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 eSports is the culprit so much as it's just the overall money-seeking factor.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of people who spend money on video games are trash humans overall. That means video gaming must be made and marketed to trash humans. If everyone is content at playing slot machines and hand their money over to slot machines then that's all we're going to get. The quality of gaming will only ever improve if the quality of gamers themselves improves or the money motive is removed.
Gaming had a golden era in the past because the average gamers was a high IQ nerd. Now that gaming has hit the mainstream, the people who games are made for are much lower quality than the people games used to be made for and that incentive to make games for people such that the makers earn money is just too great of a motive such that the people with the talent to make good games never bother to because they don't need to.
eSports is merely an adaptation to the current situation rather than a driving force behind it. We wouldn't have eSports if there wasn't enough money in gaming and there's enough money in gaming because it has gained popularity but because it gained popularity now the lowest common denominator of human that developers make games for is lower and this brings the quality of gaming down.
Until the quality of gamers themselves improves, we'll never get better quality games.