New Games Suck... Or Is It Just Me?

Blade Runner released 1982 (the name Roy Batty means nothing to me, I had to look it up)
Darth Vader's first appearance was 1977 (also no one knew the connection between Vader and Skywalker until Empire Strikes back, so there was no indication he was white, especially in a world full of alien species. Lets refrain from going down the rabbit hole of the legendary voice behind the mask too.)

Both of those characters are older than me. Lets try to stick to things from the last decade ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We can ignore this stuff that is ruining all western video game developers, and just play asian ones. This is what many of us are now doing.

However what is happening is simply destroying the western video games industry, this is undeniable now as more and more layoffs and studios close down. They can fight against people trying to tell them to stop being this way, but the more they resist against it and carry on cause they don't like the messengers the more of them will get laid off. Till most games are made in china, just as most clothes and electronics are now made there.

There is no future in what they are doing, cause barely anyone likes it and it stops them being fully creative and giving their customers what they want. All they are doing is keeping themselves in with their tribe and farming progressive virtue points, but virtue ain't gonna cut it when they're out of work and can't get hired by anyone else except chinese companies who don't want them.

China doesn't have these limitations put upon them as all western devs do, and gamers love them because of it.

Having said that, it's blatantly obvious they mostly all can't change what they are doing and are locked in on this path now. The entire industry is saturated with progressives and DEI hires, and individuals trying to move away from this nonsense will get them ostracized and then fired. Even many normal devs who don't believe in any of this have to pretend they do and dye their hair and beards blue.

Baldurs Gate 3 was one of the very few western games that was actually decent (even though it was woke), I have a feeling this was more due to the immense pressure they had from their players than actual what they wanted. I would not be surprised at all if their next big game will be a total train wreck, because their egos will be inflated from success, they will want to do the same as all other progressive devs do and push the messaging and the pressure to pander to their players will be less this next time due to being less financially stressed.

GTA6 is going to be an utter mess of a game compared to GTA5 with all the limitations, pandering and nonsense, and it's going to cause a massive shi*storm in the audiences becasue of it. Which is cool, they need a big wakeup call that they will listen to and that they can't just hand wave away as chuds complaining. Maybe the last chance they have before their entire industry falls in on itself.

We ain't gonna lose, cause our games will just be made cheaper somewhere else. The devs hating on their customers are gonna be the losers.

I see someone let RA out of his playpen to just repeat the same ***he has been trying forever now. Remember when we all listed out the games we played last year, and he didn't participate? Because he doesn't play anything, nor does he work in the industry. So this "pressure" that these companies are under is entirely made up. No sources exist so don't bother asking.

Maybe he could say that there is pressure on Bethesda to deliver a great game because Microsoft desperately needs it, but nah he would rather make stuff up about female characters and the lack of romance options. I think Avowed is the first Western RPG to not have romance options, btw. And religion? There is a game that came out this month and is doing quite well that is heavily focused on religion, so much that it's in the title. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

But my favorite baseless conspiracy, GTA6 is going to be a "mess" for reasons. Source? Evidence? We only have one trailer for GTA 6:

Does anyone see any pandering in this trailer? Or anything that looks remotely bad? Or rather, do you see a game thats going to win every award imaginable? Pass COD in sales for the year? Something that hasn't happened since...(guessing here, I admit!) GTA 5. There is no wakeup call coming, because there isn't one needed. Western studios are doing just fine. Nobody is being forced to make games they hate. But I'm sure next week we will be right back here reading the exact same nonsense from the exact same troll.

Thats ok
I do play games, I did participate in that list, and I wholeheartedly agree with everything he said because I have two eyes and a brain and can see what's going on.

https://gamerant.com/ubisoft-internal-review-investigation-company-struggles-2024-ac-shadows/
Theres one
BioWare/EA very clearly pinned the blame of Veilguard's failures on the narrative designer team by firing them, theres two

I think two is enough to disprove "its entirely made up".
Once again, I have two eyes and a functional brain. I can very clearly tell that female characters are being deliberately given male traits and/or being uglified because:
1-The male characters have no issues being designed properly
2-Modders are easily able to fix the poorly designed women
3-The Eastern dev's and artists have no problems making normal looking female characters.

Instead of "source" and "evidence", how about simply noticing the path these things have gone down over the last decade? Pattern recognition leading to the belief GTA6 will get the same coat of rainbow paint pretty much every other big AAA western title has been brushed over with. Now, I dont think it will, but I wouldnt bet on it either. Regardless, one cinematic trailer is really not much to go with in any way.

Veilguard is free to get for PlayStation Plus in March.

When people wonder how it boosts up in sales, remember it's free.

