She’s actually a nice person in Private, and her story is kind of sad. The role she portrays in TV is fake of course. But because of childhood trauma, she can’t find peace and tries to compensate with financial success
I work in indie games. We have low overhead and can make games for a smaller group of people. It’s easier to target smaller groups and I think the healthy indie scene is directly related to triple A alienating the players
Agree. Aspiring indie dev here, and indie games have so much more room to be passion projects. Compared to AAA titles being pretty much investors pleasure tools. Although I’ve found out during some testing, that sometimes the best feedback comes from people who would normally never play your game. Sometimes we’re so caught up into doing something that we don’t notice the obvious. Plus, getting to impress those same people comes with quite the satisfaction. AAA devs should try to do that. Innovate enough to impress new players, while still keeping the core intact. Best of luck in your development career!
Does it payoff financially nowadays? I was out of the industry for a while, and somehow I thought that gamedev is stifled overall and that in general it's really unreliable as a career. At least more so than before.
I pretty much only play indie games now. AAA games have gotten really tiring for me. Either the writing has become too safe in an effort to be appealing to everyone (Veilguard) or the games have just gotten so big it feel like a chore to play through them (Ubisoft games). I played Balatro and Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and man, it's so refreshing to play a game that knows exactly what it wants to be. In an effort to hook in everyone, AAA industry has alienated everyone. When I look at incoming AAA titles everyone is doomposting about them. Mass Effect 5, everyone is already convinced that game will have the worst "power of friendship defeats evil" writing and most boring cutesy UwU disney companions and the game isn't even out yet. People complaining this much about games that are in pre-production just signals to me that people are done with AAA games. A golden opportunity for indie devs.
It's just as it's always been, someone's win is someone else's loss. As a gamer, in my eyes for the last decade triple A had almost nothing worthwhile to offer. Indies, on the other hand, have a room to experiment and innovate, and their games are usually pretty affordable for what they offer, but I've gotta say, their obsession with overly pixelated visuals has made them less appealing option over time.
Side Scrollers podcast brought me here. It is so refreshing to hear a mature, nuanced take from someone who's a veteran of the industry. Thank you for validating the gaming community's concerns, Laura. At the end of the day, we just want fun games, not Microtransaction-ridden, broken/unpolished, grindy, agenda-pushing software that resemble video games.
@@MrDakoldI have to imagine they won't pick on Laura, since she's not really calling out any one developer by name. Yeah, she's using Veilguard as an example for her ed-oo piece but NO ONE is defending DA:V so its good.
>This lady sounds like she actually knows what she's talking about, let me look her up >A MobyGames page, nice >Executive producer on Gears of War 1 and 2, dang, nothing to sneeze at >Hey, she's also credited for Shadow of Mordor and War in the North >Me and a buddy of mine actually enjoyed going through War in the North in coop, a bit underrated, that one Aight, that's a good reason for me to sub.
@@laurafryer6321It's messed up that wizard of the Coast started a war with bioware to make their games, starting with Baldur's Gate 3 and next Exodus who is to replace mass effect. This is nothing new as Overwatch was created to destroy the release of a game who was known as paladin. We're not just puppets, the companies see the customers as an obstacle who is to do what they want to earn profit at the same time other companies creating the illusion that there are opinions of free people but in the end when money is involved there is no freedom of the people or their voices heard since everything is about what they can get out of it by doing what the puppetmaster demand them to do. Children don't see it since they have no money or any way to earn it, the child is given money and doesn't earn it and this credit based system of learned behavior is itself creating a zombie society who at the same time see no reason to continue living if the result is not earned. It is why these reward systems who provided a short time reward has a long time penalty on the society since life is short. The game industry itself doesn’t need the customers since if we would look at the numbers, the costs exceed what the customers earn in wages.
@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 No. And to back up my "No.", do you want to explain to me how WEBFISHING became such a huge hit? Pretty sure it has all of those "Woke" things in it that you hate. Yet it's a huge seller.
it's basically just narcissism: better be onboard with the toxic positivity...or else. better not exist as an independent, autonomous entity, but instead be integrated into the "machine" as one of it's many fronts...or else. you must exist as part of the machine to tell everyone how good the machine is. you must become the machine.
@@victorkreig6089 More like investor strategies and 3rd party R&D groups. Streamlining it until it broke. People now learn "to game" from university lectures. Its surreal, zero passion from the start.
i think the industry most likely has open minded people like Laura but perhaps aren't in position to make the difference needed. Whether is a job title or a cultural issue inside a company where you are unable to ask and receive constructive criticism. If you are able to give constructive criticism you also have to give out praise when its deserved as well. I think sometimes people can get stuck in a situation where it seems to need to be eithe/or. In reality both ideas should be present. Just because you expect a team to perform a certain way doesn't mean you don't praise them for expected results. This is what leadership looks like to me. Being able to navigate a "tight rope" of keeping the team focused without seemingly having everyone on the edge of insanity.
she didnt even introduce herself in the begining of the video, all she did was let the record show. It feels so refreshing and I think that just says to people like us who are feeling this way that we been on this fuckin thing too long. We gotta go outside
Am I blind? The majority of the stuff she is showing or saying has no sources anywhere? Which does make it seem like a video made 10 years ago I guess?
@@francisxavier8374 The sale figures show you how factual it is and when you would listen, you would literally hear and see the sources. Or do you need a link for everything, where people speak out everything in the most literal way?
That has to be the best gaming channel I've ever found, a person with actual experience, not chasing for controversy, is just talking about game industry insights from their experience - no PR bullshit, no excuses, pure knowledge. I'm probably too old to have fun listening to whiny grifters, while most of them know literally nothing about making games. Much love from fellow person working in this industry, I rarely subscribe to any channel, but this one captured my heart!
It's completely surreal. They operate these multi-million dollar studios and marketing machines like petty children in a lunchroom. My serious question is, who is letting these people in? Why are they even being hired in the first place?
It comes from disconnect. They don't talk to their audience, so they don't care about them. The facelessness of the modern entertainment industry is one of the things killing it. It comes at no surprise that some of the best comedians, artists, game makers and musicians today are also people who interact with their audience and are humble and thankful. The worst people in the industry today are the entitled ones who think they're guaranteed success, and any failures they see are the fault of their audience "for not seeing their genius."
Yeah I remember when people were unhappy when they found out about the lack of worldstate importing, some of the writers were incredibly smug about the decision and really condescending and aggressive towards fans of the games. They could’ve just said nothing at all.
It's the natural consequence of big companies treating their investors like customers and their customers like serfs. It only works if the customers actually are serfs.
@jetrexdesign The audience is just as disconnected from the games industry though. You have people demanding features from games with 5 times the budget be in smaller games just because it was already done before, so obviously somehow the knowhow for implementing the feature has spread through the entire game development industry.
Thank you again Laura for your insights . Can't stress enough how much we appreciate you . Game makers like You were the reason why games from 10 and 20 years ago were so brilliant. It is so unfortunate to see the gaming industry is literally chasing its own tails while living in a bubble.
Journalists are either one of three categories: “I went to Gaza uncover Israel’s war crimes” Or “The government [or private entity] is incapable of doing any wrong. Please donate to Raytheon, they are suffering financially as their stock price went down 0.1%” Or “Video game too hard”
AAA games are named after the bond credit rating indicating the lowest possible risk, basically a guaranteed ROI, so should these games really be called that? 🤔
I agree with the points in the video, but would also point to a change in revenue structure. In the past, a studio had to ship a complete experience, and got paid one time for the sale. Now, the slot-machine-ification of the revenue stream pushes studios to ship incomplete experiences that the player is hooked into following and paying for over time. There's a phrase to describe a bad relationship: "tolerable level of unhappiness." The game studio delivers that, with enough mental hooks to keep the player subscribed or buying mounts. That only succeeds when players have ongoing disposable income. Raise the price of housing and food, and there's less money for in-game purchases.
I agree with you! The revenue model changed and the economy has gone through some struggles..not a good situation for entertainment. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
@@tristanward9937 Unless it's an online game you want to play with friends why would you? In my entire life I think I've only paid full price for one non Nintendo title and that was BG3.
@@D.KRyley-mq1do because I was a fool. No, I've learned to not do it and stay patient. The game industry has taken such a turn for the worse. Unfinished games are full of microtransactions.
Great perspective. I’ve felt for a long time that traditional games journalists no longer represent me as a gamer, I don’t care about their opinions, and instead watch a small selection of independent reviewers who have similar taste to mine; I never pre-order games or buy them until I’ve seen a review or two. Sadly, the industry has become a victim of its own success, and AAA devs now serve their shareholders before their customers. The latest trend of using games as a social political platform for a few in house devs with a grudge to bear, and companies who are terrified of them, is very frustrating. A market correction is probably what the industry needs, to get back to the core of simply making fun games, by gamers for gamers, as the cliche goes.
"If you treat the customer like an 'enemy'; They will become your enemy." ~ An Obsidian Software developer (can't remember his name) in a random interview.
@@minx8334, Well, if it was him; He's certainly changed his tone. As now he's gone on an unhinged rant attacking the players over Avowed. Look up Smash JT's vid on that.
@@burgir250 dude he made a light hearted comment basically saying it would be good to have art from different backgrounds because a lot of the people he had worked with were coming from the same place and some people on twitter decided he must mean that his company has a 'no whites' policy and that he should be subject to legal proceedings
I love your videos. Education, well spoken, and enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time to post things like this to TH-cam. Someone of your experience and tenure normally do not post these things to media like TH-cam and I'm thankful that you do.
Showing Todd Howard when talking about the star power of devs was perfect. If he were a car salesman, he would slap the roof of a Honda hanging in by duct tape and staples, and tell you it's a Ferrari. His star power went straight to his head, and became the final boss of toxic positivity.
just a second, lets be honest here people are defending stalker 2 for the same reasons they attacked starfield i encountered a single, one bug while playing starfield and everyone shouted "send it back, send it back" stalker 2 has myriads and people are now saying "of course they shouldn't delay the launch to fix the bugs or gamebreaking ai issues like respawn or creatures absorbing literal kilograms of ammo to the face without flinching" i found starfields space refreshing after being bombarded with everything every two steps in fallout 4, heck even skyrim was overpopulated and do you remember how buggy those games were on release? sure, one can argue that it is because i am used to arena and daggerfall and morrowind but they did specify from the start that starfield will be like those games, empty on average dude didn't fail me yet, what he said is what i got and i like it i like it almost as much as i like elite dangerous if you want to talk about "star power", talk about roberts dude took 700M for a game that is almost unplayable and not even out of the alpha stage on pure star power, because we raged as teens playing his wing commander, watching mark hamil on the screen as a pilot, reliving those glory days of seeing episode 4 for the first time on the silver screen my gen paid him a ton of money for nothing at least todd gives me a game and doesn't ask for money in advance, before it even started the dev cycle
@@sakatababa I don't really track the comparison you make here, as I've never played Stalker 2, but from the perspective of someone who has played Starfield, I didn't see people waving red flags because 1 single bug was identified - in fact the issue with Starfield was never about bugs - it's more stable, less crash prone than most BGS titles I've played previously - the issues with it have been much more diverse, from lack of tangible impact the player character has on the universe, to the childish, earnest dialogue, to an overwrought gaming engine the structure of which makes it nigh-impossible for Modders to genuinely improve the game in a fundamental way - and BGS clearly went in with the strategy that they could reduce overheads and shorten deadlines by relying upon Modders to produce a finished product for them for free post-release. There's a lot to criticize regarding SF. The bugs aren't even in the top 5 of issues.
