They are its the management and money men that are the problem. You think the developers eat week long crunches for below average pay for the fun of it?
those studios are not staffed with video game fans, its just another job for them, 20-30 years ago video game developpers were 99% video game nerds. With the broadening of the video game industry it was inevitable that the general quality will goes down.
People who are passionate about games are the only people wide-eyed and/or dumb enough to take the gods-awful jobs that the video game industry offers (or, in the case of someone like ConcernedApe, to put himself through hell on his own personal time in order to make Stardew Valley rather than, I dunno, taking up hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where he's from.) Anyone else with a STEM degree who wants to work in tech won't touch games with an Olympic vaulting pole.
@@embalancer6146Yes I do. The devs are the main issue. Embracer gives their studios creative freedom and what did the volition studios devs decide? Making a woke saints row. Same story with many other devs and studios. Its not just the management. Often it’s both and sometimes it’s the management or the devs.
@@embalancer6146 no they are NOT stop spreading such BS there are MULITPLE STUDIOS were the OG staff IS LONG gone and replaced while the Pupblisher keep the Name because it a perceived label of Quality in the comunity. U can EASILY find Articles about it with some time investment. EA did it with Critetion,Maxon, Ghost,BlackBox Activision did it with Blizzard Microsoft did it with RARE WanerBros did it with Rocksteady Matter of fact is The ENTIRE OG rocksteady staff LEFT because of the Horrible Working conditions during the time on "Suicide Squad kill the justice league" acording to the Studios ex creator/director/founder that left the studio last shortly before relase FOLLOWED by opening A NEW Studio where u can find now nerly the ENTIRE OG Rockestady staff at, the ones missing are in retirement. Most of the OG staff btw was long gone years BEFORE the game even was teased. The Entire OG Rare Staff u can currently find at RETROSTUDIOS working for Nintendo still giving us High Quality Donkey Kong and Metroit games. they all Dipped shortly after Microsoft purchased Rare in 2002, until then ......Rare did game for Nintndo guess witch IP tittles they are known for. Blizzard is bleeding quality staff for a decade now. Yet the name still stand strong despite droping quality, horrible microtransactions implmentations,false pormisses,disrispecting the comunity, emty pandering. since 2021 Blizzard has not a single Original staff member in his row. The day Jeff Kaplan of the Overwatch Team left, was the day activisons takeover of blizzard was completed.
And that’s what I mean! It’s clearly not made for people who played the first few games. It’s for a new crowd. That’s fine, but it hurts those dedicated fans. Dedicated fan base will allow you to grow and be successful long term, whereas a game trying to just appeal to everyone usually doesn’t go very far
What is sad, is that DA should have been a game to inspire others. Not the opposite, It was made by people whom had no idea about the gem they had in their hands. Knowing that a portion of the dev never to this day played any DA game is insane, but revealing!
It's the first conclusion I came to when I watched the game. Either they didn't play it or they didn't care, and neither is good. The primary goals seems to have been to wipe out the previous three games so they can start over with their own story.
Fromsoft has a very unique approach to gaming. They said that when making a new game, they never expect the next installment to be as big or bigger than the previous one. They made Elden Ring, sold 12 million and later released Armored Core 6, successful but not nearly as much as the previous one. In contrast, most develoopers always try to go higher, but you can't keep up if you try to mantain your core audience and respect your legacy, in the end the only way to make more money is going for the mainstream. It's a good short term strategy, but in the long term it has shown to be a disaster. Starfield, Veilguard, Diablo 4, etc. This games are now hated by their original fans, and not doing as good as the developers expected. In the end, investors demand money, that's the main problem.
Fromsoft can do that, though, because they aren't publicly traded. In and of themselves, shareholders are not a bad thing, they may be essential to how a company can get funding and survive. The issue is, though, shareholders are in it only to see number go up. And number go up by making profit go up. Profit can never fall below last year's profit margins. So the shareholders squeeze and squeeze whatever they can to get the most out of a company before number start falling down, which they inevitably will because infinite growth is impossible. Fromsoft, on the other hand, have onlytheir own money to deal with. So they can be content to just have profits, no matter whether it be more or less than last year's. As long as they are profitable, they can reinvest into themselves and grow and shrink as they need to.
@@Roccondil You just explained why shareholders are the problem. All the fucked up monetization and streamlining of gaming comes from the fact that studios need to increase the revenue constantly. That's just unsustainable in the long term, which is what we are seeing now. Studios should look at fromsoft and Larian instead of Activision, Ubisoft or EA. You can make money and earn the respect of your fans, but not if you promise investors increase profits every single year. Don't you think the infantilization of Dragon Age is because they needed to catter to younger audiences? the ones who generate the most money in gaming?
@@darius8214 Considering the huge success of Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield was underwhelming. Maybe not a flop, but not what Bethesda expected, that's for sure. And that's because gamers, and especially the natural fans of studios like BGS, don't tolerate their bullshit anymore. Personally, I defended Veilguard when online grifters tried to make it the new battleground for the culture war, but I can't defended anymore when there are such glaring issues with the game.
Well Veilguard was based entirely on the internal politics of Bioware and EA.Had little to nothing to do with making money.They expected the game to be successful but that was not their primary motivation obviously. Saints Row would be an obvious game that declined due to internal factors at the studio where the last game was made. They had no regard for the previous games and made something they thought they would enjoy and as we know the fans did not like it. When a company has a devoted fan base catering to them imo should come first meeting their expectations.Then you can bring in other things that might attract new players. But if you disregard your core fanbase its very unlikely you will be successful. As Veilguard is proving.
It's a shame (and so dumb) because the general DA fan is already going to be open-minded. People wouldn't have cared about there being a trans character if they were as well-written as characters have been in the past. All we ask for is *good writing* and they gave us something so bad it comes off as a parody.
I hugely disagree with the implication that politics is what did it. Yes, the politics are there, but they've always been there - they've just had nuance. Veilguard is largely the product of not trusting or respecting your audience entirely. Talking down to the player about gender is just a symptom, the entire game talks down to the player about everything, from the plot, to mission objectives, to level design, to the choices you're allowed to make. Every aspect of the game is designed to herd the player, simplifying all the choices and distilling the outcomes down to things the studio finds acceptable. This isn't about being "woke" because it's socially liberal, this is about being "woke" because it's heavy-handed and obnoxious... but literally everything about this game is heavy-handed and obnoxious. My issue, and I think the issue at the root of the complaints, is that my character is forced to have HR appropriate reactions to _everything_. Player agency is secondary to fulfilling the story's artistic vision (such as it is). This isn't about a corporation demanding Bioware "put a chick in it, make her lame and gay" (despite the fact they kinda did just that). This is about a multi-million dollar corporation demanding control over the entire experience - ensuring its sanitized, homogenized, and artificially flavored for your consumption. It's lazy workmanship meant to appeal to "mass audiences," not, intentionally, woke ideology for the "modern audience."
I prefer an unvoiced protagonist when playing a customer character. I'm glad you tried to look at the reasons with an objective attitude. Too many simply like to blindly hate.
Yeah I’m trying to avoid that. It’s not constructive in my opinion. I think you look at games like cyberpunk, Hogwarts legacy and now dragon age veilgaurd they have all tried to have a voiced protagonist. But some of my favourite games don’t have that and I think I prefer that personally. Idk. It’s 50:50 actually now I think about it. What’s your favourite rpg game of all time?
@@AVVGaming1 My all time RPG favorite is Kotor II (I played it before Kotor I, who knows otherwise). That game was just so incredibly immersive to me, and I also used to love Star Wars. Sci-fi just speaks to me a lot more than fantasy. Though fantasy seems to be more popular, I'm not sure why.
I like non-voiced characters, but I prefer other characters to also be silent when the protagonist has no dialogue because it lets the protagonist shine more without being overshadowed. When other characters speak, it creates an uncanny valley effect and a discrepancy where other characters have more emotional depth, and so the silent protagonists feels less important than NPCs. In Fallout this is mostly fine because you're just a lone wanderer, or a courier and not really a true protagonist and in Oblivion, it worked well because you're just the hero of Kvatch and what ever name you make for yourself, but the protagonist of the story is always Martin Septim. Skyrim is arguably the biggest offender because the Dragonborn is the least important character in the story from the perspective of expression, but treated in the lore as if they have the highest narrative priority. That's why Skyrim's story is a bit flat compared to previous TES games and why Bethesda experimented with a voiced protagonist in Fallout 4. Morrowind actually got it spot on by having reading and limited voice acting, there's no disconnect between the player and the rest of the world like there is in the newer games. Although I think Oblivion has better writing, Morrowind is universally considered to have the best role playing of any 3D Bethesda game and that's partly because silent protagonists need silent side characters so you can leave more things to the imagination.
No it's not blind hate or even hate. That's nonsense thinking. If that's where you and the video poster thinks, then I'm done here as you clearly do not want to see the reality. I'm also sick of people who call everything `Hate`. This is why most people voted massively against this. We are sick of extreme accusations for simply saying the truth.
It’s such a contradiction isn’t it. Publishers and Developers always want to make as much money as possible yet they make decisions that are counterproductive to that goal. They listen to the wrong people and spend millions making a game that appeals to a small audience. Then game flops and instead of Management taking responsibility, they laid off developers and close studio down then blame gamers.
They don't make the games for the market. They make it for their own feelings and the private equity firms whose staff share their feelings. It's really odd, though. As technology improves programmers and artists get better- but the writers keep getting worse. I can't figure out what it is, maybe there's just a perspective and maturity crisis in the industry. As if the adults left the studios and were replaced by adolescents without maturity, intellect or perspective- only the drice to infest a property and skinsuit it into something that's their own without regard to the nature of the property.
I agree completely. The drop in quality of writing we have seen these last 5 years is staggering. Unbelievable, really. It’s like these current writers lack any semblance of skill, talent, education and experience. They don’t know how to craft and tell an interesting story, they don’t know how to create relatable characters and they can’t write dialogue that sounds even remotely realistic. Despite this, they are given stewardship of multi billion dollar franchises. It just doesn’t make sense. A lot of criticism have been made against the (often unnecessary) interjection of modern day progressive politics into most entertainment but that is actually a minor problem compared to the awful writing. If these people actually knew how to write, they would have been able to tell these stories in a way that made sense and was accepted by the audience. Instead of well written, well researched stories with realistic, relatable characters and good dialogue we get pathetic, childish slop with horrible, unlikable (often condescending and snarky) characters and pathetic dialogue. Often, when people complain about a project being ”woke” what they are actually protesting (wether they are aware of it or not) is horrible writing, I think.
Right on the money, my man. There's a lot of people who aren't really bothered by diversity, when done properly and naturally. Warframe did it right. The problem with those writers is that their attempts at diversity are either self-inserts of themselves or horrible stereotypes. Given how twisted some of these people are, those tend to overlap.
Mental capacity stopped at 15, became activists for social change, got jobs from their friends who were already on the development team, insert themselves into every project cause the real world won’t validate them.
The writers don't get worse, they fire them and without severance if I may add. BioWare did this with 50 people in the middle of datv development, veteran writers among them who obviously sued them. It's the companies that don't value nor pay their writers that put out garbage games, shows, etc. At Larian they have great writing team who are valued and they do an amazing job. EA/BioWare is a bad place to work as a writer.
It's always important to note that companies are not your friends. They are large entities comprised of people who more or less in to make money. You might have individual people in companies that you like for their writing or programming but those are individuals. It so often frustrates me when I see comments like "Bioware has fallen." as if these companies were heroes in the gaming industry, as if they're people to be idolized or respected.
Proliferating the message is more important than the success of the medium by which they are spreading it. It's astounding. You'd think they'd want to make a game that is amazing and then sprinkle their ideologies into it and slowly desensitize their audience to it over the course of several games but the virus seems to strip them of foresight entirely. It is so central to their existence that they build a game around ways to spread the message as opposed to sprinkling the message in. The game fails, no one buys it, eventually the studio is closed or folded into another. What's sinister is that the whackos at Biowarr will be peppered into other developers and they'll think "We just didn't do it right". They'll then corrupt another IP and it'll close. Eventually, all the studios who do this shit will be gone and we can go back to the good ol' days...
