Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention • Hacker News Board

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#41

Post by abakker » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:49 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #23

mipmap04 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why Everquest was so great for me. Leveling took a long time and you really got to explore the world. It would take teaming up with people just to make perilous journeys - this is something I don't think exists anymore in games. Additionally, gear lasted much longer. You could be using the same piece of armor for months potentially as you leveled in EQ. It really felt like you were building your character. No…

Some of my very favorite moments in videogaming ever occurred during the EverQuest closed beta. That game was so great. It would get dark at night, to the point where if you didn't have a torch (which cost money) you'd be bumping into the trees in Kelethin in pitch blackness, and shortly get taken down by monsters. I remember spending nearly half of my time playing that game just waiting around in the dark by the tow…

The lack of a minimap is pretty awesome. There is a careful balance between preserving adventure vs making the game frustrating; between convenient and immersive.

I very much liked the early days of D2 when you had to legitimately watch out to always have scrolls of town portal. Or in D1 when your mana didn't auto-recharge and you had to meter out potions, trips to down for free heal/mana, and just getting in there and doing physical damage because you were out of mana and needed to wait for a potion to drop.

Convenient features always take me out of the world a bit, and stuff where you have to die, try something new, die again, etc to win always makes me feel like I'm actually learning to play better.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#42

Post by debacle » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:49 PM UTC

learc83 wrote: post #31

debacle wrote: post #12

There is intense competition between these battle royale games. Possibly more intense competition than we've ever seen. Being the 2nd WoW or top MOBA pales in comparison. Of the dozen BRs I've played (including mods for existing games), all but 3 already seem somewhat dead. PUBG, which was the leader for what seems like the longest duration, now seems like a distant third, and will likely never recover.

I think it might have something to do with a combination of free to play and no matchmaking. Once a BR has saturated the market, the percentage of new to experienced players starts to drop. I think most players will reach a skill peak and the game starts to get harder faster than they are improving. This can be frustrating, and since newer BRs have a higher percentage of less skill players they feel easier. With no m…

Matchmaking is a double edged sword. It makes the newer players feel more welcome, but it will make the dedicated players (who likely invest more $$) feel less rewarded.

I had written some comments similar to what you are saying. Getting into e.g. PUBG right now would be very difficult.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#43

Post by grogenaut » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:53 PM UTC

pnw_hazor wrote: post #40

qmarchi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To follow up on it, EA isn't even terrible on having the studios make relatively great games. A quick look at the skyrocketing success of Apex: Legends, announced _at the EA call_ on Feb 5th, has already surpassed 25M accounts and 2M concurrent users. They need to focus on what's made them most of their money over the past years, game sales for series games (FIFA, NASCAR, etc.) and great first-party titles that aren'…

Though from what I read, EA allegedly had zero input into Apex. That might be why it is becoming popular. I just tried Apex a few days ago, it was pretty fun.

How much input did they have into Titanfall 1&2? Those weren't exactly gangbusters.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#44

Post by stunt » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

Regarding the video attention, Fortnite is building most of its community around game streamers instead of players! Most of the Fortnite events are heavily focused on big streamers than pro gamers unlike other successful big gaming communities.

That leaves a lot of power to streamers hand. But streamers will play any game that they’re get paid to play unlike players from community.

Most of their community are following streamers instead of the game or Epic. That is how many of them moved to ApexLegends when top streamers got paid to play ApexLegends.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#45

Post by falcolas » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #37

I feel like I'm way out of touch with what I read online about game prices, and I don't think that I'm looking at things wrong. Games still cost about what they did when I was a teenager -- which is to say game prices haven't kept price with inflation. Meanwhile, games have added big increased in graphical quality, in the amount of voice acting and mo-cap involved, in the size of maps and whatnot. Meanwhile, for inst…

> And yet online I see complaint after complaint about how big AAA games aren't delivering value for the money because of all the DLC available that they feel "should" be part of the base game. I don't get it.

My complaint: If I, something of a story completionist, want to ensure I get to play all the story content which was built for, say, Asassain's Creed Odessey, I have to not only pay that up front $100+ (to get the appropriate level of pre-order exclusive content) cost, I have to spend an additional hundred plus for season passes and other DLC. And that's not counting all the extra skins and weapons for sale.

