Why Video Game Plots So Degrade - And Who's to Blame?

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  • Опубліковано 24 січ 2025

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  • @arminxvs3372
    @arminxvs3372 День тому +10

    Short answer:
    Writers are immature activists and hack.
    They don't want and are not able to write mature and deep stories and characters.
    The industry needs a reset with good quality people.

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 17 годин тому +3

      the industry could use a reset-bringing in people who genuinely care about storytelling and character development, not just the latest trends.

    • @arminxvs3372
      @arminxvs3372 15 годин тому +1

      @nyomanbandarayani6830 You said it buddy "People who care". It baffles me that peopl apply for jobs where they hate the product and the consumer. Like why don't you go in another industry then?
      Also, it baffles me why companies keep those people? I am pretty sure that if a worker from a tampon compan, came out and publically said that he hates women, he would be on the streets. Or if a McDonald's Chief of something said he despises obese people, it wouldn't fly.
      Meanwhile you can openly hate, shame and blame gamers and the compan, is fine with that.
      Surreal.

    • @BiscuitDelivery
      @BiscuitDelivery 3 години тому

      @@arminxvs3372 There are a ton of people that would love to be a professional writer and not a lot of openings for it. The people who get those positions are generally the kids of other people in the industry or at least know someone. So it becomes a small club where connections outweigh skill by a giant margin. We're slowly drifting back into feudalism where you're essentially born into your role.

  • @peterjansen4826
    @peterjansen4826 День тому +19

    I dare to speculate that writers have been told to play it safe. AAA-gaming being big business, investors of such companies...they just don't want to take any risk. It is the same story all the time: first the record labels wrecking music, then Hollywood wrecking movies and finally gaming getting wrecked by the big publishers. In the 1st phase you have organic growth and a well working business of talented people who just want to do something cool, like how record labels in the 60's and 70's still scouted talented musicians instead of working with safe formulas. Then the race to the bottom starts: the record lables and publishers discovered that they can get more profit by appealing to the lowest common denominator, after all, you want to sell to them too and not just to the people who have a more sophisticated taste. So the quality-standards get lowered, it just has to appeal to a lot of people, it doesn't have to appeal a lot to less people. In the case of gaming you can add to that that the last decade there has been a strong development that not everything is allowed to be said, let's hope that that is changing for the better now.

    • @gamegame6089
      @gamegame6089 19 годин тому

      "sophisticated taste" is subjective, for me rdr2 gameplay is too boring, and i dont bash on people who like it that they dont have "sophisticated taste".

  • @carter_maudit
    @carter_maudit 11 годин тому +2

    I'm just repasting my comment from a different discussion to show that game stories in a broad way are not degrading, but it's easier to talk about the bad ones-not talking or showing the best ones.
    I mean, story-wise, in 2023 alone, we've got Alan Wake 2, Tears of the Kingdom, Jedi Survivor, Spider-Man 2, Armored Core 6, and Baldur's Gate 3-for fuck's sake, that's an awesome list of AAA games with great stories told in creative ways. And that's only the AAA market-let's talk about AA, A, or even indie games. The stories are not worse, but the information bubbles and new internet journalists or big talking heads like Asmon and such are talking more about what was bad in recent years. We are currently surrounded by stories about bad games, how "woke" they are, and how DEI ruined the gaming industry, how studios are getting shut down left and right, but it's just not really the case here.
    It's just more beneficial for them to farm clicks and ad revenue based on bad stories-because it's easier to adhere to a certain target by talking about how bad the situation is, not only in the gaming industry but in all of it-it's just that simple.

  • @copewith-it
    @copewith-it День тому +2

    I thought the thing with modern games was I changed my perspective of playing but just now realizing that the games we used to play were no less than a masterpiece

  • @MarkusFFFF
    @MarkusFFFF День тому +6

    Play asian games, they are nowadays better in every single aspect. For example the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series. Amazing main stories and characters. I am playing Yakuza 0 right now, the main story is on a completely different level compared to nearly all modern western games. I also played Yakuza: Like A Dragon and the sequel Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, (Yakuza) Judgement and Lost Judgement. Those games all made me laugh and cry, several times. They are SO good.

    • @perfectmazda3538
      @perfectmazda3538 День тому

      wukong story is also not bad

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 17 годин тому

      I totally get that! Yakuza brings more heart and substance to the table compared to GTA’s over-the-top spectacle. The characters feel real, and the main stories are so engaging. It’s rare to see Western games tap into that level of depth these days.

