Is Gaming Better Than Ever?

Summary

This video script explores the rapid evolution of the video game industry, highlighting its growth from simple pixels to complex, immersive worlds in a few decades. It discusses the industry's inherent iterative nature, where developers learn from past projects to enhance future ones, exemplified by the likes of FromSoftware. The script also touches on the challenges faced by developers, from long development cycles to the pressure of meeting high expectations. Despite these, the gaming industry continues to thrive, driven by passion, innovation, and the collective effort to create better experiences.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Video games, despite being a relatively young medium, have grown tremendously to become a leading entertainment industry.
• 🚀 The rapid evolution of gaming is impressive, with advancements from basic pixels to complex, lifelike simulations in a short span of time.
• 💻 Video games have been deeply connected to computing since their inception, often pushing the boundaries of what technology can achieve.
• 🛠️ Developers have historically used clever strategies and optimizations to maximize the capabilities of limited hardware.
• 🔄 Iterative design is a key process in game development, allowing studios to learn from past games and improve future ones.
• 🌟 FromSoft and Nintendo are highlighted as examples of studios that have iterated on their successes to create even better games.
• 💼 The gaming industry's growth has been fueled by increased resources, inspiration, and competition, leading to higher quality and more diverse games.
• 🏆 Indie games have seen explosive growth, with more resources and community support, leading to a surge in creativity and innovation.
• 📉 While technological advancements in gaming may be slowing, the industry continues to thrive due to iterative improvements and a growing number of developers.
• 🔮 Despite the perception of negativity and challenges, the overall trend in gaming is positive, with continuous improvement and a bright future.

Q & A

How old is the video game industry according to the script?

The script suggests that video games are around 50 to 60 years old, considering the experimental beginnings.

What is the significance of the number of man-hours put into developing games like GTA 6 as mentioned in the script?

The script highlights that the number of man-hours put into games like GTA 6 is so high that it could be compared to the effort required to send someone to the moon, emphasizing the scale and dedication behind such projects.

Why does the script mention the connection between video games and computing?

The script explains that video games have been closely tied to computing since their inception, with early games often developed as tech demos to test the limits of computer capabilities.

What is the role of iteration in game development as discussed in the script?

The script discusses iteration as a key process in game development where developers learn from their previous games, make improvements, and apply those lessons to future projects, leading to better and more refined games.

How does the script describe the impact of Doom's release and its source code on the gaming industry?

The script points out that Doom, developed by ID Software, had a significant impact by being optimized to run on almost any hardware and its source code was released for free, leading to a legacy of modifications and adaptations across various platforms.

What does the script say about the graphical capabilities of games like Crysis in relation to hardware?

The script mentions that Crysis was known for pushing graphics capabilities so far that it was nearly impossible to run at maximum settings with consumer-level hardware at the time, and it became a benchmark for performance for years.

Why does the script argue that gaming sentiment seems to be getting worse despite improvements in the industry?

The script suggests that negativity is a powerful tool for getting people to care and act, and that the gaming industry's issues are often exaggerated or focused on to generate attention and discussion, which can make sentiment seem worse than it actually is.

What is the script's perspective on the future of the gaming industry despite the challenges it faces?

The script maintains an optimistic view, stating that the power to make the gaming industry better lies within the hands of its creators and consumers, and that despite challenges, there is a continuous drive for improvement and innovation.

How does the script address the issue of game development cycles and their impact on game quality?

The script acknowledges that long development cycles and high budgets, as seen with games like GTA 6, can lead to high-quality products, but also suggests that there is a balance to be found to ensure that the industry remains healthy and developers are treated fairly.

What does the script suggest about the role of competition in the indie game development scene?

The script indicates that competition in the indie game scene is fierce and drives developers to create better and more innovative games, but it also highlights the pressure and potential financial struggles that can result from trying to stand out in a crowded market.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 The Rapid Evolution of Video Games

The paragraph discusses the relatively short history of video games, which are only about 50 to 60 years old, compared to other art forms like film and theater that have existed for much longer. Despite their youth, video games have become a massive and technologically impressive industry. The speaker uses the example of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) to illustrate the scale of investment in terms of manpower and financial resources, suggesting that the revenue from such games is astronomical. The rapid advancement from simple pixelated graphics to sophisticated open-world games and VR simulations is highlighted as an impressive feat that few other industries have matched. The speaker argues that video games deserve more recognition for their swift progress, which is deeply intertwined with the evolution of computing technology.