I thought i knew a bit but I never understood why booth babes existed till now and you explained it so quickly and truthfully without condemning them for it
I always thought it was sexy is good advertising and making a attempt to have games seems more mature as a way to try distance themselves away from Mario and sonic video games are Toys for kids narratives. Them not being able to answer in dept questions was probably a good bonus
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It was a scheme by the corporations, to avoid accountability. But gaming urinalists and the same corporations used it to attack gamers when they went on their activist crusade. Pure evil
@@shaneriggs6678The question about Mario's brother and their answers makes me think that they were probably told not to answer any questions. Who doesn't know who Luigi is?
great video Laura. and about people not buying the games, well they say "if you dont like the game, dont buy it" and then when we/people dont buy the game then they start to blame people and calling them all kinds of fobes and ists words. and that hurts the gaming industry even more. they are in their own little bubble and they cant accept that others dont like what they have created. and when they then speak about their games, its all about "i see myself in this person and i wanted to have that feeling that i matter" its all about themself, they are so narcissistic. that its sad to see.
Hey why don't all the cool game developpers all gather around and start a funding campain to make video games i am pretty sure many right wingers, people in the center and even many in the leftwing would fund anyone who wants to make great games like we had in the 90's and early 2000's
“many right wingers, people in the center and even many in the left wing” So, everyone then? No need to look at this through a political lens at all lol
At this point it seems like Marty is the only person in games media who is openly interested in games. He always talks about halo. He always comments under halo fan content and takes part in interviews. And he’s always discussing games media besides not even working in it anymore (unless there’s a secret project you want to tell us about 👀) I never see any other public game dev this involved. Maybe they’ll tweet bad things about fromsoft or complain the halo community being toxic after releasing yet another unfinished game. But that’s about it.
because it makes everyone working on a project feel convinced they are making something great, something everyone will appreciate (within the bubble). Once that gets outside of the bubble it fails instantly.
@@nenadmilovanovic5271 For working in this industry, yes toxic positivity is a bad thing. Even more present in NA than in Europe though, cause here is NA ''you can' tell people this is shit'' you know..
Came here to post a similar comment - I've seen a big increase in performance reviews being peer reviews with a manager just collating these which I think contributes to the overall fake positivity within tech companies. There is a real fear of saying the wrong thing and being retaliated against, it's much safer to rate things favourably, as collective failure is more appealing than being singled out for straying from the herd.
@@victorkreig6089 Still the result is ''toxic''. Prevents individuals growth (artists and designers) as well as company growth by proposing better products. Nobody is looking at themselvs in the mirror, and as said in the comment above yours, every body pays every body fore the hard work, not the good work. They work hard, still do shit, they get praised by managers. It's wrong and toxic cause you can't say anything otherwise you get ''blacklisted''.
Laura Fryer drops a video you know some hard truths are coming. It makes me sad executives like her have vanished from the industry. So many avoidable failures from games companies making games without an audience in mind! How many dragon age players want their fantasy game to sound like a millennial teen drama?
Logically and historically speaking, the video game industry is basically going through another 1983 crash but because it has gotten so big and spread to multiple platforms, the much needed pitfall where excess fat can be cut and hard lessons which developers & publishers can learn from doesn't exist.
@@Runefrag People who think tone isn’t important should take a look at Gears of War. That game nailed it-everything from the lighting and game design to the characters and dialogue had a consistent tone. Nowadays, most games can’t pull that off. Take Redfall, for example. It’s supposed to be a horror game, but there was zero effort to make it actually scary.
Millennial teen drama is even doing it too much credit. This is a fantasy game with culture/lingo and social conditioning relevant for 2024 lol. Not sure what they were thinking.
The combination of incredibly high budgets and really long development cycles is also another thing that is causing problems. In the past when a game took close to 10 years to make it was a sign that was going through development hell, swapping from developer to developer, like Duke Nukem Forever. 12 years for that game to come out. Now we hear games taking close to a decade to be made and it's like it's getting normalized now. Sure delays may occur and of course a delayed game will be better than a rushed game, but there comes a point where devs have to stop and ask themselves if they're not taking too long or spending too much on the game. Concord took 8 years to develop and aleggedly cost between 200 and 400 million dollars to make, and if it was 400, without taking into account marketing and studio acquisitions, it puts that game on the top 5 most expensive games of all time as of now, which is an absolutely insane amount of money! That's the type of money that can last you for generations, more money than any normal person would even be able to hold and they spend that money like it's just some change they found on the back of the couch, or at least it's the idea they give off, and spend way too much time to make the game at this point as well. Making a game is no easy task, but taking more than half a decade to make one at this point, to me, just tells me the game is just not gonna be worth it.
You're right! The other challenge with the long time frames is that it's difficult for people to get experience. I was shipping a game a year at the start and working on several projects at once. It allowed me to learn rapidly. I can't imagine only shipping a couple games in 10 years. Thank you for your comment!
@@laurafryer6321 thank you for your reply! Have been loving your videos as it is always fun and interesting to watch and hear about these insights regarding industry trends and how it's working right now from an industry veteran. And yes you are right, being stuck on the same project for a long time really does stiffle growth and experience since you're just working on one project for a long time and not moving on to something else, which creates stagnation. Of course rapid firing game after game in a year or even less is not ideal too, can be a messy process overall, but something like a 2, 3 or 4 year dev cycle shouldn't be too bad I think.
a game taking more than 6 years used to be a sign that(if it hadn't changed developers at all) it was going to be good. Yes scopes of games are rapidly changing despite being more and more empty with each added square mile, but the issue has become the valleys that come between the peaks of enjoyable gameplay A perfect example of this is Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma II, in the original it was quite large for it's time and was only about 70% done when the published pushed it out the door. The sequel was supposed to be everything the creator of the original had wanted that first game to be but time constraints and tech wouldn't allow it, yet the sequel despite having relatively the same sized map and a good deal more time for development and staff has made a game that feels far more empty than the original ever was despite it's unfinished state. The valleys are pretty big and they aren't very enjoyable forcing you to hunt around for the peaks which is terrible for any game that is based on exploration. The scope of games are becoming unmanageable, and it is going to cause MANY titles that should be excellent to just be mediocre at best. The newest Zelda game comes to mind despite using the majority's previous assets and even map being one of the most boring games I have ever seen
The other issue with longer development cycles are the passing of trends. We saw that with Concord. When it finally launched, many hero shooters had come and gone and the market had shifted. I think something similar happened with Veilguard. It’s a good game but you can tell Marvel heavily influenced the writing, and people have grown sick of Marvel’s brand of storytelling recently.
Omg. I had my eyes closed listening and was thinking. “I miss totalbiscuit”. Then I opened my eyes and saw “Totalhalibut” in the kill feed. Ohhh I’m gonna shed tears
How I miss the 90s and 00s era of gaming. I never thought it was going to crash like it is nowadays. Games are definitely not what they used to be and to a point I kind of regret becoming a video game artist. It is almost impossible to get a job and let alone sustain it. The industry feels dead at this point.
I'm sorry to hear that. I'm hopeful that it will turnaround. Most people I've worked with in games just want to do what they love and make enough to take care of their family. Thank you for your comment.
I don’t think games are declining overall, but the good games are more spread out because the industry is bigger. Marketing no longer correlates with quality, you have to look for the good stuff. But the oversaturation is itself a huge problem. You can make a great game and still have it flop against so much equally great competition. That’s why it’s at least good when bad games fail - it leaves more room for people to support better ones.
What crash? Games today are significantly better than they were in that era. That was the brown and bloom era and there was an ocean of garbage to wade through before getting to the good stuff. The big issue is there's so much out there it's becoming harder and harder to find a game that appeals to you personally.
On behalf of gamers: Laura, we need more like you! We love your videos, and we wish you could re-educate the entire industry. Funnily enough, Hollywood is in dire need of this same philosophy your preach, and a return to its own roots: making Art, not just "content".
Thank you! I appreciate your support! Hollywood has definitely been struggling as well. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to change.
You are genuinely the finest source of games journalism these days. I am continually impressed by the quality of your work and professionalism of your demeanor. Thank you so much!
I can understand the temptation because a lot of gamers are proudly toxic in online spaces, but they clearly represent an absolute minority; most gamers don't voice their opinions about games on social media. There's obviously bound to be some bitter feelings when you spend years of your life developing a flop, so turning that lens inwards and realizing you made preventable mistakes takes introspection, maturity, and the genuine desire to seek out the truth
@BboyCustomz Sorry, but you have it all backwards. It was years of developers calling gamers all sorts of insults for changing lore to push a message (inauthentic to the characters/universe) and just insulting them in general. Do that enough and people aren’t gonna take it likely and be a lot more careful about what recognizable patterns lead to bad/compromised games or just rude devs. Sometimes that goes beyond what might be a sign, but they might be more paranoid because those years of pattern recognition were right 9 times out of 10. People like to claim “death threats” all the time, and that they get “so many” of them, and almost never show them despite claiming getting a ton. And who even thinks they’re credible anyway? It’s just a bunch of losers, denigrated by both sides. It’s like claiming you’ll get rich because a Nigerian Prince emailed you. “Death threats” is an easy tactic to divert people away from whatever is going on, and sometimes to be defensive on their behalf. It’s a “get out of jail” free card. In terms of Ghosts of Yotei (since that’s clearly what you’re referring to… in theory, I don’t think a voice actor’s opinion _necessarily_ matters because they don’t make the game. But that’s kind of 10-15 years out of date. These days, having an outspoken activist involved in your project is an omen for what to expect in the final product. Because studios are looking to fill more checkboxes than ever before, and if they’re hiring someone who’s confrontational/abrasive to represent their project, than what does that say about the people making it and how it could turn out? People see what looks like an in-your-face narcissist, and expecting the whole “if you don’t like A it’s because you’re XYZ” shtick that actors have trotted out for a while now. I will say, while people aren’t optimistic about how she might act with fans, that much should be reserved until she does (idk if she has). But some people are already blocked without even interacting, likely because of a blocklist. So that’s not a good first impression either. Especially since civil disagreement is enough to get you on one just because you don’t tow a party line.
@@LordVader1094 This. Go on tf2 right now and play a match, do even remotely well. And normal actual human interaction will happen. Problem is the current net has also become a bubble of mainstream real life integration. The idea the net is MEANT to be disconnected from normal social rules and struggles of life is lost on these people. That why they put their names, faces out there and then act like social interaction here should have the same weight as talking in real life. It's basically the age of doing it for free HR right now. Everywhere this mentality goes, actual comradery and communication dies. It's sterilization. Play a game where you can really talk with people - tf2 again being a good exmaple of this - and random bouts of unrestrained, bickering and insults/ threat and jokes fly at around constantly. But the modern net is basically a project ot bring the very world it was good at getting away from into it. But faster and more vapid. In short: the net which was once an place for outcast and thought, had become a place for the shallow normie who wants to make it into a overly polite corporate watering hole where you share affirmations and petty gossip. Gaming has been under the same effect, as really all things that used to be a part of genuine, hidden, authentic but ugly human powered projects. As always: authentic people build the games, make the communities, be the fans, and the pretentious social shamers and controllers come in and try to control it at their expense. Then after them, corpos and state come in and try to control it both of their expenses after them.
I really dont understand how the games industry doesn't understand how markets work. Basic rule is you sell what people (the markets) wants. How can any intelligent person think that telling people what they want then trying to force feed it to them could ever be successful. Its heartening to see that there are people like Laura in the industry that are super talented, super successful and completely get it. Probably there are a lot more but can't speak out. Been reading a lot of the comments and really nice to see Laura replying to so many of them in such a positive and nice way, a truly genuine person. She has my sub for that. Happy new year all
Laura, you just gained a sub. It’s so refreshing to have someone talk calmly, openly and honestly instead of engaging in ridiculous culture war rhetoric.
Craig from Side Scrollers pointed me at your channel. This is good stuff, so I subscribed. Keep it up, and when the detractors show up, don't let them scare you into changing what you do or how you do it. Your experience and insight are invaluable in these interesting times.
Budgets are way too high. Companies should be asking themselves for each proposed project, "Is there a market for this? If so, who is the market? How big is the market?" and proceed accordingly. It seems like they throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a game and then use marketing to try and appeal to a vague omni-market that doesn't exist.
