Will AAA gaming go down the drain?
AAA gaming is, without a doubt, a very successful business. Then again, does that mean it lives up to its success? Let's see the facts.
In case you're confused about what AAA gaming is, it refers to well-funded games made by the big companies, such as EA and Ubisoft.
Fact #1: Sequels, sequels! It's no surprise that most AAA companies provide sequels to their successful games, but this is quickly getting out of hand. With games like assassin's creed that made over 7 games, and need for speed that had countless sequels, and fifa, and call of duty, and so on...
-There's no doubt that this is a common trend, not just for video games, but for movies and books, too. This, in my opinion, is copy pasting. I have nothing against sequels, hell, I like sequels when they make good ideas better, but what I hate is that these sequels have no feel to it, and don't really bring anything new to a table. Now, there's good sequels, a good example is jak and daxter 2 and jak and daxter 3. Now, you see, jak 3 had new guns. Not like new guns in call of duty, those guns were all very different, from a gun that shoots lightning, to a gun that shoots a drone that fills the area with bullets, and it also included cars, and a car battling system, and races, and new mechanics, and different cars with different weapons, and SO ON. Unlike most sequels now days, which mostly include graphical changes and maybe a few features. For example, assassin's creed advertised smoke bombs and some old guns (which, frankly, were almost exactly like the crossbow), and a new open world area, and new story. And you had to pay full price, all over again, to get almost the same game. Granted, there's new features, and you feel like the game is progressing. Though this is all cash grab, they could've easily packed 3 sequels into just one that actually makes the player feel like it made a difference and was probably worth the purchase. Though, this isn't the case. Sequels are starting to easily get repetitive. I had a specific someone arguing to me that, for example, call of duty modern warfare was attempting to do something new, but was still bashed at for being the same game. My answer to this is that overall I bet it did feel like the same game. "But how do you want them to make sequels, then?". I don't. I want fresh ideas, it's not about making better sequels, it's about making more varied games.
Fact #2: Graphics. Most AAA titles focus mainly on that. When they show off or talk about their game, eventually they start talking about graphics. Graphics are one of the main reasons a person actually feels like they could want the game, it hooks people into thinking the game has good design and is really well made. It goes without saying that some companies try and abuse this fact. This also what started tricks such as downgrading a game, making it not look as good as it was advertised, but more on that next fact.
-Good graphics is like an amazing toping on a cake, if the cake itself is bad, then it simply won’t work out, however, the opposite can still work. If you eat a good cake with no topping, it can still be good. Lots of people are starting to think that gaming now is all about graphics, and that any pixelated game is “outdated” and “silly”, you wouldn’t belive the amount of time I heard this, you’d think you hear this on the internet from lame people who try to troll, but actually, I hear this a lot on real life. Okay, everyone loves good graphics, you can’t say “aw sucks, this game has good graphics, I wish it were 8-bit” because you really can’t go wrong with good graphics and clean animations. The most noticeable side effect of all the graphics love is that developers are starting to care much more about graphics than performance, which is awful, to say the least. I’d rather have a decent looking game running on 60fps than a great looking game running on 30fps. 30fps itself is fine, but that isn’t the case lots of the time, games on consoles are getting frame drops every now and then, and cash grabs like crappy PC ports still exist. I just wish they would favor gameplay over graphics, but that’s pretty rare…
Fact #3: You can’t erase good reputation, even if you flat out suck now. This is one of the harsh truths of AAA gaming, even if you practice one of the most disgusting, cash grabbing acts a company could possible do, that doesn’t mean you won’t sell. We’ve seen awful acts by companies, like warner brothers stating they’re too busy making DLC than fix their game, or ubisoft releasing assassin’s creed unity as a broken mess, or ubisoft extremely downgrading watch dogs (mostly noticeable in the lighting, weather effects, and the explosion at the end of the video). Even if those things happened, and they got bashed for it, I wouldn’t be surprised if you still bought one of their games, because that’s pretty much how AAA gaming works. They don’t exactly make up for the mistakes they make, but they’re still popular, and even after the messy mess than AC unity made, people will still buy the next AC game.
-Aaaand this fact is abused by the companies, especially with so called “pre-ordering”. It’s obvious what the point of pre-order bonus is, to encourage people to buy the game before the reviews about how awful it was when it comes out. No matter how many times people get tricked with this, and say “well we’ve learned our lesson, let’s not preorder games again!”, people still fall for this lame, disgusting move. The big companies get absolutely no penalty for this, they make games as a business, as long as they sell, they won’t give two craps about how people think of the game. This wouldn’t be that bad of a problem if they weren’t lying bastards. Tons of games get downgraded, or are simply deceiving and misleading. We all know the preview of games are demos made specifically to show people the good parts, but this is getting out of hand. Companies are showing the absolute best of their games, filling it with intense moments, and action, yet the game comes out to be boring. Don’t preorder games unless it’s from a trustworthy company, you can do a quick search about the company before deciding, it really isn’t that hard. In fact, don’t pre-order. You can easily regret it. It’s really sad to see people brainwashed by the media, saying games like fifa and assassin’s creed are the best, buying the same game again and again, and discarding actually good indie games because of how they look.
Conclusion: AAA games are good, but most of the time they don’t deliver. The frauds and scams that the companies do is sickening, and instantly makes me feel I don’t want to support assholes like them. It’s obvious how big companies have gone downhill these past few years, I’d say somewhere around 2008 is where it started, but it’s only getting worse. The most annoying thing about it is the absurd amount of money they earn. Most gamers follow the media and get tricked, hell, in my country, almost the only game people keep buying is fifa. Every year, buying the same game, again and again. I’m really disappointed on how they keep downgrading the business. Yes, they downgrade the business, if laziness, lies, and fraud keeps getting rewarded, why WOULDN’T the people that only care about money start following the bullshit train? All in all, I don’t hate big games, but I don’t like them. They’re totally not worth my money. And I get a salty feeling when I hear someone I know bought a new fifa or assassin’s creed.Ugh.
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