pcgamer.com

Sanguine, do games w [PCGamer] Helldivers 2 is the least I've felt pressured to spend money on a game in years, so of course I'm buying everything in the store

Ques are over. Come in the water is warm and full of bug juice.

CaptPretentious,

That’s good to hear! I’ve held off checking it out until the queue got better.

Zorque,

Whats are over?

bran_buckler,

The “queue to connect to the server” is how I read their message.

Sanguine,

Yup exactly, I spelled it wrong tho 😐

Zahille7,

This works so well lol

regdog,

¿Que?

Minotaur, do games w The System Shock remake is getting a massive patch with a revised ending, choice of female player character '8 years in the making', and a significant quality of life improvement

Perplexing, but nice to see!

It’s a really great and faithful remake - but I feel like I heard so little about it that I’m so confused to see new endings and player characters come out for it now months later.

Hoping it has some second wind with the general gaming crowd. Seems like it got overshadowed by RE4 and the latest Zelda game and never hit it off with that kind of TikTok, game of the month crowd

Gullible,

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightdive_Studios

The studio seems pretty cool. Seems outwardly like they care more about accessibility and quality than short-term profits.

Kolanaki,
!deleted6508 avatar

I’ve heard that it’s still by and large like the original game in many areas, so I could see it not hitting with that crowd. But among the old geezers like myself who never stopped playing the old stuff, it’s got nothing but praise. Personally haven’t played it (or even the original game for that matter; only ever had SS2) but both look amazing, and I want to play it.

I have a lot of other remake games and engine ports from Night Dive and almost all of them are absolutely phenomenal.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I was super-positively surprised by how faithful it was, loved replaying it.

And sure the ending fight was weird, but also, the “proper” ending fight was the room before that. So it felt complete in that regard, the last bit was just finishing off the game. Like in Crysis Warhead when you get the final gun, at that point it’s already won, just about finishing it off.

Curious to see what they’re changing.

Sanctus, do gaming w Phil Spencer blames capitalism for games industry woes: 'I don't get [the] luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business'
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

You know who will give you money? Customers if you stop treating them like piñatas.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Valve is an excellent example of a company that is privately owned, so they don’t have to satisfy shareholders with constant growth for growth’s sake. And yet they’re still growing and making a profit, because they make a good product.

Phil and Xbox don’t have that luxury because their masters sold out decades ago.

GnomeKat,
@GnomeKat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Valve is also a good example of platform monopoly. People need to stop treating valve like they aren’t also a big problem with the modern games industry. They are PC gaming’s landlord taking a 30% cut of every sale. You have to be smoking crack if you think that doesn’t hurt game developers.

Geth,

They are a monopoly because they’ve had the best product on the market consistently for 15 years. There used to be huge resistance to them and their drm from gamers, but they have shown over many years that they are trustworthy, unlike others that have tried this.

This is not an Apple or Google store situation where proper competition could not exist. They were always up against giants like Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft or more recently Epic.

GnomeKat,
@GnomeKat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

No they don’t, Steam barely ever gets updated, it’s not magically better than the others it’s just the one everyone uses.

Digital storefronts are natural monopolies. No one wants to use a different game launcher because it’s annoying to remember multiple passwords, to remember which game is where, to install and have multiple launchers running. None of that is Valve doing some amazing engineering that no one else has done, it’s just the natural state of game launcher / storefront economics. The only reason Steam is what people prefer is because it was the first one on the scene and has the lion share of users and games for sale.

We see the same thing happen with streaming platforms, the same thing happen with social networks. And Steam is also a social network which reinforces the monopoly. The other launches have friends and chat and shit but no one uses it because their friends are on steam or discord.

anyhow2503,

I don’t doubt that Steam being first to market is the biggest reason for their success, but you make it sound as if there’s some alternative store that is better for the consumer in some way. What’s the alternative? I have yet to see any other store/launcher come close to Steam in terms of features, even more so when it comes to Linux support, which Valve have turned into a viable gaming OS pretty much by themselves. In the end, even exclusivity and drastically lower fees for publishers didn’t make EGS the success that Tim Sweeney wishes it was and I think at that point being first to market can’t be the only explanation. They have to be doing something right.

Zahille7,

I think we’ve found Sweeney’s Lemmy account lol

Geth,

Today, yes, I agree. It’s really hard to compete with them anymore. But 15 years ago when everyone was rushing to capture the market, there were many opportunities to do so. Steam and valve were never infallible, but at least they took feedback and stayed consistent, unlike their competitors.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

Well if its a natural monopoly, they can be regulated to assure the price is fair and developers get a fair share of the returns.

