What are you opinions on video games - more specifically what has come to be known as eSports.
I grew up playing some video games and I always felt they were very close to art, but near the end of 2010 I feel like the medium was suddenly a cash cow. And art was less the point as was serial releases with ever increasing DLC and faster release times but with less content.
Then mobile dominated the discussion for a while and loot boxes showed up.....
I now see subscribe to play becoming more fashionable and less and less on the front of ownership...
They heavily attacked the after markets when they went towards online subscription and DLC models.... But now....it's like they are destroying the market.
All popular games also seem way less innovative than anything I was playing. Battlefield back on the PS2 was the same gameplay but with no pay to play bs....
What are your thoughts. Is this just the way things go...or has something happened to the art form?
Specifically, ingame achievements, a marketing exploit. Further moved the content online destroying an entire ecosystem of services and entertainment. What happened to the video rental store, the game store, the gaming arcade became gambling machines, but a knock on effect to the surrounding comic shops, sweet shops, music shops, etc etc also started faster disappearing. Until they're further and further away to find, and are becoming relics of a different age. Replaced by greed, the dumb phone, it connects you virtually, not as socially above, often causing an increasing disconnect today.
PC games were always a con to force hardware. Your computer became redundant on the day you bought it, because of the software. Although they have often always been better and inflation hasn't caused them to increase in price by the same comparison. Better in certain formats not necessarily the beat em up or the platform or the driving game, sometimes the shooter, these tended to play better on consoles, or dedicated machines. But there are few titles in strategy, sim, rpg especially that are always top quality. Degraded because of crappy internet freemiums, and emulation from the consoles.
No regulation from GOV unless it was adding dystopia, these cunts even used shills and bots to promote vaccination on steam and discord. But they policed speech. Instead of regulating exploitative content, like micro transactions and lootboxes, completely stopping pay to win games, and the online gambling industry.
There's profit and there's greed, a big difference to what gaming has become.