of Exile or The Finals.
[ For years we’ve seen an encouraging pattern. Hit new releases are excellent at generating new first-time purchasers, and we’ve tried to build many platform features to encourage those new users to stick around, find more great games, and play with friends. To gather data illustrating the effectiveness of that approach, we went all the way back to 2023 and identified the biggest 20 releases of that year. We looked at every new first-time purchaser generated by those products (that is, an account making a purchase, or redeeming a Steam key, for the first time) for a total of 1.7 million new users. Then we followed that cohort of new users. The stats below represent what those players did from January 2024 through early March 2025.
…
That cohort of players has gone on to spend $20 million on in-game transactions across hundreds of other games—plus another $73 million on premium games and DLC across thousands more products. ]
So they are not average gamers, more like new blood in steam, and the numbers are for money they spent additional after the reason they came to steam.
just did the math, I’ve averaged about $165/yr on steam, with very little (though not none) microtransactions. like maybe less than $50 total in 15 years.
I think I probably have a similar average on my 18 yr old account, except the only microtransactions on my account are credits from selling any hats, skins and duplicate weapons I unlocked for free in TF2 and CS 😅
Less than 20 dollars per user on “microtransactions” which the article goes on to define as “in-game transactions”. And 73 dollars on direct steam purchases of games/DLC which very well could just be a single newly released game.
So… one “battle pass” or two or three cosmetics for a live game and a new game or a season pass or two of DLC for an older one?
You’re kidding, right? They’re the only ones safeguarding the industry and making it so you’re not watching ads once every 3 minutes to get a few more coins in your PC games.
They provide one of the best distribution networks in the PC industry, and they constantly stand on the side of the players vs corporate interests.
Their refund policies only came about because different governments sued them. Check out either coffeezilla or People Make Games on CS:GO loot boxes, the latter of which has interviews with plenty of the victims of this system that Valve allows to continue because it’s so lucrative for them.
I was specifically refuting, “They’re the only ones safeguarding the industry,” and how they got to their refund policies matters when it comes to that statement. I was not here to throw a gauntlet down, insult Steam’s honor, and challenge anyone to a duel. I prefer to shop on GOG these days, when possible, but my Steam profile says I have 991 games in my account, and I bought most of those. Valve and Steam have done lasting, measurable good to this industry and medium, but that doesn’t mean they’re safeguarding it or that it’s all good news. As to the thing about ads, I don’t think that model would actually work with the PC gaming audience, and I think Valve prohibiting it is just so that their audience still finds quality products on Steam and spends more money. Valve’s best behaviors and worst behaviors are motivated by profit.
Valve’s best behaviors and worst behaviors are motivated by profit.
That’s where I disagree. Valve is not a publicly traded company. It is not beholden to shareholders to strive for profit above all else, and it shows in Valve’s leadership.
Just because they are private doesn’t mean Gabe doesn’t like to make a ton of money. Dude owns tons of yacths and would like to own more. I love Valve and think they are the biggest ethical company in gaming. But they’re still a massive corporate monopoly. No one is perfect, and they did do things that hurt people. No need to be publicly traded to also be evil. Trust but verify.
Striving for profit is a quality tied to being a company, not being a publicly traded company. Everything they do is in pursuit of making more money. Often times, that means making the best store out there so that we shop with them instead of their competitors, which is how it’s supposed to work.
Everything they do is in pursuit of making more money.
That’s where I’m saying you are wrong.
Publicly traded companies are beholden to their shareholders, and MUST strive to make money above all else. Privately held companies can put that profit motive behind other more important motives. Sure, does Valve want to make money? Absolutely - we’ve all got to make a living.
But is that their ONLY goal at the expense of everything else? Also, clearly not - or we’d have ads on every steam store page, we’d be paying monthly for steam, and you’ve seen all the shady, shitty things that all the other wanna-be steam competitors have done. So clearly valve does not value profit above everything.
That’s just not true. They’re seeking profit by attempting to be the best place to spend your money. Epic would love for Valve to charge users monthly for Steam, but they don’t, because it would just drive people away from Steam. They stand to make more money by doing what they’re doing. This is not a public versus private thing. Arguably the negative that comes along with public companies is that there are more short term incentives at the expense of long term profit, but they’re both doing what they do for profit.