@@CleetusBuckwalter I wanted to cover this in a video and will do one day soon. What do they do, is when they want to push their ideology they always tend to put the product quality as second priority. Same in films and other media. Whenever a media tries to push something the product takes a hit and quality drops. It’s a shame really but it appears they make that the priority. If the games good or not who cares? What’s more important is sending a message and making our mark on society and being better people than everyone else! It’s like no, your job is literally to make video games! lol they should focus on their game creation and leave the politics for twitter or rallies lol
@@KB8Killa While Andromeda wasnt good, at least it was set in a completely isolatet setting that had no impact on the "Main" Mass Effect universe. So, at least theoretically, its rather easy to move past that one game beeing shite. That beeing sayed, its hard to have trust in bioware, especially after Veilguard.
"Todd Howard, the CEO at Bethesda, said in an interview that he hadn't played Elder Scrolls Online as it wasn't his type of game." Possibly because he had nothing to do with the development of Elder Scrolls Online. Zenimax Online Studios developed Elder Scrolls Online, not Bethesda Game Studios. You are confusing Bethesda Softworks, publisher, with Bethesda Game Studios, developer. They are different companies.
Both are now owned by Microsoft. You confusing Zenimax with BSW Zenimax is the holder of ESO They sold BSW to Microsoft which holds everything from Arkane to BGS but does not include ESO
"-some of the best games in RPG history. Games like The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance..." So I get that Cyberpunk is now a far cry from the horrible bug-riddled launch it had initially, but it's still not *that* good. It feels criminal comparing it to those other games. Just about none of your choices actually matter in it!
Even with that, there are many small decisions that matter and at least you can choose to be a dick or not. Say what you want about cdprojekt they have some of the best writers in the industry thousands of times better than veilguard
At release it was unpolished and bug-ridden, as you said. But it is a bloody good game. It might have not been the best _rpg_ but still decent within the genre
@@Nelots-9 I honestly love how cyberpunk is nowadays and it’s a beautiful open world with fantastic writing! It covers dark topics and is a game definitely for adults. Although its decisions were nowhere near the level of Witcher 3, the new dlc phantom liberty had a lot more decisions that had huge impacts! So the signs are good. I’d say out of that list of games it’d come in 4th place out of 4 for me personally. I’m a sucker for the other 3. Fallout new vegas should get in there too!
@@AVVGaming1 New Vegas had one of the best lead writers working in gaming. John Gonzalez should have more name recognition-he was also the guy behind the utterly fantastic writing and world-building in the Horizon games.
Great points. It’s sad to see that it’s far more profitable for these companies to pursue live services and lots of micro-transactions. I’d say every big franchise has suffered from this.
@@CharlieIsDigital yes and they don’t seem to want to stop that pursuit either. You look at anthem, concord, this games didn’t do well but they won’t stop. They want in on that genre and they know it’ll net far more money. Whereas the smaller studios or less well known make games for the love of gaming!
It is the same disease that affects movies. When you get into big budgets, external financing and publicly owned companies it is the money and the associated risk-aversion that talks, not the developers. Designed by committee to appeal to everyone and offend no-one they are (as you said) guaranteed to please no-one. Basically it is greed that is their downfall.
Mindless prolefeed is far from a novel concept, especially considering the term "prolefeed" was coined in 1948 (and in "Nineteen Eighty-Four") by George Orwell, and the idea of slop for idiots goes back a lot further even than that.
It rather poetic that you've decided to put Skyrim music on the background. Why not Veilguard music I wonder? =) Bethesda has taught me a valuable lesson as a customer: no preorders and and no purchases until I have viewed several reviews from different creators. As a fan I learned that I kinda hate to be taken for a ride. Modern AAA games feel like buying a new car and having it malfunction on the road in the most dumb and dangerous ways possible. And then you call dealership only to hear them say: Yeah, it'll be patched eventually. Just hang in there, buddy. And you know what? I'm done with this bs. If developers and publishers treat me (the customer) with utter disrespect... fine. I'll buy your Cyberpunk. As a full package, patched, with all DLC and on a 70% sale. Don't care if it's five years from the release date. I'm in no hurry. I have a vast backlog of great games, that in worst case need a bit of moding to run on modern hardware. And if your company crumbles before you can actually finish the game... well, there's always somebody out there with a capability to learn on others mistakes.
I can’t get enough of the Skyrim background music. I did the video with some dragon age back ground music but it didn’t sound right, then some fallout 3 and still didn’t click. As soon as I put the Skyrim on, it just felt right! And yes I completely agree with everything you have said. I think it’s the trust factor that’s gone nowadays. Like we struggle to trust these companies will make what they say they will. Like our desires are clearly rarely on their list of things to focus on. I think it’s smart to never pre order and always wait. The only reason I got veilgaurd first day was because my wife bought it me as a surprise.
15:14 i'm sorry to break it to you but cdpr is now rotten with activism and is turning in something similar to ubisoft or bioware... the next witcher game is probably gonna be woke garbage sadly.
A game beeing woke doesnt make it bad. Baldurs Gate 3, and every other Dragon Age game released before where all very very liberal. Its only a problem if, as in Veilguard, the political activism is the only thing the writers care about. If you would take all the woke elements out of Veilguard, it would still be a terrible game. And frankly, the more people say "The game is bad because its Woke" the more the Devs can hide behind saying that its just rednecks and Racists that bombed the game, instead of having to face the fact that they did a bad Job.
Many reasons. 1-Studios aren't made up of the original crew 2-They're chasing/force to chase other trends instead of iterate/expand on what made the games good 3-They're going for/are forced to go for mass appeal by higher ups, which dilutes the formula into generic 4-They're going for ESG funding by altering the game's content to be forcefully diverse and having very safe topics/dialogue 5-Trying to appease shareholders, the games are altered in gameplay/style/tone once again going for mass appeal and/or ESG funds 6-They're trying to cater to the wrong audience expecting fans of the previous games to stick around just because
Once again my comment got removed but lets give it one more try. I think you're spot on with this video, the only thing I could add is that maybe some game studios have too much pride to admit that sometimes the fans know better then they do. I had more to say but I don't feel like re-typing my whole comment, thank UA-cam for removing my comments over and over again.
@@TheMysterieRPGguy haha I wonder why it deleted them? I have a section in the comments that are marked and put in like a spam box. I have it set to not filter any at all but I’ll go see if they’re in there and if they are I’ll get them up lol
@@AVVGaming1 UA-cam has some very strict censor algorithms that can trigger on the weirdest things. I think I know what it triggered on this time, but obviously if I type it again my comment will be removed again so I won't but trust me it is ridiculous it triggered on that. The thing is most people won't realize there comment got removed because it looks like it got posted just fine, it's only when you reload the page or re-sort the comments that you see the comment disappear. So most people will post it and move on, I just happened to catch on what was happening some time ago so now I make sure my comment stayed.
@@AVVGaming1 Oh my god this would be kinda funny if it wasn't so sad. I just wrote a long comment explain to you how that all works with UA-cam but clearly UA-cam doesn't want people to know soooo it got removed. Let's just say I did extensive testing for months and I have a pretty good idea how it works but apparently I can't share it.
I guess the lesson is to never get too attached to a franchise. Teams change, times change and all these factors influence an end product. Thanks for another great vid 👍
I'm really disappointed in the game industry & how they have utterly FAILED at Game Creation. We've lost so many game genres. Bring back 2D, 2.5D, 3D, low poly PS1 style, cell shaded, you name it. Anything to save us from this drought of creativity within video games. One day i hope we will see a massive improvement in the way games can be made. Currently the process of game development seems so unintuitive and tedious to the point that it restricts creative & artistic people. Game development is so heavily math & code based that it probably does not motivate or interest a lot of people. Talented people that could be a massive benefits to the game development process but they are currently turned off by the process & the industry is not good at incorporating those people. Hypothetically Even if that person got good at game development, there is still so many aspects of game development that need to be improved. Improving game development methods would really benefit so many aspects of this situation.
Because this kind of game is not for fans or even gamer in general. This game is for spreading their social/political agenda. It obvious that this game was doom to fail before it launches, but they did it anyway because what's important for them is to spread their ideology, and they knew journalists with the same ideology will support them. This is a social/political movement.
Because "modern writers" care FAR MORE about making self affirming slop they can insert themselves into for representation than tell an interesting narrative with dynamic characters.
Fantastic video. Thanks for this. Gaider who was the lead writer for the Dragon Age series said he felt like Bioware resented its writers and the need for them when he left. They don't care about the quality of the writing or maintaining lore consistency in a sprawling fantasy setting when they can churn out an action RPG instead.
Studios that lost their orignal devs due to chasing microtransactions, forced online play or online connectivity for offline play, or chasing after DEI with no substance, all deviated.
It's a takeover. You could ask why some governments ignore their own electorates. Same principle at work. It's an ideological struggle and they don't care. If you say "shareholder money," you are saying huge shareholders like Vanguard and Blackrock. They are drivers of the ideological takeovers for their own reasons.
Such a measured, intelligent, and thoughtful analysis! And I agree with your assessment! I am the same way with Resident Evil 2. I absolutely adored the remake, but it isn’t my Claire or my Leon from when I fell in love with Claire in 8th grade. I am delighted that others enjoyed the remakes, and enjoyed the 4 Remake as well. But the nostalgia of my childhood, meeting Claire as a smart, resourceful, yet so compassionate and protective of Sherri and others, as a young college student only a few years older than myself at the time… that can never be matched by anything modern. That doesn’t mean I don’t buy remakes, or don’t enjoy them, I absolutely do! But yeah… I totally understand your point. Now… they should still remake Code Veronica… And even though I’m now in my early forties, I still want to spend more time with Claire haha
a very objective perspective, thanks for the video good sir. as for quality games made for gamers , i advice avoid so called "AAA" games and go for "indie" games
Thank you very much! I’m thinking of doing a new series entitled “indie spotlight” or something where every now and then I do a deep analysis and highlight the best new rpg indie games to get them attention. Think it could be interesting! What do you think?
I agree, and then of course I don't. Comparing Morrowind sales to Skyrim sales is not apples to apples. The industry as a whole was growing massively during the 10-year span between Morrowind and Skyrim... Now is it true that gamers expect voice acting in 2025 and would never accept an RPG without it, yes, it is, minimum standards have changed in the 20+ years since Morrowind. I think that what you would find however, that there is a ravenous unserved market for games with depth and complexity... I think that if a game came out in 2025 that had a deep setting with realistic factions and characters and a complex and gripping story with meaningful choices, and you combined that with combat that had some actual depth, where the game demanded that you actually learn the systems and "get good" in order to win combat encounters. Then go a step further and put puzzles in the game that require at least a bit of thought, stuff that *gasp* might be more than an ADD 10-year-old could handle. I think if a studio put together a game like that that they would find that there is FUCKING HUGE audience that has been looking for that game... an audience that NO ONE is catering too who would push sales to the moon. And you know what, I don't think it would have to be the most visually impressive game, I think if the game had 2017 graphics AND everything I mentioned above I don't think the 2017 graphics would hurt it. I think there are a lot of people just like me who would love that kind of game who basically haven't bought an RPG in years because the kind of RPG they want just isn't made anymore. I also think that an RPG like this would be an instant classic and a mega hit because there is an audience far bigger than anyone realizes that would FUCKING LOVE that type of game who has basically exited the games market cuz what we want no longer exists.
"New studios like CD Projekt Red" 30 years old.🤣 "These studios keep putting out quality RPGs" Like the disastrous Cyberpunk? I'm not convinced you have a clue what you're talking about.
Cyber punk turned it around is now considered a fantastic game! It had a shaky launch but has managed to completely turn it around. CDPR made mistakes but went on to correct them which I have to commend.
@@AVVGaming1 You'll forgive me, but I HATE when people use Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky as examples of games done right. What those companies did were not "mistakes," they were wilful attempts to deceive everyone so they could get cash early to fund further development. I will NEVER forgive them for that. But the problem is, many players had a crappy experience then never went back to the games. To say nothing of the wasted time, or even time off work.