Part of it is due to taking too much time, I think. For example, Concord might’ve made sense back in 2016 when it first started development. Overwatch proved successful and had a $40 price tag. Plus, “woke” stuff was all the rage then. But in the 8 long years it took for Concord to be fully made, the gaming landscape had long changed. Hero shooters are everywhere, majority of which (including Overwatch) are free to play, and there’s been serious backlash towards the frankly ugly character designs that Concord pushed for. It might’ve been a fine release in 2016, but it was a terrible release for 2024.
@@gameragodzilla I don't think it would've even worked in 2016. There's so much fanart, cosplay, and edits of Apex and Overwatch characters because people think they look cool. Can you imagine any world where people cosplay Concord characters on their own, without getting paid?
@ True, but at least back during that time, the Tumblrinas and “art fixers” were more commonplace. All the Western comic books during that time had ugly ass characters too. But by 2024, the backlash has fully set in.
The owner of the company lies to investors that the game will be successful. An investor gives hundreds of millions of dollars to a company. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being thrown at the salaries of the CEO and legion of managers, 95% of the game's funding goes here. Using the remaining money and hiring freelancers from India, they make a crude, crap game. At the last moment, a woman and a gay man are added to the game. Players complain about the fact that there is a woman and a gay in the game, and not about the fact that the game is crude and bad. Boom! You can tell investors that the game failed because of toxic players. Give us money for a new game, it will definitely be successful. This is how it works now. Greetings from a gaming employee.
From my own experience as someone that has been working in the gaming industry for 15 years I can say that the main problem the industry have right now is an INSANE level of disconnection between the people in charge of pitching games and the actual market. These people have the most inane ideas and concepts, often more focused on how to sell the idea at someone that don't know anything about gaming (ie publishers) rather than on coming up with a GAME idea, focused on fun and gameplay. And since we live now in a "toxic positivity" era in the industry, where it's basically impossible to give any negative feedback to anything, ESPECIALLY if that thing is draped in the ultra progressive politic (as most of thos "made to sound good to publisher" pitch are), nobody ever stand up and challenges these idea. And this is how we end up with 200+ million dollar project built on obviously awful ideas.
Thank you for your comment! You make a great point! There are many decision makers and investors that don't have the experience they need to know what might appeal to gamers.
I believe you when you say "toxic positivity era" because I could see glimpses of it in Veilguard's writing, especially dialogue writing. The weird lingo used by the video game industry is slipping into video games. The nuance, conflict and moral ambiguity in writing is disappearing. Good guys are good and bad guys are bad and that's the end of it. Because that's the world video game writers are living in. We used to have games that were both progressive in its themes and had characters that talk to each other like normal people so I don't think this has anything to do with progressivism.
"toxic positivity" doesn't exist in my company but after each playtest, however bad is the feedback we give, the producers don't give a damn and keep going with their initial ideas and vision. At some point I just understood that they like to ship failures and it doesn't matter to them as they are big veteran producers it doesn't impact them, they'll just jump on their net project to ruin. The ones paying the price of their mistakes are the ones making everything, following orders and being burned out by working on something they can see failing from miles away.
@AzureusRising Thiiiiis. THIS is the most tragic part of this whole situation. I absolutely believe there were a ton of "peasant" developers, doing the real work on the game that knew there was a problem. They maybe even tried to communicate some changes. But corporate is the same in every industry, and they would be threatened into silence by whatever idiot executive wants to die on the hill of their awful idea, instead of fixing it into something good.
I can't believe I skipped over this video so many times because I thought I had already watched many people talk about the gaming bubble. I wasn't expecting such an interesting excursion through time and someone with such a cool portfolio having a rather small subscriber count. Defnitly subscribed. Awesome video.
Accurate. I tried posting this to the Dragon Age subreddit. The subreddit is in 'lockdown mode' to preserve the echo chamber. Everything has to be manually approved. Mods manually removed this video without giving any reason.
The gamer side of it is so confusing to me, too, because like....... people CAN have different opinions on things, why is it so offensive to people to hear other people voicing their opinion?
Came here from Side Scrollers discussing your video. It's a breath of fresh air to hear from an industry vet giving a behind the scenes look at what happened to the games industry and how it became a shell of it's former self. To warn you, there's corporate sycophants out there who will find this video and call you a grifter because you're not towing the line. We real gamers are on your side.
Nice SmashJT is here. This woman here is a badass game producer she was the reason why we had brilliant games from decades ago , we need more grummz and Lauras in the gaming industry !
Thank you, Laura! Thank you for bringing light to these dark times. Everyone is afraid to speak out, but having you here addressing this issue is exactly what we need! I’d say the industry needs more people like you, but not long ago, it had them-they were simply driven out by investors, poor culture, and toxic teams.
and Professionalism in general. The current activist developers are a complete opposite. Not all, but the most vocal of them gives you the stigma or pattern recognition.
The problem: The game industry has become a normal business. Completely normal -- NO. It is a business with HUGE profits. This of course tips the stock market of. They want those huge profits. Automatically, mechanically, calculable. They do not want to wait for inspiration or new ideas -- they want blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster. Just try to make this with art. Tell the artists to produce an even better piece of art every month, an even more successful peace of art. Game development is art. But it is not regarded as art -- it is regarded like another factory filled with machines in which the next iPhone is put together.
It really explains why the industry is struggling, when the studio doesn’t hit the monetary goals that the company wants they layoff the people that turn out the games. When you loose that talent, you loose quality, interest from gamers, more money, and then more jobs are lost. OG Nintendo had higher-ups take pay-cuts when the Wii-U had its large flop in the sales. No one lost their job, and they picked themselves up to create the Switch.
A child playing a game for the first time can not say one picture is better than the other and even back then games were shipped in poor quality to submerge expectations.
@@cameronsalmon1314I'm glad you brought up Nintendo. They are a corporation like any other, but they realized where their survival actually comes from: their workers, their talent. They still have their oldest developers/programmers around to teach the new people they hire. That's so invaluable. The companies who constantly purge their senior devs to pad their bonuses every year are just gutting themselves. Like a farmer who slaughters the chickens for meat, then wonders why he has no eggs.
This is everything wrong with every captures art industry. The suits want to standardize creativity, and it's the one thing you CANT. That's why they really like AI. An opportunity to standardize creativity.
a lot of the time I click on videos like this and it's some young person with an outside perspective no more informed than my own. love to see someone who's been in the business speaking about this validating what we've all been feeling
Thank you for making this! All very true. There's a reason I only trust a handful of people online to give an honest review. Also really hoping E-Day is what it looks like, exactly what we've been asking for!
11:04 well, they do not take risks. They cannot take risks, because the organization and finances of a giant corporation does not like risks. Indie developers take risks.
The CEO cannot take risk, because their bonus, salary tied only with the pleased shareholder ,so better prepares for golden parachutes now while Im still in position, why bother with IP, company and developer future
A lot of people say that Mass Effect 3 is when a lot of developers decided that they couldn't handle "gamers" any more and no longer respected what their paying customers thought about them.
I believe that is when the cracks start showing and it was the start of blame the gamers, use fandom to attack those that didn't like their decisions. Again, you can only do it for so long, because the fandom they were using started to see that they suffered as well, because they cared even more so when the games are no longer made for them, we get 2024. When AAA games fail , when no one is buying products due to brand anymore and they actually want a good game to enjoy. Just look at STALKER 2 , sold a million in a few days that number would have been bigger if the game was bug free, but it's understandable since Ukraine is a warzone, and many of their developers had to pack up and leave home. And we have Dragon Age struggling to make over 1 million copies.
Maybe that's true, but doesn't the fact that Bioware went back and made an extended ending for ME3 (after fan backlash) prove that at least Bioware still cared (at that point)?
@@faynarawn4164 they did it due to the massive negativity, and it didn't address any of the main issues, it was a band aid on the cracks, then they forgot all about it right after they pitted the fandom against each other. It is the beginning of blaming the Gamers.
Craig at Side Scrollers brought me here. This video appears to be honest assessment based on years of work experience, which is refreshing to see. Thanks for all your hard work!
It feels to me publishers and their sea of executives are having the worst impact on gaming. They want reliable money makers, not to put a good game into the world. So we get stuff like microtransactions, lootboxes, heartless dlc's, and cosmetics that once upon a time were just unlocked in game by completing challenges.
I am glad youtube recommended me this channel and video. "Nature is healing" I saw you other vid title "gaming Renaissance" and I think I get that vibe too! It is almost like a cyclical thing where something nice grows gets corrupted then becomes bad then fixed and imporved over and over!
Here from Sidescrollers. What a thoughtful, well-reasoned explication of what is wrong with the current gaming industry (publishers, developers and so-called journalists). "[Game devs] aren't reflecting on what they can do better. Instead, they are attacking the people that they want to sell their games to. It is not a winning strategy." Well said, Laura! It reminds me of how 90's U.S. car companies tried to shame people by saying "Buy American". It didn't work because people wanted a good product and the big two weren't providing that.
Thanks for this, it's nice to hear a more detailed explanation from the inside.. And from someone with INTEGRITY. Seriously you deserve 10x the subs at a minimum!
Dragon Age early reviews were straight up propaganda nothing in the game was return to form and most of the staff that made the dragon age series left so what we got was just a generic game
The bubble is already popping. Every game they make and prop up fails. Every indie game that they seek to condemn for giving players what they want succeeds.
@@Dragon_Lairthat is correct, the at the point of having it obvious that the emperor has no clothes and they bet on a cultural shift and modern audience that doesn't exist at numbers to support or justify their games, gaming journalism has effectively lost their reputation and influence over the audience since they published the gamers are dead articles happened so they are closer to a parasite who gets money but offers nothing to gaming studios. Who really care about if a games journalist gives a game a good or negative review anymore, heck if anything a positive review from games journalist is a red flag that the game going to be preachy and hamfisted with unnecessary politics so they can even be trusted to have good reviews anymore because most of what they recommend is horrible
Common sense seems to be a rare quality these days. Thank you for bringing a small dose of it back, along with a refreshing sense of self-responsibility. It’s no surprise that the minds behind some of the most influential games of all time came from an era shaped by a more thoughtful and sensible mindset. Much respect.
Thank you for your kind comment! I've tried to learn from the many mistakes I've made over the years. It's not like I won't make more..I just don't want to make the same ones if I can help it.
Just saw this video on Side Scrollers, and you said you worked on Gotham City Impostors. I POG faced. That is always a game I bring up that was a blast to play, but ended too soon. It was a blast, thank you for whatever work you did to bring me so much enjoyment
Nah, bro. They know. They see the failures of previous woke games. They are so woke they breathe wokism and canot stop but inject wokeness in everything. Then, they willingly lie to the CEO about why it failed. "It happens, the market is cut throat". But they know. Its not just echo camber, its malice too.
As a game developer, this information is priceless to me. I truly believe we will see an entertainment Renaissance in our lifetimes, but it will take some time. With the failures and shutdown of large studios comes opportunities for smaller devs to break into the industry, and more chances for the small guys to experiment and push the medium in new ways. Least that's my thoughts. Subbed!
Wow! So glad I came across your channel. This was a great watch and it’s awesome to see an industry veteran sharing her insights on the state of affairs in gaming rn
The worst thing about being a solo indie dev is that the more you learn, the more indefensible certain problems become. It becomes really hard to enjoy games when you lose respect for them.
you don't even need to be an indie dev. 30 years of gaming and i see problems that were solved 20 years ago resurface all the time. Its like nobody in the industry actually plays games or cares to learn from the greats of the past.
Don't take this the wrong way, but that's a very "middle-of-the-curve" statement. Once you recognize how many of these repeating problems are repeating due to the lack of uniform solutions, as is otherwise typical for information science, you begin to rationalize how these mistakes keep popping up.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 I disagree. There is no complex solution needed for painting a grass texture. That is not a logistical issue, but competence that should be expected of any modern AAA project. I should not look at a game like Pokemon Arceus and feel like I'm looking at a novice's "judge my art" post on an indie subreddit. I shouldn't feel the need to explain that grass should not have specular set to 100 and look like a glossy floor, or that normal techniques for tree leaves exist.