I was talking about the people buying the microtransactions. I should have made that clear, I thought it could be deduced, given Valve aren't exactly ruining the game industry by stat tracking 1.7 million users, but I can see how it was confused.
I don’t think microtransactions are inherently bad, they are just used in the most greedy, money-grabbing ways.
There are some free-to-play games that don’t restrict your access to any gameplay at all as a free player, which can only be subsidized by microtransactions. If it’s just cosmetics, and they’re priced fairly, I wouldn’t feel any concern over it.
I say this as someone who will put 100 hours into a f2p game and maybe spend $10-20 on a skin or two. I feel that it’s fair to spend that much after reaping so many hours of play.
If it's free to play, then some cosmetic mtx are fine, the problem is how egregious they have become. They are not designed as a way to support a game, they are designed to suck as much money as they can from you. Which is why I disagree with supporting them at all anymore.
Games should be a one-off purchase, with no extra added bullshit.
Valve says the data proves “Steam isn’t just a storefront—it provides social community, game discoverability, interactive events, and a deep set of game-enhancing features to attract and retain players who will be checking out new games in the future.”
I think it proves that Steam is the largest storefront on PC and that PC is growing and replacing other platforms.
I haven’t seen an interactive event on Steam for, like, a decade. Unless they’re counting sales as interactive events. 🤔
They used to have, like, gamified events where you’re earning things (like maybe trading cards or badges or other Steam profile items) by playing a small little browser game inside the store page. Those were always fun.
one example of a steam onteractive event was when valve was actively giving viewers who were watching the game awards through steam a raffle to get a free one.
The 1.7 million customers who originated from a top 2023 release
This wording is a bit strange, are they tracking the new steam accounts that signed up to buy a specific 2023 title (like Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, or Starfield)?
If so it says more about the specific demographic attracted to that unknown title than it does about Steam in general.
To gather data illustrating the effectiveness of that approach, we went all the way back to 2023 and identified the biggest 20 releases of that year. We looked at every new first-time purchaser generated by those products (that is, an account making a purchase, or redeeming a Steam key, for the first time) for a total of 1.7 million new users.
Yeah, that’s a bit strange. Not everyone starts their account by a big game. My current steam account is quite old and first games were the ones I could afford back then as a student: indie titles, freebies, maybe one big game at some point. My previous account was only for HL / CS.
Having not played any of the previous games I wasn’t sure what to expect going in and I am sort of 50 / 50 on it in general.
It has a good level of polish for something that is at v0.15 or there abouts when I played but there were a lot of negatives for me for example the balancing on the last set of boss “fights” was horrendous but obviously it is early on and hopefully as development moves forward things like that will be addressed.
I hated the upgrade system however which is something I don’t think will change going forward, for example having to “upgrade” your wallet to hold more is stupid. Particularly when you are forced into a couple of boss fights back to back early on. These fights award you with a decent amount of cash upon winning but upon finishing them and returning “home” you are greeted with a screen informing you because those fights went over your wallet capacity that you just lose a couple of mil, which when this happened to me I could have really used for upgrading my car.
Ultimately even though it is less polished I think nightrunners is a far superior game following the same sort of gameplay loop and style of highway racing. It has a more striking aesthetic, the cars look better and have a lot more / better upgrade options, particularly visually. That is made by just one person too, I’m looking forward to its hopeful release later on this year.
Also if you like Japanese cars and modding then check out JDM: Japanese Drift Master due to release at the end of this month, based on the demo version last year this was a lot more fun for me than Tokyo Xtreme.
How would you describe the driving mechanics? I tried NFS Heat to feel that retro night vibe, but the mechanics were atrocious in my opinion. They’re too arcadey. Forza Horizon has become my standard for a balance between realistic (predictable) mechanics without punishing me for every mistake. I don’t mind Forza Motorsports but I’m more interested in cruising and racing stylistic cars more than perfecting lap times.