@@Martial-Matsounds like this topic hit a nerve with you. It's important to give people a chance at redemption, otherwise these games would never have improved.
@@ge9367 Being ripped off hits a nerve with me because every single company is getting away with everything they can, and that's a shitty world to inhabit. That doesn't mean I'm not 100% right. A chance at redemption? No, these companies should be accountable and should be forced to give refunds to every single purchaser who wants it regardless of play time. I don't care about redemption - it's not my responsibility, nor should it be. They will only stop doing this crap when there are serious consequences. Why do you think Abusisoft delayed the launch of Assassin's creed a year? Why do you think Bethesda waited an extra year on Starfield? To quote John Wick, "Consequences."
@@Martial-Matas someone who preordered nms and still plays it( I played when there was 3 elements,like iron for example) their comeback has to be the best comeback ever. They have been giving game changing updates for years for free( I hate the term "free update" but it actually applies here) which would be 15 dollars for each considering the added content. It's even more than what was promised now
Ignoring fans is always a good thing if you have a leader at the helm with their own vision. If Miyazaki listened to the fans we'd never have Demon souls. But you should never ignore fans if you don't have your own vision to follow. Many of the AAA western games feel like they were made by democracy instead of a dictatorship and a dictator style visionary is how all good games are made.
It’s the fact they went for the money! Miyakzaki went almost against the money! In fact, he still does! If he added a difficulty setting on Elden ring he’d sell more copies, but he sticks to his principles because he is making his version in his vision. When games ignore their fans whilst also trying to do mass appeal like DAV (simple combat, simple writing, simple everything) they end up pleasing nobody. It’s sad to see.
@@AVVGaming1 Matthew 7:15-20....Dragon Age Vanguard wears the rotted corpse of Dragon Age Origins peddling its thorns to those without a nose to smell the rott.
Because the people who initially made the series are often no longer at the current-day studios. The people who made DAV don't love the series nor the fans like the creators did. We see it in film as well. No showrunner will ever care about a creative work as much as the author does. All they care about is milking the IP for as much money as possible. We've seen it with the Witcher series and Rings of Power. As GRRM said, they think they know better and that they can improve upon the work. All they end up doing is making it bad because they don't respect the source material, the creator or the fans. I think a lot of it comes from ego and jealousy.
I think there is also another pattern where they consider themselves heroes. Like they put in messages hoping to change the world. So rather than putting in a good story, or good content, they’re more focused on “the message”. And when their content flops, rather than being open to criticism and learning from it, they get on their high horse and slaw THEIR OWN fans! Saying they are stupid and don’t get it. It’s sad to see but at this point it’s gotten so out of hand that we’re almost no longer shocked. There is no punishment for these bad decisions either. Everyone else loses their jobs but they always get another shot to go and change another beloved series into something that fans don’t enjoy!
Bob’s game once posited something to the effect that since you don’t expect the higher-ups of a doll company to actually play with their dolls the same logic applies with games. I am inclined to agree since there is more to the process of game development than what we see as an audience. However, games are a market that depends heavily on its audience and has more interactions with its audience than a doll company. So it not an unfair expectation to assume they’ve played the game if only to avoid sounding out of touch. Plus I do expect higher ups to take their own product if only so they have a stake outside of profit.
It's because these studios went from only answering to themselves and fans to growing and now answering to executives and shareholders who don't care about how good the game is, just that it makes as much profit as possible
from 1 to 3 the changes were not terrible, games were still good, but with failguard they crossed the line 8:52 it costs this much time and money cause they changed directions with the game 3 times, meaning they restarted 3times, first it was tread wolf then they tried to make dragon age mmo and in the end they made vailguard
You could definitely tell it was an online game at one point! It feels like an online game. The whole pace of it, the health in jars across the map, it’s evident it changed around so much.
It's a sad state that gaming is in right now. So many publishers are obsessed with quantity over quality. They are looking at the fastest profit over the long term profit, and are so blinded by their greed that they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are alienating the core fans of these franchises. They aren't acknowledging that doing this will actually have a negative effect on their profits. It also doesn't help that these people are the same ones who are actively attacking gamers who give reviews that aren't in favor of the games they release.
A lot of people including myself forget to look at video games like movies and tv shows the longer they go on the worse they get so it would be smart to just ignore or at least not get excited for next elder scrolls fallout dragon age etc.
Interesting points you have =)) The fail of the Veilguard is ALSO because of the gender ideology that was forced to the game and to the players. And how we can see it by the Veilguard, Concord, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Dustborn, majority of gamers hate it in their games...
@@MrsOutlawCaliber don’t blame you! I got another video coming out next week and after doing research it’s amazing to see how distant they are from the fans now
I wish Owlcat were more successful with their games, they're always epic in scope and pretty deep, especially the mechanics based in pathfinder 1 (unofficial d&d 3.5)
it is not like a studio immediately loses every single penny earned from the previous works and start from absolute scratch - they still have the talent, the technology and a substantial budget. the investments are supposed to cover whatever the difference is. it's not like investors are literally bank-rolling the entire development so they are entitled to dictate the game direction
While technology advances, the art of storytelling goes the opposite way. Technology is no guarantee for a good game or movie. I am an artist. I can draw very well and have a longstanding experience as an illustrator. But I'm not a good storyteller. I started my own graphic novel but discarded it since I couldn't get the compelling parts into a good story. Same with games and movies. They look great, but with todays technology that's not the argument. I often hear that I should get used to 'modern' storytelling because it's so much better. Well, not for ne, and apparently not for many others. I don't need super realistic graphics. I happily play games like Skald or Solasta. Heck I still play the Quest for Glory games. Because they are fun! Because they have good stories!
What's weird is that after Veilguards flop, you'd expect EA to gut them to protect its beloved bottom line. However, a new Mass Effect Netflix series is announced instead?
Dragon Age ... was a fan, absolutely a fan of Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher (all of them) and BG3 (all of the Balder's Gates) ( I started my CRPG pathway in the very early days of text based adventures and then Wizardry)
As far as development time, worth noting those values often tossed around aren't really accurate. A game will start with a pitch, some concept art, and so on. This has hardly any people on it. It can then sit around for a while, because it isn't yet time to commit to a new project. Then the time comes when you'll soon want a new project. That's when you'll refine the design and do some prototyping. Relatively few people working on it at that point. And then you're likely waiting for your previous project to ship. It's only once that previous project starts wrapping up that your staffing starts going up. So if looking at DA:V, early 2019 is when Anthem prepared for release, and this is likely when much of the Anthem team transitioned to DA. And then keep in mind that DA transitioned from a live service game to a single player one, so that would have tacked on more dev time as well. But that said, when you're looking at 4+ years with a full dev team of hundreds, that's A) a lot of money and B) a lot of time between when you start full development and when the product ships.
I think part of the problem is that fewer of the newer devs are gamers themselves so they don't really understand what works. Instead they put in self inserts and modern American politics in games that shouldn't have them like fantasy and sci-fi games. Many studios also seems to hire people who lack the competence and drive as their old employees had. When people do less work and the quality drops, that means development will take more time and cost more money. That in turn means it will need to sell more to break even and the game is less fun as well. And using American politics in a game does not only upset all Americans with a different view, it also annoys the international market hurting the sales even more. Publishers who don't get gaming but see something is popular and telling their studios to make something similar is a problem, but it is not a new problem. Remember when every other studio tried to recreate Wow? Or the Diablo clones of the late 90s? You might not, most of those games failed terrible but there is always a few that worked out. This is not something that have changed or can explain the massive amounts of lackluster western AAA games, particularly from North America. Compare the companies who keep failing with someone like Nintendo or Larian for that matter if you want a western (Dutch) studio. Their bosses are gamers and most of them have made successful games in the past. They know what works and how to make a game. Todd Howard is more of an exception today, he is a gamer even though he has lost his edge. I am not sure how much of Bethesda's problem is his fault and how much it is that the talented employees who backed him up is gone now, but I think the latter is a huge part of it. Most of the innovation in NA games today is done in the indie market and AA space. Even Larian for that matter is an indie studio. It might also be that the publishers corporate hiring practices is behind a lot of the problems. I don't think a good game need to have the latest graphics, just look on Terraria and Stardew valley with 60 million and 30 million copies sold. They are great games and fun so they sell. DA4 is not so it sells poorly even if it had a famous IP.
2:50 - To me, after Fallout 2 the next real sequel was actually Wasteland 2 and then 3. Not true sequels since they weren't Fallout, but MUCH closer than Fallout 3 and beyond were.
Another thing to look at are investors. If Blackrock or Vanguard are invested, then the company doesn't need to make profits because those investors backstop them and fully support woke.
Veilguard disregards also the lore of their franchise. Also when you look at the game, there is one simple answer here: streamlining. And how business and software development processes in general became more modern and less focussed on the final product. Usually devs are not part of smaller teams that know what the whole project is about, instead they get tiny pieces of tasks to complete, there is no overview here of what is actually being created and as such also have less opportunity to maybe bring in their voice of warning. This whole thing is a very global business move to make every worker replacable, no company wants exceptional talents, they want replacable worker drones. The game itself is also very very streamlined, meaning there was a very easy pattern: create location, create companion, create enemy faction. Add missions in location, add companion missions. The dialog as a result was more of an afterthought. It is clear, that none of the writers actually indulged or care about the lore they were writing in. So the junk we got is the outcome. Enemy factions became faceless junk. These factions who had huge lore implications, are now reduced to just 'red dots on a minimap'. DA:V is the first DA game .. where there was literally no companion that was likable at all. And given how much time the game forces you to invest here .. makes it a horrible experience. There is a clear demand of people, to not be fed mindless slog. If you think your game can only reach high numbers in this way, you really need to get out of this industry. Keep the mobile slob on mobiles .. because the usecase is a different one. If you are producing a huge single player 'AAA' experience, do not look at simple mobile games as a template. People.. do not like that stuff. You end up alienating all your potential customers, because a mobile game player.. (where those big numbers come from) is mostly a different and disjunct target group from a pc or console player. Funny the market fails to ever learn that tiny lesson ..
Corporate greed. Studio priorities are improving profits and reducing costs to impress shareholders and maximise bonuses and they will compromise anything to do so. 'Gamers' have also changed. The majority (that corps aim at broadening their appeal to) are not game 'fans', they are casual players. Modern gamers apparently will buy any old crap, think they are lucky, ask for more and move on a month later to the next shiny crap.
There’s many problems in the triple A gaming industry but I think the sense of entitlement that they’ve adopted is the biggest I do get it to some extent imagine that you’ve been working on something for years and when it gets released everyone says it’s sh*t you would be angry but you have to be mature and take the criticism seriously so you can do better in the future. But a lot of these companies have taken to calling people who criticize their games racist or sexist and ignore that their games have bad writing or gameplay saying they don’t understand refusing to acknowledge that they made a mistake this kind of attitude only creates resentment towards the company and the players stop buying their games making the company less money. In short game companies need to learn some humility.
Corporate greed. And they likely did their "homework": There are far more money on the mainstream normie market (with sufficient PR) than for the adult fans of good RPGs.
My personal opinion is that the factors are: 1. Games have gotten too big. Evey thing in AAA studios has to be massive. No room for small and medium sized games to experiment with 2. Related to this is every game has to be a blockbuster or it "fails" even if it made money. 3. Ideological capture. Investors, management and employees. 4. Because these games are so big and take so long they really can't adjust to canges after a certain point. 5. Because of that, plus trend chasing, companies often are a decade behind or more in what is hot. That is why you should not expect any change in gaming for at least five years. 6. The foolish idea that general audinces only want mindless slop. Or over simplified action games. For example, Final Fantasy lost its identity because it just devolved to a pretentious action game with girly art design. It barely retained the fantasy element in some of the more recent entries. 7. Ego. These people seem to think everything they produce is high art, and try way to hard to be "deep." See above example.
Heres why some devs ignore their fanbase. They dont want a fan base, they want to appeal to everyone! Or at least as many players as they can! But by catering for everyone, their games appeal to no one!