05:01

🛠️ The Technological Drive Behind Gaming

This section delves into the historical connection between video games and computing, explaining how early games were developed as tech demos to test the capabilities of computers. The speaker mentions iconic early games like Spacewar and Pong, and how limitations in early hardware led to creative solutions in game design. The paragraph also discusses how certain design choices, like fixed camera angles in Resident Evil, were made to optimize performance with the technology available at the time. The speaker contrasts the development approach of Doom, which was optimized to run on low-spec hardware and had its source code released for free, with the high graphical demands of Crysis, a game that was so advanced it needed hardware not yet available to the public. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the ongoing relationship between gaming and computer technology, with gaming often serving as a benchmark for technological advancement.

10:02

🔄 Iterative Design in Gaming

The speaker explores the concept of iterative design in game development, where studios learn from their previous games and improve upon them in subsequent titles. Using FromSoftware's games as an example, the paragraph discusses how the studio has refined its mechanics and storytelling across multiple titles. The recent Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is highlighted as an example of how feedback from players and lessons from previous games have been incorporated to enhance the gaming experience. The speaker also touches on the challenges of open-world game design and the iterative process of balancing difficulty and player progression. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of iteration in game development, suggesting that the best games are often the result of years of refinement and learning from past projects.

15:02

🌐 The Growth of Indie Games and Their Impact

This section discusses the significant growth of the indie game scene over the past decade, attributing this to increased resources, inspiration, and competition. The speaker points out that the availability of tutorials, open-source software, and a supportive community has made it easier than ever for individuals to create games. The paragraph also notes how the success of indie games has raised the bar for creativity and quality, with indie titles now competing with AAA games in terms of depth and complexity. The speaker argues that the indie scene's growth is a testament to the power of iteration and competition, as developers build upon the ideas and innovations of others to create new and compelling experiences for players.

20:02

📉 The Paradox of Negativity in Gaming

The final paragraph addresses the paradox of negativity in the gaming industry, where despite clear signs of progress and growth, there is a prevalent sentiment that things are getting worse. The speaker argues that negativity is a powerful tool for gaining attention and driving action, but it can also lead to a distorted perception of reality. They note that while issues like long development cycles, high costs, and studio closures are real, they are not new and do not necessarily indicate an overall decline in the industry. The speaker suggests that the industry's growth and the increasing number of successful games indicate a positive trend, but these are often overshadowed by negative narratives. The paragraph concludes by advocating for a more balanced perspective, recognizing both the challenges and the successes in gaming, and encouraging a proactive approach to improvement rather than being consumed by negativity.

Keywords

💡Video Games

Video games are an electronic form of interactive entertainment that involves user interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. In the video, the speaker reflects on the relatively short history of video games, noting their rapid evolution from simple pixelated graphics to complex, lifelike simulations. The video discusses how video games have become a major part of the entertainment industry, with games like 'GTA 6' representing significant human achievements in terms of development hours and financial success.

💡Technical Impressiveness

Technical impressiveness refers to the advanced and sophisticated nature of a product, particularly in terms of its design and functionality. The video script highlights the technological advancements in video games, comparing the early blocky pixels to today's lifelike, open-world games and VR simulations. This keyword is central to the video's theme of progress, as it underscores how video games have pushed the boundaries of what's possible in computing and entertainment.

💡GTA 6

GTA 6, or Grand Theft Auto VI, is an upcoming installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, one of the most successful video game franchises. The video uses GTA 6 as an example of the massive scale and financial investment in modern video game development, suggesting that the resources put into such a game could be compared to a moon landing mission. This keyword is emblematic of the video's broader discussion about the growth and impact of the gaming industry.

💡Iterative Design

Iterative design is a process of repeated cycles of improvement, where each cycle involves refining a product based on feedback and learning from previous versions. The video discusses how game studios like FromSoftware use iterative design to learn from their previous games and improve future titles. This concept is exemplified by the development of 'Elden Ring' and its DLC 'Shadow of the Erdtree', where the studio incorporated player feedback and past experiences to enhance the gaming experience.