Is it open world? Japan and JDM aren’t that big in my automotive enthusiasm scale but there’s something deeply nostalgic when I can ride through some highway lights, virtual or real, that resemble the Japan track from Gean Turismo 1 or 2
I haven’t played Heat but like you I like the Forza Horizon balance of pretty arcadey feel with some sim elements mixed in without it really going too far to either extreme.
I don’t want to be excessively harsh on a game that is still pretty early in its development so far but also not having played any of the previous entries I dont know exactly what feel they are going for, so maybe this is already pretty close to their goal (which would be a shame I think)
As it is right now though it is very arcade-y feeling and in all honesty the “upgrades” didn’t really make the car feel any different as I spent money on the car, it was consistent throughout. The cars don’t really corner that well, you cant really initiate a drift or have any real control through the corners to that level, you can yank up the handbrake but the car doesnt slide in a nice, predictable manner at all. You can either use it to cut a lot of speed suddenly in a quick jab or hold it and spin out.
So generally you’ll be driving flat out dodging traffic until a corner at which point you’ll slam on the brakes to cut your speed enough to try and get around the corner without riding the walls (the races use a battle system with “health bars” to win or lose and hitting walls depletes your health bar)
As I said in the previous post as well the opponents definitely need balancing as well as you will often need to cheese the harder battles or just hope to god that they crash and you can get far enough ahead to win. A lot of the AI drivers will hook their front onto your rear and plow you into a wall which is extremely frustrating.
The game itself is set in an open world of sorts. So when you leave for the night you choose which highway entrance to enter on and in which direction. You are then free to cruise the highways (you start with a small loop and then a little more opens up as you play, I presume the full game will have a lot more) and challenge any other vehicle you see to battles. You can race all the civilian trucks or cars if you want or you search for other rival gangs. When you beat a certain amount of members from each gang then you unlock the boss of that gang for a boss battle.
Whilst cruising you are stuck going the direction you began with unless you pull into a parking spot. Here you can chat to random people about inane shit or challenge some others that are parked up. Here you can also leave the parking area to go in the opposite direction on the highway. It is realistic but also frustrating sometimes to try and find a parking area if someone you want to battle is on the opposite side, I wanna have some places where I could illegally switch sides really.
If you dont like JDM shit then I would say the appeal would be even narrower for you cause it is focused on those cars. This is what I love so what kept me involved to see it through but the selection of parts and wheels etc is honestly shite (nightrunners blows it out of the water by a long way in this aspect).
TLDR: you probably won’t like it that much based on what you said, even cruising the majority of the available world is really fucking long straights and is pretty boring and you dont even like JDM stuff :)
Just wanted to point out that wiki.gg is out there as a replacement. There’s even a wiki.gg Redirect plugin for Firefox that takes you to the right place, if you hit a Fandom link.
Relative to a fandom wiki: I guess? Although you are inherently going to have the same content theft problems where the vast majority of modern wikis are just ripped from the game guides that games media are still paid to prepare.
Relative to an official wiki with developer backing? No, it is not a replacement.
Also: I would generally be very wary of any of the plugins to redirect you since they have VERY broad permissions to… hijack your browser traffic. If you are keeping up to date and monitoring them you are probably fine but that feels like a great example in waiting to find out a bad actor pushed some code last week…
For anyone looking for a wonderful example of this, check out the RuneScape wiki. It’s hosted by a company that is partnered with the game maker, and is fully maintained by the community. It is the single most expansive and in-depth wiki I have ever seen. It is truly the gold standard for what a wiki should aspire to be.
It has everything you could need to play the game, all the way down to automatic calculators (with built in character lookup functionality, using the game’s high score leaderboard system) to tell you things like how many of [x] resource you’ll need to get [y] experience, or what your estimated return on investment will be for turning [x] resource into [y] product.
The game has over 250 quests, (and not just basic fetch or kill quests like most MMO’s have) and the wiki has in-depth walkthroughs (including in-game screenshots) for every single one.
You can even open the wiki directly from the game. There’s a “Wiki” button on the chat box, so you can search the wiki directly via chat, and it opens in your desktop browser.
It took many years and plenty of iteration to make it there. It feels like a fever dream remembering the days Sal’s realm and tip.it were king. Remember when the game map wasn’t even in game, they just had a image linked at the top of the webpage?
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Aktywne