UndercoverUlrikHD,

Nothing stops you from busting your games on other platforms when available. I always choose GOG over steam personally. What cut they take from publishers isn’t consumers’ concern.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I always choose GOG over steam personally. What cut they take from publishers isn’t consumers’ concern.

It’s also 30%, so I don’t understand his argument.

Zahille7,

Damn I’m surprised you got up voted for that.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

This isn’t reddit, people here don’t mindlessly kiss ass.

sigmaklimgrindset,

Uh, the Lemmy circlejerk definitely exists.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They are PC gaming’s landlord taking a 30% cut of every sale. You have to be smoking crack if you think that doesn’t hurt game developers.

Which is the industry standard. Who’s the one who is smoking crack?

What percentage do you think they should be getting?

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

They could definitely treat developers better, but they’re an example of treating customers right. That’s why they’re the biggest platform, and that’s why they admittedly have something debatably close to a monopoly.

Aasikki,

Bullshit. That 30% cut pays for all the features that make steam a better store than any other store. Those features are all free for the gamers, because they are essentially paid by the devs in that cut.

If that cut wasn’t worth it, I don’t think Microsoft, ea and others would have come back to steam after trying to make their own stores (and failing).

How can it be a monopoly when I can just download another store with a click of a button? Which I have also done, and even bought games from those said other stores, but the experience was just completely miserable compared to steam, up to the point I’ve considered rebuying those games on Steam.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah but they give you so little money compared to investors and shareholders. 😅

mindbleach, do gaming w So, looks like Putin's ordered the Russian government to 'consider the issue of organising' domestic versions of the Steam Deck, SteamOS, and Steam itself (with a side order of Steam Machines)

Ah, entering his crazed delirium stage of dictatorship.

gary_host_laptop,
@gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml avatar

>Literally State planning, free market
>dictatorship

Yeah, I can see why the US is falling to pieces.

mindbleach,

Dictatorship is when government doesn’t do things.

mindbleach,

Oh right, this is .ml, where we’re playing make-believe that the lifetime figurehead who won an election against nobody is toootally a legitimate example of popular democracy. Because it would be impossible to criticize The West™ unless the immediate alternative was completely flawless.

Inventing a domestic video-game company obviously isn’t totalitarian, but it’s some Kim Jong Un shit. It’s an autocrat copying a theme park, with blackjack, and hookers. (Oh god. Tell me I’m not gonna see people pretend the Kims are anything but a hereditary monarchy.)

gary_host_laptop,
@gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml avatar

death to the us fascist empire

OKRainbowKid,

Ok tankie

gary_host_laptop,
@gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml avatar

lol

Cosmos7349, do games w 'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs

I mean it’s a play as old as time; “we give great deals to the sellers and the buyers, until we own the market”

BirdyBoogleBop,

Does Epic have any market share past free games and fortnight?

pivot_root,

Developers. UE5 is chalking up to be the defacto standard for modern titles that don’t have budgets large enough to make their own engine.

EGS, on the other hand, is still an abysmal failure beyond the lure of free (and increasingly shittier) games and a yearly 25% off discount coupon that people fall for.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

I really wish they’d start by not making the EGS program a fucking UE5 app. Seriously, using the whole ass engine to render html is stupid beyond belief

pivot_root,

Wait, is it seriously a full-blown UE5 application?

DdCno1,

I was going to call shenanigans, but then I looked at the details of the application:

https://i.imgur.com/J30SGAr.png

So it seems there is something to it.

pivot_root,

That is ridiculous. Even Electron would have been better…

ICastFist, (edited )
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

If you peruse the folder where it’s installed and compared to any UE4 or UE5 game, you’ll notice all the other similarities in .dll files, folders and whatnot. Even the CrashReporter.exe is the same you see in unreal games. Or you can check the config files at Epic GamesLauncherEngineConfig which has stuff like BaseEngine.ini which, among other networking configurations, also has this:


<span style="color:#323232;">[/Script/Engine.Engine]
</span><span style="color:#323232;">ConsoleClassName=/Script/Engine.Console
</span><span style="color:#323232;">GameViewportClientClassName=/Script/Engine.GameViewportClient
</span><span style="color:#323232;">LocalPlayerClassName=/Script/Engine.LocalPlayer
</span><span style="color:#323232;">WorldSettingsClassName=/Script/Engine.WorldSettings
</span><span style="color:#323232;">NavigationSystemClassName=/Script/NavigationSystem.NavigationSystemV1
</span><span style="color:#323232;">NavigationSystemConfigClassName=/Script/NavigationSystem.NavigationSystemModuleConfig
</span><span style="color:#323232;">AvoidanceManagerClassName=/Script/Engine.AvoidanceManager
</span><span style="color:#323232;">PhysicsCollisionHandlerClassName=/Script/Engine.PhysicsCollisionHandler
</span>

