I would assume that most people are just just listening to their favorite game reviewers as if they were listening to a friend talking about games. It’s a parasocial relationship and it’s more important what a certain person seems to be thinking about a title than how well-founded this opinion is.
This is exactly what I do, and I think it’s honestly a very healthy way to engage with that kind of content. If you find someone you like, and/or who has a lot of overlap on preferences, then that’s a great way to get an idea for how much you’d like a game.
Hell, even if you don’t tend to prefer the same things, if the person reviewing is sufficiently passionate or entertaining, you can still develop an appreciation for why someone else likes what they do. I’ve absolutely struggled trying to get into Fallout: New Vegas for a variety of reasons, but I still respect it a lot because Hbomberguy had a very compelling video on what he liked about it.
There are a bunch of flying/gliding/wall climbing characters, but a lot of characters don’t have tools to deal with enemies who are not grounded.
The game has been fun, but I’ve given it up now mainly because of balance and match making issues. >80% of the games I play are completely one-sided. One team will never be able to touch the objective or will be completely confined to the spawn point. Even if I’m on the winning team, such one-sided steamrolling is no fun.
Most of them have no idea what they’re talking about, and sometimes those who do, are making a video just for entertainment purposes or got paid (in getting a free game key) to not say anything too bad about it.
Steam reviews and only possibly, in only very rare cases, although disappointingly-often not - YouTube video reviews, can be a good source.
The idea is… to not to listen to people who don’t play games the way you do.
A friend, potentially a random Steam user, a Reddi- Lemm- ahem, sorry,a… social media user, a… person who has played the game in question thoroughly and pointed out what they liked - and you know they’re like you, …and they played for similar reasons as you; these are the people to listen to. People who play games, like yourself.
Only they can tell you if the game is totally worth your own time!
This guy makes several key mistakes, and doesn’t understand the relationship between (or difference between, for that matter) developers and publishers / executives. He pivots in one sentence from talking about number of layoffs to talking about failed games, but those are not direct corollaries. Big publishers and large studios laid off teams with games that performed incredibly well. Lots of teams that were mid-development were killed. Remember Tango Gameworks? The studio that everyone liked, and didn’t have any flops? That was completely laid off? It had nothing to do with their games, and was entirely about Xbox forcing its 1P studios to release on Game Pass, which doomed their sales. It was bad executive management at MS, not bad games, choosing to buy Bethesda and Activision at the expense of budgets for its existing studios. Obviously Redfall and Concord were huge flops, but they were a tiny fraction of the layoffs across the industry.
He correctly points out that Gaming is a subset of the software industry, and that the trends and decisions being made by executives across the industry are the same, but just sort of hand-waves that away by saying it’s not just gaming, and that “people are facing economic challenges right now” in general. Yeah! And guess that those challenges are? Short-term P&L gains via mass layoffs, in order to claw back money from acquisitions, stock buybacks, and executive pay-gouging. But it’s not developers doing that, it’s publishers and executives. No one writing code is like, “I’ve decided to make live-service schlock”. But they’re the ones losing their jobs, not the dorks who did decide that.
“What is unique in gaming, is that this is largely self-inflicted.” (6:40) My brother in Christ… stahhhhhp.
He then turns this into some kind of attack on game journalists, who have been rightfully calling out the game industry layoffs, as though they’re… supposed to only report on things happening uniquely in gaming, and not also in other industries, even if it’s also happening in gaming? The narrative that “if a studio is laid off, it was their fault, or just the economy forcing them to be laid off”, is the false narrative of the publishers, and this guy is (whether he realizes it or not) helping bolster that narrative.
Lastly, this dude is dropping right-wing dogwhistles left-and-right. Listing “ideological soapboxes” alongside “bloated projects” and “garbage games” for failing games tells me everything I need to know. And if you check the comments, his fans definitely heard the whistle too.
Here’s his brilliant take on thousands of line-level developers being laid off for decisions made above their heads by millionaires:
“As a customer I’m going to be honest, I just don’t care or feel anything for any of these internal struggles that these companies go through.” (7:10 in the video)
Big “stop picketing and deliver my Amazon package I paid money for” energy right here.
Remember Tango Gameworks? The studio that everyone liked, and didn’t have any flops? That was completely laid off?
He pointed that out as an exception. But, it’s been mostly the AAA studios that produced massive, massive high-budget flops, and then they laid off a bunch of their staff.
