Then you underestimate normie gamers/geeks and their inability to resist FOMO. AC games have been copy/pasted garbage for going on two decades, yet they keep selling. The Rise of Palpatine still made over a billion dollars after TLJ killed the franchise.
And as far as hating the woke shit, I distinctly remember a lot of posts on this forum complaining about the woke shit in BG3, by people who are supposedly not normie gamers, who then went and bought it anyway.
The title is right on the money. Lowest common denominator slop is the future of gaming, because gamers refuse to stop paying for complete shit. We deserve everything we are getting because we keep voting for it with our dollars. I have said it before that I am ashamed to call myself a gamer these days, because gamers are fucking idiots.
You are unfortunately spot on. A coworker at my previous job was the embodiment of what I call “Current Game Syndrome.” He had a PS5 and would mentioned it often. Whenever a new game would come out he would talk about it and claim it was “GOATed.” If you asked him about that game 6 months later he was say “yeah it was great but new current game is GOATed.” I would talk to him about what I was playing from my backlog and he would say “that’s cool but you really need to buy a PS5, and get with the times.”
It’s unabashed consumerism. It reminds me of Comic readers who will buy shit comics for years because they have bought every X-Men comic since #372 and maybe it will get good and they don’t want a gap in their collection.
After Crysis pushed the graphics envelope forward in 2007, other aspects of artistic/design progress have plateaued. Or, at least those that excited enthusiasts, such as more sophisticated AI (non machine learning variety), more creative procedural generation, mechanical depth, emergent potential. Only control responsiveness and feedback has improved, and that ties to presentation and first impression. Because of Spolsky's Iceberg Principle, all the modern audience (excl. phones) want is presentation along with MBA spearheaded busy work.
A random YouTube positive AC: Mirage retrospective review's found the lack of mocap in cutscenes worse than janky parkour or other shortcomings! (I didn't play Mirage). I hate that the summer movie audience have eternal septembered the 80s/90s geeks. This is the audience partaking in the keeping up with the Jones/zeitgeist shit you described.
Then you underestimate normie gamers/geeks and their inability to resist FOMO.
It's not just "normies". People here consider themselves "non-normie" yet the majority of talk in the last several days here has been about what? A non-normie game(s) that aligns with their values? Or is it this normie game that is woke?
But we need to talk about it to fight against this company doing evil things! (paraphrased)
Sure. It's necessary for most of the posts here to be about it. Great strategy, making sure everyone who participates constantly has this "normie" woke game on their minds because of the sheer volume of talk about it. "There is no such thing as bad publicity" might not be an absolute truism, but it has some truth to it.
Hint: If you want people to avoid playing this woke "normie" game, perhaps the best thing the "non-normie" gamers here could do would be to talk about "non-normie" games that aren't woke? i.e. actually offer them an alternative.
I think the best way to measure this is simply to gauge retail stores
When Ghost of Tsushima came in 2020 there was like 3 copies left in the entire store when i came to buy (day after release too)
But you know what i noticed? Literally stacks upon stacks of unsold Last of trannies 2 copies
I think this """game"""" will share the same fate despite the fake hype surrounding it
Esp when they put a Niggurai on the fucking COVER ART of the game
I also wonder if it doesn't simply represent the dedicated AC whales, rather than normie gamers. Most people wouldn't buy the $110 version even if it was a good anticipated game.
I think the Japanese equivalent of Amazon is Rakuten. Looking at Amazon for Japanese sales data is horribly misguided. It would be like looking for US sales data by going to JD.com. Americans aren’t going to a Chinese commerce site to buy games, even if the Chinese site sells shit in America.
Doubt it applies here. But disney will occasionally sell discount themepark tickets for a given night bought by a big boeing-type company for their employees (and i imagine real reason is kickbacks going around).
So could be a semi-scam, like some google-type company buying these games and then rewarding employees with it for free or at a discounted rate.
Gamergate is a fraction of a fraction of an industry. Why would it be capable for taking down a titanic IP's sales? Think you can do more then dent it is your own main character syndrome giving you undue important and expectations more than a possibility.
This isn't some mid level Japanese game or a Western Indie title where the sheer word of mouth can sink it. Its an IP that thrives on people buying every game of it that comes out without a single bit of research or thought beyond "trailer looked cool."
You aren't going to reach these people through logic and reason. Any more than the dozens of reasons to hate CoD has stopped them. Battlefield only finally managed because it spent so much effort on the Woke elements that the gameplay itself suffered.