Since we're on GTA again, I'm trying to think back and could use help, how many other studios in the past really pushed the envelope for what was ok in video games? The arcade games I played as a kid had D.A.R.E. adverts telling kids to not do drugs, but were filled with gore and violence (most notably Mortal Kombat). I know there are many examples of games pushing social boundaries but can't think of many atm.

Maybe Conker's Bad Fur Day for language as another example.

Big AAA title moved to PS+ after 5 months lol, so much for it being a success.

I'm presuming "push the envelope" must also include the game being a success? Theres probably a lot of games that push the envelope purely for shock value with no substance behind it and the game failed.

not really, no. but at least somewhat known, I suppose.

honestly outside of violence i can't think of any off the top of my head. gaming has been so niche i don't think anyone's really cared tbh. i mean there's sex games on steam and girls half naked on twitch everyday, i don't think people even really care now outside of this dumb DEI stuff lol

Microsoft just desperately threw lots of money at the Chinese developer that made Mechabreak for exclusivity, the mech game with girls with big bouncy ***.


There it is.

it's hard because so many games now have multiple sex scenes, f bombs every other line of dialogue, political/religious narratives, and of course the mandatory blood and violence. just wondering if we could pinpoint any specific games since we've obviously moved past the Jack Thompson era of vidya being the devil.

Nope, nowhere in that Ubisoft article does it talk about "progressive pressure that has been hammered into them for the last 10 years." So that one is disqualified.

It hasn't happened. Outside groups aren't influencing western companies to make games a certain way to appease them. It's just a made up lie being used to hate on western games.


Massive eyeroll. Character design isn't the boogeyman you make it out to be. I'm sure you can list out the games that you hate having, in your opinion, bad design. And I can easily list out big budget games that don't have that problem. Starting with GTA 6. BG3. God of War. Any Naughty Dog game. The Spiderman games. Hell even Gears of War has women that look just fine. You latch onto a huge minority and think its a widespread problem. Hint: It's not.

Yes, do tell me all of the problems that Rockstar North has had in the past decade. And how these problems are going to end up dooming GTA 6.

That's wild. It also reminds me that I shouldn't support EA. I paid full price for that game to sit in my library. I am however, looking forward to TMNT collection. Those were some of my favorite games as a kid.

Ah yes so thee shareholders are "launching a comprehensive review of its internal practices...the probe is meant to assist in identifying the reasons for some of its recent struggles, consequently helping Ubisoft improve itself" and it has nothing to do with their narrative changes in their content.

I guess western companies just love spending hundreds of millions of dollars producing content no one wants. Now, I'm not the best at this making money thing, and no I'm not in the video game industry, but I'm pretty sure spending $400 million just to sunset Concord after two weeks its not a good business strategy. Unless I have to be in the video game industry to understand how or why thats a wise venture.

GTA6 is a cinematic trailer, I dont think any in-game footage was used. (I hate cinematic trailers, hate hate hate hate hate)
BG3 is fine
Freyr is fine in GoW, she looks normal
Pretty sure the whole issue with TLOU2 is that Abby looks like a man, especially in that scene.
SpiderMan games, MJ looks anything but normal lmao
last GoW was released 6 years ago, and yes the women look normal

Why no mention of fable?


No one is saying the women in video games have to look hot and be a smokeshow, they just have to look like normal women instead of having chiseled jaws akin to men.

Once again, pattern recognition. Rockstar has been a solid company that puts out bangers.

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed was also a series of bangers, and then AC Shadows happened.
BioWare's Dragon Age was also a series of bangers, and then Veilguard happened.
BioWare's Mass Effect was also a series of bangers, and people are worried about Mass Effect 6 because its the same company responsible for Dragon Age.
Rocksteady's Arkham Origins was a series of bangers, then SS:KtJL happened.
The Civ games were a series of bangers, then 6 happened.

Simple pattern recognition and knowing corruption spreads.


Good on you for buying it when it came out and voting with your wallet. However, EA agreed to have the game available on PS+
so quickly because it didnt do good. I dont know how the financial residuals for such agreements work, but BioWare/EA must have felt they'd make more money by having the game on PS+ vs running sales. Also a great way to make the sales look a lot better than they were by having the game on PS+ and potentially having millions of PS+ subscribers install the game.

admitting to conjecture but trying to argue it as fact is the epitome of the internet lol

I didn't mention Fable because...I have less than no interest in ever playing the series that overpromises and underdelivers again. I haven't paid any attention to it, I don't know who is making it, (it better not be Peter Molyneux), I have only vaguely heard they were making another one. In general, I pay very little attention to Microsoft.


