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.
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.
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.
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.
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?