Given I've had multiple normie coworkers bring this game up excited about it and looked confused when I pointed out the dumbness of the black samurai, I think them asking questions about it is a stretch.
Even if you point out all the logical fallacies and embellishments of the Yasuke story they will simply laugh it off as something that doesn't matter and you the fool for caring so much. Not super Wokies, but regularly normies don't care enough about those things to be reached.
20+ years ago you might have been able to, but its lost ground now and standing on it just weakens your marketable position on anything else.
Price wise and inflation is one of the few things you can always rely on normies questioning, but video games still remain pretty good deals for their price even at 70 or 80 short of something really bad.
People will blame Big Grocery™ and Greedflation™ when their chicken tendies go up by 30 cents, but ass-suck gamers will rush to defend publishers with "muh inflation" for price hikes and dogshit business models despite negative industry improvement even with the extra cash.
The problem is that most people don't notice monetary things until its egregious. When they start having to budget different and can see noticable different amounts for the same prior prices.
10$ off their monthly or even every other month purchase isn't enough to really get people emotionally upset, even if its highway robbery in terms of what it should be giving for that price.
Because the people who play Cod or AC or most normie games only buy a few yearly games and then play them for hundreds of hours until the next one comes out. That price difference is a drop in the bucket to them. Compared to most people here who probably buy multiple games a month where that shit is noticeable quick.
I remember back during the MW2 boycott. The steam group was flooded with people playing it. This doesn't surprise me. Unless I'm mistaken, if gaming tomorrow flipped into a leftist's worst nightmare, little would change.
None of them can just quit and realize it is better that way. My last normie game thing is going to be gone in two weeks (MS Game Pass). I downsized games and systems a TON. The only thing I maybe miss? Maybe the PS3. But RPCS3 does a good job on that gap and would probably be perfect if I'd upgrade CPU.
Still, I kinda believe at least some of this. I've still got a bunch of old friends on Xbox from years ago. All of which were people I either new in person or friends-of-friends. Most I haven't talked to in 5 years at least. They generally are all playing top 10 mainstream stuff, excluding the one guy like me that always played weird things.
I think that must be part of it. People get Fear Of Missing Out when all their friends are consuming the latest product. When you disconnect from that circle of peers you no longer feel beholden to share activities with them.
There is definitely something to blitzing through a new title alongside all of your buddies. It's a shared cultural event effectively, and one of the few avenues left in society where you can have that as we trudge ever further into atomized isolation.
I can't really begrudge people wanting to feel some sort of connection with others through a shared activity that's part of the wider fabric of society. The alternative is to be alone and that simply isn't healthy.
Most of what's on the market isn't good quality, but it's harder to get everyone to gather around some game that's twenty years old and turn it into a cultural phenomenon retroactively.
Makes sense. I've always been a very bad follower and had no problem sitting in a party with friends hanging out and playing something else. Others couldn't seem to do that.
Even so there's things I'll still play with friends I wouldn't have otherwise, but not buying mainstream things usually.
I have enforced every boycott against game studios I have spoken of and continue to do so. It's very easy to not waste your money on piece of shit games and anything for consoles.
the vast majority of people don't even know what GG is the just wanted to buy the next game. game enthusiasts that get into the industry gossip or even read about a game before buying it are a tiny, tiny minority of people.
Yeah I don't think thats it. I think if you're gamer gate proper or even adjacent it's easy to overestimate how many people are in it.
Even if nobody on this site bought a game again, it wouldn't bring any studio to its well deserved end. Nobody would even notice a change.
I've told this story before. My dad played every far cry game... at least 2 years after release because A. He doesn't pay full price, and B. Story doesnt bother him because he skips all cutscenese and mutes all dialogue.
He's been playing video games for decades now.
His Xbox One gave up the ghost about a month ago, and his response was "Oh I guess I don't play Xbox anymore"
There's a class of consumer that doesn't care about any of this, not even for "consume product" reasons, but because gaming isn't their favorite hobby, of even one of their main ones.
I was wondering if it could be a pr firm doing this and then cancelling the pre orders before they release
Then you underestimate normie gamers/geeks and their inability to resist FOMO. AC games have been copy/pasted garbage for going on two decades, yet they keep selling. The Rise of Palpatine still made over a billion dollars after TLJ killed the franchise.
And as far as hating the woke shit, I distinctly remember a lot of posts on this forum complaining about the woke shit in BG3, by people who are supposedly not normie gamers, who then went and bought it anyway.
