95% of everything is garbage. I don't think this is any sort of grand revelation. Game dev overall has never been more accessible or saturated, so it's only natural that cheap indie game dev is full of untalented copycats and low effort asset flips.
And yet: most of my favorite games over the last decade have been indie. Most of the copycats are chasing markets that were established by legitimately great breakthrough hits. There are still clever, creative indie games coming out every year, and they definitely outnumber quality AAA releases. I'm not lacking options, and it's only because indie gaming took off.
What does it matter to me if most of it is trash? Curation has always been necessary for enjoyment of media. The existence of a thousand generic deck builders doesn't devalue Slay the Spire. Flavor of the week friendslop doesn't diminish Deep Rock Galactic. Every other new game being a roguelite doesn't erase FTL, Dead Cells, and Darkest Dungeon.
The harshest critics of indie gaming are almost always cut from the same cloth: young console gamers who still give a shit about graphics. These are the people who mock Slay the Spire 2 while playing Marathon.
95% of everything is garbage. I don't think this is any sort of grand revelation.
You missed the point entirely. It's not that lots of indie games are trash...the problem is that they are reviewed with way to much leniency (because being a cool gamer these days means cutting indie games miles of slack for some reason). Thus these trash indie games end up with scores that are much higher than they deserve, i.e. overrated.
It's literally the title. And he brought receipts too. Some of that shit really is rated "Overwhelmingly positive".
They're reviewed with more leniency because it's expected that if you have millions of dollars and a team of seasoned experts you should be able to put out a better product than some kid living in his parent's basement.
Also if it's 20$ or less for a shitty indie game instead of 60-80$ for a similar shitty AAA game it automatically has better value for money and thus deserves the better rating.
I don't expect cheap street food to be on par with expensive restaurants either. Cheap street food that's decent is good value for money. Expensive restaurant food that's only decent is bad value for money.
That kind of meta analysis should be saved for forums and video essays. It does not belong in Steam reviews, where people are trying to figure out if the game is worth their time and money. The conditions under which the game was developed has zero impact on that.
I'd say this is more of a reflection of issues with Steam's rating/review system. Which is something that I think could use some improvement (purely positive or negative ratings are an oversimplified metric imo). And the Steam store's search filters could use some improvements too.
So is the central thesis of the video that reviews are unreliable and easily manipulated? No shit.
Or maybe that alphabet people will endeavor to astroturf their own degenerate or mediocre garbage into the mainstream? That's what "overwhelmingly positive on 500 total reviews" means.
Or that the low bar of entry for indie game dev has generated oceans of unfinished, unpolished, derivative slop? What else even could happen?
It's a contrarian clickbait video that says nothing of value. The main takeaway is that dude has retarded friends.
So is the central thesis of the video that reviews are unreliable and easily manipulated?
Wrong again. The takeaway is that indie games have a huge dick-riding problem that is unique to them. With triple-A games it's the journalists who focus on meaningless things like dev team diversity and LGBetc characters when writing reviews...with indie games it's the players themselves.
I have no idea why you're getting bagged, you're completely right.
Steam aids and abets this too. They make it incredibly easy to be positive and nice (and globohomo) but if you're critical or normal or anti-degenerate, you're battling uphill.
Plenty of people dickride AAA as well. The Marathon situation is downright comical. There's just no money or clout in publicly shitting on bad indie games with no sales, so you won't find a hundred hot take youtube videos attacking indie failure number ten thousand and seven. You're mistaking apathy/invisibility for a free pass.
Edit: And if your look into it, indie games absolutely get promoted by certain communities based on LGBTQ bullshit. The video even acknowledged this. That's what furry devs are.
You nailed it. What's interesting is within a week, two games that I'm loving came out, one a big budget AA game (RE9) and once an indie (Slay the Spire 2). Good games are everywhere if you're not a cynical shithead
You're right that they are everywhere, but as the video points out, trying to find them is the tough part due to the slanted reviews propping up games from people who already like what the game is doing, not reviewing it objectively for people who aren't already fans.