Some definite reaches here. Many people would say the last good AC was Black Flag, with some subpar offerings before that.
Highly questionable to call Dragon Age a series of bangers. I would argue it had been a series in continous decline since the debut game. Regardless, it was not as successful/profitable as Mass Effect. Also, I think people are worried about Mass Effect 5 (pretty sure its 5) because Andromeda was dramatically bad. This after the horrible way Mass Effect 3 ended.
The Arkham series had a good first two games. But if you played Arkham Knight, you know that it fell apart the moment you got into the Batmobile. That game was not good. Platforming with the Batmobile was bad bad. The story did everything it could to save it but ultimately, you play that game one time and you are done. Also, they went 10 years between games.
And Civilization? Um? As far as I know, Civ 6 was wildly successful? It released a ton of DLC/addons, and the biggest worry the devs had about 7 was getting people to stop playing 6 and transition to 7. This is a weird series to take a shot at.

Regardless, none of that has anything to do with Rockstar North. As far as I am concerned, they are the best developer the world has ever seen.

Complaining about Rockstar's problems is a long-standing tradition, even among people who play their games frequently. GTA 6 will sell like wildfire and people will still complain about it nonstop. It's the GTA way.

In many places I read/heard about GTA6 release.

I wonder if that is some meme ongoing, or if is the honest anticipation about it.

I don't belong to Team Woke, I belong to Team Creative Freedom.

If you tell me people can't write female scientists, tomboys, white male villain, innocent orcs or bad religions in their story because that is "woke", you deserve an iron fist.

Your favorite Chinese Dev also has made a bunch of flat chest, nerdy female scientist character in their games.

One of them is even called Einstein!!



Are they woke then?


China has far more limitations than the west. You can't talk about 8964, Xi, Taiwan, Hong Kong in their games. You can't show underwear nor cleavage nor skimpy clothes because it's "bad culture". You probably can't have a story that has "government bad we are gonna fight it". You can't reference gambling etc.

Because of those censorship, I don't like most of their games with small amount of exceptions.

Ow dang

Alfania woke up.

/drums

monster hunter wilds tomorrow, think i'm gonna make this my first ever mon hun game. preorder costume looks pretty familiar...

There are many, one of them is Postal(1997), players play as a psycho that commits mass murder. Besides that it also features Silent Hill style hellish scenes in the loading screen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_(video_game)

This game is banned in many countries and it got politicians pushing policy against violence in video games.

Another one is RapeLay which is a rape simulator. Players play as a sex offender who captures and rapes a mother and her 2 underage daughter, and make them pregnant etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapeLay

This game also got tons of controversy and banned in multiple countries. Stirred up political drama and tension between Japanese porn game industry and western politicians. You can read the controversy details in that wiki article.

Nobody in the west cares about the kind of censorship you're talking about though, they care about *** and violence and Chinese games in the west have *** everywhere. Added to that, they make great games.

So you get the nice cake with the icing on top.

You care about *** but totally okay with censorship on skimpy outfit? Weak!

Where is the "caring" on *** if they are covered by clothes! You can't even see them!

From the characters and outfits I've seen they are doing it far better than anyone else. 10/10

Your standard on *** is too low I guess, maybe because you haven't play many real *** games. You need to play better *** games from other free countries with less censorship than China so you don't need to settle for less.

I recommend Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. *** in Bikini > *** in Chinese grandma outfit.

Or maybe Goddess of Victory: Nikke or something. Literally everyone else does *** and porn games better than Chinese outfit censorship.

Mecha Break, made in China has so many players that Xbox just dropped all their previous moralizing and paid cash money for exclusive console rights to keep it off ps5 for a year.

Here is a scene from Mecha Break, if you hit the Ejection seat from the mech. If they bounced any harder they would break the monitor.

I don't think anyone would care if people write about any of these if there wasn't a clear trend that western writers had started to exclusively write about these that coincided with the same shift in every other mass media and a massive culture war. Like you said, nobody had any complaints about white male villains in the 80s, and there were plenty of them. Same goes for female scientists.

Obviously there's a degree of preperception involved. You can't look at any one of these games and decide it's bad because of the race/gender choices. Instead, people have observed that western games use these design choices to signal their ideology. Developers with that ideology baked into their product tend to use shitty writing to further underscore the ideology. I would argue that the issue isn't the female poc lead or the young white male villain, it's that when I see a few of these design choices in the same game I expect the game to be a dumpster fire trying to preach at me[and it usually is].

Nobody cares about anime games using white female scientists, because the issue isn't the scientist and there's a reasonable assumption that as an anime game it's not full of woke ***. Anime/eastern media have used powerful females for decades. On the other hand, an anime that put a POC front and center in a setting that didn't call for it would be setting off the same flags because it is not part of their typical culture/design.