But it’s not developers doing that, it’s publishers and executives. No one writing code is like, “I’ve decided to make live-service schlock”. But they’re the ones losing their jobs, not the dorks who did decide that.
No, but when developers and the rest of the teams see that it’s “live-service schlock”, they should start looking at their resumes, instead of thinking “well, my job is safe because it’s a large corporation”.
Why would anybody working on Concord think that it’s a good game with a good concept that is going to succeed? Or Kill the Justice League? Or Multiverse? You think all of those microtransactions and attempts at catching some unoriginal idea are going to be well-received?
Just look at it for what it is, and realize it’s going to fail. And then plan accordingly.
He then turns this into some kind of attack on game journalists, who have been rightfully calling out the game industry layoffs
No, look at what they did before they talked about the layoffs. Sure, calling out the layoffs is justified and it’s worth reporting.
What’s not worth reporting is what Twitter is saying about any of this, and then going on some soapbox trying to counter it. Thus, promoting this idea that the general public gives a shit about whatever fight this is, when in reality, they don’t even know it exists. He’s literally reading off one of this articles, that goes off on a tangent that a few people on Twitter said something about games being “too woke” and tries to counter that.
Fuck Twitter. Stop reporting on Twitter. It’s a shit platform that is a tiny, tiny microverse of actual people doing actual things that don’t see any of that. Obviously, nobody looked at a game and thought “oh, well, that’s too woke, so I’m not going to buy it”. They didn’t buy it because it was a shit game with shitty microtransactions.
And if you check the comments, his fans definitely heard the whistle too.
I checked the comments. I read the comments on most YouTube videos. I saw nothing of the sort. Most of them are praising him for what he’s saying.
Ideological soapboxes are very real things that games “journalists” push on a daily basis. It’s manufactured bullshit that gets echoed only because they report on whatever some dude on Twitter said. I don’t know why you would mistake that as some dog whistle.
“As a customer I’m going to be honest, I just don’t care or feel anything for any of these internal struggles that these companies go through.” (7:10 in the video)
Right, instead of talking about the discussion as a whole, let’s take some out-of-context quote he said in the video and use that as evidence that he doesn’t care about the industry.
You didn’t even quote the entire sentence: “…especially when it’s mismanagement to blame.” I guess that bit didn’t fit your narrative?
But, it’s been mostly the AAA studios that produced massive, massive high-budget flops, and then they laid off a bunch of their staff.
Those are still failures on the publisher’s part. This isn’t 30 years ago. Most game studios are not independent, they’re owned by the publishers, and the publishers have immense creative control.
No, but when developers and the rest of the teams see that it’s “live-service schlock”, they should start looking at their resumes, instead of thinking “well, my job is safe because it’s a large corporation”.
Really easy to say, but, believe it or not, during a time where the tech industry is actively shedding 10s of thousands of jobs, looking at your resume doesn’t actually do anything for you.
Honestly, you seem to be saying “it’s developers fault because I refuse to understand power dynamics”. You may as well just scream “bootstraps” over and over.
Really easy to say, but, believe it or not, during a time where the tech industry is actively shedding 10s of thousands of jobs, looking at your resume doesn’t actually do anything for you.
Are you just proving his point by saying that the whole industry is laying people off, instead of it being specifically a gaming industry problem?
Obviously, nobody looked at a game and thought “oh, well, that’s too woke, so I’m not going to buy it”. They didn’t buy it because it was a shit game with shitty microtransactions.
Except these people are out there, and we’ve known this since GamerGate happened over a decade ago. One of the top Steam curators is called “Sweet Baby Inc detected”, and exists to identify games that are “too woke”:
I didn’t really want to have to watch any more of this dude, but I wanted to make sure I gave him a fair shake… and hoo boy.
Just look at it for what it is, and realize it’s going to fail. And then plan accordingly.
This is just victim blaming, bruh. Even if a developer sees a project is going badly, it’s not like there are infinite jobs out there that need filling. Changing jobs is not fast and easy, some of the workers are likely on work visas that don’t allow them to just change employers, game companies aren’t all in the same small area such that it won’t require moving homes which is a huge expense, and there’s no guarantee that the project you’re moving to will be any better.
This is a failure of worker protection laws. Framing it as workers just needing to hustle smarter, while executives run companies and families into the ground, is peak corporate apologism.