I’m thinking of doing a future series where I highlight indie new rpg games! Give them a spotlight and let people know about those games. Aaa game studios always get all the attention and I want to provide a platform to promote these smaller devs
@@AVVGaming1 I hope you do get a chance! But hardcore CRPGs are hard to recommend even to my gamer friends. I think BG3 has really set an impossibly high bar for even smaller studios.
Heres another prime example of devs ignoring their fans. Battlefield games!! Bf games were alot more tactical than the run n gun cod games. In bf a single well placed shot could take u out, especially in the early games. But even bf3 and to some degree bf4, the game play was more tactical, u couldnt run around and get loads of kills. Team work was massively important, especially to capture points and take out vehicles. And the maps were massive! I bet u could fit all the maps from a cod game, into a single bf map! In cod even in team games most players do their own thing. Bf had alot of adoring fans, but it wasnt enough for ea. Ea wanted the cod crowd as well! So they changed bf to be more like cod and slowly but surely, ruined battlefield! For players who only cared about cod. Cod players didnt switch to battlefield at all. And bf let down bf fans, found something else to play!
I'm not a big fan of the whole "modern audiences" complaint, but one problem is devs misunderstanding what fans want or what will appeal to larger market (e.g. the cringy Saints Row reboot)
Dragon Age was always going downhill. Even the first as much as i liked it, i still remember that i was disappointed because it was advertised as a Baldurs Gate successor in spirit which it for sure did not live up to.
Well, I hope these studios understand that live service games work like a leech, they suck money and time from players, so yes, they can make billions of dollars, but they also destroy all the other games around them, because players won't have the time and money to play anything else. So a publisher that invests in a game like this is hurting their own other games, these other games they have will sell less because of the live service games. Plus, there will always be a portion of players who will refuse to play these live service games no matter what.
The reason game studios have started to ignore their fans is simple. The people who have taken control of the companies have a woke agenda. They are more concerned with DEI than anything else. If a game fails, they will just move on to the next one and do it again. Until there is a massive movement to not buy ANY games made this way, they will keep doing it.
woah woah woah. OG RE4 is objectively better, especially with better voiced lines. RE4 remake was done with HR consent. Leon was stale as fuck. Ashley was nerfed in all aspect and no memorable/meme worthy events.
These idea that devs are forced to do things for me is stupid , watch dragons dogma 2 , they forced him to have microtransaction , he putted useless things inside , everyone happy . These devs are spineless and work on these games just for the paycheck not to create a fun hobby for people.
May I ask what you work for? Because I certainly do work for my paycheck. I do what my employer wants, as long as it is legal. If you have found a way to make your living off creating a fun hobby for others, I am actually quite jelous...
Idk based on their segments I’m supposed to be their prime buyers but I hate what I’ve seen from veilguard. I’m only going to buy when it goes on sale, maybe.
My complaints: The entire games dialogue being Disney-fied garbage. No player agency, Rook has 0 personalty. He/she/it is a Yes person. Can't disagree, be renegade or anything except nod your head and have 3 ways to say yes. This was supposed to be an RPG. The combat and puzzles are mind numbing and repetitive. The character models all look mostly bad. The females are masculine and the males look feminine. They have smooth pudding faces, cartoony. The character models were much better in previous games even DAO! The character creator was only inclusive for a select few. Try making a buxom cute female dwarf. Can't be done. Being preached at no matter what the topic is. Christmas light skeletons and lit up darkspawn is not doing the franchise any favors. Not enough monster variety. HP sponge foes. Not really party based anymore. I can't have a tank to go along with my mage because all mobs attack me no matter what. Call it a solo game. I just love bunny hopping 80% of the combat! Is this a mobile game? Don't complain too much on the steam forum the BW/EA Devs perma ban you and delete ALL your posts.
I think the enemy variety is really sparse. Each fight feels the same and there’s no way to avoid it. So although the world make like different and the quest is titled different, it’s the same experience. I got the game and my wife bought it me and wanted to play it too. I let her borrow it and she just can’t get into it. It shows that the hook isn’t there. It’s repetitive and it’s something we’ve already seen so many times. I think some people will love the game but my main thing is that a true fan of rpg games which have detailed stories, strong decision making, etc it’s not their type of game. I mean maybe 15 years ago it’d be ground breaking but we’ve had Witcher 3, BG3, these other games have just come in and raised the bar! The option of just saying yes in three different ways doesn’t fool us anymore. We have seen it many times. Character writing is rushed too. I feel no emotion so far. Like I meet a character, converse a few times with them then am expected to care about them. It’s clear that the role playing, character writing and everything else was put below combat. Hey quick question, which voice did you use for your rook?
AAA games are made by accountants not geeks . Indie games are the future . Best game i've play recently is Valhiem , made by 5 devs ( now 14 ) . But ... best game i've ever played is RDR2 and you don't get bigger than Rockstar . AC Vallahalla gets slaged by AC fans but i'm playing it at the moment and haveing a great time . Ps - i think nostalger is important , and that games you played when first getting into gameing leave a dispraportionate mark on you
4:22 that sys i actually like, but it wasn't real enough, i would have wanted to build prison and put raiders in prion and forced labaor like IRL past prisoners, but game AI wasn't programmed for that
With Veilguard their main focus was to push Transgender ideology politics into the game and make that the primary focus of the game rather than an in depth rich story driven narrative. They also chose to disregard the previous installments involving the plot and in depth character personalities, traits and relationships. It came across that the creators of Veilguard had either never played the previous versions or actually cared about the source material. While they made a beautiful environment, the characters both artistically and personalities were bland, juvenile and unlikable. They went out of their way to ensure you could not create an accurate representation of the female form, only one that catered to their uglification and masculine aesthetic. These changes were not forced upon Bioware by the publisher, but by their lead game designer who pushed for their trans agenda to be the focus of the game. This took away from the immersion into a fantasy world by slamming modern day reality politics into your face and down your throat, rather than allowing a player to escape into a world of fantasy, mystery, excitement action and dragons. All previous Dragon Age games had Gay, lesbian and even trans elements in the game and it was up to the player to decide how they wanted to play and to whom they would interact with, in other words play the game they wanted to play and how they wanted to play it. In Veilguard you are forced to play the way the game developer wants you to play, hell you can't even be the bad guy in the game, all decisions you make are pointless lame and considered the nice option, even when you try to choose the bad. This isn't a game it is a manifesto.
So on topic of veilguard, I don't think the issue most fans take is with the re-imagined combat. It's the writing. My friend who is a dragon age fan and states origins as his favorite, describes the combat in origins as quote "abysmal dogshit". What he didn't like is the tone shift and lack of options. After playing through veilguard myself, I will have to say that combat actually merges RPG and action nearly as well as 2077: PL. Items you find have crazy synergies and can completely change your game, skills are very meaningful and even ones that are just stat buffs are always at least 10% and are never on the node you need to get to the next major skill. Exploring the levels and finding secretes is fun too. Spoilers for DATV ahead: But the writing is extremely inconsistent and feels very high fantasy PG16 young adult novel, maybe even PG13 if not for the gory visuals sometimes. Slavery in Tevinter isn't touched on at all except in some passing remarks or the Shadow Dragon character background, for example. Dragon age fans are attached to the world, the characters, the lore, the choices, not a combat system. Another note is that in the missives you get from the Inquisitor, it mentions the world being absolutely devastated in the South, which is where the other games take place, so that's another backstab to the fans (unless of course the new blight just goes away like it did in Minrathas/Treviso). On the Bethesda situation, it's a monster that Todd made himself. Sure Zenimax is partly to blame, but we had Starfield, which was Todd's baby and it was a reskinned Fallout 4 with a worse story. While I am not a fan of Final Fantasy, I am pretty sure the point of the games it to reinvent themselves each installment. 14 is a damn MMO (that people love). And FF7R and FF16 are both very popular games.
Abysmal dogshit is how not most people would describe it and that is putting it mildly. I remember the user reviews from back then and... Literally nobody said that I guess your friend prefers God of war combat which is his right but I assure you while the horrible writing was the main issue many of us abhorred the hack and slash combat
@@evripidisalexiou6060 he also says they the point of games is to reinvent themselves each installment, which I heavily disagree with. The point of a game is enjoyment. The best sequels are almost the same game as the first, but with improvements. The sequels where the game is changed fundamentally are generally not well received. Look at halo 2 and 3, and then halo 4. Mass effect 2 and 3 compared to Andromeda( a very fitting example for this case).
Except it's not 2013 anymore, and we nolonger live in the world of detatched Corpo publishers trying to squeeze every dime out of an IP. We live in 2024, the world of ESG scores and Bridge 2.0, where the Corpo's are knowingly and willingly forgoing short term profit for the promis of future gains, due to idealogical capture and fear of reprisals from same.
Because its a long range global agenda. Not individual companies. Why is it so hard to grasp for people? They admit it years ago 2017 a video qbout it. All major industries lockstep for social engineering. Youre welcome
regarding publisher: you don't even need them per se, sure if you dumb 1000+ employees and 15 studios from all around the world with 10yrs of dev time, you need a shit ton of money. but i personally would've been fine with a dragon age 2 scope for example. i don't even need raytracing, it's expensive on hardware & dev time. it's one of those "nice to have" things, sure. back on topic, larian & cd red are remarkable examples on how you can finance a game. if you're aiming for the 4% increase every quarter, wich is an unhealthy mindset imo, you will inevitably end up like every aaa studio right now. there is no such thing as infinite growth.
Because we were waiting 10 years for this game, and the disappointment hits hard. And personally, I enjoy every Dragon Age game way more than KCD, especially Origins.
It's easy. Big studio buy little one with succes. They want to make money. To make money you have to touch a large public. To touch a larger public you gave to stop making niche game. Stopping making niche game mean being more and more generic.
Bro tell me how I saw this comment earlier and thought it was just random! I was like why they say that? Then I figured it out just now lol I’m gonna say it was a statement and there’s a deeper meaning behind it lol
It's because these studios are no longer staffed by the people that made the games people are fans of
They are its the management and money men that are the problem. You think the developers eat week long crunches for below average pay for the fun of it?
those studios are not staffed with video game fans, its just another job for them, 20-30 years ago video game developpers were 99% video game nerds. With the broadening of the video game industry it was inevitable that the general quality will goes down.
People who are passionate about games are the only people wide-eyed and/or dumb enough to take the gods-awful jobs that the video game industry offers (or, in the case of someone like ConcernedApe, to put himself through hell on his own personal time in order to make Stardew Valley rather than, I dunno, taking up hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where he's from.)
Anyone else with a STEM degree who wants to work in tech won't touch games with an Olympic vaulting pole.
@@embalancer6146Yes I do. The devs are the main issue. Embracer gives their studios creative freedom and what did the volition studios devs decide? Making a woke saints row. Same story with many other devs and studios. Its not just the management. Often it’s both and sometimes it’s the management or the devs.
@@embalancer6146 no they are NOT stop spreading such BS
there are MULITPLE STUDIOS were the OG staff IS LONG gone and replaced while the Pupblisher keep the Name because it a perceived label of Quality in the comunity. U can EASILY find Articles about it with some time investment.
EA did it with Critetion,Maxon, Ghost,BlackBox
Activision did it with Blizzard
Microsoft did it with RARE
WanerBros did it with Rocksteady
Matter of fact is The ENTIRE OG rocksteady staff LEFT because of the Horrible Working conditions during the time on "Suicide Squad kill the justice league" acording to the Studios ex creator/director/founder that left the studio last shortly before relase FOLLOWED by opening A NEW Studio where u can find now nerly the ENTIRE OG Rockestady staff at, the ones missing are in retirement. Most of the OG staff btw was long gone years BEFORE the game even was teased.
The Entire OG Rare Staff u can currently find at RETROSTUDIOS working for Nintendo still giving us High Quality Donkey Kong
and Metroit games. they all Dipped shortly after Microsoft purchased Rare in 2002, until then ......Rare did game for Nintndo guess witch IP tittles they are known for.
Blizzard is bleeding quality staff for a decade now. Yet the name still stand strong despite droping quality, horrible microtransactions implmentations,false pormisses,disrispecting the comunity, emty pandering. since 2021 Blizzard has not a single Original staff member in his row. The day Jeff Kaplan of the Overwatch Team left, was the day activisons takeover of blizzard was completed.