  • @jeevanantonysen2017
    @jeevanantonysen2017 День тому +2

    dude hit me with the hardest dialouge in the end 21:27

  • @Sandnessen
    @Sandnessen 15 годин тому

    Every action has a counter action. If it hasn't, it wasn't an action to begin with. It the same for good and evil. Good video!

  • @MrFostiano
    @MrFostiano День тому

    Thanks!

  • @AtarAxy23
    @AtarAxy23 6 годин тому

    how does your channel only have 9.5k subs, you sir are insanely underrated, amazing content bro keep it up!

  • @Sandnessen
    @Sandnessen 15 годин тому

    I'm in the beginning of creating a game that will hopefully be a small candle in the current darkness of modern western games.

  • @cuzanater2027
    @cuzanater2027 День тому +2

    Everyone should be blaming UA-camrs and Twitch streamers why all games suck ass now. For sure the greedy businessman all these game studios hired to run them as well.

  • @Sharunock
    @Sharunock День тому +6

    0:33 all problems in one picture

    • @bozokreso5555
      @bozokreso5555 День тому

      I liked veilguard. It was pretty fun

    • @kaidanalenko5222
      @kaidanalenko5222 22 години тому

      Poc, wimin, rainbow helicopters.....

    • @bozokreso5555
      @bozokreso5555 16 годин тому

      ​@@kaidanalenko5222 you didint even play it lol

  • @Utomatica
    @Utomatica День тому +1

    The "Game Development" Education, Lazy Developers, Entitled Artists, D.E.I, ChatGPT programmers and more...
    This proberly dosen't benifit videogames
    And Story writers with no life experience that's living in a bubble
    There you go
    Modern games summed up

  • @majikalmcmuffin6258
    @majikalmcmuffin6258 20 годин тому +3

    hate to say it but this argument goes nowhere. most games have always had pretty shit stories and that hasn't changed much, but to think you can rely on the same over milked franchises that have already run through their narrative potential is naïve E.G. assassins creed's plot practically ended in ac3.
    You criticise 'writers' as if they were a monolith and criticise 'gaming' in these incredibly overbroad generalisations. your definition of 'new games' and 'old games' makes no sense, if you were going to try and prove some kind of linear relationship between more modern titles and a decline in storytelling quality you NEEDED to establish which games you are talking about because you use far cry 6 (2021) as an example of a modern game, yet in the same time frame and since, games like returnal (2021), god of war ragnarok (2022), final fantasy xvi (2023), and metaphor refantazio (2024), games with incredible stories that stand just as tall as the games you mention in praise have released. Unless you can define what exactly you mean when you talk about new games, then these examples completely disprove your hypothesis? furthermore, there were just as many games in the late thousands and early 2010s (the period it seems you are referring to in terms of when games had good stories)
    It's strange, you raised skyrim as an example of excellence in its worldbuilding as while i was writing this comment i was going to use it as an example of an 'old'? game that has an incredibly lackluster story, when compared to Morrowind, the nuance and intrigue of the world is greatly diminished, the ability for the player to influence the story and world in exciting and novel ways is greatly reduced, it's only been more recently that RPGs like kingdom come deliverance and baldurs gate 3 that really have opened back up in terms of depth and player freedom. but even in this i find the entire enterprise of assigning one time period a 'good games' label and another a 'bad games' label to fall apart because there's always exceptions and each project has to be judged on its own merits. you admit this yourself at 5:20 when you say all far cry games had bad protagonists, making your critique of fc6 pretty inert. in the end some teams have fallen apart, some teams have lost their creative leads that defined their most compelling stories and ideas, that;s often what it comes down to.
    Pardon me when i say this but drawing a linear line between red dead redemption 2 and Forspoken is absolutely stupid. the development of these games has absolutely nothing to do with one another. to do this correctly you would have to compare forspoken to its team (luminous productions') previous game Final Fantasy 15, which suffers from an incredibly messy story which suffers from many of the same problems as forspoken. So it makes sense that with less pressure than a mainline FF they would make a less compelling story. your argument here, goes nowhere.
    I get it with the examples you raise, you aren't talking about bad stories, you're talking about disappointment with the continuation of stories you were already invested in. especially ubisoft and EA, whose decline in success is certainly disappointing but not something that makes sense to draw a sweeping trend across an entire industry with. I feel like you just need to play some better games too. though i do wonder if you actually played forspoken, (let me know if you read this if you have played forspoken btw :) it's easy to pick out the bad games from recent memory but you do seem to forget the absolute deluge of shite old games.
    Also, just a quick aside on the comment at 1:10
    if that statement were true: 'I don't think some groups are more important than others' then you would have to champion diversity, because otherwise you would be (perhaps unintentionally) putting a certain group ahead of others - the societal default white heteronormative male. making sure that when we create art set in the real world, we are aware that we should include people different from us, and not just for their races / genders etc, but simply because they exist.