💡Indie Games

Indie games are video games typically created by individuals or small teams without the financial and resource backing of a large publisher. The video script touches on the rise of indie games and how they have become increasingly sophisticated over the years. It mentions games like 'Celeste' and 'Hades' as examples of high-quality indie games that have made a significant impact, challenging the traditional AAA game development model and contributing to the diversity of the gaming landscape.

💡Graphics

Graphics in the context of video games refer to the visual elements and rendering techniques used to create the game's world and characters. The video script discusses the evolution of graphics from simple to realistic, and how this has been a significant part of the gaming industry's growth. It also addresses the current pace of graphical improvements, suggesting that while the rate of advancement may be slowing, the overall quality and detail continue to improve.

💡Hardware Limitations

Hardware limitations refer to the constraints imposed by the physical components of a gaming system, such as processing power, memory, and graphics capabilities. The video script mentions how early game developers had to be creative to overcome these limitations, using examples like 'Doom' and 'Resident Evil' to illustrate how developers innovated within the bounds of available technology.

💡Sentiment

Sentiment, in the context of the video, refers to the prevailing attitudes, opinions, and emotions that people express about the gaming industry. The video argues that while the industry has seen significant positive changes, the sentiment surrounding it has become increasingly negative, possibly due to the power of negative emotions to engage people and drive discussions online.

💡Competition

Competition in the video game industry refers to the rivalry between developers, publishers, and individual games to attract players and succeed in the market. The video script discusses how increased competition has driven innovation and improvement in game design, mechanics, and storytelling. It also touches on the challenges faced by indie developers in a competitive market, where standing out can be difficult.

💡Remastering

Remastering in gaming involves updating and enhancing older games with improved graphics, sound, or gameplay mechanics. The video script mentions remastering as a trend in the industry, suggesting that some companies may be focusing on remastering old games instead of creating new ones, possibly due to the high costs and risks associated with developing groundbreaking new titles.

💡Development Cycle

The development cycle refers to the entire process of creating a video game, from concept and design to programming, testing, and release. The video script discusses the lengthening development cycles of some games, such as 'GTA 6', which can span several years and involve significant financial investments. This keyword is used to highlight the increasing complexity and scale of modern game development.

Highlights

Video games have come a long way in just 50-60 years, becoming a major entertainment industry.

Games like GTA 6 represent immense human achievement, with development efforts comparable to moon landings.

The rapid evolution of gaming from blocky pixels to lifelike simulations is unmatched by most other art forms.

Video games are inherently linked to computing, pushing the limits of technology since their inception.

Innovative solutions like Doom's optimization and Resident Evil's pre-rendered backgrounds exemplify gaming's technical progress.

Gaming's growth is tied to computer culture, with hardware advancements driving game development.

The iterative design process allows game studios to learn and improve from one game to the next.

Elden Ring's DLC showcases iterative design, addressing player feedback and improving on the base game.

The gaming industry's ability to learn from past projects is crucial for the creation of successful games.

Indie games have seen explosive growth, with increased resources and a competitive drive for innovation.

The ease of game development has democratized the industry, allowing anyone with an idea to create a game.

Competition in the indie scene has led to a plethora of high-quality games that push creative boundaries.

The gaming industry's sentiment has become more negative, despite objective improvements in the field.

Negativity can be a powerful tool for driving change, but it can also skew perceptions of the industry's health.

Gaming's current challenges are not new, but the industry's size and profitability have amplified them.

Despite setbacks, the gaming industry continues to push forward, driven by a passion for improvement.

The power to make gaming better lies in the hands of developers and players alike.