The title is right on the money. Lowest common denominator slop is the future of gaming, because gamers refuse to stop paying for complete shit. We deserve everything we are getting because we keep voting for it with our dollars. I have said it before that I am ashamed to call myself a gamer these days, because gamers are fucking idiots.
I feel you 100% on BG3. They show cases fucking a bear to sell the fucking game. What do they have to do for people here to not buy it?
You are unfortunately spot on. A coworker at my previous job was the embodiment of what I call “Current Game Syndrome.” He had a PS5 and would mentioned it often. Whenever a new game would come out he would talk about it and claim it was “GOATed.” If you asked him about that game 6 months later he was say “yeah it was great but new current game is GOATed.” I would talk to him about what I was playing from my backlog and he would say “that’s cool but you really need to buy a PS5, and get with the times.”
It’s unabashed consumerism. It reminds me of Comic readers who will buy shit comics for years because they have bought every X-Men comic since #372 and maybe it will get good and they don’t want a gap in their collection.
After Crysis pushed the graphics envelope forward in 2007, other aspects of artistic/design progress have plateaued. Or, at least those that excited enthusiasts, such as more sophisticated AI (non machine learning variety), more creative procedural generation, mechanical depth, emergent potential. Only control responsiveness and feedback has improved, and that ties to presentation and first impression. Because of Spolsky's Iceberg Principle, all the modern audience (excl. phones) want is presentation along with MBA spearheaded busy work.
A random YouTube positive AC: Mirage retrospective review's found the lack of mocap in cutscenes worse than janky parkour or other shortcomings! (I didn't play Mirage). I hate that the summer movie audience have eternal septembered the 80s/90s geeks. This is the audience partaking in the keeping up with the Jones/zeitgeist shit you described.
It's not just "normies". People here consider themselves "non-normie" yet the majority of talk in the last several days here has been about what? A non-normie game(s) that aligns with their values? Or is it this normie game that is woke?
Sure. It's necessary for most of the posts here to be about it. Great strategy, making sure everyone who participates constantly has this "normie" woke game on their minds because of the sheer volume of talk about it. "There is no such thing as bad publicity" might not be an absolute truism, but it has some truth to it.
Hint: If you want people to avoid playing this woke "normie" game, perhaps the best thing the "non-normie" gamers here could do would be to talk about "non-normie" games that aren't woke? i.e. actually offer them an alternative.
I think the best way to measure this is simply to gauge retail stores
When Ghost of Tsushima came in 2020 there was like 3 copies left in the entire store when i came to buy (day after release too) But you know what i noticed? Literally stacks upon stacks of unsold Last of trannies 2 copies
I think this """game"""" will share the same fate despite the fake hype surrounding it
Esp when they put a Niggurai on the fucking COVER ART of the game
Could be botted. But its apparently jp ps5 amazon sails. And ps5 isn't exactly a powerhouse in japan either.
I also wonder if it doesn't simply represent the dedicated AC whales, rather than normie gamers. Most people wouldn't buy the $110 version even if it was a good anticipated game.
I think the Japanese equivalent of Amazon is Rakuten. Looking at Amazon for Japanese sales data is horribly misguided. It would be like looking for US sales data by going to JD.com. Americans aren’t going to a Chinese commerce site to buy games, even if the Chinese site sells shit in America.
my thoughts exactly. there aren't really very many games for the ps5, and ass creed is the next big game for a customer base that is starved of games.
This is just like Disney buying up all the seats to The Marvels.
If it's real people let them have their game 3 days early with their racist season pass.
If it's fake people then the shareholders will notice it and that was a fun thing to watch die.
Doubt it applies here. But disney will occasionally sell discount themepark tickets for a given night bought by a big boeing-type company for their employees (and i imagine real reason is kickbacks going around).
So could be a semi-scam, like some google-type company buying these games and then rewarding employees with it for free or at a discounted rate.
Gamergate is a fraction of a fraction of an industry. Why would it be capable for taking down a titanic IP's sales? Think you can do more then dent it is your own main character syndrome giving you undue important and expectations more than a possibility.
This isn't some mid level Japanese game or a Western Indie title where the sheer word of mouth can sink it. Its an IP that thrives on people buying every game of it that comes out without a single bit of research or thought beyond "trailer looked cool."
You aren't going to reach these people through logic and reason. Any more than the dozens of reasons to hate CoD has stopped them. Battlefield only finally managed because it spent so much effort on the Woke elements that the gameplay itself suffered.