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 17 годин тому

      TL;DR. I think the frustration comes from seeing franchises that have overstayed their welcome or been milked for too long. A lot of modern games aren't inherently worse, but the sheer number of quality, story-driven AAA titles seems lower now than in the past-at least if you measure it by the impact they had. It's all about the projects, the teams behind them, and how they approach storytelling, gameplay, and innovation. There's no one-size-fits-all answer

    • @nika298
      @nika298 14 годин тому

      Your critics are out of place, you know many games but you compare almost unknown games to other famous ones. you say games like returnal , final fantasy xvi ,metaphor refantazio are very good but those are almost not even talked about in the gaming community . Its more dumb that you dont find the fall of ea and ubisoft very bad for the idustry. Making fun of the guy saying play some better games, when he literally talked about the best of the best plots and stories. If you also dont know the defenition of good, bad, old and new you should google it because you seem to think modern games are same as old ones.

    • @majikalmcmuffin6258
      @majikalmcmuffin6258 9 годин тому

      @@nika298 its not me whose confused about what games are new and which are old, thats the video. Theres no connection between being old and being good, its all anecdotal. I expected that the games he would raise would at least be consistent in how old he’s talking because games from the same year or even after other ‘modern’ games are used as examples.
      Also it is a shame that some studios have really deteriorated and beloved franchises are wheelspinning. But that only matters for that studio, it says nothing about gaming as a whole, the industry would frankly be better off without ea and ubisoft slop, or better yet, maybe they can turn their asses around and make good games.
      Cant believe you called those games unknown though, i specifically chose examples people would recognise since each were nominated for categories at tga in their respective years. The point being there have been just as many if not more games per year with incredible stories and characters than there ever have been.

  • @HHh-ug4oe
    @HHh-ug4oe День тому +9

    Video game story's have always been mostly shit you just forget the bad ones and focus on the few that stuck

    • @citizen4610
      @citizen4610 21 годину тому +3

      No, you're coping because people are dumping all over the DEI slopes games like dragon age (as they should be), so you're just trying to gaslight everyone by claiming that every past game is just as "bad"

    • @HHh-ug4oe
      @HHh-ug4oe 4 години тому

      I think you missed the point I'm not defending Vielguard or saying past games didn't have great story's such as KOTOR, BioShock, crono trigger and MGS3 im pointing out that most games having bad writing has always been the industry standard

  • @radicalcentrist4990
    @radicalcentrist4990 День тому

    I can ignore an uninteresting story as long as the story isn't really the point of the game anyway and the rest of the game is just too good to matter. But if it has the absolute cringe inducing "Millenial Writing", then I won't even touch it with a stick. There's only so much I can overlook.

  • @chris1013151
    @chris1013151 День тому +1

    Shareholder value is the reason

  • @SuSTR7
    @SuSTR7 День тому +3

    Before anyone says something like "we are still getting lots of games with incredible stories" or "there were lots of generic games in the past too, you're just being biased", i want them to name every great game with a good story that has been released in recent years like 2023, 22, 21 and just compare the numbers to a decade ago. How many AAA masterpieces did we get in 2011? How many did we get in 2021? Even the new "masterpieces" that we're getting are not in the same level that the old gems were. Writing, art design and innovation in gameplay design has really declined, i don't get this toxic positivity and need to pretend that everything is ok and there are no problems whatsoever.

    • @perfectmazda3538
      @perfectmazda3538 День тому +1

      well it's also true that good stories are harder to make... you can't make a game similar to another, you can't make another bioshock, because it would be clear copy, like with "we are few" and the new game "Clockwork Revolution"
      Once a great game is made, you can't make a similar one or it will get boring... everyone will compare the two, that's why it's much better to make a new story, the issue is that it will suck more than the better story...

    • @SuSTR7
      @SuSTR7 День тому +3

      @perfectmazda3538 well how was bioshock made and written? It's simple: a talented guy with a vision was given the opportunity to lead a team and push the boundaries of the medium with his vision. The reason why we get lots of repetitive, generic and boring stories is because the writers themselves are boring and bland people too. The executives wouldn't have hired those people if they really cared about the game (but they do because of nepotism or DEI). But since the executives are boring, untalented people too, how can we expect them to care about making a remarkable game with deep, interesting narrative? There is no lack of talent, it's just that nobody gives them an opportunity.