Meanwhile, in Epic GamesLauncherPortalConfig, the “game” part of the launcher, you have DefaultGame.ini and DefaultEngine.ini, the latter’s first 2 lines pointing back to the Engine folder: [Configuration] BasedOn=…EngineConfigBaseEngine.ini

So, yeah, it’s the actual engine. I was going to complain about disk bloat, but my Steam install is currently sitting at 1.3GB and I’m not entirely sure how much of that is from cached stuff. GOG Galaxy is taking ~980MB, but roughly 650MB are from redist installers (MSVC2005, 2007, dotnet, etc), so a “clean” install would be way lighter than Steam or EGS, the latter at 1.1GB on a clean install.

steakmeoutt,

Why is it stupid exactly? UE5 scales very well and places very little demand on hardware for simple tasks.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Ever heard the saying “Everything looks like a nail when you have a hammer”? Basically, just because you have a tool, it doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for every job. UE5 is great for making games, cinematics and loads of other stuff. But why use it to effectively behave as a browser like Chrome or Firefox, but worse, when there are alternatives made specifically for that?

steakmeoutt,

That’s not really a valid response. Please accurately clarify why UE5 is inefficient at running a store. Benchmarks and other evidence is required.

pivot_root,

I don’t think benchmarks are really needed to explain this. The whole game engine part is an unnecessary step.

To initialize a web browser component within UE5, you first need to initialize UE5 and then the web browser within it. Or, you could initialize a web browser directly, saving the memory and time needed to start up UE5.

They clearly have developers who know how to use CEF or whatever web view framework since they added it to Unreal Engine, so it’s not like they don’t know how to add it to a standalone application.

steakmeoutt,

Wait, wait. Do you think that “the whole engine” is loaded for every UE5 executable? I can tell you that’s not at all how this works. The point of a scalable engine is that it loads whatever relevant libraries or portions of the engine that would be needed, including swapping for custom code where appropriate. The idea that the storefront is unoptimised purely because it uses a game engine is just as ignorant as saying that you should measure all computers purely by a single metric. Maybe you could also compare EGS to other stores and measure only the executable’s size? By your reasoning there’s no need for benchmarks, so surely the store with the smallest exe wins, right?

pivot_root,

When I said “the whole game engine part”, I was referring to the usage of the engine at all. The whole engine obviously isn’t loaded, but there’s further abstractions and initialization code compared to using CEF or the Edge web view directly.

I’m simply saying that it’s a waste of resources to require loading or initializing any other part of Unreal Engine (including the component loading code!) when they’re only using it as web view.

I’m also not saying any other storefront is better. Steam is a bloated pig that half uses CEF and half uses Valve’s own proprietary GUI library, and the various other Electron-based publishers’ launchers suffer from different but equally stupid problems.

steakmeoutt,

You have provided absolutely no proof that using UE5 to run EGS is a waste of resources nor that your idea of using a browser directly would be more performant. Just saying things isn’t proof and the burden sits with you.

pivot_root,

I’m not about to install EGS to prove something that can be deduced using common sense and critical thinking.

Abstractions are not free. The more of them you add, the more resources will be consumed by the application. Unreal Engine is an extra layer of abstraction sitting above some web view framework. Ergo, using the same web view framework without the Unreal Engine component abstraction would be cheaper.

Gabu,

Nope. Godot, a fully free Unity-like Engine is shaping up to be the defacto standard for good games (AAA garbage is being ignored purposefully)

pivot_root,

I know Godot exists, and it’s preferable to supporting Epic, but it isn’t up to feature parity with UE5. Particularly, when it comes to asset streaming and open world games, Unreal has better support out of the box.

I would love for Godot to be the standard and first choice for every developer (including AAA), though.

UndercoverUlrikHD,

“ignoring the major players in the industry”

UE5 had turned into the standard whether you like it or not. I personally don’t like the engine, but that doesn’t mean I’ll lie about its position in the market, and neither should you. You aren’t doing Godot any favours with it

Gabu,

When said “major players” only pump out trash that’s not fun to play, yes, I will ignore them gladly. The last AAA game I bought was Fallen Order, which I promply refunded after finishing, since it was more of a walking and climbing simulator than anything else – and that was one of the better AAA games to come out in the past decade.

Indie devs and studios are the ones actually carrying the industry forwards.

