It's like a Lovecraftian fish person...
(media.scored.co)
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I also wonder if maybe part of it's a deliberate decision in the same vein as planned obsolescence. Where they just put out crap for a while all so they can make themselves look spectacular when they actually do finally put in some effort every once in a while.
Probably not the case though, since it seems like they're solely intent on lowering audience's expected quality without ever bothering to offer something of even remote value.
The more likely explanation is DEI. Whether by coercion or conscious decision, developers are hiring a significant portion of their staff using identity as the dominant criteria. You don’t have to be a race realist to recognize that the pool of talented female and/or non-white devs is very comparatively small. Very quickly, you’re faced with a “pick two” triangle dilemma:
cheap and competent: 100 white male devs
cheap and diverse: 50 white male devs and 50 diversity hires
competent and diverse: 100 white male devs and 100 diversity hires
The first option is on the verge of becoming straight-up illegal. Only smaller indie studios can really swing it, and any amount of success will summon the diversity kraken.
The second option is what most studios are choosing, and their output is suffering noticeably as a result. The extremely wealthy studios can opt for the third option, but both options two and three have created a “brain drain” within gaming dev.
Even as they are systematically discriminated against in both hiring and promotion, white male devs are still doing most of the heavy lifting on game dev projects. They are expected to deliver productivity on par with teams that are effectively twice as big. At the same time, indie development offers the possibility of real riches if you can hit it big, so more and more of the competent devs are taking their shot. This leaves even fewer good devs to prop up the bloated diversity teams.
I've probably said it before, but someone needs to open a western studio that operates out of Japan, the UAE, or some other country that doesn't have diversity laws, and poach a bunch of the top talent with them.
It's an easy pitch: come make great games and good money for a season of your life.