Transcripts

hey do you ever think about how crazy it

is that video games are only like 50

years old well 60 when you count the

experimental stuff I mean film and

animation and everything or at least

twice that and there are some art forms

like plays that go back hundreds of

years and yet a medium that might be

younger than your dad has become the

biggest most expensive technically

impressive entertainment industry in the

world games like GTA 6 are human

achievements with a number of manh hours

they're putting into that thing you

could put someone on the moon it's going

to make an amount of money so large we

don't have numbers to count it and it's

just one of many many games in

development right now it's kind of crazy

if you think about it in only the course

of not even one lifetime gaming went

from blocky pixels moving around a

screen to lifelike full open worlds and

VR simulations that tell interesting and

complex stories and have incredibly deep

and intricate gameplay that is a really

impressive feat and a level of growth

almost nothing else has ever matched and

I don't think gaming gets enough credit

for that this insanely quick progression

is even more interesting when you

realize it's essentially baked into the

medium video games since their Inception

have been heavily tied to Computing the

entire medium was basically invented by

hackers trying to test the limits of

what computers could do with games like

space war and pong being developed as

Tech demos and exercises even when games

started being sold commercially and

consoles and arcade cabinets became more

ubiquitous the games developed for them

were always pushing forward you know the

glomas and Mario only exist because they

ran out of storage space for more

enemies and just retextured a mushroom

and flipped the image back and forth to

make a walk site the fixed camera angles

in Resident Evil exist so they could

pre-render the backgrounds and save

polygons for the characters and enemies

a lot of early games were constantly

coming up with clever strategies to get

the most out of the limited Hardware

they were given one of the most famous

examples that you might know if you're

at all into PC gaming is Doom developed

by ID software and released in 1993 the

game was mostly programmed by actual

insane person Jean carac who is the

closest we will ever have to a real life

computer wizard since he decided to

optimize and beef up the engine of their

previous Wolfenstein 3D to get doomed to

run on basically anything with a chip in

it then release the source code of the

game for free in 1997 leading to people

to this day hacking everything from

Smart fridges to that shitty rabbit AI

thing to get them to play the game

contrast this with the other famous

kenet run blank game which is known for

the exact opposite reasons released in

2007 as a pretty okay Sci-Fi Action

shooter crisis isn't that memorable for

plot or gameplay I mean it's not even

the most popular franchise with cry in

the title that the studio would launch

but it does have an incredible Legacy

because for some reason krych just

decided to go [ __ ] insane when it

came to the graphics in the game pushing

them so far that crisis was nearly

impossible to run at Max settings with

consumer level Hardware it was literally

ahead of its time because you needed a

graphics card that wasn't publicly

available yet to get the most out of the

game meaning it could be used as a

benchmark for performance years after it

came out but that's the thing gaming has

always been inextricably tied to

computer culture in obvious ways like

the associations people have with

companies like Nvidia and in less

obvious ones like how the Xbox is short

for direct Xbox because it used

Microsoft's DirectX technology to make

it easier for PC developers to make

games for the console direct X

ironically being the thing you needed on

your PC for it to not explode when you

tried to run crisis and this computer

nerd drive to improve technology is

still very much around however there

have been obvious diminishing returns

over the years the leap from the PS1 to

the PS2 is bigger than the PS2 to the

PS3 which is much bigger than the PS4 to

the PS5 probably because the PS5 has no

games I mean games are still looking

better and better every year but there's

five new titles every week that look

pretty similar to the last few titles

and a lot of the big players when it

comes to Innovation take a years to

release plus older games will often get

re-released and remastered coloring our

perception of what they look like so

game to game generation to generation

it's harder to notice the Improvement as

it's happening we are inevitably

approaching a point where Hardware

upgrades and console Generations aren't

going to mean much the tools in Tech

available to game studios are already so

plentiful that many games don't use them

all but even if we're not anywhere close

to hitting that wall we're slowing down

as we approach it so to a lot of people

it's really easy to say things haven't

gotten better and speaking of things

that I want to look better uh my

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and back to the video so while I was

