that’s pretty much it. if you don’t like the first, you probably won’t like the second. if you DO like the first, you might prefer the second one. personally i bounced off of both of them around 10-15 hours in, for similar reasons, but I did find the 2nd game a little more exciting.
For me, the turnoff with movies specifically is the hard time commitment. It’s rare that I have 2-3 hours free uninterrupted, and even if I do, I’m more drawn to the activity that I could put down after an hour if I really wanted to. Also, I’m usually picking up a game or TV show that I’ve already started, so I’m jumping into a story that I’m already invested in, rather than starting a whole new one.
Writing in a lot of TV/movies are just too, well, stupid
Personally i find the quality bar for writing in games (especially AAA games) is much lower. A well-known game with writing that matches a mid-tier movie usually gets heralded as GOTY. I agree with your point about emergent stories, though.
The social aspect of going to watch a movie in a dark room on a screen while everyone around me loudly “whispers” to each other and checks their phones. Not to mention the screen that is lower quality than my television at home.
It’s a double-edged sword. But f2p has become so dominant that certain types of games almost NEED to be f2p to be relevant. See Concord for a recent example.
it’s rockstar syndrome, same as always. People who become famous for being good at something start to think of themselves as invincible. Combine that with minors specifically treating the rockstar like they are a god that could do no wrong, and any pedophilic tendencies are gonna worm their way out.
With online celebrities specifically, I think the unique circumstance is that people can go from unknown to world-famous in a relatively short span of time, and they haven’t learned how to conduct themselves in that context in a way that they might if they achieved that fame more slowly. For a recently famous person like that, direct DM access to fans is a dangerous thing.
I got back into emulation recently with one of those handheld emulators (like Retroid, but a different brand). It’s mind blowing to me to play old Gameboy or GBA games on there because it feels just like playing on the genuine article, except the screen is like 3x better and backlit and all that. Plus all the games are just right there at your fingertips!
I don’t find myself using it as much as I should. I think retro games just don’t interest me as much as modern ones. I think they are cool and worth playing, I just find it hard to let go of the conveniences of modern gaming.