Why Modern Games Have Gone Stale
Can you remember the last time you enjoyed a new purchase? No really, when did you actually enjoy one of the new games you picked up — whether it’s the newest rehash of Call of Duty, or another IP cash grab such as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, when in recent memory can you think of a game that you actually enjoyed?
Passion is Key
I can think of 3 titles I had fun with, and none of them are particularly spectacular.
WOW Classic (Hardcore)
Before a time of automated dungeon queues, before a time where most content can be solo’d, and before a time where quality of life didn’t insult the gamer’s intelligence, you had the O.G. World of warcraft. Admittedly it’s a game I never got into but maybe that’s because I started playing around the end of Wrath of the Lich King. A couple of steamers I was watching at the time were playing it and so I decided to give it a try. I couldn’t believe it, going back in time to play an aged game that I felt was only released for nostalgia purposes — but the pull of hardcore had it’s hooks in me and so I rolled a character.
The game was amazing, it was simple, not easy but simple. I had all my tools available to me, things are clearly readable and there wasn’t 1000 microtransactions or notifications in my face which meant I could actually devote my attention to enjoying the game. Everything was fairly well designed too, I was quite surprised that they got so many things right back then, things like the hotbar customizations/macros, the clarity of everything, and well — the community of hardcore was pretty great too. We all knew what was at stake, so it felt like everyone was able and willing to communicate, help, or even group up for dungeons. Maybe due to the permadeath nature of hardcore, the player driven economy was very fun to interact with too, there wasn’t egregious hyper inflation, and people seemed very active. I guess the bots have a hard time staying on one life for all those gold grinders out there. Overall a pleasant experience, I hard a hard time levelling because I wasn’t too good at wow, but I also had a great time with the time I did play.
Dark and Darker
Another simple game with lots of hidden complexities, Dark and Darker (A name possibly chosen out of an allusion to Dungeons and Dragons) is a PvPvE loot goblin dungeon crawler. At first glance, it seems like no one would really play this title — all of the movements are sluggish, the spells are clunky, the servers aren’t the best — but it still has a dedicated cult following because of one thing, passion. The elements that make this game clunky, the movement, the attacking, the spells are what becomes endearing after a while, because it was made by developers who had an idea for fun, and executed on it. It wasn’t a corporate entity developing another cash grab due to market research, (quite the opposite actually, as per the drama between Ironmace and Nexon), but a experience that was brought to gamers by gamers.
Baldur’s Gate 3
I know earlier I said the games weren’t particularly spectacular, but I lied. It might be the case where BG3 (Baldur’s Gate 3) may have changed the industry forever with the sheer amount of work that went into it. It wasn’t easy though, the game was in a purely development phase for nearly 10 years. But what’s the thing the made BG3 deserve it’s pivotal position as possibly the single player character driven rpg of 2023? The risks the developers took, things they didn’t know would land story wise, they also tried to add too much into the game, as represented by half-finished storylines or the massive amount of bugs. Larion is doing a great job of adding more value with the big post-launch bug fixes and content additions, but they took risks and actually believed in their product and that’s what made them a success.
Everything feels stale because studios are filled with people who don’t love games, who are risk averse, whose only motivation is to turn a profit. I for one will be supporting studios and efforts that are for gamers by gamers, other than my gacha addiction.