making my last video I finally got

around to beating the new Elden ring DLC

shadow of the earth tree and as someone

who has played through all of the big

fromsoft Souls born KIRO whatever you

want to call them games something that

immediately grabbed me is this idea of

iterative design essentially how a

studio can learn from a game they made

figure out how to improve some stuff and

put those improvements to work in the

next game or how they can find something

people really liked about one of their

games and sort of focus more on that in

the next this is something that a lot of

developers do fromsoft isn't unique here

but I do think they're really good at it

and it's been fun to see their evolution

through all of the games that I've

played one of the things that I thought

was really cool was how when ring came

out and people were struggling with

Millennia a boss that is very quick and

fluid and susceptible to parrying people

said hey this is kind of like SEO if

this was a SEO boss it would probably be

much easier and so one of the first

upgrades you can get in Shadow of the

earth tree or at least the first one you

can visibly see when you start the DLC

is something that lets you parry enemies

like seura I thought that was neat and

something that shows from soft either

listens to their fans or independently

had a similar train of thought because

you go and fight most of the bosses in

the DLC and in the main game with this

SEO ability and it's way easier

especially for someone like me who's

already played SEO and learned that

mechanic something else people like me

criticized about the main game was that

the story and NPC quest lines felt

sparse so the DLC has this very direct

story line that involves a ton of

characters who can kind of change their

ending depending on your choices people

complained about the catacombs so they

all got revamped too much bigger

dungeons that usually lead to other

areas there's just a lot of stuff where

you can tell the devs saw the

shortcomings of of the main game and it

influenced their design for the DLC now

not every addition is amazing the

complaint of overleveling in the main

game is solved with a collectible item

that still left me in the exact same

position as before where I was massively

underleveled for some bosses and then

collected all the items and steamrolled

all the other bosses except the final

boss who is a nightmare of difficulty

that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy

uh because he is my worst enemy [ __ ]

that guy but these are still iterative

decisions they are adding on to the

previous experience and trying to

improve it the level up system is an

early response to the massive challenge

of open world game design the final boss

isn't batshit hard out of nowhere it's

just harder than everything that came

before it's using all of the tools they

have at their disposal and it comes

alongside all these additional options

they've given to help you beat them like

the SEO ability if they have gone too

far which I think they have it's part of

this continual process where they can

learn from it and make a better Final

Boss Next time or even just patch this

one to to it down something they already

did with the last [ __ ] hard boss

from the main game Who coincidentally is

the same [ __ ] guy Elder ring and

Shadow of the earth tree aren't these

distinct products built in a vacuum none

of from soft's games are they're points

on a line that is trying its best to

always move upward because keep in mind

this iteration is the only reason Elden

ring exists in the first place it's the

only reason it's good or popular the

only way they'd make this big intricate

interconnected world is if people love

Dark Souls back in 2011 they're only

making making Souls like games in the

first place because people like demon

souls in 2009 and the incredible lore

and story and World design their games

are known for has been something they've

been working on since I don't know

kingsfield the point is you do not get a

game like Elden ring first try you can

assemble a talented group of people to

make something but it's going to be

really hard to replicate the success of

a team that's been working together with

the same director on the same types of

games on the same engine for over 10

years yeah all of their games are on one

custom in house engine that they've just

been adding stuff to since like 2006 by

the way there have been specific

mechanics and bosses and ideas in

fromsoft games that have gone too far or

not far enough you've gotten things like

Bed of Chaos or that [ __ ] snow level

from DS2 but the strength of a developer

who has been around for a while isn't

their ability to just make something

good first try it's in how they make

something better on the next and again

fromsoft isn't unique in this PE of the

kingdom was as good as it was because

it's the same director they've had since

Skyward Sword with the same producer

since Twilight Princess with the same

team for the last several games building

off of breath of the wild they could

only get wacky with it and include that

much content and detail because they're

not starting from scratch and that

specific idea for mashing a bunch of

parts together to make Contraptions was

something they only discovered from

people trying to do that in the last

game even ID software from back at the

beginning of the video made four

firstperson Shooters before Doom you do

not get one of the Great latest games

ever made without a hover tank one or a

catacombs 3D even John carac credits his

optimization on the Doom engine to

porting Wolfenstein 3D to the [ __ ]