UndercoverUlrikHD,

Your preference doesn’t dictate what’s industry standard is my point. It would be like someone only playing exclusively Total War games claiming the Warscape Engine is industry standard, sounds pretty stupid doesn’t it.

The last AAA game I bought was Fallen Order,

A shame you missed out on Baldurs Gate 3 then. Alan Wake also got great criticism.

Gabu,

Fallacious reasoning. “Indie” isn’t a genre of games. I don’t claim AAA games are garbage because of a preference – they’re objectively slop made without passion as a cashgrab.

UndercoverUlrikHD,

Lol, alright dude

Rose,

Steam is largely driven by Valve’s own games and freebies as well. 1.5M currently playing Dota 2 and CS 2, with the next best being F2P games: PUBG with 370K online, Apex Legends, and Naraka.

ABCDE,

Rocket League and Fall Guys are also on there. Not sure how much paid games sell there though.

hal_5700X, do games w 'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs

Exclusive deals suck ass. So good.

DdCno1, (edited )

They are anti-consumer, but for smaller devs in particular, they can mean the difference between between canceling and releasing a game, between bankruptcy and the studio's continued existence.

bionicjoey,

If your success depends on a storefront paying you to sell your game to less people, maybe it is for the best that it doesn’t succeed.

DdCno1,

Do you see developers making games exclusively for one console manufacturer the same way? Are you willing to deprive the gaming community as a whole from these titles? Games like Shadow of the Colossus or Alan Wake 2 would not have happened without exclusivity.

bionicjoey,

Games like Shadow of the Colossus or Alan Wake 2 would not have happened without exclusivity.

Bullshit. If the publishers for those games had made them for more platforms, they would have sold more copies. Exclusivity deals are made between console makers and publishers in order to sell more consoles and are an anticompetitive practice that should be illegal.

DdCno1,

No, both of these titles are "halo games" (not in the Bungie series, but in the way that they are showcase titles) that sold poorly compared to their development costs - and their publishers likely knew that these would sell very poorly, but chose to publish them regardless, because they bring prestige to their platforms. They sold poorly, because they are niche games, not due to their platform exclusivity.

It's kind of like a car manufacturer making an exclusive sports car that only a few hundred people will buy, but that is meant to elevate the entire brand, bring in customers for other products and wow journalists so that they think of the brand more highly. Most of Sony's publishing strategy hinges on strong exclusive titles - since their hardware is virtually identical to Microsoft's - and they started this by going down the "high art" game route all the way back with the PS1 (with extremely niche games like "The Book of Watermarks") before creating more mainstream blockbuster exclusives like the Uncharted series.

I get your frustration with this, I have felt it myself with exclusives that I wanted to play, but couldn't justify the expense of buying a console for, but there are solid reasons from the perspective of developers and publishers for doing it and outlawing this practice would result in a far less vibrant and interesting gaming landscape. Another comparison is how rich aristocrats used to pay artists like Leonardo DaVinci to create art for them. This was also an exclusivity deal of sorts, since most of the public didn't see these artworks until centuries later (the platform exclusivity was being born to the right kind of family), but without these wealthy, selfish patrons of the arts, mankind would have been deprived of amazing creations.

bionicjoey,

Lol comparing console makers to renaissance art patrons is rich. They are hardware makers and that’s all. They don’t give a shit about great art. They are just trying to have some unique selling points for their locked down platforms so that gaming PCs don’t completely dominate the market. Fuck Sony. Fuck Microsoft. And fuck publishers who sign exclusivity deals. Monopolistic and anticompetitive behaviour doesn’t deserve praise or encouragement.

xkforce,

Pick a different hill to die on.

ABCDE,

Not a very nice response to an honest discussion. Try again.

ABCDE,

Which still may not have recouped development costs. Shadow was on PS2, no other console got close to their sales. Costs to convert it to other platforms may have been more than profit from sales on Xbox and GameCube.

Noodle07,

confused pikachu noises

BJHanssen, do gaming w You can't sue us for making games 'too entertaining,' say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits
@BJHanssen@lemmy.world avatar

I really, really need people to grok the distinction between engagement and entertainment.

grrgyle,

Let’s hear it! I think I’ve got it, but would love to hear how you put it

BJHanssen,
@BJHanssen@lemmy.world avatar

Engagement is merely the ability to, or the degree to which you are able to, maintain interaction with something (a system, a game, a fidget toy, whatever) over time. It has absolutely nothing to do with entertainment, although you can use entertainment as a means of achieving or increasing engagement. However, entertainment is hard. People are entertained by different things to different degrees, and respond to their entertainment in different ways. Engagement on the other hand is a fairly simple behavioural matter and that’s a whole field of science (which is mostly bollocks, to be fair, but its lessons can be very effective when applied at scale).