A completely sensible voice in todays chaotic landscape. Loved the video, and thank you for being genuine. Subbed and looking forward to more from you, Laura.
This hits the nail on the head, the games industry has become (for the lack ofa better word) deeply incestuous. Journalists instead of acting as players advocates, are developer friendly, essentially a PR firm for them... if gamers are unhappy with a game journalists blame gamers for their unreasonable expectations(when they aren't calling them racist, homophobic...) Games end up being develped for brownie points with journalists and other devs who share your worldview(the bubble), instead of entertaining the gamers.
Games journalism has become more like parasite who offer nothing to the gaming industry, they created a out of touch echo chambers that keep leading games studios into failure and collapse. They haven't even been worth it as PR since they nuked their own reputation and influence over most of the audience a decade ago with the gamers are dead and problematic articles. Modern games journalism is seen as a pathetic joke and disliked by most people who keep up with gaming and brownie points for good reviews mean nothing when the customer couldn't care less about the opinions of games journalist and honestly it doesn't matter if they give a game a good or negative review since I don't trust their reviews to begin with
@@shaneriggs6678 There was rumblings of this years ago. The original Gamergate stuff was started as a result of people raising concerns about the relationship between games companies and games journalists. Journalism sold out to the industry and it's disappointing that nobody in a position to do anything about it seemed to realise how damaging it was going to be. If you surround yourself with yes men it's only a matter of time before your product is going to start deviating from what people want. On top of this your customer will recognise the yes men and will stop trusting anything they have to say.
@@LoneWolf-rc4go Same thing happened to film, it seems. They keep surrounding themselves with yes men, and now they make movies that many people don't want to see. The customer, the audience, the people you are speaking to, have been left out of the conversation.
@@LoneWolf-rc4gounfortunately they were even worse than than typically yesmen and actively pushed stuff that they know that the audience didn't want for activist or political reasons over helping the games studios make profit. Games journalism became a parasite who offer nothing of value to the game industry and was a inherently toxic environment that only benefit consulting companies like sweet baby inc and games journalist but keep losing the gaming industry money, customers and reputation and fans loyalty and I can actually see it killing the AAA gaming industry as a result choice made in the aftermath of gamergate. AA games and indie games with most likely end up getting more and more influence over the gaming industry as bigger games studios start to go bankrupt
Nice video. Sounds a lot like the same thing that happens in every industry - the line must go up, so over time talent and resource moves from the engineering side of the business to the marketing side, until you're left with a very well marketed product that is lacking innovation and of poor quality.
The problem is funding. When games cost hundreds of millions to make, the companies need to get external funding. These days that often comes from Blackrock & Vanguard, with massive strings attached.
@@SMD1999 Eh so you think the game devs who are accepting the investments are the problem? Not the companies trying to "change the way people think" by using YOUR money to fund agenda driven financial failures in an attempt to LITERALLY control the way people think?
I love the story you told in this video. But I think it's still important to understand it's important to clarify this doesn't excuse the rampant greed in some of these triple A studios, surpassing any excuse of them being too wrapped in the bubble. Its important to protect the gaming community as a whole and not just brush it off as "Unfortunate side effect of the bubble" and forgive them. Blizzard, for example.
Just came from a Side Scrollers video on this. Thank you so much for adding your voice to this. & for not engaging in the vitriol we often see. Gives me hope that things will get better.
As someone who wants to work in the industry, it's nice to see someone talking about this who isn't just spewing hateful mindless anger. I worked at Bethesda and found it to be a cold and souless environment and its astonishing that something like Starfield took 9 years to make. Like seriously? This is AAA material? At least I'm working as a writer on an indie game with some friends from college (Rebellion Stryker) so we all gotta start somewhere, right?
To me, as someone who has been in the game industry, I'm not too surprised by Starfield taking that long. Lots of it just says to me they had it all backwards. They had an idea of scope and realism, rather than an idea of a fun game. And hence why you get stuff like Todd talking about the status effect system and how they kept tuning down it down, because it wasn't fun. So they had an idea of a bunch of nasty status effects... and then tried to find the fun. And you can see other bits like that in the game. At the start, there's really no reason why you would go to the pirate planet instead of straight to the capital city, but you do. And when you go to the pirate planet and defeat the pirate on the roof... there are helium gas tanks there. That, to me, says that, originally, filling up your fuel mattered, but that too got taken out, instead being replaced by range. And a lot of other systems are lacking as well, showing a lack of planning/thought. You have a game where the main story is about new game+, but player choices basically don't matter, you don't get locked out of content, and so on, so there is no reason to want to explore things again. Again, something that should have been addressed in preproduction, and something that points toward the main plot of this "RPG" being added later in the process. And you see the designers missing the ability to do what they need to do. They can set the pirates to be neutral to you, probably because the bounty system allows for that type of functionality, but can't have any meaningful changes made to a planet due to your choices in the generation ship quest. Probably hubris on Bethesda's part, where they figured "Modders will make it so people will want to play this game for decades, so new game+ will be our story!", without them doing anything in the game itself to make us want to play it again. Likewise, exploration. There's no reason to go to a PoI when it won't reward anything special you can't get from something close by. And when the same PoIs keep repeating, right down to the enemy placement... All of this just says that there was no plan for a game. Just some vague ideas of 1k planets and quasi-realism, and they made stuff for that. And only then did they try to make a game out of that. And that means a lot of wasted time reworking the same thing over and over, until something sort of sticks.
@@Axterix13Very concise Analysis. It reminds me of the tales of the people who worked or work with Hideo Kojima. However, the advantage of having a single Auteur coming up with all these shoot-for-the-moon ideas as opposed to a Council of Designers is that the rest of the Team is less distracted by this process, and that there is still a single creative origin point.
“Paris Hilton immediately went to the bar and slammed two shots”
Worlds most believable sentence.
LOL! Thank you for watching!
Oh LOL, I was thinking about photos 😂 of course it was alcohol lol.
She’s actually a nice person in Private, and her story is kind of sad. The role she portrays in TV is fake of course. But because of childhood trauma, she can’t find peace and tries to compensate with financial success
@@dunar1005 can’t imagine any cryptobro to be a nice person, and she’s one of the most outspoken crypto freaks out there
@@dunar1005that's entirely true, and it's also true that her quest for wealth is just messed up, there are no ethical super rich
I work in indie games. We have low overhead and can make games for a smaller group of people. It’s easier to target smaller groups and I think the healthy indie scene is directly related to triple A alienating the players
Agree. Aspiring indie dev here, and indie games have so much more room to be passion projects. Compared to AAA titles being pretty much investors pleasure tools.
Although I’ve found out during some testing, that sometimes the best feedback comes from people who would normally never play your game. Sometimes we’re so caught up into doing something that we don’t notice the obvious. Plus, getting to impress those same people comes with quite the satisfaction. AAA devs should try to do that. Innovate enough to impress new players, while still keeping the core intact.
Best of luck in your development career!
Does it payoff financially nowadays? I was out of the industry for a while, and somehow I thought that gamedev is stifled overall and that in general it's really unreliable as a career. At least more so than before.
I work for one of the largest game developers and I only play indie games.
I pretty much only play indie games now. AAA games have gotten really tiring for me. Either the writing has become too safe in an effort to be appealing to everyone (Veilguard) or the games have just gotten so big it feel like a chore to play through them (Ubisoft games). I played Balatro and Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and man, it's so refreshing to play a game that knows exactly what it wants to be.
In an effort to hook in everyone, AAA industry has alienated everyone. When I look at incoming AAA titles everyone is doomposting about them. Mass Effect 5, everyone is already convinced that game will have the worst "power of friendship defeats evil" writing and most boring cutesy UwU disney companions and the game isn't even out yet.
People complaining this much about games that are in pre-production just signals to me that people are done with AAA games. A golden opportunity for indie devs.
It's just as it's always been, someone's win is someone else's loss. As a gamer, in my eyes for the last decade triple A had almost nothing worthwhile to offer. Indies, on the other hand, have a room to experiment and innovate, and their games are usually pretty affordable for what they offer, but I've gotta say, their obsession with overly pixelated visuals has made them less appealing option over time.
Side Scrollers podcast brought me here. It is so refreshing to hear a mature, nuanced take from someone who's a veteran of the industry.
Thank you for validating the gaming community's concerns, Laura. At the end of the day, we just want fun games, not Microtransaction-ridden, broken/unpolished, grindy, agenda-pushing software that resemble video games.
And now we wait for all the people piling in and calling her "grifter"
Their new favorit word for everybody disagreeing with them.
@@MrDakold Another word for the ideologues to misuse ad nauseum until it becomes meaningless.
@@MrDakoldI have to imagine they won't pick on Laura, since she's not really calling out any one developer by name.
Yeah, she's using Veilguard as an example for her ed-oo piece but NO ONE is defending DA:V so its good.
@@MrDakoldwith her resume how lol ?
@@mooserocka522 Some clown on Twitter already went there, believe it or not.
>This lady sounds like she actually knows what she's talking about, let me look her up
>A MobyGames page, nice
>Executive producer on Gears of War 1 and 2, dang, nothing to sneeze at
>Hey, she's also credited for Shadow of Mordor and War in the North
>Me and a buddy of mine actually enjoyed going through War in the North in coop, a bit underrated, that one
Aight, that's a good reason for me to sub.
She used footage of TotalBiscuit at 9:14 when mentioning video games on youtube. That sold it to me.
@@applepipe Yeah, I also noticed. TB is sorely missed.
Thank you for the sub! I loved playing through War in the North coop as well.
TB was amazing!
Didn't TB wish cancer on someone for asking 'are traps ghey' ?
It’s refreshing to have an experienced adult talk about Videogames
Thank you!
Truthfully too, thank you Laura
Ahhh a sane mind that is speaking. What a lovely suprise. Subbed.
@@laurafryer6321It's messed up that wizard of the Coast started a war with bioware to make their games, starting with Baldur's Gate 3 and next Exodus who is to replace mass effect. This is nothing new as Overwatch was created to destroy the release of a game who was known as paladin. We're not just puppets, the companies see the customers as an obstacle who is to do what they want to earn profit at the same time other companies creating the illusion that there are opinions of free people but in the end when money is involved there is no freedom of the people or their voices heard since everything is about what they can get out of it by doing what the puppetmaster demand them to do. Children don't see it since they have no money or any way to earn it, the child is given money and doesn't earn it and this credit based system of learned behavior is itself creating a zombie society who at the same time see no reason to continue living if the result is not earned. It is why these reward systems who provided a short time reward has a long time penalty on the society since life is short. The game industry itself doesn’t need the customers since if we would look at the numbers, the costs exceed what the customers earn in wages.
@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 No.
And to back up my "No.", do you want to explain to me how WEBFISHING became such a huge hit? Pretty sure it has all of those "Woke" things in it that you hate. Yet it's a huge seller.
As someone who worked as a filmjournalist for 8 years, this sounds quite similiar to Hollywood.
it's basically just narcissism: better be onboard with the toxic positivity...or else. better not exist as an independent, autonomous entity, but instead be integrated into the "machine" as one of it's many fronts...or else. you must exist as part of the machine to tell everyone how good the machine is. you must become the machine.
@@i-never-look-at-replies-lolit’s just too many push overs not speaking out. So many yes men kiss asses that do absolutely nothing other than kiss ass
I got the same impression. Woke did to gaming, what weinstein did to Saving Private Ryan.
I wish the games industry had more people like you in it, it'll be in a better place
Thank you!
It did! And then investors took over
@@victorkreig6089 More like investor strategies and 3rd party R&D groups. Streamlining it until it broke. People now learn "to game" from university lectures. Its surreal, zero passion from the start.