Super Nintendo and trying to get that to

work so it's not a coincidence that

fromsoft and Nintendo creators of some

of the best games of the last few years

have also kept their talent around as

long as they have that they've both been

outspoken about not laying anyone off

that's kind of really important because

game development like any creative

Endeavor is an iterate process and you

need to have been able to have finished

something in order to improve on it

especially if that thing you finished

before wasn't the most successful that's

the best way you learn and I think

letting people learn is something the

industry ironically needs to learn

because without that you're not getting

any of these great games it is actually

incredible how big Indie Games have

gotten over the years I still remember

watching indie game the movie back in

2012 and seeing how cool these solo

projects were and over 10 years later

the level of quality has just has gone

up exponentially something like Super

Meat Boy or braid used to be this

award-winning achievement and now games

like Celeste and pizza Tower and animal

well or all over the place it feels like

at any point you can just pull up

steam's front page and find an indie

game release that day that's bound to oh

never mind that's anai the main couple

things that have caused this explosive

growth have been the increase in

resources inspiration and competition to

make a game by yourself back in the day

before YouTube and unity tutorials was a

Monumental task because on top top of

creating the entire thing yourself you

also had to learn everything about all

the stuff you use to make it and aside

from some textbooks explaining certain

Concepts and programming languages and

maybe documentation for the software you

were using you had nothing to go off of

so of course as all of those individual

pieces got more attention and people

willing to make tutorials and share

insights it got way easier to make a

game compounded by the fact that a lot

of these pieces like blender or Unity or

gdau got more and more open to the

public you have more options more people

willing to teach you those options and

more people working to make those

options better making your job even

easier anyone can make a game I cannot

stress that enough you need zero prior

knowledge or experience with anything

because all of it is available to you

online I went to school for 4 years to

learn how to code and design these

things but if I had spent those same

four years just grinding away at a

project I'd be so far ahead it's not

even funny also possibly not $60,000 in

debt so because anyone can make a game a

lot of people do and we have more games

than ever and the cool part about having

more games even in the AAA space where

they're so big and Technical that one

person couldn't possibly dream of

replicating them is that they all serve

as inspiration every game that comes out

is a game that then exists forever to

give you an idea to make a new one and a

lot of the best ideas are just other

ideas smashed together Harvest Moon and

pixel Graphics stardew Valley Dark Souls

Metroid Vania Hollow Knight Rog likee

Deck Builder and gambling batro none of

these are like Concepts nobody else

could ever come up with someone just had

the will to make them and they made them

really good so on top of this idea of

iteration we've discussed within one

Studio you have this whole other realm

of iteration on top of pre-existing

games from other people and that's

what's Driven a lot of the most creative

ideas and projects across all of gaming

but especially in the Indie space

because competition is so much more

Fierce now it's not just that you're

making a new game by yourself or with a

small team now you're making a game to

hopefully be better than the last one

made by one person or a small team and

you're competing with theoretically

anybody that just sits down one day and

wants to make something the bar has been

set indie game the movie is already out

there people have become billionaires

developing video games so there is all

this push and drive to get better and

better faster and faster in an

environment that is able to push things

out and evolve quicker than the big

developers can and the result for

players is just a ton of games all

coming out all the time that are

constantly improving you get games like

Hades and sefue that look like they

could be made by a studio 10 times their

size inscription and outer Wilds which

seem to permanently affect the people

who play them War Thunder which I just

found on an IGN list of top 100 indie

games above Castle Crashers who [ __ ]