    • @perfectmazda3538
      @perfectmazda3538 День тому +2

      @ there is a lack of talent because no one wants to give them an opportunity, but at the same time big companies prefer to follow just a stable series rather than making new one, that's why indies and solo developer games are important, since they make good stories, all it needs is for a big company to do the same but they want stable profit and to not expand the horizon.

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 17 годин тому +1

      We got The Witcher 2, Skyrim, Uncharted 3, and Portal 2 in 2011. A lot of current games feel like they’re playing it safe with formulaic approaches, relying on established franchises or trends. There’s definitely room for improvement, and it’s frustrating when people ignore that the industry is stagnating in some ways. It’s not about being negative, it’s about recognizing that things could be better

  • @Pachu468
    @Pachu468 13 годин тому

    Cyberpunk has all of it.

  • @BATMAN_s_millis
    @BATMAN_s_millis День тому +1

    Great videos bro ❤

  • @JeroenPut
    @JeroenPut День тому

    Still getting weird images when hearing baynal instead of buhnahl 😅

  • @stefandinu6389
    @stefandinu6389 14 годин тому

    Wait you wont play a game with a bsd story but good gameplay and graphics? Theyre called games for a reason. Gameplay and level design first and if the atory is good then thats a bonus.

  • @logustrate
    @logustrate День тому +1

    Your point about sweet baby is kinda stupid. No one is saying anyone is more important than anyone else. But the entire history of gaming has focused on a small range of people, it only makes sense to broaden stories to include different perspectives.
    It doesn't make a story bad- a bad story will remain a bad story regardless of the diversity of its characters, and vice versa for good stories.
    Sounds like another butthurt dude, tbh. Too bad, this video and channel looked interesting.

    • @kaidanalenko5222
      @kaidanalenko5222 22 години тому

      Like ac shadow, they still put yasuke floyd in ancient japan . That game would never be 5⭐️

  • @everx7
    @everx7 10 годин тому

    agree with forspoken empty land, but i kinda like the game

  • @actointv
    @actointv 17 годин тому

    Trump made 2 genders official again.. golden 5 year of gaming Begin here.!😂. Wish Re4R made and released in 2026 or so.. that way they wouldn't had to cut so many iconic dialogue. I wanted all the bantering with ramon.. but there wasn't much to begin with.

  •  22 години тому

    Thanks for the analysis, very nice! And since you did allow "you are an asshole". Subscribed for more!

  • @Lippeth
    @Lippeth 22 години тому

    Negativity drives engagement is negativity drives engagementing

  • @DON9701
    @DON9701 11 годин тому

    max payne 1

  • @Recht_voor_zijn_raap
    @Recht_voor_zijn_raap 13 годин тому

    Who's to blame:
    Sweet Baby Inc.

  • @VaibhavRajput-oj1po
    @VaibhavRajput-oj1po День тому +3

    Wokism is the reason

  • @jasonsmith-mz9rf
    @jasonsmith-mz9rf День тому +4

    Before I watch, let me just say that HR is partly to blame because everything has to be approved by them and the things they deem problematic don't get added to the games, leaving us with wholesome chungus bullshit.

  • @BrovarSpirytus
    @BrovarSpirytus 23 години тому

    old games good, new games bad, I am very smart

  • @bozokreso5555
    @bozokreso5555 День тому

    Didint we have plenty of good games with an amazing story released in the last 5 years?
    Its easy to nitpick the good games that came out before because, oh well, you remember the good ones. I mean Jesus Christ BG3 came out 2 years ago, not even.

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 17 годин тому

      Baldur's Gate 3, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West have woke in it. I don't consider them to be a good story. Elden Ring has pushed boundaries in ways that were once thought impossible.

    • @bozokreso5555
      @bozokreso5555 16 годин тому

      @nyomanbandarayani6830 what wokeness is in Bg3 or GoWR?

    • @nyomanbandarayani6830
      @nyomanbandarayani6830 16 годин тому

      @ BG3 allows you romance any companion, regardless of the player's character's gender or sexual orientation, beastiality, and also certain character arcs and dialogues explore themes of oppression, identity, and personal freedom.
      GOWR: Angrboda's casting and also Freya's character was pandering to modern feminist ideals

    • @theLuwieCat2.0
      @theLuwieCat2.0 12 годин тому

      Delusional​@@nyomanbandarayani6830