I suspect a big part of the process has shifted focus from making an enjoyable experience to how we can milk this for every dollar it’s worth and then some.
It’s risky trying to explore new avenues as a large company you’re expected to deliver unimaginable returns on your investment. So copying the games that did well will hopefully perform better that quarter. As opposed to spending resources on expanding the engine or trying out a novel idea.
On top of that I suspect the executives are envious of the addictive cash burning cycle that gacha games provide.
I feel like too many games have and continue to copy the formula established by Minecraft and Far Cry 3. I find the experience of exploring a new zone, climbing a tower, unlocking material xyz then rinse and repeat. To be boring and unimaginative. But it seems like I’m the weird one here and people seemingly adore it.
I thought the inventory management of BoTW was awful. It’s not fun to complete a cool quest line get a cool item and for it to break forever after two fights. Wtf
Crafting games such as Valheim have nothing to do aside from grinding for the sake of grinding. Sure building a cool house had some appeal but it’s overall just intentionally tedious.
Baldur’s Gate III was a breath of fresh air. I actually have been thinking for a while that maybe I just didn’t like games anymore until it came out.
I’m also about to start my first Elden Ring run with a group of friends for the first time soon. Excited for that.
The Dark Pictures Anthology has some fantastic stories if anyone is interested.
At the time ‘world at war’ was the other popular zombie game and it’s also pretty simple by today’s standards.
I like the lack of progression, it’s nice to know everyone starts the same with each game. No special meta build just to enjoy the game.
I think the game back4blood seriously shot themselves in the foot by lacking the co-op verses mode l4d had. It’s the biggest complaint I hear against it, that and the lack of workshop support to make your own campaigns and content.
So what’s fun about that series has changed overtime.
When I first got l4d1 I was excited to share a spooky experience with friends. I found the atmosphere of the campaigns and characters interaction to be enjoyable.
When l4d2 came out I was a seasoned player and I felt that the level design was worse (but still fun) than the first game except for Hard Rain, that campaign was very challenging. However the addition of melee weapons was huge and the new variety of monsters appreciated.
But what kept me coming back was how much love went into the game over the course of its lifetime. All the l4d1 campaigns and characters got imported, extra campaigns were added. All for free (on PC) to enjoy.
The workshop added infinite replayability as there’s so many custom campaigns and other whacky content to explore.
Also the PvP mode where your team takes turns doing the campaign and playing as the zombies was easily the best way to play the game in my opinion.
So if you didn’t get into the game with a group of friends back when it was the zombie game to play. I could see why you might not think it’s fun or if you didn’t have any friends to play with. It’s not a great single player experience and the AI sucks.
So many people just open a game and play it, ignoring the settings.
The default controls in StarCraft 2 set you up for failure in custom games. Turning off simple command card and allowing the selection of enemy units helps a ton.
When playing interactive story games like until dawn, try to pick up everything in each room before continuing. Be nice to the animals!
Breath of the wild is more fun if you do the major dungeons in reverse order.
When playing with emulators let the game go through its idle intro card and listen carefully to the sound if it distorts or pops then your game is likely to be unstable try changing more options. Such as enabling interpreter mode for the audio.
When playing Super Mario World, don’t be afraid to explore the stages esp the boo mansions.
When a game offers Vulkan/dx12 mode, try it.
The Nintendo switch allows you to control the MTU of the wifi connection, adjusting this can help in poor connectivity situations.
Changing your DNS to a public provider such as Quad9 can help.
Investigating if you can enable ipv6 on your network can offer you some boons.
Confirming port forwarding is working for your games will help immensely in games that rely on that. (Also resolve any double NAT issues)
Do not attempt to game on a wifi repeater, only sadness follows.
Unless you are playing fallout 3 or New Vegas on era correct hardware there are mods to make it more stable.
Businesses think in quarters, seeing a cost centre through man hours is a huge no-no for boasting a healthy valuation. They use a model far more suited towards selling tangible products than something long term.
Might be worth cleaning the computer if you haven’t in the last few months. If you’re unfamiliar with the process check out some YouTube videos on it, this is as mandatory as changing the oil in a car regularly.
There’s tools like cpuid that can indicate if throttling is occurring.