wrote this thing we are getting to the

point where we're actively blurring the

definition of indie game because these

studios are getting so big that they're

getting picked up by and competing with

AAA publishers and that's an absolute

nightmare to try and argue about in the

comments of a YouTube video but it's a

blessing for the community who reap the

rewards of all of these games that are

much bigger and more expansive than ever

before so video games are getting better

technologically they're getting better

game to game and even between different

developers they're getting better as it

becomes easier to make them more people

get into the industry and competition

increases that sounds to me like things

are better than they've ever been and

yet for every positive Point I've made

you could make an equally negative one

Graphics are improving slower and slower

so companies are remastering old games

instead of focusing on new ones because

it's cheaper and makes easy money GTA 6

is taking about a decade to make with an

unhealthy long development cycle in a

rumored cost of over $2 billion just to

look as good as it does companies like

fromsoft and Nintendo are Rarities in

the current industry with bigger

competitors like Microsoft more willing

to just close an entire Studio even

after they release an award-winning game

meaning very few game devs have the AB

ility to learn and iterate on prior

releases because in all likelihood they

might just get fired after one that

competition in the Indie scene means

that if you're not grinding yourself to

the Bone to make something that can

compete with the best the industry has

to offer you might not sell enough

copies to make a living with even

high-profile developers like Jonathan

Blow re-releasing old games to terrible

sales in an attempt to get by it would

be incredibly easy for me to flip this

entire video on its head and scare you

by bringing up all the problems

surrounding the industry tell you how

all these good things are actually bad

and that's common territory for videos

like this to get into I've ended many

videos on my channel in a similar way

but now I really want to ask why because

the one part of gaming that I think

certainly feels like it's getting worse

lately is sentiment how people are

talking about the industry and the way

we're discussing it online that feels

demonstrably more negative than it was

even a few years ago you've got constant

videos and tweets and articles saying

gaming is dead this studio is ruined

this franchise isn't the same anymore

just a never-ending stream of people

saying that things are worse than ever

and it's really frustrating to see that

when they're often not like just

recently I saw a tweet regarding hell

divers 2 big game you might have heard

about it absolutely took over the

Internet for a while and this tweet was

saying that the game had completely

fallen off quote it is truly astounding

how a company turned their game of the

year Contender into a desolate Wasteland

in just 6 months and that's just wrong

hell divers 2 has an active daily player

base of over 38,000 people every day

that is what it's had for months the

game is still one of the most active on

all of steam but it had a balance patch

that some people didn't like so they

have to talk about the game like it's

dying in fact that's a very common way

to speak about a game you don't like to

say it's dead because it doesn't have

anyone playing it something people

repeat so much you'd think there was a

problem with games retaining Their

audience yet in 2019 the number of games

on steam with over 10,000 active daily

players was about 26 in 2024 that number

is over 100 so again the sentiment of

gaming feels much worse than the

problems actually are and the actual

problems are much older and more common

than you might think need I remind you

the developers featured in indie game

the movie have been on record to say

they often worked so hard they forgot to

eat because indie game development in

2009 was so stressful and competitive

the gaming industry had so many layoffs

leading into 2012 that news outlets

compiled lists of companies and

employees affected in the same way they

made a chart in 20123 and the tally was

over 11,000 people and drives to push

Graphics forward have been expensive

risky Endeavors since Final Fantasy 7

spent $21 million on just hardware for

the game which is still to this day one

of the most expensive ever made none of

these problems are new you can say that

they've gotten worse recently but you

can also say that the industry has just

gotten much larger games are more

profitable so they get bigger budgets

and more time to make them there's more

people working in the industry to lay

off more Indie success stories to hear

Tales of crunch from now that doesn't

mean these aren't problems it doesn't

mean they're not bad in fact these

issues being so prevalent for so long

should probably tell you we need to fix

them but none of this is evidence that

gaming is dead or getting worse and yet

people keep on saying that because we

really underestimate how powerful

negativity is getting someone to feel a

negative emotion is one of the most

effective ways you can get them to care

about something to get them to act in my

case I like to talk about issues in

different Industries and bring awareness

to them and get people invested you

might not give a [ __ ] about game

developers but if I show you a game you

liked and how hard people worked on it

and how bad they got treated and how the

studio got shut down well now suddenly

you might care a little bit and getting

you to care can get you to act when

another Studio needs support or when

workers go on strike or when greedy

Executives do something bad and people

should go after them now that's my

reasoning to use negative emotion to

persuade people and everyone does it

it's not an inherently bad thing but it

can be used for a bad purpose you can

have reasons to use it that aren't great

especially on social media where it gets

you more attention views and followers

the more negative you are you know 15K

likes on a tweet that isn't even true

people have realized that they can get

more attention to their cause if they

tell you that everything is [ __ ] and

the industry is dying and developers

hate you and you need to stop them so

that's the fuel for so many discussions

online it's the secret sauce behind a

lot of the discourse keep people feeling

bad because it's the best way to get

them on your side and this is why

sentiment feels like it's getting even

worse even if everything else is getting

better when you look at gaming from a

bird's eye view over a several year time

span it's a very positive trend it's a

line going up with dips and Dives here

and there but ultimately a lot of

improvement but when you zoom in on any

specific moment in time of course you're

going to find tons of issues and

problems and scary trends that seem very

threatening especially when you're

living through them and the sort of

paradox of it all is that these issues

can be very real and just because things

might get better anyways doesn't mean we

shouldn't try to fix it right now it

doesn't mean we shouldn't care but we

also shouldn't let the negativity

consume us we shouldn't spend every

waking moment stressing out about this

thinking the whole world is falling

apart because there's only so much we

can do and too many bad emotions can

just lead to us giving up entirely being

negative about the industry can

ironically be used in a very positive

way I don't think we should just stop

using it entirely even if such a thing

were possible but I do think we should

be more aware of how we're using it and

we should definitely be more aware of

how others are using it against us

because it can color our perception over

time make us think things are worse than

they really are so to answer the

question of is gaming better than ever I

think yeah personally it is but I don't

think it's better because Graphics are

prettier or games are more complex or

studios are more plentiful I think it's

better because we have the power to make

it better we've always had the power to

make it better and I've seen firsthand

that when you give people that power

they'll use it and they have used it

despite the issues and the problems and

the scary Trends they've used that power

and pushed forward they've worked toward

the common goal that we all have to make

this the best space it can possibly be

and I don't think that's going to change

anytime soon