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Video Gaming Will Take Over

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Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#241

Post by friendlybus »

Supermancho wrote: post #88
FooHentai wrote: post #3

>Cloud gaming means you will be able to take your game “everywhere” and avoid dreaded 20-minute updates before you can start playing. Doubt. In the same way that movies on PSP had this idea in mind but fell flat on it's face, games are strongly tied to the format and environment in which you consume them. FPS gaming with a keyboard and mouse isn't coming with you on your phone for the morning commute, and no amount o…

> FPS gaming with a keyboard and mouse isn't coming with you on your phone for the morning commute People are playing games on their phones on trains and buses and cars all day every day. Mouse and Keyboard FPS games have given way to the control pads on phone touchscreens. One benefit of being so old and traveled is that I can predict the future more reliably than 40 years ago. Look to dense urban centers for entert…

Yes density is the hot new thing I agree. The mouse and KB didn't give way. They don't compete with each other. Nobody is deciding to play civ6 on their phone instead of their PC when at home. People play phone games when they are not at a desk where they can game. Gaming diverged, following the hardware.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#243

Post by friendlybus »

prawn wrote: post #128
amiantos wrote: post #92

Article seems to forget that there are vast swaths of the population that do not play games. They do not have the patience to learn how to play games, not even console games with simpler controls. Even casual games require some level of skill to play, or they're not any fun, and the joy of television is that you do not need any special skill to enjoy it. This isn't even getting into people who view games as a waste o…

Something I think about is how there have been outstanding games that the majority of people will never play. Just in recent years - Red Dead I and II, Horizon Zero Dawn, Last of Us, etc. These have quality/polish up with Breaking Bad or any acclaimed movie/TV, but no one else in my extended family would have played a second of any of them. How do you bring that experience to people?

In the early days of film there were long running serials played that had such a the investment that it had a limited audience. Film became more mainstream as it's format locked down to 1.5-2hr films that busy people could enjoy.

Investing heavily into a long running video game is more intensive than long running film. Finding the right form for those experiences that isn't totalizing in it's presentation could help. A 3hr run and done episode of red dead might be more consumable.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#244

Post by dgb23 »

burntoutfire wrote: post #235

What game proponents seem to miss is that most people are mostly interested in other people (we are predominantly social creatures after all). Books, movies, tv shows can create extremely lifelike immersive experiences that center around people. Games, on the other hand, suck at it - humans are way to hard for a computer to simulate. The current fallback is to have scripted bits of bad movies/books embedded in betwee…

There are quite a number of games which are praised for achieving an emotional connection to the presented characters.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#245

Post by emsy »

baby wrote: post #224
gfxgirl wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mixed on this. I grew up with games, similar age as you. I haven't completely stopped but I'm down to a 2-3 games a year. Why? Because they are all the same damn game!!! FPS # 12446, 2D side scroller # 692134, Yet another twin stick shooter, Yet another shmups, Yet another Metroidvania, etc... They aren't changing enough to hold my interest. Even games that seem "new" don't feel new. I played "Baba is You". Got m…

Try the last of us and celeste.

The last of us is just a generic 3rd person shooter saved by its cinematics.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#246

Post by dgb23 »

agumonkey wrote: post #82
cookie_monsta wrote: post #76

There's a point that the article only brushes on that seems important. My generation (born in early 70's) was the first to really come up with access to video games pretty much as a given. We had space invaders etc in the arcades (or wherever else they could fit a cabinet), hand-held Nintendo and basic home consoles in primary school and then of course came the boom with PC, PS, X-Box and all that followed. But a lot…

I'm a tad younger than you and I'd like your opinion. I stopped caring about the gaming industry because 1) even if it's entertainment, I think the deep value is .. as a kid thing. It's not dismissive, I just think that gaming value has limits. It's a dreamy world you interact with and that fits the younger brain. As adults you'd rather master the real world more. 2) I find games today not much more original than in…

> 2) I find games today not much more original than in the past, it plateau-ed somehow

This can be typically said about the mainstream AAA market but much less so about indie games from small teams.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#247

Post by BadRedWp »

wostusername wrote: post #53
vermilingua wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you got any evidence for that, other than what your kids play? Most of the people I know that play video games play a wide range, and I highly doubt that steam could have been a fraction as successful as it is if “95% of the people play one game exclusively”.