Source: I used to be a behavioural engineer, specifically a gamification specialist. Engagement was the oil I was employed to extract, and entertainment the excuse my field used to pretend what we were (and still are) doing isn’t just social manipulation at scale.

grrgyle,

Yes yes yes, I’m very on board with this. I think we all know what we’re doing is wrong and manipulative on some level, but the general consciousness hasn’t caught up to recognising the tort.

It may be just be association, but I’m not a huge fan of the term “entertainment” either. It strikes the same hollow note for me as “content.”

Yes it’s an apt description for a part of an experience, but it comes so laden with its own associations and preconceptions, that it doesn’t feel useful in most contexts in which it’s deployed.

That said I have no objections to how you’ve used it in your comment.

irish_link, do gaming w Phil Spencer blames capitalism for games industry woes: 'I don't get [the] luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business'

I genuinely believe he just wants to make cool and fun games.

Dangdoggo,

I don't think that :/ I think his statements and the games he chooses to back sort of prove that ultimately profit is what he is interested in. I don't blame him for that. But don't make him out to be what he isn't. He is a CEO first, being a fan of games falls lower on the list.

UndercoverUlrikHD,

They aren’t exclusionary.

Dangdoggo,

No but if you "just want to make cool and fun games" you wouldn't fund Gears 5 or Halo Infinite now would you?

UndercoverUlrikHD,

I think Phil like most executives prioritise whatever they think will be best for their career, regardless of what their preference is

Melonpoly,

He’s had all the time, money, and resources to do that and hasn’t.

catloaf, do games w Spectator rushes stage at CS2 tournament and gets tackled into trophy, smashing it to pieces

Everything about this is stupid, but breaking the trophy isn’t his fault. They knocked him over in a way that made him hit the trophy stand.

fmstrat,

Then who is at fault? Security? For doing their job? They wouldn’t be on stage if he hadn’t broken the rules. It wasn’t over-use of force, from the looks of things, just unfortunate placement.

Saying the resulting damages aren’t his fault is like forgiving the person who caused a pile-up for driving reckless.

Mesophar,

Yes, the trophy was security’s fault because it was from excessive force. He was already restrained! I’m not saying the guy wasn’t in the wrong for climbing on stage, but people climb on stages all the time without security breaking the centerpiece of the event while apprehending them.

Patquip,

The security guy who pulled him down towards the trophy sure seemed to cause the trophy to get knocked over though. The stagerusher was pretty far away before that.

Freeman,

You sound so very american lol.

Linkerbaan, do games w Spectator rushes stage at CS2 tournament and gets tackled into trophy, smashing it to pieces
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

The guy already stopped by himself and they decided to smash him into the trophy

Counter-Strike skin betting platform CSGOEmpire has claimed responsibility for the stunt. “Some of our men are on the ground in handcuffs,” wrote CSGOEmpire founder Monarch on X after the incident. “But we fucking did it, boys.”

Why do skin betting sites claim responsibility for stupid stunts as if they’re doing terrorist attacks

Rentlar,

Stupid stunt notwithstanding, the Counter Strike game is about terrorists vs. counter-terrorists so it’s at least thematically on point?

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

So is this a T win?

Rush B no stop always works.

CrowAirbrush,

It also creates media attention, which is a plus i’m guessing.

suzune, do games w 'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs

Maybe… just not make exclusive deals? Especially not on mediocre game distribution platforms.

rtxn,

Remember DARQ? Taking a stance against third-party exclusivity pays off.

MurrayL,

“I talked to at least five small teams, like 35 [members] and under, during GDC, and they’re like: Cuts, cuts, cuts, funding canceled, talks that were going on for a year, canceled,” said Casey Yano, the co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. “It sounds like it’s shit. We’re definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I’d be very, very, very scared right now.”

If these deals didn’t exist, lots of games simply wouldn’t get made. You can hate on the platforms all you like but the deals are one of the only sources of funding for small & solo developers.

Halosheep,

Oh no! Not the games I will never play because they’re exclusive to EGS!

beetus,

You do realize those are usually exclusive for only a year, right? So EGS pays them out for a year of exclusivity and then the devs are free to launch on steam and others.

The thing is, often if they don’t get that first infusion of cash from a deal with EGS (or another investor) they don’t get to complete or even launch the game at all. So it never would make it to the other markets.

