I've asked this question on c/gaming, but I'd love to see what KotakuinAction2's members think of this topic:
In an age where every game genre from shooters, strategy, fighting, and racing games are seeing a decreased emphasis on single-player content and in some cases, obstructing the single-player experience through mechanics like forced Internet connections to save progress, I want to ask this community:
Do you think the increased push behind esports and dedication of more resources to it has ruined gaming?
I've noticed that developers have been increasingly neglecting the offline experience and sometimes making some features exclusive to the online modes.
Take how Rockstar stopped adding content to the single-player mode of GTA V, Blizzard and Respawn omitted single-player modes from extremely popular games like Overwatch and Apex Legends, and how racing games like GT7 and the upcoming Forza 2023 are forcing everyone to play online to "prevent cheating", even those that would never touch multiplayer.
Do you think that this has done more damage to gaming in the long run? Do you see things ever trending back toward a more balanced approach where both single player and multiplayer gamers are equally accommodated?
How do you think developers can know that they're alienating a big part of their player base by focusing so extensively if that's how you feel?
Would love to see your thoughts on this topic.
I don't think we can blanket say esports is the reason modern gaming but it's existence as led to extremely bad game development and management.
There was a rush for so many studios to focus on esports because of the money LoL and Dota were making but it's extremely rare that they are successful and get a dedicated viewership, I think R6 and Rocket league are two that I can think of.
Most are just incompatible for it, I remember when Battlefield 4 came out there was a push for it to be an esport but it was 64 player matches, how the fuck do you keep track of everything happening so that died off quickly. Some studios pushed so hard for it that they failed to make the game fun so people just stopped playing.
Tldr; Esports didn't ruin gaming, it was studios over focusing on this and other money grabs like loot boxes and leftist corporate money that did that.