@@victorkreig6089you mean until the J*ws took over like everything else and they made it about victimisation and LGBT.
i think the industry most likely has open minded people like Laura but perhaps aren't in position to make the difference needed. Whether is a job title or a cultural issue inside a company where you are unable to ask and receive constructive criticism. If you are able to give constructive criticism you also have to give out praise when its deserved as well. I think sometimes people can get stuck in a situation where it seems to need to be eithe/or. In reality both ideas should be present. Just because you expect a team to perform a certain way doesn't mean you don't praise them for expected results. This is what leadership looks like to me. Being able to navigate a "tight rope" of keeping the team focused without seemingly having everyone on the edge of insanity.
This is like a youtube video from 10 years ago, well informed, sources noted, no bs opinions, no mid 5min sponsor read, perfection, and well said!
i understand you like it when an industry vet tells you what you weant to hear, but this video is filled with opinion and has zero sources
and 720p :)
she didnt even introduce herself in the begining of the video, all she did was let the record show. It feels so refreshing and I think that just says to people like us who are feeling this way that we been on this fuckin thing too long. We gotta go outside
Am I blind? The majority of the stuff she is showing or saying has no sources anywhere?
Which does make it seem like a video made 10 years ago I guess?
@@francisxavier8374 The sale figures show you how factual it is and when you would listen, you would literally hear and see the sources. Or do you need a link for everything, where people speak out everything in the most literal way?
That has to be the best gaming channel I've ever found, a person with actual experience, not chasing for controversy, is just talking about game industry insights from their experience - no PR bullshit, no excuses, pure knowledge. I'm probably too old to have fun listening to whiny grifters, while most of them know literally nothing about making games. Much love from fellow person working in this industry, I rarely subscribe to any channel, but this one captured my heart!
Aww thank you for your kind comment and sub! I'm glad to have fellow industry people here with me.
This phenomenon of studios/devs being openly hostile towards their consumer base really is fascinating.
It's completely surreal. They operate these multi-million dollar studios and marketing machines like petty children in a lunchroom. My serious question is, who is letting these people in? Why are they even being hired in the first place?
It comes from disconnect. They don't talk to their audience, so they don't care about them. The facelessness of the modern entertainment industry is one of the things killing it.
It comes at no surprise that some of the best comedians, artists, game makers and musicians today are also people who interact with their audience and are humble and thankful. The worst people in the industry today are the entitled ones who think they're guaranteed success, and any failures they see are the fault of their audience "for not seeing their genius."
Yeah I remember when people were unhappy when they found out about the lack of worldstate importing, some of the writers were incredibly smug about the decision and really condescending and aggressive towards fans of the games. They could’ve just said nothing at all.
It's the natural consequence of big companies treating their investors like customers and their customers like serfs. It only works if the customers actually are serfs.
@jetrexdesign The audience is just as disconnected from the games industry though. You have people demanding features from games with 5 times the budget be in smaller games just because it was already done before, so obviously somehow the knowhow for implementing the feature has spread through the entire game development industry.
Thank you again Laura for your insights . Can't stress enough how much we appreciate you . Game makers like You were the reason why games from 10 and 20 years ago were so brilliant. It is so unfortunate to see the gaming industry is literally chasing its own tails while living in a bubble.
Thank you! I appreciate your kind comment. I hope that things are turning. I'm ready for another golden age of games!!!
“You don’t hate journalists enough. You think you do but you don’t."
My opinion has been on the floor for a long while, I guess time to start digging...
Journalists are either one of three categories: “I went to Gaza uncover Israel’s war crimes”
Or
“The government [or private entity] is incapable of doing any wrong. Please donate to Raytheon, they are suffering financially as their stock price went down 0.1%”
Or
“Video game too hard”
AAA games are named after the bond credit rating indicating the lowest possible risk, basically a guaranteed ROI, so should these games really be called that? 🤔
Interesting point. Thank you for watching!
no, they're called AAA games because that's the sound you make when you realise what you've bought
@@thejuiceking2219 :D
So does it mean the real AAA games are cheaply-made mobile games with predatory microtransactions?
The mortgage-backed securities which caused the 2008 financial crisis were similarly considered low-risk. The gaming culture bubble is about to burst.
I agree with the points in the video, but would also point to a change in revenue structure. In the past, a studio had to ship a complete experience, and got paid one time for the sale. Now, the slot-machine-ification of the revenue stream pushes studios to ship incomplete experiences that the player is hooked into following and paying for over time. There's a phrase to describe a bad relationship: "tolerable level of unhappiness." The game studio delivers that, with enough mental hooks to keep the player subscribed or buying mounts. That only succeeds when players have ongoing disposable income. Raise the price of housing and food, and there's less money for in-game purchases.
I agree with you! The revenue model changed and the economy has gone through some struggles..not a good situation for entertainment. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
I hate this so damn much. Releases a game unfinished than 1000 patches to get to work right. I'm done paying $70 for a full-price game.
@@tristanward9937 Unless it's an online game you want to play with friends why would you? In my entire life I think I've only paid full price for one non Nintendo title and that was BG3.
@@D.KRyley-mq1do because I was a fool. No, I've learned to not do it and stay patient. The game industry has taken such a turn for the worse. Unfinished games are full of microtransactions.
@@laurafryer6321 Where did you come from and why are you so cool?
Great perspective. I’ve felt for a long time that traditional games journalists no longer represent me as a gamer, I don’t care about their opinions, and instead watch a small selection of independent reviewers who have similar taste to mine; I never pre-order games or buy them until I’ve seen a review or two. Sadly, the industry has become a victim of its own success, and AAA devs now serve their shareholders before their customers. The latest trend of using games as a social political platform for a few in house devs with a grudge to bear, and companies who are terrified of them, is very frustrating. A market correction is probably what the industry needs, to get back to the core of simply making fun games, by gamers for gamers, as the cliche goes.
"If you treat the customer like an 'enemy'; They will become your enemy."
~ An Obsidian Software developer (can't remember his name) in a random interview.
Matt Hanson I believe
@@minx8334,
Well, if it was him; He's certainly changed his tone. As now he's gone on an unhinged rant attacking the players over Avowed. Look up Smash JT's vid on that.
Ironic since that's exactly what Obsidian did and the amount of people who actually likes their games dwindle with every release.
@@buckrodgers1162 No, he hasn't. He called Grummz a "little shit". That's not attacking all players. Just attacking one asshole who deserves it.
@@burgir250 dude he made a light hearted comment basically saying it would be good to have art from different backgrounds because a lot of the people he had worked with were coming from the same place and some people on twitter decided he must mean that his company has a 'no whites' policy and that he should be subject to legal proceedings
I love your videos. Education, well spoken, and enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time to post things like this to TH-cam. Someone of your experience and tenure normally do not post these things to media like TH-cam and I'm thankful that you do.
Thank you for your kind comments! I'm glad that you are enjoying my videos!!
Showing Todd Howard when talking about the star power of devs was perfect. If he were a car salesman, he would slap the roof of a Honda hanging in by duct tape and staples, and tell you it's a Ferrari. His star power went straight to his head, and became the final boss of toxic positivity.
💯 based.
It just works, seems appropriate to that scenario
Which is why he has his famous quote of , it's not how it launches, it's how you finish, paraphrasing. Todd continues to make me shake my head.
just a second,
lets be honest here
people are defending stalker 2 for the same reasons they attacked starfield
i encountered a single, one bug while playing starfield and everyone shouted "send it back, send it back"
stalker 2 has myriads and people are now saying "of course they shouldn't delay the launch to fix the bugs or gamebreaking ai issues like respawn or creatures absorbing literal kilograms of ammo to the face without flinching"
i found starfields space refreshing after being bombarded with everything every two steps in fallout 4, heck even skyrim was overpopulated
and do you remember how buggy those games were on release?
sure, one can argue that it is because i am used to arena and daggerfall and morrowind but they did specify from the start that starfield will be like those games, empty on average
dude didn't fail me yet, what he said is what i got
and i like it
i like it almost as much as i like elite dangerous
if you want to talk about "star power", talk about roberts
dude took 700M for a game that is almost unplayable and not even out of the alpha stage on pure star power, because we raged as teens playing his wing commander, watching mark hamil on the screen as a pilot, reliving those glory days of seeing episode 4 for the first time on the silver screen
my gen paid him a ton of money for nothing
at least todd gives me a game and doesn't ask for money in advance, before it even started the dev cycle
@@sakatababa I don't really track the comparison you make here, as I've never played Stalker 2, but from the perspective of someone who has played Starfield, I didn't see people waving red flags because 1 single bug was identified - in fact the issue with Starfield was never about bugs - it's more stable, less crash prone than most BGS titles I've played previously - the issues with it have been much more diverse, from lack of tangible impact the player character has on the universe, to the childish, earnest dialogue, to an overwrought gaming engine the structure of which makes it nigh-impossible for Modders to genuinely improve the game in a fundamental way - and BGS clearly went in with the strategy that they could reduce overheads and shorten deadlines by relying upon Modders to produce a finished product for them for free post-release.
There's a lot to criticize regarding SF. The bugs aren't even in the top 5 of issues.
Before I checked her portfolio: Wow. She has so much insight in the industry.
After I checked out her portfolio: THE OG HAS SPOKEN.
imma start saying that.... YOINK
I thought i knew a bit but I never understood why booth babes existed till now and you explained it so quickly and truthfully without condemning them for it
I always thought it was sexy is good advertising and making a attempt to have games seems more mature as a way to try distance themselves away from Mario and sonic video games are Toys for kids narratives. Them not being able to answer in dept questions was probably a good bonus
It was a scheme by the corporations, to avoid accountability. But gaming urinalists and the same corporations used it to attack gamers when they went on their activist crusade. Pure evil
@@shaneriggs6678The question about Mario's brother and their answers makes me think that they were probably told not to answer any questions. Who doesn't know who Luigi is?
But they also should be condemned because I thought women weren’t objects
@@shaneriggs6678 It's all of these reasons and more.
great video Laura. and about people not buying the games, well they say "if you dont like the game, dont buy it" and then when we/people dont buy the game then they start to blame people and calling them all kinds of fobes and ists words. and that hurts the gaming industry even more. they are in their own little bubble and they cant accept that others dont like what they have created. and when they then speak about their games, its all about "i see myself in this person and i wanted to have that feeling that i matter" its all about themself, they are so narcissistic. that its sad to see.
Laura is one of my favorite people in the game industry. A big regret is that we never worked together on a title. Could have been spectacular! 😉
Thanks Marty! It's a regret for me too! I would have loved it.
Hey why don't all the cool game developpers all gather around and start a funding campain to make video games i am pretty sure many right wingers, people in the center and even many in the leftwing would fund anyone who wants to make great games like we had in the 90's and early 2000's
“many right wingers, people in the center and even many in the left wing”
So, everyone then? No need to look at this through a political lens at all lol
@@thatdanjamesguy.330some people ate too much political brainrot in the last 10 years
At this point it seems like Marty is the only person in games media who is openly interested in games.
He always talks about halo. He always comments under halo fan content and takes part in interviews. And he’s always discussing games media besides not even working in it anymore (unless there’s a secret project you want to tell us about 👀)
I never see any other public game dev this involved. Maybe they’ll tweet bad things about fromsoft or complain the halo community being toxic after releasing yet another unfinished game. But that’s about it.
Toxic positivity is a hell of a drug
because it makes everyone working on a project feel convinced they are making something great, something everyone will appreciate (within the bubble). Once that gets outside of the bubble it fails instantly.
@@nenadmilovanovic5271 For working in this industry, yes toxic positivity is a bad thing. Even more present in NA than in Europe though, cause here is NA ''you can' tell people this is shit'' you know..
Came here to post a similar comment - I've seen a big increase in performance reviews being peer reviews with a manager just collating these which I think contributes to the overall fake positivity within tech companies. There is a real fear of saying the wrong thing and being retaliated against, it's much safer to rate things favourably, as collective failure is more appealing than being singled out for straying from the herd.