One big problem I found is that the kind of games I love have been buried under slop. Some people here made recommendations for titles I otherwise would have missed because I don't have six hours to sift through the massive amount of shovelware out there.
One thing I also found is that you can't trust consensus because consensus has been tainted.
The one thing I mentioned time and time over again has happened: normies are completely converged.
What does this have to do with the topic at hand?
Well, I've been craving a good FPS, but a lot of them are super mediocre. Trepang2 is okay, but still feels like a floaty Unreal Engine asset flip. If I want some grounded, or detailed, or Doom-like FPS shooting, there are a ton of FPS games out there, but not many of them are good or many of them are DEI-infested.
A good example are Sulaco and Supplice. Almost every in the FPS community recommends these games, but what they fail to mention is that the devs who made Sulaco are full-blown Leftists, and it's the same for the devs who made Supplice. I actually bought Supplice BEFORE I knew about the devs' political leanings, and whilst playing the game discovered the pro-black lesbian anti-capitalist nature of the title (sure, it's my fault for even considering a game with a cover featuring a black dyke, and yes, you should judge every book by its cover with extreme prejudice, so that one is on me).
But everywhere you look, everyone will recommend Sulaco to you if you want a good 90s-inspired FPS title that feels weighty and impactful. Everyone will also suggest Signalis if you want a good isometric, horror-puzzle game, even though it's faggotry propaganda through and through.
So not only do you have an issue with having to wade through countless amounts of slop to find something "good", but what's considered "good" these days is oftentimes Left-wing agitprop.
I took a look at the comments in the pinned comment of that video, and there's a TON of recommendations of Lefty-themed indie games in majority of those users' lists. So yes, there are good games out there, but good luck finding the ones that aren't Liberal propaganda or cash-in slop.
95% of everything is garbage. I don't think this is any sort of grand revelation. Game dev overall has never been more accessible or saturated, so it's only natural that cheap indie game dev is full of untalented copycats and low effort asset flips.
And yet: most of my favorite games over the last decade have been indie. Most of the copycats are chasing markets that were established by legitimately great breakthrough hits. There are still clever, creative indie games coming out every year, and they definitely outnumber quality AAA releases. I'm not lacking options, and it's only because indie gaming took off.
What does it matter to me if most of it is trash? Curation has always been necessary for enjoyment of media. The existence of a thousand generic deck builders doesn't devalue Slay the Spire. Flavor of the week friendslop doesn't diminish Deep Rock Galactic. Every other new game being a roguelite doesn't erase FTL, Dead Cells, and Darkest Dungeon.
The harshest critics of indie gaming are almost always cut from the same cloth: young console gamers who still give a shit about graphics. These are the people who mock Slay the Spire 2 while playing Marathon.
This. The entire video is just clickbait.
Anyone who grew up on Newgrounds understands.
This.
You missed the point entirely. It's not that lots of indie games are trash...the problem is that they are reviewed with way to much leniency (because being a cool gamer these days means cutting indie games miles of slack for some reason). Thus these trash indie games end up with scores that are much higher than they deserve, i.e. overrated.
It's literally the title. And he brought receipts too. Some of that shit really is rated "Overwhelmingly positive".
They're reviewed with more leniency because it's expected that if you have millions of dollars and a team of seasoned experts you should be able to put out a better product than some kid living in his parent's basement.
Also if it's 20$ or less for a shitty indie game instead of 60-80$ for a similar shitty AAA game it automatically has better value for money and thus deserves the better rating.
I don't expect cheap street food to be on par with expensive restaurants either. Cheap street food that's decent is good value for money. Expensive restaurant food that's only decent is bad value for money.
That kind of meta analysis should be saved for forums and video essays. It does not belong in Steam reviews, where people are trying to figure out if the game is worth their time and money. The conditions under which the game was developed has zero impact on that.
