Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports • Hacker News Board

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#111

Post by stevula » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:28 AM UTC

neixidbeksoxyd wrote: post #74

bitxbit wrote: post #36

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

> There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape. I have been dreaming of better interfaces (controllers) for games for decades. The Wii, despite it's limited power, was a huge leap forward in how we played games. Unfortunately Nintendo is the only gaming company taking risks while Microsoft and Sony keep doubling down on graphics wit…

Controllers were quite different 30 years ago. Dual stick didn’t become the norm until 20 years ago, though arguably Xbox and PlayStation controllers haven’t changed their layouts much since 2000.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#112

Post by chillwaves » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:28 AM UTC

bitxbit wrote: post #36

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

I strongly agree with this, for one the demographic shift alone. Or even people introduced to gaming in their twilight years are coming online.

Like with social media, the psychological implications are not clear.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#113

Post by chillwaves » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:32 AM UTC

mumblemumble wrote: post #35

chillwaves wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the difference between video game addiction and other screen related addiction?

One is more fun than the others?

Maybe they are all the same problem, screens are more compelling than life and this statement is only becoming more true each day.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#114

Post by chillwaves » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:35 AM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #28

That has to be hella broad in terms of definition. I'd guess playing a cutting edge PC game at reasonable spec puts you into the top 1% income wise? (gut feel guess) So 3 billion is presumably anything that has a screen and a game? Games are big but near half of humanity is a pretty bold claim.

This seems more a proxy on how much of humanity is connected by smart phones now. The implication is similarly staggering.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#115

Post by p1necone » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:36 AM UTC

spicybright wrote: post #89

Random_BSD_Geek wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I misread "Minecraft" as "Minesweeper" and was briefly bewildered by the idea of Minesweeper VR. Kinda want to play that now.

I feel like there's so many games that can be VR-ified like this. Even if it's just a first person, point to a square on the floor and click, sort of game, I feel like more innovation can build on top of traditional games like minesweeper starting with that.

Dress it up as bomb disposal, big scary explosion when you mess up, you get uncomfortably thrown into the sky, could be great.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#116

Post by setr » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:36 AM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #85

throw149102 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding onto this, imagine how you would feel if someone said "There are 3 billion Spanish speakers worldwide" But then you learned that only 500 million were really fluent, and the rest ranged from broken Spanish that was enough to get by in a Spanish speaking country to people who were forced to take a Spanish class in highschool and never used it again. I think this concept of "fluency" in games is probably a more…

> I would imagine that someone who only played Candy Crush would not understand how to move their camera around in a 3D environment, for example Now would someone who only played NES games, or Civilization VI, or Papers Please. Are we defining 'games' as meaning '3D walk-y about-y games', here?

Given the notion of "fluency" proposed by the GP, the idea would be that a "fluent" gamer would not be described with "played only X games". You would be fluent if you could "communicate" in multiple genres -- having a sufficiently thorough vocabulary.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#117

Post by mr_toad » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:37 AM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #110

gsich wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can probably be trained away.

Go on, how? I'm getting into boat-sailing, and I'm saddened by the nausea it causes. I'm looking into ways to reduce this, and I'm thinking ways to deal with motion sickness incurred in VR-games is probably applicable to me.

I go sailing and don’t get nausea much these days. But VR still makes me queasy after an hour or two.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#118

Post by the_duke » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:38 AM UTC

compscistd wrote: post #101

ArtWomb wrote: post #80

Ghosts of Tsushima may be the best Playstation game I have played EVER. It's a testament to how late in the console release cycle, developers are just now mastering internals. It's the ideal video game: open world, 13-century feudal Japan, Age of the Samurai. High contrast "Kurosawa" mode, 4K HDR is cinematically photoreal. I really hope it remains a Major IP for many years to come ;) https://blog.selfshadow.com/publ…

I just finished playing through Horizon Zero Dawn which had been untouched, collecting dust on the shelf for a couple years. Found more time in the pandemic and I'm wondering what else I've missed out on! The only other titles I've played with great acclaim are God of War and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. From a brief wiki search, it seems outside of Nintendo, studios only tend to have one-hit wonders. I never played th…

Since you liked Horizon Zero Dawn:

- Witcher 3 brought me back to gaming after a 10+ year hiatus. While not perfect, it's the best/most immersive game I have ever played. Thanks to truly incredible writing, an interesting, engaging world where small side quests are some of the best content, good graphics that still hold up very well (especially with mods on PC, but just fine on console). All built on a foundation of very solid combat and gameplay.

- "Nier Automata" is an unusual experience that smoothly blends very different combat styles and has a mind-boggling, thought-provoking story.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#119

Post by ThrowawayR2 » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:40 AM UTC

Baeocystin wrote: post #98

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " A few hundred dollars? What does that buy you? " Let's just say that the majority of characters in Fate/Grand Order and other Asian gacha games that one can roll for are young and female for a reason...

You know, famous historical young female characters like Oda Nobunga or Leonardo da Vinci.

Yep, or Sir Francis Drake, Nero Claudius, Jack the Ripper, Mordred, etc. (For people who have never seen the game, the parent poster isn't joking.)

At least they aren't firearms or WW2 warships. -shrug-

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#120

Post by axaxs » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 2:40 AM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #69

beering wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen it argued that releasing a Linux version (even using Unity/Unreal) is worse than releasing a Windows version that runs on Proton, because the Windows API is stabler and the Linux version will inevitably bitrot without continual updates.

There's a serious rumor that this is what actually killed rocket league on Linux. Why maintain a fork if proton is better anyway?

Proton is good, but in no measure 'better'. Linux isn't as unstable as everyone makes it out to be. Quite the opposite. Proton still has to work on linux, afterall. If Linux support bitrots quickly, then so does everyone dependent on proton.