Given I've had multiple normie coworkers bring this game up excited about it and looked confused when I pointed out the dumbness of the black samurai, I think them asking questions about it is a stretch.
Even if you point out all the logical fallacies and embellishments of the Yasuke story they will simply laugh it off as something that doesn't matter and you the fool for caring so much. Not super Wokies, but regularly normies don't care enough about those things to be reached.
20+ years ago you might have been able to, but its lost ground now and standing on it just weakens your marketable position on anything else.
Price wise and inflation is one of the few things you can always rely on normies questioning, but video games still remain pretty good deals for their price even at 70 or 80 short of something really bad.
People will blame Big Grocery™ and Greedflation™ when their chicken tendies go up by 30 cents, but ass-suck gamers will rush to defend publishers with "muh inflation" for price hikes and dogshit business models despite negative industry improvement even with the extra cash.
The problem is that most people don't notice monetary things until its egregious. When they start having to budget different and can see noticable different amounts for the same prior prices.
10$ off their monthly or even every other month purchase isn't enough to really get people emotionally upset, even if its highway robbery in terms of what it should be giving for that price.
Because the people who play Cod or AC or most normie games only buy a few yearly games and then play them for hundreds of hours until the next one comes out. That price difference is a drop in the bucket to them. Compared to most people here who probably buy multiple games a month where that shit is noticeable quick.
I remember back during the MW2 boycott. The steam group was flooded with people playing it. This doesn't surprise me. Unless I'm mistaken, if gaming tomorrow flipped into a leftist's worst nightmare, little would change.
None of them can just quit and realize it is better that way. My last normie game thing is going to be gone in two weeks (MS Game Pass). I downsized games and systems a TON. The only thing I maybe miss? Maybe the PS3. But RPCS3 does a good job on that gap and would probably be perfect if I'd upgrade CPU.
Still, I kinda believe at least some of this. I've still got a bunch of old friends on Xbox from years ago. All of which were people I either new in person or friends-of-friends. Most I haven't talked to in 5 years at least. They generally are all playing top 10 mainstream stuff, excluding the one guy like me that always played weird things.
I think that must be part of it. People get Fear Of Missing Out when all their friends are consuming the latest product. When you disconnect from that circle of peers you no longer feel beholden to share activities with them.
There is definitely something to blitzing through a new title alongside all of your buddies. It's a shared cultural event effectively, and one of the few avenues left in society where you can have that as we trudge ever further into atomized isolation.
I can't really begrudge people wanting to feel some sort of connection with others through a shared activity that's part of the wider fabric of society. The alternative is to be alone and that simply isn't healthy.
Most of what's on the market isn't good quality, but it's harder to get everyone to gather around some game that's twenty years old and turn it into a cultural phenomenon retroactively.
Makes sense. I've always been a very bad follower and had no problem sitting in a party with friends hanging out and playing something else. Others couldn't seem to do that.
Even so there's things I'll still play with friends I wouldn't have otherwise, but not buying mainstream things usually.
No shit! Insert here the image of the steam "boycott modern warfare 2" group all playing MW2.
I have enforced every boycott against game studios I have spoken of and continue to do so. It's very easy to not waste your money on piece of shit games and anything for consoles.
Just realized its jp ps5 charts. Still, point stands. Look at diablo iv.
I would wager these rankings are built to sell, not to reflect organic popularity.
All you need to know about gamers are the sales statistics of gacha games and sports franchises. They make billions and billions with no end in sight.
the vast majority of people don't even know what GG is the just wanted to buy the next game. game enthusiasts that get into the industry gossip or even read about a game before buying it are a tiny, tiny minority of people.
Yeah I don't think thats it. I think if you're gamer gate proper or even adjacent it's easy to overestimate how many people are in it.
Even if nobody on this site bought a game again, it wouldn't bring any studio to its well deserved end. Nobody would even notice a change.
I've told this story before. My dad played every far cry game... at least 2 years after release because A. He doesn't pay full price, and B. Story doesnt bother him because he skips all cutscenese and mutes all dialogue.
He's been playing video games for decades now.
His Xbox One gave up the ghost about a month ago, and his response was "Oh I guess I don't play Xbox anymore"
There's a class of consumer that doesn't care about any of this, not even for "consume product" reasons, but because gaming isn't their favorite hobby, of even one of their main ones.
Except we can see steamcharts, which show that most modern games, with 10x the fanbase, cannot surpass the playercounts of older games.
Modern sales numbers are speculation and scams for naïve investors.