As someone replaying the series from Origins it is painfully obvious this new Dev team did not play the original 3 games.
And that’s what I mean! It’s clearly not made for people who played the first few games. It’s for a new crowd. That’s fine, but it hurts those dedicated fans. Dedicated fan base will allow you to grow and be successful long term, whereas a game trying to just appeal to everyone usually doesn’t go very far
True. There's even an interview from a month before the game released where the game director didn't even know who Zevran was.
@ wow…it’s so sad to see these people continuously getting these roles too
Shareholder money. That's why.
@@DarkAdonisVyers spot on!
Correct; though a little more to the heart of it, DEI money.
like if they wanted shareholder money .. i get micro transactions , or dlc or cut content sold seperatly . but this game is out right stupidity.
@@csais1 checkout stakeholder capitalism and ESG. Greg Owen touches on it in a convincing manner for me.
yeah, blackrock anti white racists.
What is sad, is that DA should have been a game to inspire others. Not the opposite, It was made by people whom had no idea about the gem they had in their hands. Knowing that a portion of the dev never to this day played any DA game is insane, but revealing!
It's the first conclusion I came to when I watched the game. Either they didn't play it or they didn't care, and neither is good. The primary goals seems to have been to wipe out the previous three games so they can start over with their own story.
Fromsoft has a very unique approach to gaming. They said that when making a new game, they never expect the next installment to be as big or bigger than the previous one. They made Elden Ring, sold 12 million and later released Armored Core 6, successful but not nearly as much as the previous one.
In contrast, most develoopers always try to go higher, but you can't keep up if you try to mantain your core audience and respect your legacy, in the end the only way to make more money is going for the mainstream. It's a good short term strategy, but in the long term it has shown to be a disaster.
Starfield, Veilguard, Diablo 4, etc. This games are now hated by their original fans, and not doing as good as the developers expected.
In the end, investors demand money, that's the main problem.
Fromsoft can do that, though, because they aren't publicly traded. In and of themselves, shareholders are not a bad thing, they may be essential to how a company can get funding and survive. The issue is, though, shareholders are in it only to see number go up. And number go up by making profit go up. Profit can never fall below last year's profit margins. So the shareholders squeeze and squeeze whatever they can to get the most out of a company before number start falling down, which they inevitably will because infinite growth is impossible.
Fromsoft, on the other hand, have onlytheir own money to deal with. So they can be content to just have profits, no matter whether it be more or less than last year's. As long as they are profitable, they can reinvest into themselves and grow and shrink as they need to.
Starfield isn't a failure, it runs well and was mid. Mid can be disappointing but not a failure.
you sayin' the game that needed a 4090 to run at playable speeds at release, runs well?
@@Roccondil You just explained why shareholders are the problem. All the fucked up monetization and streamlining of gaming comes from the fact that studios need to increase the revenue constantly.
That's just unsustainable in the long term, which is what we are seeing now. Studios should look at fromsoft and Larian instead of Activision, Ubisoft or EA. You can make money and earn the respect of your fans, but not if you promise investors increase profits every single year.
Don't you think the infantilization of Dragon Age is because they needed to catter to younger audiences? the ones who generate the most money in gaming?
@@darius8214 Considering the huge success of Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield was underwhelming. Maybe not a flop, but not what Bethesda expected, that's for sure.
And that's because gamers, and especially the natural fans of studios like BGS, don't tolerate their bullshit anymore.
Personally, I defended Veilguard when online grifters tried to make it the new battleground for the culture war, but I can't defended anymore when there are such glaring issues with the game.
Well Veilguard was based entirely on the internal politics of Bioware and EA.Had little to nothing to do with making money.They expected the game to be successful but that was not their primary motivation obviously.
Saints Row would be an obvious game that declined due to internal factors at the studio where the last game was made. They had no regard for the previous games and made something they thought they would enjoy and as we know the fans did not like it.
When a company has a devoted fan base catering to them imo should come first meeting their expectations.Then you can bring in other things that might attract new players. But if you disregard your core fanbase its very unlikely you will be successful. As Veilguard is proving.
It's a shame (and so dumb) because the general DA fan is already going to be open-minded. People wouldn't have cared about there being a trans character if they were as well-written as characters have been in the past. All we ask for is *good writing* and they gave us something so bad it comes off as a parody.
I hugely disagree with the implication that politics is what did it. Yes, the politics are there, but they've always been there - they've just had nuance. Veilguard is largely the product of not trusting or respecting your audience entirely. Talking down to the player about gender is just a symptom, the entire game talks down to the player about everything, from the plot, to mission objectives, to level design, to the choices you're allowed to make. Every aspect of the game is designed to herd the player, simplifying all the choices and distilling the outcomes down to things the studio finds acceptable. This isn't about being "woke" because it's socially liberal, this is about being "woke" because it's heavy-handed and obnoxious... but literally everything about this game is heavy-handed and obnoxious. My issue, and I think the issue at the root of the complaints, is that my character is forced to have HR appropriate reactions to _everything_. Player agency is secondary to fulfilling the story's artistic vision (such as it is). This isn't about a corporation demanding Bioware "put a chick in it, make her lame and gay" (despite the fact they kinda did just that). This is about a multi-million dollar corporation demanding control over the entire experience - ensuring its sanitized, homogenized, and artificially flavored for your consumption. It's lazy workmanship meant to appeal to "mass audiences," not, intentionally, woke ideology for the "modern audience."
I prefer an unvoiced protagonist when playing a customer character.
I'm glad you tried to look at the reasons with an objective attitude. Too many simply like to blindly hate.
Yeah I’m trying to avoid that. It’s not constructive in my opinion. I think you look at games like cyberpunk, Hogwarts legacy and now dragon age veilgaurd they have all tried to have a voiced protagonist. But some of my favourite games don’t have that and I think I prefer that personally. Idk. It’s 50:50 actually now I think about it. What’s your favourite rpg game of all time?
@@AVVGaming1 My all time RPG favorite is Kotor II (I played it before Kotor I, who knows otherwise). That game was just so incredibly immersive to me, and I also used to love Star Wars.
Sci-fi just speaks to me a lot more than fantasy. Though fantasy seems to be more popular, I'm not sure why.
I like non-voiced characters, but I prefer other characters to also be silent when the protagonist has no dialogue because it lets the protagonist shine more without being overshadowed.
When other characters speak, it creates an uncanny valley effect and a discrepancy where other characters have more emotional depth, and so the silent protagonists feels less important than NPCs.
In Fallout this is mostly fine because you're just a lone wanderer, or a courier and not really a true protagonist and in Oblivion, it worked well because you're just the hero of Kvatch and what ever name you make for yourself, but the protagonist of the story is always Martin Septim.
Skyrim is arguably the biggest offender because the Dragonborn is the least important character in the story from the perspective of expression, but treated in the lore as if they have the highest narrative priority. That's why Skyrim's story is a bit flat compared to previous TES games and why Bethesda experimented with a voiced protagonist in Fallout 4.
Morrowind actually got it spot on by having reading and limited voice acting, there's no disconnect between the player and the rest of the world like there is in the newer games. Although I think Oblivion has better writing, Morrowind is universally considered to have the best role playing of any 3D Bethesda game and that's partly because silent protagonists need silent side characters so you can leave more things to the imagination.
No it's not blind hate or even hate. That's nonsense thinking. If that's where you and the video poster thinks, then I'm done here as you clearly do not want to see the reality. I'm also sick of people who call everything `Hate`. This is why most people voted massively against this. We are sick of extreme accusations for simply saying the truth.
Valid criticism is not blind hate.
It’s such a contradiction isn’t it. Publishers and Developers always want to make as much money as possible yet they make decisions that are counterproductive to that goal. They listen to the wrong people and spend millions making a game that appeals to a small audience. Then game flops and instead of Management taking responsibility, they laid off developers and close studio down then blame gamers.
When 20 % owns 80% of all wealth.
@@robertagren9360More like 10% owns 90%
They don't make the games for the market. They make it for their own feelings and the private equity firms whose staff share their feelings.
It's really odd, though. As technology improves programmers and artists get better- but the writers keep getting worse. I can't figure out what it is, maybe there's just a perspective and maturity crisis in the industry. As if the adults left the studios and were replaced by adolescents without maturity, intellect or perspective- only the drice to infest a property and skinsuit it into something that's their own without regard to the nature of the property.
I agree completely. The drop in quality of writing we have seen these last 5 years is staggering. Unbelievable, really. It’s like these current writers lack any semblance of skill, talent, education and experience. They don’t know how to craft and tell an interesting story, they don’t know how to create relatable characters and they can’t write dialogue that sounds even remotely realistic. Despite this, they are given stewardship of multi billion dollar franchises. It just doesn’t make sense. A lot of criticism have been made against the (often unnecessary) interjection of modern day progressive politics into most entertainment but that is actually a minor problem compared to the awful writing. If these people actually knew how to write, they would have been able to tell these stories in a way that made sense and was accepted by the audience. Instead of well written, well researched stories with realistic, relatable characters and good dialogue we get pathetic, childish slop with horrible, unlikable (often condescending and snarky) characters and pathetic dialogue. Often, when people complain about a project being ”woke” what they are actually protesting (wether they are aware of it or not) is horrible writing, I think.
Right on the money, my man. There's a lot of people who aren't really bothered by diversity, when done properly and naturally. Warframe did it right.
The problem with those writers is that their attempts at diversity are either self-inserts of themselves or horrible stereotypes. Given how twisted some of these people are, those tend to overlap.
Mental capacity stopped at 15, became activists for social change, got jobs from their friends who were already on the development team, insert themselves into every project cause the real world won’t validate them.
The writers don't get worse, they fire them and without severance if I may add. BioWare did this with 50 people in the middle of datv development, veteran writers among them who obviously sued them. It's the companies that don't value nor pay their writers that put out garbage games, shows, etc. At Larian they have great writing team who are valued and they do an amazing job. EA/BioWare is a bad place to work as a writer.
@heimdal8 I'm glad i went back to reading fantasy novels(got caught up games and social media) I can always find good authors, old and new.
It's always important to note that companies are not your friends. They are large entities comprised of people who more or less in to make money. You might have individual people in companies that you like for their writing or programming but those are individuals. It so often frustrates me when I see comments like "Bioware has fallen." as if these companies were heroes in the gaming industry, as if they're people to be idolized or respected.
Proliferating the message is more important than the success of the medium by which they are spreading it. It's astounding. You'd think they'd want to make a game that is amazing and then sprinkle their ideologies into it and slowly desensitize their audience to it over the course of several games but the virus seems to strip them of foresight entirely. It is so central to their existence that they build a game around ways to spread the message as opposed to sprinkling the message in. The game fails, no one buys it, eventually the studio is closed or folded into another. What's sinister is that the whackos at Biowarr will be peppered into other developers and they'll think "We just didn't do it right". They'll then corrupt another IP and it'll close. Eventually, all the studios who do this shit will be gone and we can go back to the good ol' days...
@@CleetusBuckwalter I wanted to cover this in a video and will do one day soon. What do they do, is when they want to push their ideology they always tend to put the product quality as second priority. Same in films and other media. Whenever a media tries to push something the product takes a hit and quality drops. It’s a shame really but it appears they make that the priority. If the games good or not who cares? What’s more important is sending a message and making our mark on society and being better people than everyone else! It’s like no, your job is literally to make video games! lol they should focus on their game creation and leave the politics for twitter or rallies lol
It’s not ignoring their fans, they are actually attacking their fans. And they’re open about it too.
Don’t worry, they are set to continue ruining Mass Effect franchise next so there’s that to look forward to not buying.
Andromeda ruined it
@@KB8Killa As we see with Veilguard there is always where to fall. Andromeda compared to this is pretty decent
No don't worry. Will be "a return to form" again for sure
@@KB8Killa While Andromeda wasnt good, at least it was set in a completely isolatet setting that had no impact on the "Main" Mass Effect universe. So, at least theoretically, its rather easy to move past that one game beeing shite. That beeing sayed, its hard to have trust in bioware, especially after Veilguard.