Halosheep,

Usually by the time they’ve made it off EGS, I’ve forgotten they exist. There’s been many sequels to games I loved that I forgot existed because of this.

newcool1230,

Same, after a few years you see them show up on steam and all the reviews are

  • "All my lobbies are empty"
  • “It takes 30+ mins to get into a game with 2 other players”
  • “I’m only getting matched against bots”
pory,
@pory@lemmy.world avatar

Or the EGS phase was just glorified beta access like Hades.

intensely_human, do gaming w Phil Spencer blames capitalism for games industry woes: 'I don't get [the] luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business'

Oh yeah I’m sure the lack of a profit motive would just make games amazing 🙄

kudos,

Profit isn’t the issue, it’s having to continually show outsized profit growth rates to keep shareholders happy that’s the problem. Look at private companies like Valve for comparison.

intensely_human,

Exactly

Jomega,

Great art was never created for its own sake /s.

intensely_human,

And people never spend money on things based on how good they are /s

Jomega,

Things are often better when the people making them give a shit.

thesporkeffect,

Do you exclusively play sports game [current year]?

intensely_human,

Nope. Thank god there’s a free market and therefore I have options.

mindbleach, do gaming w Spectator rushes stage at CS2 tournament and gets tackled into trophy, smashing it to pieces

Not the usual way fee-based gaming and gambling sites ruin games for everyone, but it is definitely on-brand.

haui_lemmy,

CS2 is infintely worse imo than CS:GO. Yes, the maps got updated but local multiplayer works way worse and the bots are a laughable mess. Took me days to get working properly on debian too.

cows_are_underrated, do gaming w You can't sue us for making games 'too entertaining,' say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits

And now explain to me, what psychological tricks Minecraft uses that make you addicted to it.

OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe,

At first I thought it had to do with lootbox mechanics and scheduling and reward system gaming, but nope, this one was straight up just “he played vidja too much and I’m afraid of him when I take away his games”

Spzi,

One is multiple parallel goals. Makes it hard to stop playing, since there’s always something you just want to finish or do “quickly”.

Say you want to build a house. Chop some trees, make some walls. Oh, need glass for windows. Shovel some sand, make more furnaces, dig a room to put them in - oh, there’s a cave with shiny stuff! Quickly explore a bit. Misstep, fall, zombies, dead. You had not placed a bed yet, so gotta run. Night falls. Dodge spiders and skeletons. Trouble finding new house. There it is! Venture into the cave again to recover your lost equipment. As you come up, a creeper awaitsssss you …

Another mechanism is luck. The world is procedurally generated, and you can craft and create almost anything anywhere. Except for a few things, like spawners. I once was lucky to have two skeleton spawners right next to each other, not far from the surface. In total, I probably spent hours in later worlds to find a similar thing.

The social aspect can also support that you play the game longer or more than you actually would like. Do I lose my “friends” when I stop playing their game?

I don’t think Minecraft does these things in any way maliciously, it’s just a great game. But nevertheless, it has a couple of mechanics which can make it addictive and problematic.

grrgyle,

The social aspect can also support that you play the game longer or more than you actually would like.

This is the part of any online game I absolutely hate. The feeling of being even slightly beholden to someone else, like now I have to think about them having a good time too.

Games that forbid direct communication, and allow you to drop in and out of a match without hurting others feel a bit better in this respect imho

millie,

Isn’t that more of just part of interacting with people, though?

Like, if you play some kind of real-life game with no regard for anyone else, that’s generally considered poor sportsmanship. That wasn’t invented in online gaming, it’s been a concern as long as people have been coming up with games to play together. We accept that if you sit down and play a game of chess or golf or pool or D&D or paintball, you’re going to try to not cheat or blow the game off or be a jerk about it. Some people are better sports than others, but the general idea is that we accept the wins and losses and the game going in different directions, because otherwise there’s no game.

What’s an aberration is this concept that people you meet with over an electronic connection aren’t real, don’t matter, and are never owed anything.

grrgyle,

What’s an aberration is this concept that people you meet with over an electronic connection aren’t real, don’t matter, and are never owed anything.

What you said is all true, but what I’m saying is precisely the opposite of this. I don’t like playing certain games with others because I empathise with others and want them to have a good time.

So I usually avoid games (video and otherwise) that are designed so that my continued enthusiastic participation are required for the enjoyment of others. To me, that doesn’t feel like play; it feels like work.

I’ll do it, but it’s exhausting. Maybe it’s an introvert thing, because I’ll come away from those games feeling completely drained.

Note I’m not saying those games are bad, just that i hate them. At least, if my social battery is already used up for the week (which it usually is just from regular life).

millie,

Ahh, that makes sense!