Calling it toxic is terrible linguistics, it's an excess of positivity or blind positivity if you will
@@victorkreig6089 Still the result is ''toxic''. Prevents individuals growth (artists and designers) as well as company growth by proposing better products.
Nobody is looking at themselvs in the mirror, and as said in the comment above yours, every body pays every body fore the hard work, not the good work. They work hard, still do shit, they get praised by managers. It's wrong and toxic cause you can't say anything otherwise you get ''blacklisted''.
No other industry abuse their customers as these 'big gaming studios', from broken products to false advertisement and sheer disrespect.
Disney says hello.
And nobody cares because "its just video games, theyre toys, why does it matter" despite the fact billions flow through this indistry.
Laura Fryer drops a video you know some hard truths are coming.
It makes me sad executives like her have vanished from the industry. So many avoidable failures from games companies making games without an audience in mind!
How many dragon age players want their fantasy game to sound like a millennial teen drama?
Thanks for your kind comment! It will be interesting to see how well the game does.
Logically and historically speaking, the video game industry is basically going through another 1983 crash but because it has gotten so big and spread to multiple platforms, the much needed pitfall where excess fat can be cut and hard lessons which developers & publishers can learn from doesn't exist.
@@Runefrag People who think tone isn’t important should take a look at Gears of War. That game nailed it-everything from the lighting and game design to the characters and dialogue had a consistent tone. Nowadays, most games can’t pull that off.
Take Redfall, for example. It’s supposed to be a horror game, but there was zero effort to make it actually scary.
Millennial teen drama is even doing it too much credit. This is a fantasy game with culture/lingo and social conditioning relevant for 2024 lol. Not sure what they were thinking.
Millennials are between the ages of 28 and 43.
The combination of incredibly high budgets and really long development cycles is also another thing that is causing problems. In the past when a game took close to 10 years to make it was a sign that was going through development hell, swapping from developer to developer, like Duke Nukem Forever. 12 years for that game to come out.
Now we hear games taking close to a decade to be made and it's like it's getting normalized now.
Sure delays may occur and of course a delayed game will be better than a rushed game, but there comes a point where devs have to stop and ask themselves if they're not taking too long or spending too much on the game.
Concord took 8 years to develop and aleggedly cost between 200 and 400 million dollars to make, and if it was 400, without taking into account marketing and studio acquisitions, it puts that game on the top 5 most expensive games of all time as of now, which is an absolutely insane amount of money! That's the type of money that can last you for generations, more money than any normal person would even be able to hold and they spend that money like it's just some change they found on the back of the couch, or at least it's the idea they give off, and spend way too much time to make the game at this point as well.
Making a game is no easy task, but taking more than half a decade to make one at this point, to me, just tells me the game is just not gonna be worth it.
You're right! The other challenge with the long time frames is that it's difficult for people to get experience. I was shipping a game a year at the start and working on several projects at once. It allowed me to learn rapidly. I can't imagine only shipping a couple games in 10 years. Thank you for your comment!
@@laurafryer6321 thank you for your reply! Have been loving your videos as it is always fun and interesting to watch and hear about these insights regarding industry trends and how it's working right now from an industry veteran.
And yes you are right, being stuck on the same project for a long time really does stiffle growth and experience since you're just working on one project for a long time and not moving on to something else, which creates stagnation.
Of course rapid firing game after game in a year or even less is not ideal too, can be a messy process overall, but something like a 2, 3 or 4 year dev cycle shouldn't be too bad I think.
a game taking more than 6 years used to be a sign that(if it hadn't changed developers at all) it was going to be good.
Yes scopes of games are rapidly changing despite being more and more empty with each added square mile, but the issue has become the valleys that come between the peaks of enjoyable gameplay
A perfect example of this is Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma II, in the original it was quite large for it's time and was only about 70% done when the published pushed it out the door. The sequel was supposed to be everything the creator of the original had wanted that first game to be but time constraints and tech wouldn't allow it, yet the sequel despite having relatively the same sized map and a good deal more time for development and staff has made a game that feels far more empty than the original ever was despite it's unfinished state.
The valleys are pretty big and they aren't very enjoyable forcing you to hunt around for the peaks which is terrible for any game that is based on exploration.
The scope of games are becoming unmanageable, and it is going to cause MANY titles that should be excellent to just be mediocre at best. The newest Zelda game comes to mind despite using the majority's previous assets and even map being one of the most boring games I have ever seen
The other issue with longer development cycles are the passing of trends. We saw that with Concord. When it finally launched, many hero shooters had come and gone and the market had shifted. I think something similar happened with Veilguard. It’s a good game but you can tell Marvel heavily influenced the writing, and people have grown sick of Marvel’s brand of storytelling recently.
Omg. I had my eyes closed listening and was thinking. “I miss totalbiscuit”. Then I opened my eyes and saw “Totalhalibut” in the kill feed. Ohhh I’m gonna shed tears
weird simping over random people on a pc.
@@James28R How is missing a person simping?
@@James28R I guess people aren't allowed to grieve.
How I miss the 90s and 00s era of gaming. I never thought it was going to crash like it is nowadays. Games are definitely not what they used to be and to a point I kind of regret becoming a video game artist. It is almost impossible to get a job and let alone sustain it. The industry feels dead at this point.
I'm sorry to hear that. I'm hopeful that it will turnaround. Most people I've worked with in games just want to do what they love and make enough to take care of their family. Thank you for your comment.
I would say the 2010s were amazing.
I don’t think games are declining overall, but the good games are more spread out because the industry is bigger. Marketing no longer correlates with quality, you have to look for the good stuff.
But the oversaturation is itself a huge problem. You can make a great game and still have it flop against so much equally great competition. That’s why it’s at least good when bad games fail - it leaves more room for people to support better ones.
What crash? Games today are significantly better than they were in that era. That was the brown and bloom era and there was an ocean of garbage to wade through before getting to the good stuff.
The big issue is there's so much out there it's becoming harder and harder to find a game that appeals to you personally.
@@RandomWandrer they were absolute garbage
On behalf of gamers: Laura, we need more like you! We love your videos, and we wish you could re-educate the entire industry. Funnily enough, Hollywood is in dire need of this same philosophy your preach, and a return to its own roots: making Art, not just "content".
Thank you! I appreciate your support! Hollywood has definitely been struggling as well. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to change.
@@laurafryer6321 Hopefully not too long. 🥺🤞
Hollywood relies on the power of it's IP's names now instead of the product actually being good
Thank you it's nice to hear such an mature smoothing voice in this industry ❤. Love from West Bengal ❤.
You are genuinely the finest source of games journalism these days. I am continually impressed by the quality of your work and professionalism of your demeanor. Thank you so much!
Thanks! I'm glad that you like my videos!
I really hope you get more eyes on your work. A proper and level headed source that everyone must see
Attacking the gamer is indeed a very dumb strategy.
Agreed! It's weird to see people trying it.
I can understand the temptation because a lot of gamers are proudly toxic in online spaces, but they clearly represent an absolute minority; most gamers don't voice their opinions about games on social media. There's obviously bound to be some bitter feelings when you spend years of your life developing a flop, so turning that lens inwards and realizing you made preventable mistakes takes introspection, maturity, and the genuine desire to seek out the truth
@BboyCustomz Sorry, but you have it all backwards. It was years of developers calling gamers all sorts of insults for changing lore to push a message (inauthentic to the characters/universe) and just insulting them in general. Do that enough and people aren’t gonna take it likely and be a lot more careful about what recognizable patterns lead to bad/compromised games or just rude devs. Sometimes that goes beyond what might be a sign, but they might be more paranoid because those years of pattern recognition were right 9 times out of 10.
People like to claim “death threats” all the time, and that they get “so many” of them, and almost never show them despite claiming getting a ton. And who even thinks they’re credible anyway? It’s just a bunch of losers, denigrated by both sides. It’s like claiming you’ll get rich because a Nigerian Prince emailed you. “Death threats” is an easy tactic to divert people away from whatever is going on, and sometimes to be defensive on their behalf. It’s a “get out of jail” free card.
In terms of Ghosts of Yotei (since that’s clearly what you’re referring to… in theory, I don’t think a voice actor’s opinion _necessarily_ matters because they don’t make the game. But that’s kind of 10-15 years out of date. These days, having an outspoken activist involved in your project is an omen for what to expect in the final product. Because studios are looking to fill more checkboxes than ever before, and if they’re hiring someone who’s confrontational/abrasive to represent their project, than what does that say about the people making it and how it could turn out? People see what looks like an in-your-face narcissist, and expecting the whole “if you don’t like A it’s because you’re XYZ” shtick that actors have trotted out for a while now. I will say, while people aren’t optimistic about how she might act with fans, that much should be reserved until she does (idk if she has). But some people are already blocked without even interacting, likely because of a blocklist. So that’s not a good first impression either. Especially since civil disagreement is enough to get you on one just because you don’t tow a party line.
@@BboyCustomz Internet threats mean nothing, anyone with a brain knows this.
@@LordVader1094 This. Go on tf2 right now and play a match, do even remotely well. And normal actual human interaction will happen. Problem is the current net has also become a bubble of mainstream real life integration. The idea the net is MEANT to be disconnected from normal social rules and struggles of life is lost on these people. That why they put their names, faces out there and then act like social interaction here should have the same weight as talking in real life. It's basically the age of doing it for free HR right now.
Everywhere this mentality goes, actual comradery and communication dies. It's sterilization. Play a game where you can really talk with people - tf2 again being a good exmaple of this - and random bouts of unrestrained, bickering and insults/ threat and jokes fly at around constantly.
But the modern net is basically a project ot bring the very world it was good at getting away from into it. But faster and more vapid. In short: the net which was once an place for outcast and thought, had become a place for the shallow normie who wants to make it into a overly polite corporate watering hole where you share affirmations and petty gossip. Gaming has been under the same effect, as really all things that used to be a part of genuine, hidden, authentic but ugly human powered projects.
As always: authentic people build the games, make the communities, be the fans, and the pretentious social shamers and controllers come in and try to control it at their expense. Then after them, corpos and state come in and try to control it both of their expenses after them.
I really dont understand how the games industry doesn't understand how markets work. Basic rule is you sell what people (the markets) wants. How can any intelligent person think that telling people what they want then trying to force feed it to them could ever be successful. Its heartening to see that there are people like Laura in the industry that are super talented, super successful and completely get it. Probably there are a lot more but can't speak out. Been reading a lot of the comments and really nice to see Laura replying to so many of them in such a positive and nice way, a truly genuine person. She has my sub for that. Happy new year all
No one likes to see failure, but remember that wildfires lead to new forests. Often, destruction is required for transformative new growth.
True...I love the forest creatures though. Thank you for watching!
@@laurafryer6321 heyyy Laura . Loved your content
Can you make a video on blackmyth wukong ?
It came out of nowhere and won
A wildfire ripped through the music industry and it never grew back. There' s never be another queen, pink flloyd, Bowie.
Laura, you just gained a sub. It’s so refreshing to have someone talk calmly, openly and honestly instead of engaging in ridiculous culture war rhetoric.
Fr
Craig from Side Scrollers pointed me at your channel. This is good stuff, so I subscribed. Keep it up, and when the detractors show up, don't let them scare you into changing what you do or how you do it. Your experience and insight are invaluable in these interesting times.
Budgets are way too high. Companies should be asking themselves for each proposed project, "Is there a market for this? If so, who is the market? How big is the market?" and proceed accordingly. It seems like they throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a game and then use marketing to try and appeal to a vague omni-market that doesn't exist.
Part of it is due to taking too much time, I think. For example, Concord might’ve made sense back in 2016 when it first started development. Overwatch proved successful and had a $40 price tag. Plus, “woke” stuff was all the rage then.