Saints Row proves even action games aren't safe from some of this.
Blue-haired HR
Good vid mate. Subscribed!
Thank you very much for the kind words! It really means a lot!
"Todd Howard, the CEO at Bethesda, said in an interview that he hadn't played Elder Scrolls Online as it wasn't his type of game." Possibly because he had nothing to do with the development of Elder Scrolls Online. Zenimax Online Studios developed Elder Scrolls Online, not Bethesda Game Studios. You are confusing Bethesda Softworks, publisher, with Bethesda Game Studios, developer. They are different companies.
Both are now owned by Microsoft. You confusing Zenimax with BSW
Zenimax is the holder of ESO
They sold BSW to Microsoft which holds everything from Arkane to BGS but does not include ESO
"-some of the best games in RPG history. Games like The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance..."
So I get that Cyberpunk is now a far cry from the horrible bug-riddled launch it had initially, but it's still not *that* good. It feels criminal comparing it to those other games. Just about none of your choices actually matter in it!
Even with that, there are many small decisions that matter and at least you can choose to be a dick or not. Say what you want about cdprojekt they have some of the best writers in the industry thousands of times better than veilguard
At release it was unpolished and bug-ridden, as you said. But it is a bloody good game. It might have not been the best _rpg_ but still decent within the genre
@@Nelots-9 I honestly love how cyberpunk is nowadays and it’s a beautiful open world with fantastic writing! It covers dark topics and is a game definitely for adults. Although its decisions were nowhere near the level of Witcher 3, the new dlc phantom liberty had a lot more decisions that had huge impacts! So the signs are good. I’d say out of that list of games it’d come in 4th place out of 4 for me personally. I’m a sucker for the other 3. Fallout new vegas should get in there too!
@@AVVGaming1 New Vegas had one of the best lead writers working in gaming. John Gonzalez should have more name recognition-he was also the guy behind the utterly fantastic writing and world-building in the Horizon games.
Great points. It’s sad to see that it’s far more profitable for these companies to pursue live services and lots of micro-transactions.
I’d say every big franchise has suffered from this.
@@CharlieIsDigital yes and they don’t seem to want to stop that pursuit either. You look at anthem, concord, this games didn’t do well but they won’t stop. They want in on that genre and they know it’ll net far more money. Whereas the smaller studios or less well known make games for the love of gaming!
@@AVVGaming1 In that case, I rather sick to smaller studios or lesser known developers.
It is the same disease that affects movies. When you get into big budgets, external financing and publicly owned companies it is the money and the associated risk-aversion that talks, not the developers. Designed by committee to appeal to everyone and offend no-one they are (as you said) guaranteed to please no-one.
Basically it is greed that is their downfall.
Mindless prolefeed is far from a novel concept, especially considering the term "prolefeed" was coined in 1948 (and in "Nineteen Eighty-Four") by George Orwell, and the idea of slop for idiots goes back a lot further even than that.
Blackrock money.
It rather poetic that you've decided to put Skyrim music on the background. Why not Veilguard music I wonder? =)
Bethesda has taught me a valuable lesson as a customer: no preorders and and no purchases until I have viewed several reviews from different creators.
As a fan I learned that I kinda hate to be taken for a ride.
Modern AAA games feel like buying a new car and having it malfunction on the road in the most dumb and dangerous ways possible.
And then you call dealership only to hear them say: Yeah, it'll be patched eventually. Just hang in there, buddy.
And you know what? I'm done with this bs. If developers and publishers treat me (the customer) with utter disrespect... fine. I'll buy your Cyberpunk. As a full package, patched, with all DLC and on a 70% sale. Don't care if it's five years from the release date. I'm in no hurry. I have a vast backlog of great games, that in worst case need a bit of moding to run on modern hardware. And if your company crumbles before you can actually finish the game... well, there's always somebody out there with a capability to learn on others mistakes.
I can’t get enough of the Skyrim background music. I did the video with some dragon age back ground music but it didn’t sound right, then some fallout 3 and still didn’t click. As soon as I put the Skyrim on, it just felt right! And yes I completely agree with everything you have said. I think it’s the trust factor that’s gone nowadays. Like we struggle to trust these companies will make what they say they will. Like our desires are clearly rarely on their list of things to focus on. I think it’s smart to never pre order and always wait. The only reason I got veilgaurd first day was because my wife bought it me as a surprise.
15:14 i'm sorry to break it to you but cdpr is now rotten with activism and is turning in something similar to ubisoft or bioware... the next witcher game is probably gonna be woke garbage sadly.
A game beeing woke doesnt make it bad. Baldurs Gate 3, and every other Dragon Age game released before where all very very liberal.
Its only a problem if, as in Veilguard, the political activism is the only thing the writers care about.
If you would take all the woke elements out of Veilguard, it would still be a terrible game.
And frankly, the more people say "The game is bad because its Woke" the more the Devs can hide behind saying that its just rednecks and Racists that bombed the game, instead of having to face the fact that they did a bad Job.
Failguard wasn't just a let down but a betrayal.
Many reasons.
1-Studios aren't made up of the original crew
2-They're chasing/force to chase other trends instead of iterate/expand on what made the games good
3-They're going for/are forced to go for mass appeal by higher ups, which dilutes the formula into generic
4-They're going for ESG funding by altering the game's content to be forcefully diverse and having very safe topics/dialogue
5-Trying to appease shareholders, the games are altered in gameplay/style/tone once again going for mass appeal and/or ESG funds
6-They're trying to cater to the wrong audience expecting fans of the previous games to stick around just because
Once again my comment got removed but lets give it one more try.
I think you're spot on with this video, the only thing I could add is that maybe some game studios have too much pride to admit that sometimes the fans know better then they do.
I had more to say but I don't feel like re-typing my whole comment, thank UA-cam for removing my comments over and over again.
@@TheMysterieRPGguy haha I wonder why it deleted them? I have a section in the comments that are marked and put in like a spam box. I have it set to not filter any at all but I’ll go see if they’re in there and if they are I’ll get them up lol
@@AVVGaming1 UA-cam has some very strict censor algorithms that can trigger on the weirdest things. I think I know what it triggered on this time, but obviously if I type it again my comment will be removed again so I won't but trust me it is ridiculous it triggered on that.
The thing is most people won't realize there comment got removed because it looks like it got posted just fine, it's only when you reload the page or re-sort the comments that you see the comment disappear. So most people will post it and move on, I just happened to catch on what was happening some time ago so now I make sure my comment stayed.
@@AVVGaming1 Oh my god this would be kinda funny if it wasn't so sad. I just wrote a long comment explain to you how that all works with UA-cam but clearly UA-cam doesn't want people to know soooo it got removed. Let's just say I did extensive testing for months and I have a pretty good idea how it works but apparently I can't share it.
@ oh man do you have discord?
@@AVVGaming1 I do yes, but I'm not that comfortable posting my discord name in a public comment section, it's different from my UA-cam name.
I guess the lesson is to never get too attached to a franchise. Teams change, times change and all these factors influence an end product. Thanks for another great vid 👍
I'm really disappointed in the game industry & how they have utterly FAILED at Game Creation. We've lost so many game genres. Bring back 2D, 2.5D, 3D, low poly PS1 style, cell shaded, you name it. Anything to save us from this drought of creativity within video games.
One day i hope we will see a massive improvement in the way games can be made. Currently the process of game development seems so unintuitive and tedious to the point that it restricts creative & artistic people. Game development is so heavily math & code based that it probably does not motivate or interest a lot of people. Talented people that could be a massive benefits to the game development process but they are currently turned off by the process & the industry is not good at incorporating those people. Hypothetically Even if that person got good at game development, there is still so many aspects of game development that need to be improved. Improving game development methods would really benefit so many aspects of this situation.
If you want that creativity, there are still many indie games that are not afraid to experiment.
Those games are still out there, you just need to be on PC and avoid AAA games.
One weird case is Pokemon, the quality has drastically gone down and continues to go down, but the sales have the exact opposite trajectory.
Because this kind of game is not for fans or even gamer in general. This game is for spreading their social/political agenda. It obvious that this game was doom to fail before it launches, but they did it anyway because what's important for them is to spread their ideology, and they knew journalists with the same ideology will support them. This is a social/political movement.
Because "modern writers" care FAR MORE about making self affirming slop they can insert themselves into for representation than tell an interesting narrative with dynamic characters.
Fantastic video. Thanks for this.
Gaider who was the lead writer for the Dragon Age series said he felt like Bioware resented its writers and the need for them when he left. They don't care about the quality of the writing or maintaining lore consistency in a sprawling fantasy setting when they can churn out an action RPG instead.
They ignore their fans because they have an agenda.
Their agenda does not include listening to fans.
They are NOT your friend.
Simple as.
Studios that lost their orignal devs due to chasing microtransactions, forced online play or online connectivity for offline play, or chasing after DEI with no substance, all deviated.
It's a takeover. You could ask why some governments ignore their own electorates. Same principle at work. It's an ideological struggle and they don't care. If you say "shareholder money," you are saying huge shareholders like Vanguard and Blackrock. They are drivers of the ideological takeovers for their own reasons.
Such a measured, intelligent, and thoughtful analysis! And I agree with your assessment! I am the same way with Resident Evil 2. I absolutely adored the remake, but it isn’t my Claire or my Leon from when I fell in love with Claire in 8th grade. I am delighted that others enjoyed the remakes, and enjoyed the 4 Remake as well. But the nostalgia of my childhood, meeting Claire as a smart, resourceful, yet so compassionate and protective of Sherri and others, as a young college student only a few years older than myself at the time… that can never be matched by anything modern. That doesn’t mean I don’t buy remakes, or don’t enjoy them, I absolutely do! But yeah… I totally understand your point.
Now… they should still remake Code Veronica… And even though I’m now in my early forties, I still want to spend more time with Claire haha
Look at the thumbnail... "ingore" doesn't sound quite right... 🤔😅
@@alessandrobaggi6129 man! Just seen it now! Fixing it asap!
a very objective perspective, thanks for the video good sir. as for quality games made for gamers , i advice avoid so called "AAA" games and go for "indie" games
Thank you very much! I’m thinking of doing a new series entitled “indie spotlight” or something where every now and then I do a deep analysis and highlight the best new rpg indie games to get them attention. Think it could be interesting! What do you think?
@@AVVGaming1there can not be enough videos regarding objective opinions and sharing games that people may not know is always great.
Right on. Thanks for sharing.
I miss the look and feel from RE 0-3 and CVX. Also the music and atmosphere were SO MUCH better than the newer Resis.
I agree, and then of course I don't. Comparing Morrowind sales to Skyrim sales is not apples to apples. The industry as a whole was growing massively during the 10-year span between Morrowind and Skyrim... Now is it true that gamers expect voice acting in 2025 and would never accept an RPG without it, yes, it is, minimum standards have changed in the 20+ years since Morrowind. I think that what you would find however, that there is a ravenous unserved market for games with depth and complexity... I think that if a game came out in 2025 that had a deep setting with realistic factions and characters and a complex and gripping story with meaningful choices, and you combined that with combat that had some actual depth, where the game demanded that you actually learn the systems and "get good" in order to win combat encounters. Then go a step further and put puzzles in the game that require at least a bit of thought, stuff that *gasp* might be more than an ADD 10-year-old could handle. I think if a studio put together a game like that that they would find that there is FUCKING HUGE audience that has been looking for that game... an audience that NO ONE is catering too who would push sales to the moon. And you know what, I don't think it would have to be the most visually impressive game, I think if the game had 2017 graphics AND everything I mentioned above I don't think the 2017 graphics would hurt it.
I think there are a lot of people just like me who would love that kind of game who basically haven't bought an RPG in years because the kind of RPG they want just isn't made anymore. I also think that an RPG like this would be an instant classic and a mega hit because there is an audience far bigger than anyone realizes that would FUCKING LOVE that type of game who has basically exited the games market cuz what we want no longer exists.
"New studios like CD Projekt Red" 30 years old.🤣 "These studios keep putting out quality RPGs" Like the disastrous Cyberpunk? I'm not convinced you have a clue what you're talking about.