He’s literally reading off one of this articles, that goes off on a tangent that a few people on Twitter said something about games being “too woke” and tries to counter that.
If you don’t think that alt-right-lite is a huge problem in gaming circles, I don’t know what to tell you. Go play literally any multiplayer game and you will find plenty of gamers spouting anti-DEI/ anti-woke/ right-wing talking points in no time flat. And yes, they absolutely do avoid games based on it. And the problem with just ignoring this is that you’re ceding the narrative to them. Young white men have seen a shift rightwards precisely because alt-right-lite chuds like JonTron capture them via gaming-focused content, and then shift them over to politics-focused guys like Tate/ Shapiro/ etc. It’s a pipeline, that often starts in gaming spaces.
Ideological soapboxes are very real things that games “journalists” push on a daily basis.
He wasn’t talking about ideological soapboxes in reference to journalists, he was talking about developers. And he is using that as a direct euphemism for “DEI”/ “woke” content.
And yes, the comments are agreeing with him, that’s the point of a dogwhistle. There are a bunch of comments being anti-diversity/ anti-woke, referencing another video of his about game companies hiring people who supposedly despise gamers.
Here is a video of his called “The Real Impact of DEI in Gaming”. He uses rainbow/pink/diversity-washing being bad to then ultimately conclude that DEI is a net negative that he (no joke) BLAMES ON OVERREGULATION by the government. He then goes on to suggest that DEI actually is about dividing people in order to (also not a joke) feed a DEI-consulting industry.
“They’re hiring in people that don’t have the merit, that don’t have the skill” (8:40) Classic. He then goes onto blame “DEI hire” developers for games being buggy or releasing too early, as though that is their choice (once again, he clearly doesn’t understand what developers do or do not control).
It’s frustrating seeing these chuds get wiser about the number of levels they couch their ultimate anti-diversity rhetoric in, because clearly it’s working on some people. Instead of saying, “diversity in gaming companies bad”, he says, “regulations force execs to hire diverse devs who lack merit (which is bigoted bs on its own), who then over time lower the quality of games, ** and also** evil DEI consultants intentionally push devs to make diverse games without being sincere about the portrayals and stories… so in the end we should stop pushing devs to be diverse and make diverse games, and just let each group of people make games for themselves (which is back to square one where big companies just hire white guys).”
He’s literally just taking all the Republican anti-DEI rhetoric and applying to to gaming.
Hey, just a quick tip, when posting videos on Lemmy, it’s generally good to include the video length and the channel in the title, and then include a short summary in the post description. You are certainly not required to do any of this, but videos tend to get better responses here when people include those details.
My instance doesn’t show any of that, and neither does my app. So if anyone has that info automatically, it’s because their instance admin or app dev did that for their specific case.
Would require frontend work and maybe some glue for the backend. I think the Photon Front end does some of those embeds. I’m sure there’s others, but not confident that any would work with Beehaw’s older Lemmy version. Better to spend energy on the sublinks convert, or my home-grown alternative Fediverse stack.
yes, using a smaller platform means forgoing some of the conveniences you are used to on a larger platform. but we all make do because we’re here for the community, not the features.
Ok new heroes, yeah, cool, but an option for crossplay in competitive would be even better 🙏 My competitive rank is low because I can’t party up with my friends and has absolutely nothing to do with my own skill ^trust^
I don’t know, console users playing with PC would break the ranked system. Controllers are at a huge disadvantage and I can easily see people blaming console users on their team for losing.
Also why is this post getting so many downvotes?
Because it’s 2025 and Lemmy users still use the downvote button as a disagree button. It’s so predictable, any post I make about live service games gets instantly downvoted.
They could easily put a toggle on so people can choose to enable cross play, off by default. If console folks want to subject themselves to people using mice, that’s their own fault, and nobody who didn’t want to would need to play with them.
There might be other reasons for the delay that are more contractual in nature to get sorted out.
I get it, people have understandable reasons for why they personally wouldn’t want crossplay in competitive. All I’m asking for is the option to enable it. I’m on PC and almost all of my friends are on console so we always have to play casual. The wild swings in opponent skill level get really annoying sometimes. Solo queuing in this game is exceptionally awful because voice chat is disabled by default, which makes no sense for a game that requires teamwork
And yeah, the blanket live service hate gets pretty annoying. Like this is a great game with purely cosmetic microtransactions that can be easily ignored
Really dislike the style and tone of this particular youtuber. A lot of the clips I’ve encountered with make him sound like a shill or someone whose primary audience is children.
that meme is sorta funny. that is actually normal behavior. disney was known for going after people making no money. like literally school plays or such.