Let's look at that closer
So you agree that the cheaper prices indies usually charge should be considered as part of the review?
I'd say this is more of a reflection of issues with Steam's rating/review system. Which is something that I think could use some improvement (purely positive or negative ratings are an oversimplified metric imo). And the Steam store's search filters could use some improvements too.
So is the central thesis of the video that reviews are unreliable and easily manipulated? No shit.
Or maybe that alphabet people will endeavor to astroturf their own degenerate or mediocre garbage into the mainstream? That's what "overwhelmingly positive on 500 total reviews" means.
Or that the low bar of entry for indie game dev has generated oceans of unfinished, unpolished, derivative slop? What else even could happen?
It's a contrarian clickbait video that says nothing of value. The main takeaway is that dude has retarded friends.
Wrong again. The takeaway is that indie games have a huge dick-riding problem that is unique to them. With triple-A games it's the journalists who focus on meaningless things like dev team diversity and LGBetc characters when writing reviews...with indie games it's the players themselves.
I have no idea why you're getting bagged, you're completely right.
Steam aids and abets this too. They make it incredibly easy to be positive and nice (and globohomo) but if you're critical or normal or anti-degenerate, you're battling uphill.
Plenty of people dickride AAA as well. The Marathon situation is downright comical. There's just no money or clout in publicly shitting on bad indie games with no sales, so you won't find a hundred hot take youtube videos attacking indie failure number ten thousand and seven. You're mistaking apathy/invisibility for a free pass.
Edit: And if your look into it, indie games absolutely get promoted by certain communities based on LGBTQ bullshit. The video even acknowledged this. That's what furry devs are.
Oversaturation of copycats is the strongest evidence that quality exists in the first place. Nobody bothers to emulate garbage.
You nailed it. What's interesting is within a week, two games that I'm loving came out, one a big budget AA game (RE9) and once an indie (Slay the Spire 2). Good games are everywhere if you're not a cynical shithead
You're right that they are everywhere, but as the video points out, trying to find them is the tough part due to the slanted reviews propping up games from people who already like what the game is doing, not reviewing it objectively for people who aren't already fans.
One big problem I found is that the kind of games I love have been buried under slop. Some people here made recommendations for titles I otherwise would have missed because I don't have six hours to sift through the massive amount of shovelware out there.
One thing I also found is that you can't trust consensus because consensus has been tainted.
The one thing I mentioned time and time over again has happened: normies are completely converged.
What does this have to do with the topic at hand?
Well, I've been craving a good FPS, but a lot of them are super mediocre. Trepang2 is okay, but still feels like a floaty Unreal Engine asset flip. If I want some grounded, or detailed, or Doom-like FPS shooting, there are a ton of FPS games out there, but not many of them are good or many of them are DEI-infested.
A good example are Sulaco and Supplice. Almost every in the FPS community recommends these games, but what they fail to mention is that the devs who made Sulaco are full-blown Leftists, and it's the same for the devs who made Supplice. I actually bought Supplice BEFORE I knew about the devs' political leanings, and whilst playing the game discovered the pro-black lesbian anti-capitalist nature of the title (sure, it's my fault for even considering a game with a cover featuring a black dyke, and yes, you should judge every book by its cover with extreme prejudice, so that one is on me).
But everywhere you look, everyone will recommend Sulaco to you if you want a good 90s-inspired FPS title that feels weighty and impactful. Everyone will also suggest Signalis if you want a good isometric, horror-puzzle game, even though it's faggotry propaganda through and through.
So not only do you have an issue with having to wade through countless amounts of slop to find something "good", but what's considered "good" these days is oftentimes Left-wing agitprop.
I took a look at the comments in the pinned comment of that video, and there's a TON of recommendations of Lefty-themed indie games in majority of those users' lists. So yes, there are good games out there, but good luck finding the ones that aren't Liberal propaganda or cash-in slop.