Pyr_Pressure,

In the case of Minecraft the issues you listed are pretty much present in almost anything entertaining, video games or not, including in-person events and social functions.

As with anything moderation is key and people just need to learn not to let it control them. Some people are incapable of that though.

There are definitely certain things that game companies need to avoid doing but multiple goals, a little bit of luck, and online cooperative play is not it.

haui_lemmy, do gaming w You can't sue us for making games 'too entertaining,' say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits

The World Health Organization recognizes videogame addiction as a disorder, and the American Psychiatric Association says that the question of whether or not videogames can be addictive is “still being debated,” but that "early evidence suggests that videogames are one of the most addicting technologies around

Its clear that games can be addictive and the concept of „whale fishing“ is openly discussed in terms of game design. Obviously, the weakest of us in terms of addiction make the standard because its those who are harmed.

Obviously, cash shops should be banned in games immediately.

7heo,

Obviously, cash shops should be banned in games immediately.

Upvoted specifically for that last part.

BruceTwarzen,

They try to make balantro a 18+ game because it resembles a card game. Meanwhile fifa is for 3+ year old and it's just a card oprning game where they fish money from some sad football fans and children. I have no faith in anyone in charge of that

teawrecks,

I have to think part of this is just all the ancient representatives we have. They’ve lived long enough to know what gambling looks like, and what good ol’ sports ball looks like, and by golly nobody can tell 'em any different!

VirtualOdour,

But you can be addicted to anything, we can’t shut down the world

haui_lemmy,

and you think this is the only way or what gave you the intention this is a helpful response?

VirtualOdour,

I think that there are better responses and more nuanced opinions to be considered, certainly teaching awareness and response to such stimulus is better than playing wack-a-mole with whatever people get addicted to.

The drug war demonstrated this very clearly, it’s basically impossible to ban things people want and this is even harder with internet services or downloaded software - focus on harm reduction and education for best results.

That said we should regulate against psychologically manipulative game mechanics being linked to real or purchased currencies, though education and offering alternatives must come first.

haui_lemmy,

The drug war in the US - same as any other war - imo was profit seeking of the military industrial complex, incarceration industry and power shifting away from the people, nothing else.

It is not the drugs you need to outlaw, it is the living conditions. The reason nobody gets a handle on drugs is because there is homelessness and injustice galore. Countries around the world have very different approaches to this and they mostly work better than the US solution of mass incarceration.

Corporations designing things for user retention instead of fun is hard to see for people without professional background in marketing sometimes. These things are giving you a way of influencing the subconcious, avoiding the concious in the process. This manipulation is why gambling is outlawed for kids, not the money aspect.

VirtualOdour,

Sure but the point it is didn’t help, likewise gambling is illegal in a lot of places and those places tend to have more of a problem with it because addicts can’t get help.

Treating game addiction generally involves people learning to recognize and respond to behavior cycles, just like with other addictions. We should take these things seriously and teach kids how to recognize and escape manipulative cycles, a lesson which would be useful their whole life in every walk of life.

haui_lemmy,

I agree that it is important that addicts need help. But having unrestricted gambling is not that. Its why even in countries that allow gambling, it is highly restricted. Were moving in a circle now. Maybe we need to agree to disagree here.

VirtualOdour,

That is a good point, I guess I might accept there should be carefully considered regulation in certain well defined situations - I already agree money or brought currencies shouldn’t be allowed which will limit real world damage but I don’t really see where it is needed beyond this.

haui_lemmy,

I can live with that. I agree with you there. Have a great day! :)

MeetInPotatoes,

You’re intentionally dumbing down the topic to make your point sound better. You’re simply describing the binary, whether addiction could be present or not. There are so many more obvious factors to consider. Addiction rate of users, personal and social impacts of that addiction, intensity of addictive behaviors, frequency of use in addicts, target demographic, marketing etc.

There’s a reason gambling has a minimum age requirement, and loot boxes are a way around that to make money by letting children gamble.

VirtualOdour,

You do have a valid point there tbh, certain mechanics should be forbidden from being linked to real or purchasable money but I don’t really think they should be forbidden in general.

My argument for this is it’s too wide ranging and will limit positive elements in game design. I think it’s also important for people to be able to practice emotional response and regulation to such stimulus, if we don’t then advertisers and manipulators will walk all over us.

MeetInPotatoes,

I agree with this, but we give them till the age of 21 to practice and develop those skills. The entire argument is not letting gaming companies introduce gambling to kids before their brains have fully developed.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I mean, it’s a legitimate question:

What is addiction, and how does it differ from just “really entertaining”?

I’ve got several thousand hours in Rocket League but I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted to it.

haui_lemmy,

Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behaviour that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences.