The “update” is from a month ago. Pocketpair shared the patents they are accused of infringing and the payments Nintendo wants.
The patents are for “throwing an object in 3D space to capture a target” (throwing a pokeball) and “moving characters to a virtual field when an event is triggered” (entering a battle) the payment requested is 10 million yen or 64,000 USD. A paltry sum for a billion dollar company suing over a game that made tens of millions.
The patents were awarded to Nintendo after Palword had already released a trailer for their game showing gameplay. Pocketpair also released an earlier game called Craftopia which is Palworld but the pals are just straight up animals. It has the same systems Palworld does but didn’t sell very well.
Even if there weren’t a million examples of prior art, the fact that patents on game mechanics are even allowed is just awful for the industry as a whole, and we as players should absolutely rail against this. Every game borrows from other games’ ideas and mechanics - I’d bet money that there hasn’t been a single fully “original” game in 20+ years. If companies are allowed to patent every little mechanic (even ones they didn’t come up with), the industry as a whole will just become impossible to operate in.
It’s a Japanese patent. I’m not sure how it would hold up internationally, but Pocketpair is also a Japanese company and this lawsuit is entirely within the Japanese legal system. That probably gives Nintendo a bit of an advantage since they’re such a large and iconic Japanese corporation.
I could never get over how boring the gameplay of Infamous looked. Comparing it to a third-person shooter is pretty apt. Like, you’ve got these crazy lightning powers, but 90% of the time, you just use your hand buzzer to give folks a bit of a zap. Riveting.
At the time, Infamous seemed to get a larger share of the hype, but nothing about that game felt good to me, and Prototype felt great. Prototype’s protagonist might be one of the worst in all of video games, alongside Watch Dogs’ Aiden Pierce, but despite the video’s intro, his morality isn’t ambiguous; he’s the bad guy. In Infamous, every choice to be good or evil is so cartoonishly polar opposite that no one would struggle with the decision except for Cole MacGrath.
I get that I’m the minority with Infamous, but after going back and playing Sly 2 and having since tried Infamous 2, I think maybe I just don’t jive with Sucker Punch’s open world design, which makes me hesitant to start Ghost of Tsushima. And while I loved Prototype, alongside Crackdown, what I really wanted was that game again but in a different city, and both of those franchises reused the same city for their sequels, which would be like giving Mario new actions to use but having him run through the same levels all over again.
I love the inFamous games. inFamous 2 in particular is in my top 5. I’m trying to remember some of the choices, but some of them are execute the mass murderer or not in one (or multiple) cases. But also, they have a variation of the trolley problem which I thought was a nice touch. The ultimate decision in 2 is pretty extreme, but it’s also the culmination of two games worth of selfish vs selfless decisions.
The biggest morality question though is whether to use area of effect vs precision damage.
Having said that, I think it’s interesting how these two games are so similar on a surface level. But in my experience, most people heavily prefer one or the other. I remember my friend and I were each obsessed with one of the two franchises when they came out, but neither of us were interested in the other.
Side note: inFamous 2 had a standalone DLC which just used the map from 2 with an entirely new powerset, and it was awesome. But it was a lot shorter than a full game. However, I remember losing interest in Bioshock 2 because it felt like I was just replaying the first game.
It’s funny, because I’m much more forgiving of BioShock 2 and even Dishonored’s DLC, which reuse the same levels but chop them up differently and have you approach them from different directions. In an open world, you can go anywhere, so even if they deform part of the map, it still feels like the same map to me.
which makes me hesitant to start Ghost of Tsushima.
I haven’t played the other games you mentioned but GoT is a masterpiece. You should really give at least the first act a try to see if you like it. Pretty much everyone I’ve had try the intro has been hooked.
Maybe some day, but on top of disagreements I’ve had with that developer’s game design in the past, there’s also the looming threat that Sony patches in more dependence on a PSN login to give me pause.
Ghost of Tsushima felt the same to me. Great characters and a beautiful world, but the gameplay felt bland. I was happy to finally get to the end because I didn’t have to play anymore.
youtube.com
Najnowsze