But in the 8 long years it took for Concord to be fully made, the gaming landscape had long changed. Hero shooters are everywhere, majority of which (including Overwatch) are free to play, and there’s been serious backlash towards the frankly ugly character designs that Concord pushed for. It might’ve been a fine release in 2016, but it was a terrible release for 2024.
@@gameragodzilla I don't think it would've even worked in 2016. There's so much fanart, cosplay, and edits of Apex and Overwatch characters because people think they look cool. Can you imagine any world where people cosplay Concord characters on their own, without getting paid?
@ True, but at least back during that time, the Tumblrinas and “art fixers” were more commonplace. All the Western comic books during that time had ugly ass characters too. But by 2024, the backlash has fully set in.
lets be real, it's probably either money laundering or a tax write-off
The owner of the company lies to investors that the game will be successful. An investor gives hundreds of millions of dollars to a company. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being thrown at the salaries of the CEO and legion of managers, 95% of the game's funding goes here. Using the remaining money and hiring freelancers from India, they make a crude, crap game. At the last moment, a woman and a gay man are added to the game. Players complain about the fact that there is a woman and a gay in the game, and not about the fact that the game is crude and bad. Boom! You can tell investors that the game failed because of toxic players. Give us money for a new game, it will definitely be successful. This is how it works now. Greetings from a gaming employee.
From my own experience as someone that has been working in the gaming industry for 15 years I can say that the main problem the industry have right now is an INSANE level of disconnection between the people in charge of pitching games and the actual market.
These people have the most inane ideas and concepts, often more focused on how to sell the idea at someone that don't know anything about gaming (ie publishers) rather than on coming up with a GAME idea, focused on fun and gameplay.
And since we live now in a "toxic positivity" era in the industry, where it's basically impossible to give any negative feedback to anything, ESPECIALLY if that thing is draped in the ultra progressive politic (as most of thos "made to sound good to publisher" pitch are), nobody ever stand up and challenges these idea.
And this is how we end up with 200+ million dollar project built on obviously awful ideas.
Thank you for your comment! You make a great point! There are many decision makers and investors that don't have the experience they need to know what might appeal to gamers.
"Don't you guys have phones?"
I believe you when you say "toxic positivity era" because I could see glimpses of it in Veilguard's writing, especially dialogue writing. The weird lingo used by the video game industry is slipping into video games. The nuance, conflict and moral ambiguity in writing is disappearing. Good guys are good and bad guys are bad and that's the end of it. Because that's the world video game writers are living in. We used to have games that were both progressive in its themes and had characters that talk to each other like normal people so I don't think this has anything to do with progressivism.
"toxic positivity" doesn't exist in my company but after each playtest, however bad is the feedback we give, the producers don't give a damn and keep going with their initial ideas and vision. At some point I just understood that they like to ship failures and it doesn't matter to them as they are big veteran producers it doesn't impact them, they'll just jump on their net project to ruin. The ones paying the price of their mistakes are the ones making everything, following orders and being burned out by working on something they can see failing from miles away.
@AzureusRising Thiiiiis. THIS is the most tragic part of this whole situation. I absolutely believe there were a ton of "peasant" developers, doing the real work on the game that knew there was a problem. They maybe even tried to communicate some changes. But corporate is the same in every industry, and they would be threatened into silence by whatever idiot executive wants to die on the hill of their awful idea, instead of fixing it into something good.
An actual in depth analysis of the gaming industry that goes beyond "woke bad". Well done.
But that’s still a problem
Woke bad goes beyond woke bad when it's inherently bad.
Easy maths
She literally said, gamers wanted to be entertained not to be taught by messages put into the game. Seems like you didnt watch the whole video.
@@sebastianocampo71997Feels like you just kinda heard what you wanted to hear with that, but ok.
@@yipperdeyip isn’t woke literally just gay and poc people existing in mediocre games? Or did we get new definition for 1000th time?
I can't believe I skipped over this video so many times because I thought I had already watched many people talk about the gaming bubble.
I wasn't expecting such an interesting excursion through time and someone with such a cool portfolio having a rather small subscriber count. Defnitly subscribed. Awesome video.
Thank you for giving it a chance and subscribing!
Some gamers are in a bubble too.
"[Subreddit about the game] likes it, IGN likes it, so the Steam review score is obviously wrong".
Good point! Thanks for watching!
Accurate. I tried posting this to the Dragon Age subreddit. The subreddit is in 'lockdown mode' to preserve the echo chamber. Everything has to be manually approved. Mods manually removed this video without giving any reason.
Reddit threads are created and moderated by the company who made the game. They're not real.
Taking Reddit seriously is a mistake. It's plagued with far left activists. Formulate opinions after watching gameplay from the average youtuber.
The gamer side of it is so confusing to me, too, because like....... people CAN have different opinions on things, why is it so offensive to people to hear other people voicing their opinion?
Thank you for being both respectful and educated about this industry. Well produced opinionated piece😊
I appreciate your support and for your kind comment! Thank you!
Geoff's reaction is part of why that video is so legendary
Wow, this channel is an immense resource of wisdom for early-to-mid gamedevs. Thank you so much for taking the time to create and upload videos Laura!
You're welcome. Thank you for watching!
Came here from Side Scrollers discussing your video. It's a breath of fresh air to hear from an industry vet giving a behind the scenes look at what happened to the games industry and how it became a shell of it's former self.
To warn you, there's corporate sycophants out there who will find this video and call you a grifter because you're not towing the line.
We real gamers are on your side.
What a refreshing video. Wow I miss the old days. This stuff is truly depressing.
Thank you! The old days were pretty fun for sure!
Hey, at least indie is thriving more than ever!
Support indie devs
@@Professor_Utonium_ I do, if their games are good.
Excellent video thank you for this and your insight! I’m hopeful that the industry will turn. I feel the pendulum is starting to swing back
Thank you! I'm hopeful things will turnaround too. I am seeing some positive signs.
lol! I was just about to ask if you 2 share a studio because your backgrounds look so similar 😂. Didn’t expect to see you in the comments.
Nice SmashJT is here. This woman here is a badass game producer she was the reason why we had brilliant games from decades ago , we need more grummz and Lauras in the gaming industry !
Thank you, Laura! Thank you for bringing light to these dark times. Everyone is afraid to speak out, but having you here addressing this issue is exactly what we need! I’d say the industry needs more people like you, but not long ago, it had them-they were simply driven out by investors, poor culture, and toxic teams.
I like her voice and way of speaking. Reminds me of the good old days of professional reporting. Thanks!
and Professionalism in general. The current activist developers are a complete opposite. Not all, but the most vocal of them gives you the stigma or pattern recognition.
I really miss this genre of TH-cam videos.
I instantly subbed!!
Thank you for subscribing! I'm glad you are here!
Amazing work. Glad there is room for a well edited, researched, paced and delivered video on games in the modern YT landscape.
It’s really refreshing hearing your perspective here. Thank you YT for putting your content in my feed
Thank you for watching!
The problem: The game industry has become a normal business. Completely normal -- NO. It is a business with HUGE profits.
This of course tips the stock market of. They want those huge profits. Automatically, mechanically, calculable. They do not want to wait for inspiration or new ideas -- they want blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster.
Just try to make this with art. Tell the artists to produce an even better piece of art every month, an even more successful peace of art.
Game development is art. But it is not regarded as art -- it is regarded like another factory filled with machines in which the next iPhone is put together.
It really explains why the industry is struggling, when the studio doesn’t hit the monetary goals that the company wants they layoff the people that turn out the games.
When you loose that talent, you loose quality, interest from gamers, more money, and then more jobs are lost.
OG Nintendo had higher-ups take pay-cuts when the Wii-U had its large flop in the sales. No one lost their job, and they picked themselves up to create the Switch.
@@cameronsalmon1314 some are different. Also take Larian. Its boss multiple time now trashed the industry for the layoffs.
A child playing a game for the first time can not say one picture is better than the other and even back then games were shipped in poor quality to submerge expectations.
@@cameronsalmon1314I'm glad you brought up Nintendo. They are a corporation like any other, but they realized where their survival actually comes from: their workers, their talent. They still have their oldest developers/programmers around to teach the new people they hire. That's so invaluable. The companies who constantly purge their senior devs to pad their bonuses every year are just gutting themselves. Like a farmer who slaughters the chickens for meat, then wonders why he has no eggs.
This is everything wrong with every captures art industry. The suits want to standardize creativity, and it's the one thing you CANT.
That's why they really like AI. An opportunity to standardize creativity.
This channel is Amazing !
Thank you Laura for sharing your immense experience , so genuine it instills hope for the future of this industry
a lot of the time I click on videos like this and it's some young person with an outside perspective no more informed than my own. love to see someone who's been in the business speaking about this validating what we've all been feeling
3:10 aaah, yes. A "dont you guys have phones?" moment before that was a thing 😂
Thank you for making this! All very true. There's a reason I only trust a handful of people online to give an honest review. Also really hoping E-Day is what it looks like, exactly what we've been asking for!
Hypnotic brought me here. 😁 Wise word ma'am. 👍🏻
Same!
11:04 well, they do not take risks. They cannot take risks, because the organization and finances of a giant corporation does not like risks. Indie developers take risks.
The CEO cannot take risk, because their bonus, salary tied only with the pleased shareholder ,so better prepares for golden parachutes now while Im still in position, why bother with IP, company and developer future
I just saw someone talk about your video finally someone that has common sense. Subscribed to your channel
A lot of people say that Mass Effect 3 is when a lot of developers decided that they couldn't handle "gamers" any more and no longer respected what their paying customers thought about them.
Let them go out of business, then.
That is the sad reality. You can only burn cash for so long.
I believe that is when the cracks start showing and it was the start of blame the gamers, use fandom to attack those that didn't like their decisions.
Again, you can only do it for so long, because the fandom they were using started to see that they suffered as well, because they cared even more so when the games are no longer made for them, we get 2024. When AAA games fail , when no one is buying products due to brand anymore and they actually want a good game to enjoy.
Just look at STALKER 2 , sold a million in a few days that number would have been bigger if the game was bug free, but it's understandable since Ukraine is a warzone, and many of their developers had to pack up and leave home. And we have Dragon Age struggling to make over 1 million copies.
Maybe that's true, but doesn't the fact that Bioware went back and made an extended ending for ME3 (after fan backlash) prove that at least Bioware still cared (at that point)?
@@faynarawn4164 they did it due to the massive negativity, and it didn't address any of the main issues, it was a band aid on the cracks, then they forgot all about it right after they pitted the fandom against each other. It is the beginning of blaming the Gamers.
Really appreciated the logic of this video and the common sense you made.
Thank you for your support! I appreciate it and I enjoyed hearing what you thought.
Craig at Side Scrollers brought me here. This video appears to be honest assessment based on years of work experience, which is refreshing to see. Thanks for all your hard work!
It feels to me publishers and their sea of executives are having the worst impact on gaming. They want reliable money makers, not to put a good game into the world. So we get stuff like microtransactions, lootboxes, heartless dlc's, and cosmetics that once upon a time were just unlocked in game by completing challenges.
I am glad youtube recommended me this channel and video.
"Nature is healing" I saw you other vid title "gaming Renaissance" and I think I get that vibe too!
It is almost like a cyclical thing where something nice grows gets corrupted then becomes bad then fixed and imporved over and over!
Here from Sidescrollers. What a thoughtful, well-reasoned explication of what is wrong with the current gaming industry (publishers, developers and so-called journalists). "[Game devs] aren't reflecting on what they can do better. Instead, they are attacking the people that they want to sell their games to. It is not a winning strategy." Well said, Laura! It reminds me of how 90's U.S. car companies tried to shame people by saying "Buy American". It didn't work because people wanted a good product and the big two weren't providing that.
I had forgotten about that! Thank you for watching!
Thanks for this, it's nice to hear a more detailed explanation from the inside.. And from someone with INTEGRITY. Seriously you deserve 10x the subs at a minimum!
Thank you! I'm glad that you are here.