Not him, but IIRC back when Steam Spy was a thing it discovered that most accounts on Steam only have one game on it. Usually Dota 2 or CS:GO. That makes sense to some extent since Dota 2 is free and CS:GO is often on sale and a lot of people like to Smurf. Anecdotally both of my CS:GO playing friends have smurf accounts. Although this is a separate issue to the greater point that most people play one game. My bit of…

CS:GO is free to play now

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#249

Post by vonseel »

Author is confusing active screen-browsing (TikTok) active digital pastimes (gaming) with passive leisure activities that also involve screens, and before screens, radio.

Before the age of TV, you could lay on couch with eyes closed listening to radio shows. You can still do this technically even with TV shows, but it’s obviously not as good.

Watching TV is a completely passive activity, especially watching TV shows like on Netflix; maybe sports are more active watching.

TikTok is just scrolling social media, you have to keep your hand on the screen constantly to browse that corner of the Internet. And that’s really all the social networks are, a corner of the Internet. With a bunch of different people and interests promoting their own ideas or selves. You can’t lay down and passively watch it; you have to browse and control your destination.

There will always be people who simply don’t find video games amusing or prefer passive activities like laying and watching shows.

I had the opposite thought as the author earlier tonight - Netflix is taking over the world; it already did. It seems like every few days new content is showing up for people to consume; as a heavy consumer, I think part of that is because Netflix knows they are feeding the hunger and they never want you to have a night alone on the couch where you can’t find something to watch. Apple TV+ will only intensify this.

I bet there are a bunch of single, young people who have little social life and spend most of their free time watching Netflix. People of all ages and demographics, really, families too, but I guess I identify and understand the first group.

After a few days of binge watching, you feel woven with the characters and it feels like a part of your social life possibly more so than that friend you haven’t seen in months/etc. Just for a few moments until you move on to something else, you feel like you know these characters. Like you’ve lived in their little world. I’ve heard the same things about people who watch high-profile gamers play, or YouTuber fans.

So maybe the really scary thing here is that Nf, YT, gaming and other avenues make entertainment sooo cheap and sooo accessible nowadays that real, in-person relationships are being replaced by something less tangible - and much less valuable. Reminds me of the article I read a few days ago about a person listening to “pretend boyfriend pillow talk” on YouTube. Apparently these things help with feelings of loneliness but they. Just. Aren’t. Real.

Re: Video Gaming Will Take Over

#250

Post by friendlybus »

danans wrote: post #176

> The goal is typically less about art (e.g. The Irishman) or even editorial vision (e.g. Black Panther as part of the MCU), and more about creating an environment that audiences never want to leave ... everything is about the player, not the storyteller. > One can debate how this orientation limits the artistic potential of the category. The video game interaction model, which emphasizes freedom for the user within…

Gaming has a narrative format. Moving through a series of rooms that reveal the story. BioShock, Stanley parable, half life, the witness, max payne, spec ops the line ect have been doing this for a while.

From a semiotics perspective the story format is to move a player character through a series of rooms that reveal the story to you via characters and world. The game designer has near total control over space, pushing players through portals and dropping them from heights into new worlds. Worlds must be constructed in near complete 3d. The game designer has limited control over time. An increase of time pressure has to be applied carefully. The player controls movement through time.

Film controls time with near complete control via cuts. Film can easily lose track of space and geometry. They only have to film a section of space that looks realistic to a 2d camera.

I'd argue the conflict you are describing is a desire for the artist to control the viewer's time whilst you are participating in the art form. Games that do that are RPGs with levelling progression that tune the player's actions to maximize synchronicity with spawn rates, item drops, refills, selling timers and more. Single player architecture and audio book simulators like BioShock do not aim at that level of controlling time. TV does, film does even more so, you give up control over time to a predetermined 24fps film.

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