Cyber punk turned it around is now considered a fantastic game! It had a shaky launch but has managed to completely turn it around. CDPR made mistakes but went on to correct them which I have to commend.
@@AVVGaming1 You'll forgive me, but I HATE when people use Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky as examples of games done right. What those companies did were not "mistakes," they were wilful attempts to deceive everyone so they could get cash early to fund further development. I will NEVER forgive them for that.
But the problem is, many players had a crappy experience then never went back to the games. To say nothing of the wasted time, or even time off work.
@@Martial-Matsounds like this topic hit a nerve with you. It's important to give people a chance at redemption, otherwise these games would never have improved.
@@ge9367 Being ripped off hits a nerve with me because every single company is getting away with everything they can, and that's a shitty world to inhabit. That doesn't mean I'm not 100% right.
A chance at redemption? No, these companies should be accountable and should be forced to give refunds to every single purchaser who wants it regardless of play time. I don't care about redemption - it's not my responsibility, nor should it be.
They will only stop doing this crap when there are serious consequences. Why do you think Abusisoft delayed the launch of Assassin's creed a year? Why do you think Bethesda waited an extra year on Starfield? To quote John Wick, "Consequences."
@@Martial-Matas someone who preordered nms and still plays it( I played when there was 3 elements,like iron for example) their comeback has to be the best comeback ever. They have been giving game changing updates for years for free( I hate the term "free update" but it actually applies here) which would be 15 dollars for each considering the added content. It's even more than what was promised now
Ignoring fans is always a good thing if you have a leader at the helm with their own vision. If Miyazaki listened to the fans we'd never have Demon souls. But you should never ignore fans if you don't have your own vision to follow. Many of the AAA western games feel like they were made by democracy instead of a dictatorship and a dictator style visionary is how all good games are made.
It’s the fact they went for the money! Miyakzaki went almost against the money! In fact, he still does! If he added a difficulty setting on Elden ring he’d sell more copies, but he sticks to his principles because he is making his version in his vision. When games ignore their fans whilst also trying to do mass appeal like DAV (simple combat, simple writing, simple everything) they end up pleasing nobody. It’s sad to see.
@@AVVGaming1 Matthew 7:15-20....Dragon Age Vanguard wears the rotted corpse of Dragon Age Origins peddling its thorns to those without a nose to smell the rott.
I think a more accurate term to describe vielgaurds reception would be “controversial”
Because the people who initially made the series are often no longer at the current-day studios. The people who made DAV don't love the series nor the fans like the creators did. We see it in film as well. No showrunner will ever care about a creative work as much as the author does. All they care about is milking the IP for as much money as possible. We've seen it with the Witcher series and Rings of Power. As GRRM said, they think they know better and that they can improve upon the work. All they end up doing is making it bad because they don't respect the source material, the creator or the fans. I think a lot of it comes from ego and jealousy.
I think there is also another pattern where they consider themselves heroes. Like they put in messages hoping to change the world. So rather than putting in a good story, or good content, they’re more focused on “the message”. And when their content flops, rather than being open to criticism and learning from it, they get on their high horse and slaw THEIR OWN fans! Saying they are stupid and don’t get it. It’s sad to see but at this point it’s gotten so out of hand that we’re almost no longer shocked. There is no punishment for these bad decisions either. Everyone else loses their jobs but they always get another shot to go and change another beloved series into something that fans don’t enjoy!
Bob’s game once posited something to the effect that since you don’t expect the higher-ups of a doll company to actually play with their dolls the same logic applies with games.
I am inclined to agree since there is more to the process of game development than what we see as an audience.
However, games are a market that depends heavily on its audience and has more interactions with its audience than a doll company. So it not an unfair expectation to assume they’ve played the game if only to avoid sounding out of touch.
Plus I do expect higher ups to take their own product if only so they have a stake outside of profit.
It's because these studios went from only answering to themselves and fans to growing and now answering to executives and shareholders who don't care about how good the game is, just that it makes as much profit as possible
from 1 to 3 the changes were not terrible, games were still good, but with failguard they crossed the line
8:52 it costs this much time and money cause they changed directions with the game 3 times, meaning they restarted 3times, first it was tread wolf then they tried to make dragon age mmo and in the end they made vailguard
You could definitely tell it was an online game at one point! It feels like an online game. The whole pace of it, the health in jars across the map, it’s evident it changed around so much.
It's a sad state that gaming is in right now. So many publishers are obsessed with quantity over quality. They are looking at the fastest profit over the long term profit, and are so blinded by their greed that they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are alienating the core fans of these franchises. They aren't acknowledging that doing this will actually have a negative effect on their profits. It also doesn't help that these people are the same ones who are actively attacking gamers who give reviews that aren't in favor of the games they release.
All Games studios, movie studios, etc. ignores their own fans. What they are chasing are new fans. They never cater to the hardcore fans.
A lot of people including myself forget to look at video games like movies and tv shows the longer they go on the worse they get so it would be smart to just ignore or at least not get excited for next elder scrolls fallout dragon age etc.
Narcissists don't need the opinion of others when their own is always right.
I am sorry but "less impactful decision"? Did any of you play Inquisition?
I played it, not a terrible game but a far cry from the bioware golden age but still much better than the last DA "thing"
Interesting points you have =))
The fail of the Veilguard is ALSO because of the gender ideology that was forced to the game and to the players. And how we can see it by the Veilguard, Concord, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Dustborn, majority of gamers hate it in their games...
Don't ingore me.
This is why I will now stop following gaming companies instead I will follow the writes who made the games great.
@@MrsOutlawCaliber don’t blame you! I got another video coming out next week and after doing research it’s amazing to see how distant they are from the fans now
I wish Owlcat were more successful with their games, they're always epic in scope and pretty deep, especially the mechanics based in pathfinder 1 (unofficial d&d 3.5)
it is not like a studio immediately loses every single penny earned from the previous works and start from absolute scratch - they still have the talent, the technology and a substantial budget. the investments are supposed to cover whatever the difference is. it's not like investors are literally bank-rolling the entire development so they are entitled to dictate the game direction
Too much realism is a problem , good game play nice graphics are good enough , recommend annno mutatium
While technology advances, the art of storytelling goes the opposite way.
Technology is no guarantee for a good game or movie.
I am an artist. I can draw very well and have a longstanding experience as an illustrator. But I'm not a good storyteller. I started my own graphic novel but discarded it since I couldn't get the compelling parts into a good story.
Same with games and movies. They look great, but with todays technology that's not the argument.
I often hear that I should get used to 'modern' storytelling because it's so much better. Well, not for ne, and apparently not for many others.
I don't need super realistic graphics. I happily play games like Skald or Solasta. Heck I still play the Quest for Glory games. Because they are fun! Because they have good stories!
there are book's from like 1960's that can be made into video' game's , but nooo everyone want's recognition for something they made recently
What's weird is that after Veilguards flop, you'd expect EA to gut them to protect its beloved bottom line. However, a new Mass Effect Netflix series is announced instead?
Dragon Age ... was a fan, absolutely a fan of Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher (all of them) and BG3 (all of the Balder's Gates) ( I started my CRPG pathway in the very early days of text based adventures and then Wizardry)
As far as development time, worth noting those values often tossed around aren't really accurate. A game will start with a pitch, some concept art, and so on. This has hardly any people on it. It can then sit around for a while, because it isn't yet time to commit to a new project. Then the time comes when you'll soon want a new project. That's when you'll refine the design and do some prototyping. Relatively few people working on it at that point. And then you're likely waiting for your previous project to ship. It's only once that previous project starts wrapping up that your staffing starts going up. So if looking at DA:V, early 2019 is when Anthem prepared for release, and this is likely when much of the Anthem team transitioned to DA. And then keep in mind that DA transitioned from a live service game to a single player one, so that would have tacked on more dev time as well.
But that said, when you're looking at 4+ years with a full dev team of hundreds, that's A) a lot of money and B) a lot of time between when you start full development and when the product ships.
I think part of the problem is that fewer of the newer devs are gamers themselves so they don't really understand what works. Instead they put in self inserts and modern American politics in games that shouldn't have them like fantasy and sci-fi games. Many studios also seems to hire people who lack the competence and drive as their old employees had. When people do less work and the quality drops, that means development will take more time and cost more money. That in turn means it will need to sell more to break even and the game is less fun as well.
And using American politics in a game does not only upset all Americans with a different view, it also annoys the international market hurting the sales even more.
Publishers who don't get gaming but see something is popular and telling their studios to make something similar is a problem, but it is not a new problem. Remember when every other studio tried to recreate Wow? Or the Diablo clones of the late 90s? You might not, most of those games failed terrible but there is always a few that worked out. This is not something that have changed or can explain the massive amounts of lackluster western AAA games, particularly from North America.
Compare the companies who keep failing with someone like Nintendo or Larian for that matter if you want a western (Dutch) studio. Their bosses are gamers and most of them have made successful games in the past. They know what works and how to make a game.
Todd Howard is more of an exception today, he is a gamer even though he has lost his edge. I am not sure how much of Bethesda's problem is his fault and how much it is that the talented employees who backed him up is gone now, but I think the latter is a huge part of it.
Most of the innovation in NA games today is done in the indie market and AA space. Even Larian for that matter is an indie studio. It might also be that the publishers corporate hiring practices is behind a lot of the problems.
I don't think a good game need to have the latest graphics, just look on Terraria and Stardew valley with 60 million and 30 million copies sold. They are great games and fun so they sell. DA4 is not so it sells poorly even if it had a famous IP.
2:50 - To me, after Fallout 2 the next real sequel was actually Wasteland 2 and then 3. Not true sequels since they weren't Fallout, but MUCH closer than Fallout 3 and beyond were.
Another thing to look at are investors. If Blackrock or Vanguard are invested, then the company doesn't need to make profits because those investors backstop them and fully support woke.
Veilguard disregards also the lore of their franchise.
Also when you look at the game, there is one simple answer here: streamlining. And how business and software development processes in general became more modern and less focussed on the final product. Usually devs are not part of smaller teams that know what the whole project is about, instead they get tiny pieces of tasks to complete, there is no overview here of what is actually being created and as such also have less opportunity to maybe bring in their voice of warning.
This whole thing is a very global business move to make every worker replacable, no company wants exceptional talents, they want replacable worker drones.
The game itself is also very very streamlined, meaning there was a very easy pattern: create location, create companion, create enemy faction.
Add missions in location, add companion missions.
The dialog as a result was more of an afterthought. It is clear, that none of the writers actually indulged or care about the lore they were writing in. So the junk we got is the outcome.
Enemy factions became faceless junk. These factions who had huge lore implications, are now reduced to just 'red dots on a minimap'.
DA:V is the first DA game .. where there was literally no companion that was likable at all. And given how much time the game forces you to invest here .. makes it a horrible experience.
There is a clear demand of people, to not be fed mindless slog. If you think your game can only reach high numbers in this way, you really need to get out of this industry.
Keep the mobile slob on mobiles .. because the usecase is a different one. If you are producing a huge single player 'AAA' experience, do not look at simple mobile games as a template.
People.. do not like that stuff. You end up alienating all your potential customers, because a mobile game player.. (where those big numbers come from) is mostly a different and disjunct target group from a pc or console player. Funny the market fails to ever learn that tiny lesson ..
Corporate greed. Studio priorities are improving profits and reducing costs to impress shareholders and maximise bonuses and they will compromise anything to do so.
'Gamers' have also changed. The majority (that corps aim at broadening their appeal to) are not game 'fans', they are casual players.
Modern gamers apparently will buy any old crap, think they are lucky, ask for more and move on a month later to the next shiny crap.
There’s many problems in the triple A gaming industry but I think the sense of entitlement that they’ve adopted is the biggest I do get it to some extent imagine that you’ve been working on something for years and when it gets released everyone says it’s sh*t you would be angry but you have to be mature and take the criticism seriously so you can do better in the future.
But a lot of these companies have taken to calling people who criticize their games racist or sexist and ignore that their games have bad writing or gameplay saying they don’t understand refusing to acknowledge that they made a mistake this kind of attitude only creates resentment towards the company and the players stop buying their games making the company less money.
In short game companies need to learn some humility.