Dragon Age early reviews were straight up propaganda nothing in the game was return to form and most of the staff that made the dragon age series left so what we got was just a generic game
No they weren't, the game is pretty good.
@nocturnal03 the writing is terrible, the puzzles suck, and the combat is bland. What are you smoking?
@@samgino2020 writing is not as good but the story delivers, I'm not playing this game for fn puzzles, the combat is fine.
@@nocturnal03 you must be easily entertained
@@samgino2020 I like to think for myself instead of falling for rage/outrage bait
Stuttering Craig from sidescrollers sent me here and I’m glad he did. Great video and channel. Appreciate what you’ve done for the gaming community!
Love hearing your insights on the current games industry. Thanks and looking forward for more!
Thank you! I appreciate you watching my videos!
Super informative and levelheaded as usual! Thank you, I appreciate these insights…
Thank you! I appreciate you watching!
linked from sidescrollers, i feel so lucky to find your channel. calm, logical, kind explanation without fear and dishonesty is so refreshing.
Eventually, the bubble will pop, and they'll blame gamers for it.
The bubble is already popping. Every game they make and prop up fails. Every indie game that they seek to condemn for giving players what they want succeeds.
@@Dragon_Lairthat is correct, the at the point of having it obvious that the emperor has no clothes and they bet on a cultural shift and modern audience that doesn't exist at numbers to support or justify their games, gaming journalism has effectively lost their reputation and influence over the audience since they published the gamers are dead articles happened so they are closer to a parasite who gets money but offers nothing to gaming studios. Who really care about if a games journalist gives a game a good or negative review anymore, heck if anything a positive review from games journalist is a red flag that the game going to be preachy and hamfisted with unnecessary politics so they can even be trusted to have good reviews anymore because most of what they recommend is horrible
@@Dragon_Lair Source?
@@rigatenes338 The source is common sense.
@@StratumPressYour source is telegram and whatsapp. Expected.
Stuttering Craig of Sidescrollers sent me here. Glad he did, insightful video and great channel. Just subbed👍🏼
What a cool channel. Honest analysis of the games industry from a truly knowledgeable, experienced and accomplished insider. I subbed.
Thank you for the sub!
Came here from "side scrollers" the youtube channel. Very well said, it is good for a lot of people to know
Finally, TH-cam recommended a new and interesting channel. You're pretty based. Don't go soft, please. Subscribed.
We need more people like you in the industry. I hope you inspire others as well, a lot of them are just afraid to speak up. Never give up!
Thank you. It feels like they've forgotten who they're selling games to!
Common sense seems to be a rare quality these days. Thank you for bringing a small dose of it back, along with a refreshing sense of self-responsibility. It’s no surprise that the minds behind some of the most influential games of all time came from an era shaped by a more thoughtful and sensible mindset. Much respect.
Thank you for your kind comment! I've tried to learn from the many mistakes I've made over the years. It's not like I won't make more..I just don't want to make the same ones if I can help it.
Common sense was never common, it's name is even satire for a reason
Got here through Sidescrollers Podcast on youtube, thanks for speaking up, and doing it so well.
Beautifully edited video Laura. I sincerely hope your channel keeps growing.
Cheers!
I hope it does too! Thank you for your kind comment!!
Just saw this video on Side Scrollers, and you said you worked on Gotham City Impostors. I POG faced. That is always a game I bring up that was a blast to play, but ended too soon. It was a blast, thank you for whatever work you did to bring me so much enjoyment
You say bubble. We say "Echo Chamber"
*omg 9:57
Nah, bro. They know. They see the failures of previous woke games. They are so woke they breathe wokism and canot stop but inject wokeness in everything. Then, they willingly lie to the CEO about why it failed. "It happens, the market is cut throat". But they know.
Its not just echo camber, its malice too.
I really liked the video, it was enlightening. And I enjoyed the pronunciation of 'bubbly' right there at 2:33
A very refreshing video, no hysteria, no rage bait, just calmly stating the reality of the industry. Well done.
As a game developer, this information is priceless to me. I truly believe we will see an entertainment Renaissance in our lifetimes, but it will take some time.
With the failures and shutdown of large studios comes opportunities for smaller devs to break into the industry, and more chances for the small guys to experiment and push the medium in new ways.
Least that's my thoughts. Subbed!
Thanks for the sub! I agree that with the bigger studio failures it creates opportunity for new developers.
Great that ppl like you still exist in this industry! Also why most of them don't see the obvious after all that happened in the last 2 years
Wow! So glad I came across your channel. This was a great watch and it’s awesome to see an industry veteran sharing her insights on the state of affairs in gaming rn
The worst thing about being a solo indie dev is that the more you learn, the more indefensible certain problems become. It becomes really hard to enjoy games when you lose respect for them.
you don't even need to be an indie dev. 30 years of gaming and i see problems that were solved 20 years ago resurface all the time. Its like nobody in the industry actually plays games or cares to learn from the greats of the past.
fuck dude I'm not sure I even like gaming anymore tbh
Don't take this the wrong way, but that's a very "middle-of-the-curve" statement. Once you recognize how many of these repeating problems are repeating due to the lack of uniform solutions, as is otherwise typical for information science, you begin to rationalize how these mistakes keep popping up.
@@acceptablecasualty5319 I disagree. There is no complex solution needed for painting a grass texture. That is not a logistical issue, but competence that should be expected of any modern AAA project. I should not look at a game like Pokemon Arceus and feel like I'm looking at a novice's "judge my art" post on an indie subreddit. I shouldn't feel the need to explain that grass should not have specular set to 100 and look like a glossy floor, or that normal techniques for tree leaves exist.
finally a sane and calm take not a rant but a discussion
A completely sensible voice in todays chaotic landscape. Loved the video, and thank you for being genuine. Subbed and looking forward to more from you, Laura.
This hits the nail on the head, the games industry has become (for the lack ofa better word) deeply incestuous.
Journalists instead of acting as players advocates, are developer friendly, essentially a PR firm for them... if gamers are unhappy with a game journalists blame gamers for their unreasonable expectations(when they aren't calling them racist, homophobic...)
Games end up being develped for brownie points with journalists and other devs who share your worldview(the bubble), instead of entertaining the gamers.
Games journalism has become more like parasite who offer nothing to the gaming industry, they created a out of touch echo chambers that keep leading games studios into failure and collapse. They haven't even been worth it as PR since they nuked their own reputation and influence over most of the audience a decade ago with the gamers are dead and problematic articles. Modern games journalism is seen as a pathetic joke and disliked by most people who keep up with gaming and brownie points for good reviews mean nothing when the customer couldn't care less about the opinions of games journalist and honestly it doesn't matter if they give a game a good or negative review since I don't trust their reviews to begin with
@@shaneriggs6678 There was rumblings of this years ago. The original Gamergate stuff was started as a result of people raising concerns about the relationship between games companies and games journalists. Journalism sold out to the industry and it's disappointing that nobody in a position to do anything about it seemed to realise how damaging it was going to be. If you surround yourself with yes men it's only a matter of time before your product is going to start deviating from what people want. On top of this your customer will recognise the yes men and will stop trusting anything they have to say.
Dont forget DEI money.
@@LoneWolf-rc4go Same thing happened to film, it seems. They keep surrounding themselves with yes men, and now they make movies that many people don't want to see. The customer, the audience, the people you are speaking to, have been left out of the conversation.
@@LoneWolf-rc4gounfortunately they were even worse than than typically yesmen and actively pushed stuff that they know that the audience didn't want for activist or political reasons over helping the games studios make profit. Games journalism became a parasite who offer nothing of value to the game industry and was a inherently toxic environment that only benefit consulting companies like sweet baby inc and games journalist but keep losing the gaming industry money, customers and reputation and fans loyalty and I can actually see it killing the AAA gaming industry as a result choice made in the aftermath of gamergate. AA games and indie games with most likely end up getting more and more influence over the gaming industry as bigger games studios start to go bankrupt
Nice video. Sounds a lot like the same thing that happens in every industry - the line must go up, so over time talent and resource moves from the engineering side of the business to the marketing side, until you're left with a very well marketed product that is lacking innovation and of poor quality.
Thank you for this video. Refreshing the sea somebody with rational thoughts from the inside speak up about stuff like this. And I subscribed.
The problem is funding. When games cost hundreds of millions to make, the companies need to get external funding. These days that often comes from Blackrock & Vanguard, with massive strings attached.
Vanguard manages my pension and a large portion of my equity holdings.
These AAA games better get it together or I won’t be able to retire 😔
@@SMD1999 Eh so you think the game devs who are accepting the investments are the problem? Not the companies trying to "change the way people think" by using YOUR money to fund agenda driven financial failures in an attempt to LITERALLY control the way people think?
@@petervenkman9838It was very obviously a joke.
@@toby2581they're not joking. You think they are but there is no joke.
These games do not cost this much to make. Lots of solo devs put out stuff that's just as high in quality.
I love the story you told in this video. But I think it's still important to understand it's important to clarify this doesn't excuse the rampant greed in some of these triple A studios, surpassing any excuse of them being too wrapped in the bubble. Its important to protect the gaming community as a whole and not just brush it off as "Unfortunate side effect of the bubble" and forgive them. Blizzard, for example.
Just came from a Side Scrollers video on this.
Thank you so much for adding your voice to this. & for not engaging in the vitriol we often see.
Gives me hope that things will get better.
Wow, seriously impressive journalism. I’m subbing right away.
Thank you for your sub!
As someone who wants to work in the industry, it's nice to see someone talking about this who isn't just spewing hateful mindless anger.
I worked at Bethesda and found it to be a cold and souless environment and its astonishing that something like Starfield took 9 years to make. Like seriously? This is AAA material?
At least I'm working as a writer on an indie game with some friends from college (Rebellion Stryker) so we all gotta start somewhere, right?
How is the development of Elders Scrolls 6 going?
@ as far as I know, I know nothing about that
But I am not expecting good things from the look of Starfield
To me, as someone who has been in the game industry, I'm not too surprised by Starfield taking that long. Lots of it just says to me they had it all backwards. They had an idea of scope and realism, rather than an idea of a fun game. And hence why you get stuff like Todd talking about the status effect system and how they kept tuning down it down, because it wasn't fun. So they had an idea of a bunch of nasty status effects... and then tried to find the fun. And you can see other bits like that in the game. At the start, there's really no reason why you would go to the pirate planet instead of straight to the capital city, but you do. And when you go to the pirate planet and defeat the pirate on the roof... there are helium gas tanks there. That, to me, says that, originally, filling up your fuel mattered, but that too got taken out, instead being replaced by range.
And a lot of other systems are lacking as well, showing a lack of planning/thought. You have a game where the main story is about new game+, but player choices basically don't matter, you don't get locked out of content, and so on, so there is no reason to want to explore things again. Again, something that should have been addressed in preproduction, and something that points toward the main plot of this "RPG" being added later in the process. And you see the designers missing the ability to do what they need to do. They can set the pirates to be neutral to you, probably because the bounty system allows for that type of functionality, but can't have any meaningful changes made to a planet due to your choices in the generation ship quest. Probably hubris on Bethesda's part, where they figured "Modders will make it so people will want to play this game for decades, so new game+ will be our story!", without them doing anything in the game itself to make us want to play it again.
Likewise, exploration. There's no reason to go to a PoI when it won't reward anything special you can't get from something close by. And when the same PoIs keep repeating, right down to the enemy placement...
All of this just says that there was no plan for a game. Just some vague ideas of 1k planets and quasi-realism, and they made stuff for that. And only then did they try to make a game out of that. And that means a lot of wasted time reworking the same thing over and over, until something sort of sticks.
@@Axterix13 This all makes me worry for Elder Scrolls 6
@@Axterix13Very concise Analysis. It reminds me of the tales of the people who worked or work with Hideo Kojima. However, the advantage of having a single Auteur coming up with all these shoot-for-the-moon ideas as opposed to a Council of Designers is that the rest of the Team is less distracted by this process, and that there is still a single creative origin point.