If you employ psychologists and other specialists to design something for maximum retention, you‘re not making something „entertaining“, you‘re tricking the brain into a loop.

We could discuss this endlessly but suffice it to say that there are techniques for retention that dont make an experience necessarily better but more captivating. Infinite scrolling is a very simple example. i bet some game designers could shine a pretty bright light on this if they stumble across this thread.

I could abstract this to the real world like so: two people can speak exactly the same text but one cares if their audience is getting tired and stops, the other one speaks a little louder and turns on some more lights. I‘m pretty sure you will get a significantly longer retention despite the quality being the exact same.

And this is why methods for retention need to be carefully screened and regulated.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Infinite scrolling is a very simple example

Have to strongly disagree. Having to constantly reload entire pages of content is incredibly annoying. The only reason it makes people want to quit is because it’s annoying.

haui_lemmy,

You can disagree. That doesnt make it invalid. Also, the point I‘m making still stands.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I didn’t say or imply that it was invalid.

The fact that you chose that specific example, one that I think is plainly wrong, just goes to show that the discussion is not as simple as you or other people make it out to be, and that any regulation around this will most certainly ensure that future games are shittier.

haui_lemmy,

I dont like you stating things as if they were an objective truth. It is your opinion that infinite scrolling is “good” or whatever you wanted to say. But it is a retention method and not just a QoL feature. There are articles explaining this and some websites have expressly disabled it because it leads to problems for people who are vulnerable.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I dont like you stating things as if they were an objective truth.

You’re the only one doing that.

But it is a retention method and not just a QoL feature

So you agree that it’s both?

haui_lemmy,

You can see from the downvotes that you‘re being trolly but not fun.

I guess we just agree to disagree and go our seperate ways now.

Have a good one.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I give exactly zero fucks about downvotes

KevonLooney,

Many UX people disagree with you. Here’s a discussion on it, including the guy who invented infinite scroll:

His name was Aza Raskin and he now says he’s deeply sorry and feels guilty about it.

…uxdesign.cc/how-the-invention-of-infinite-scroll…

helenslunch, (edited )
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Raskin claims his intention was to create the most seamless experience possible for users

And it worked 🤷

You’re making my point for me.

mindbleach,

Right: nothing inside a video game should cost real money.

If we allow that to continue, there will be nothing else.

KevonLooney,

there will be nothing else

That’s putting it a bit strongly. But it does induce people to spend money. Personally I don’t spend extra money on games. I can go to Vegas if I want to gamble for money.

mindbleach,

It started in “free” mobile trash and is now in $70 single-player games. This shit costs almost nothing to add. The backlash doesn’t outweigh the extra money squeezed out. This is the dominant strategy. It is half the industry’s revenue. What else needs to happen, to tell you everything else is in trouble?

haui_lemmy,

I feel like this is much too rare of a statement. No idea why people dont get this. It’s like talking to children sometimes.

mindbleach,

Especially with the counter arguments.

‘Just don’t buy it!’ I’m not, and yet: it keeps getting worse. It’s half the industry by revenue. And growing.

‘You just don’t like it!’ It monetizes human misery… inside entertainment. It makes gaming objectively worse.

‘Don’t legislate content!’ This is about the bus-i-ness mod-el. Sell whatever sex and violence you want. Just sell it.

‘There’s no exploitation here!’ Games make you value arbitrary worthless goals. That’s what makes them games.

One genius argued ‘other studios make several games over the decade these wallet-siphons have been dragged out, so they’d have to cost hundreds of dollars on release!’ Or. And this is just wild speculation about the cutting edge of computer science. Or they could make several games? Over time? And sell them for normal prices, less than a decade apart?

These people act like the just-sell-games model is unproven and hypothetical, in the same breath they insist it’s unaffected by this alternative of tricking people into tolerating endless fees. They’re not arguing. They’re just shuffling cards.

haui_lemmy,

I agree fully. Its disgusting. People literally drinking the cool aid. Can I ask you something weird? I feel like making a counterweight (like political movements, eg the fedipact) would actually help.

Like a movement with a name and a written agenda so we dont have to repeat ourselves all the time. The idea is that we identify games with exploitative mechanics, dont buy them and call out the makers.

Its incredibly easy to put a link in a comment under a post hyping such a game to counter it. The more we push this, the more people will follow. We could then start sending open letters (per email) to game studios where people sign this.

We might he able to change this shit. Would you like to help? I‘d draft up something and we can make posts to gather an initial group of people.

Those are just ideas but it works wonders in other topics so why not try? Feel free to dm me if you want to discuss this.

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