You could say that about gamers as well .....
Corporate greed.
And they likely did their "homework":
There are far more money on the mainstream normie market (with sufficient PR) than for the adult fans of good RPGs.
My personal opinion is that the factors are:
1. Games have gotten too big. Evey thing in AAA studios has to be massive. No room for small and medium sized games to experiment with
2. Related to this is every game has to be a blockbuster or it "fails" even if it made money.
3. Ideological capture. Investors, management and employees.
4. Because these games are so big and take so long they really can't adjust to canges after a certain point.
5. Because of that, plus trend chasing, companies often are a decade behind or more in what is hot. That is why you should not expect any change in gaming for at least five years.
6. The foolish idea that general audinces only want mindless slop. Or over simplified action games. For example, Final Fantasy lost its identity because it just devolved to a pretentious action game with girly art design. It barely retained the fantasy element in some of the more recent entries.
7. Ego. These people seem to think everything they produce is high art, and try way to hard to be "deep." See above example.
Heres why some devs ignore their fanbase.
They dont want a fan base, they want to appeal to everyone!
Or at least as many players as they can!
But by catering for everyone, their games appeal to no one!
If your favorite game is a niche, you don't get to be entitled and expect a AAA version.
If you want more Fallout 1, go play Underrail.
Owlcat Games still caters to hardcore CRPG fans.
I’m thinking of doing a future series where I highlight indie new rpg games! Give them a spotlight and let people know about those games. Aaa game studios always get all the attention and I want to provide a platform to promote these smaller devs
@@AVVGaming1 I hope you do get a chance! But hardcore CRPGs are hard to recommend even to my gamer friends. I think BG3 has really set an impossibly high bar for even smaller studios.
Heres another prime example of devs ignoring their fans.
Battlefield games!!
Bf games were alot more tactical than the run n gun cod games.
In bf a single well placed shot could take u out, especially in the early games.
But even bf3 and to some degree bf4, the game play was more tactical, u couldnt run around and get loads of kills.
Team work was massively important, especially to capture points and take out vehicles.
And the maps were massive!
I bet u could fit all the maps from a cod game, into a single bf map!
In cod even in team games most players do their own thing.
Bf had alot of adoring fans, but it wasnt enough for ea.
Ea wanted the cod crowd as well!
So they changed bf to be more like cod and slowly but surely, ruined battlefield!
For players who only cared about cod.
Cod players didnt switch to battlefield at all.
And bf let down bf fans, found something else to play!
I don't fucking care if it's simple or user-friendly. I just want a good story with good characters. That's all. But they can no longer make it
I'm not a big fan of the whole "modern audiences" complaint, but one problem is devs misunderstanding what fans want or what will appeal to larger market (e.g. the cringy Saints Row reboot)
Dragon Age was always going downhill. Even the first as much as i liked it, i still remember that i was disappointed because it was advertised as a Baldurs Gate successor in spirit which it for sure did not live up to.
Well, I hope these studios understand that live service games work like a leech, they suck money and time from players, so yes, they can make billions of dollars, but they also destroy all the other games around them, because players won't have the time and money to play anything else. So a publisher that invests in a game like this is hurting their own other games, these other games they have will sell less because of the live service games. Plus, there will always be a portion of players who will refuse to play these live service games no matter what.
The reason game studios have started to ignore their fans is simple. The people who have taken control of the companies have a woke agenda. They are more concerned with DEI than anything else. If a game fails, they will just move on to the next one and do it again. Until there is a massive movement to not buy ANY games made this way, they will keep doing it.
woah woah woah. OG RE4 is objectively better, especially with better voiced lines.
RE4 remake was done with HR consent. Leon was stale as fuck. Ashley was nerfed in all aspect and no memorable/meme worthy events.
These idea that devs are forced to do things for me is stupid , watch dragons dogma 2 , they forced him to have microtransaction , he putted useless things inside , everyone happy . These devs are spineless and work on these games just for the paycheck not to create a fun hobby for people.
May I ask what you work for? Because I certainly do work for my paycheck. I do what my employer wants, as long as it is legal.
If you have found a way to make your living off creating a fun hobby for others, I am actually quite jelous...
Idk based on their segments I’m supposed to be their prime buyers but I hate what I’ve seen from veilguard. I’m only going to buy when it goes on sale, maybe.
My complaints: The entire games dialogue being Disney-fied garbage. No player agency, Rook has 0 personalty. He/she/it is a Yes person. Can't disagree, be renegade or anything except nod your head and have 3 ways to say yes. This was supposed to be an RPG.
The combat and puzzles are mind numbing and repetitive. The character models all look mostly bad. The females are masculine and the males look feminine. They have smooth pudding faces, cartoony. The character models were much better in previous games even DAO! The character creator was only inclusive for a select few. Try making a buxom cute female dwarf. Can't be done.
Being preached at no matter what the topic is. Christmas light skeletons and lit up darkspawn is not doing the franchise any favors.
Not enough monster variety. HP sponge foes. Not really party based anymore. I can't have a tank to go along with my mage because all mobs attack me no matter what. Call it a solo game. I just love bunny hopping 80% of the combat! Is this a mobile game?
Don't complain too much on the steam forum the BW/EA Devs perma ban you and delete ALL your posts.
I think the enemy variety is really sparse. Each fight feels the same and there’s no way to avoid it. So although the world make like different and the quest is titled different, it’s the same experience. I got the game and my wife bought it me and wanted to play it too. I let her borrow it and she just can’t get into it. It shows that the hook isn’t there. It’s repetitive and it’s something we’ve already seen so many times. I think some people will love the game but my main thing is that a true fan of rpg games which have detailed stories, strong decision making, etc it’s not their type of game. I mean maybe 15 years ago it’d be ground breaking but we’ve had Witcher 3, BG3, these other games have just come in and raised the bar! The option of just saying yes in three different ways doesn’t fool us anymore. We have seen it many times. Character writing is rushed too. I feel no emotion so far. Like I meet a character, converse a few times with them then am expected to care about them. It’s clear that the role playing, character writing and everything else was put below combat. Hey quick question, which voice did you use for your rook?
@@AVVGaming1 feminine 1
AAA games are made by accountants not geeks . Indie games are the future . Best game i've play recently is Valhiem , made by 5 devs ( now 14 ) . But ... best game i've ever played is RDR2 and you don't get bigger than Rockstar . AC Vallahalla gets slaged by AC fans but i'm playing it at the moment and haveing a great time . Ps - i think nostalger is important , and that games you played when first getting into gameing leave a dispraportionate mark on you
4:22 that sys i actually like, but it wasn't real enough, i would have wanted to build prison and put raiders in prion and forced labaor like IRL past prisoners, but game AI wasn't programmed for that
Political Activist Developers don't care about fans, it's all about The Message™.
With Veilguard their main focus was to push Transgender ideology politics into the game and make that the primary focus of the game rather than an in depth rich story driven narrative. They also chose to disregard the previous installments involving the plot and in depth character personalities, traits and relationships. It came across that the creators of Veilguard had either never played the previous versions or actually cared about the source material. While they made a beautiful environment, the characters both artistically and personalities were bland, juvenile and unlikable. They went out of their way to ensure you could not create an accurate representation of the female form, only one that catered to their uglification and masculine aesthetic. These changes were not forced upon Bioware by the publisher, but by their lead game designer who pushed for their trans agenda to be the focus of the game. This took away from the immersion into a fantasy world by slamming modern day reality politics into your face and down your throat, rather than allowing a player to escape into a world of fantasy, mystery, excitement action and dragons.
All previous Dragon Age games had Gay, lesbian and even trans elements in the game and it was up to the player to decide how they wanted to play and to whom they would interact with, in other words play the game they wanted to play and how they wanted to play it. In Veilguard you are forced to play the way the game developer wants you to play, hell you can't even be the bad guy in the game, all decisions you make are pointless lame and considered the nice option, even when you try to choose the bad. This isn't a game it is a manifesto.
So on topic of veilguard, I don't think the issue most fans take is with the re-imagined combat. It's the writing. My friend who is a dragon age fan and states origins as his favorite, describes the combat in origins as quote "abysmal dogshit". What he didn't like is the tone shift and lack of options.
After playing through veilguard myself, I will have to say that combat actually merges RPG and action nearly as well as 2077: PL. Items you find have crazy synergies and can completely change your game, skills are very meaningful and even ones that are just stat buffs are always at least 10% and are never on the node you need to get to the next major skill. Exploring the levels and finding secretes is fun too.
Spoilers for DATV ahead:
But the writing is extremely inconsistent and feels very high fantasy PG16 young adult novel, maybe even PG13 if not for the gory visuals sometimes. Slavery in Tevinter isn't touched on at all except in some passing remarks or the Shadow Dragon character background, for example. Dragon age fans are attached to the world, the characters, the lore, the choices, not a combat system. Another note is that in the missives you get from the Inquisitor, it mentions the world being absolutely devastated in the South, which is where the other games take place, so that's another backstab to the fans (unless of course the new blight just goes away like it did in Minrathas/Treviso).
On the Bethesda situation, it's a monster that Todd made himself. Sure Zenimax is partly to blame, but we had Starfield, which was Todd's baby and it was a reskinned Fallout 4 with a worse story.
While I am not a fan of Final Fantasy, I am pretty sure the point of the games it to reinvent themselves each installment. 14 is a damn MMO (that people love). And FF7R and FF16 are both very popular games.
I'm upset with both really. I liked real time with pause and tactics you could program
Abysmal dogshit is how not most people would describe it and that is putting it mildly. I remember the user reviews from back then and... Literally nobody said that
I guess your friend prefers God of war combat which is his right but I assure you while the horrible writing was the main issue many of us abhorred the hack and slash combat
@@evripidisalexiou6060 he also says they the point of games is to reinvent themselves each installment, which I heavily disagree with. The point of a game is enjoyment. The best sequels are almost the same game as the first, but with improvements. The sequels where the game is changed fundamentally are generally not well received. Look at halo 2 and 3, and then halo 4. Mass effect 2 and 3 compared to Andromeda( a very fitting example for this case).
Except it's not 2013 anymore, and we nolonger live in the world of detatched Corpo publishers trying to squeeze every dime out of an IP.
We live in 2024, the world of ESG scores and Bridge 2.0, where the Corpo's are knowingly and willingly forgoing short term profit for the promis of future gains, due to idealogical capture and fear of reprisals from same.
To be fair....ESO is a great game...with interesting quest lines..some of them pretty weird though....
love the gameplay
Nothing wrong with action games. Action games can have good writings too. What they did with Vg writing is just bad.
I choose to ingore studios
Because its a long range global agenda. Not individual companies. Why is it so hard to grasp for people? They admit it years ago 2017 a video qbout it. All major industries lockstep for social engineering. Youre welcome
regarding publisher:
you don't even need them per se, sure if you dumb 1000+ employees and 15 studios from all around the world with 10yrs of dev time, you need a shit ton of money. but i personally would've been fine with a dragon age 2 scope for example. i don't even need raytracing, it's expensive on hardware & dev time. it's one of those "nice to have" things, sure. back on topic, larian & cd red are remarkable examples on how you can finance a game. if you're aiming for the 4% increase every quarter, wich is an unhealthy mindset imo, you will inevitably end up like every aaa studio right now. there is no such thing as infinite growth.
Why do people care so much about these half-assed box checking games. KC:D2 is releasing soon!
Because we were waiting 10 years for this game, and the disappointment hits hard.
And personally, I enjoy every Dragon Age game way more than KCD, especially Origins.
It's easy.
Big studio buy little one with succes.
They want to make money. To make money you have to touch a large public. To touch a larger public you gave to stop making niche game.
Stopping making niche game mean being more and more generic.
CDPR might be doomed. My hopes are (pun) riding on Warhorse and Larian now.
Interesting video, but you're more than a decade off with Pong. That was early 70s.
Why do some thumbnails "ingore" spell check 😁
Bro tell me how I saw this comment earlier and thought it was just random! I was like why they say that? Then I figured it out just now lol I’m gonna say it was a statement and there’s a deeper meaning behind it lol
@@AVVGaming1 haha good plan, it happens :)