I'm glad you feel you're getting your money's worth, but not everyone plays games the same way you do. For some people, the level of content you purchased is a week's worth of entertainment.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#46

Post by didibus » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #11

maxsilver wrote: post #3

This seems like a inaccurate take from folks who are not following the gaming industry closely. Activision just had a record-setting year of high revenue (presumably they are not feeling the impact of peaking attention), in part because the quality of their products is still high-ish. They laid people off because they could, not because of any downturn in business. EA's quarterly results are down, because their produ…

I don’t have a ton of direct insight into gaming, but in general when a business that’s dependent on development is facing headwinds and doubles down on hitting the numbers, that’s a bad sign. It’s often a signal that the firm is not investing in the business. IMO, modern business models for gaming (ie casinos for elementary school kids) are problematic and are turning kids off. There will be a harsh reckoning as mor…

Wow, this is the first time I hear this argument, and it is a really good one.

To enjoy and play games require some initiation to it as a kid. And the kind of games marketed at kids today I don't think do a good job at creating this interest. That could really hurt the industry long term.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#47

Post by verisimilidude » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #20

debacle wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EA is really struggling with their Star Wars license. If they put out just 1 good Star Wars game they'd see insane revenue. I haven't purchased an AAA title in years and I would buy an okayish Jedi Knight IV.

My dream is a modern Star Wars/TIE Fighter space shooter. Those were some of my very favorite games back in the late Win 3.1/early Win 95 era. I suspect it wouldn't have the same widespread appeal as an adventure/shooter/RPG like Jedi Knight, but it could be also be made at a pretty low cost, and it's not like the license restricts how many Star Wars games they can release. May as well go make a space shooter with a…

My dream is a modern Star Wars TIE Fighter space shooter...in VR.

But I doubt the VR market is big enough to justify the investment that’s demanded by the Star Wars license. Like you say, AAA is sometimes a straight-jacket.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#48

Post by Macha » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #37

I feel like I'm way out of touch with what I read online about game prices, and I don't think that I'm looking at things wrong. Games still cost about what they did when I was a teenager -- which is to say game prices haven't kept price with inflation. Meanwhile, games have added big increased in graphical quality, in the amount of voice acting and mo-cap involved, in the size of maps and whatnot. Meanwhile, for inst…

1. Sales numbers have increased significantly. Compare GTA 3 (2001) which sold 2 million in its first 3 months, 6 million in its first two years and 15 million lifetime to GTA 4 (2008) which sold 8.5 million in its first month, and 20 million in its first 3 years to GTA 5 (2013) which sold 11.2 million on its first day, 29 million it its first 6 weeks and is currently at 100 million lifetime sales.

2. Add to that DLC (and now microtransactions and loot boxes) pushing the ARPU up.

3. The rise of special editions and preorder content mean most games are launching with special editions in the €120-€200 range. I don't have a breakdown for special vs regular edition sales but they're certainly pushed hard and I know of people who do buy them.

4. Also not everywhere has seen the same stagnation in video game prices, here the price of a new release on console has gone from IR£25 (€32/$35) in the PS1 era to €70 ($80) these days.

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#49

Post by cwyers » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:00 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #45

cwyers wrote: post #37

I feel like I'm way out of touch with what I read online about game prices, and I don't think that I'm looking at things wrong. Games still cost about what they did when I was a teenager -- which is to say game prices haven't kept price with inflation. Meanwhile, games have added big increased in graphical quality, in the amount of voice acting and mo-cap involved, in the size of maps and whatnot. Meanwhile, for inst…

> And yet online I see complaint after complaint about how big AAA games aren't delivering value for the money because of all the DLC available that they feel "should" be part of the base game. I don't get it. My complaint: If I, something of a story completionist, want to ensure I get to play all the story content which was built for, say, Asassain's Creed Odessey, I have to not only pay that up front $100+ (to get…

I'm pretty sure the game plus season pass was $80 at launch. Where are you getting $200 from?

And what is someone _doing_ if they can burn through a game like Odyssey in a week? According to How Long To Beat, even if you skip the side quests and blow through the main campaign, that's 30 hours.

https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=57503

Re: Major Games Publishers Are Feeling the Impact of Peaking Attention

#50

Post by meawaythrow » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:00 PM UTC

billfruit wrote: post #7

crsv wrote: post #4

An interesting thing that's happening right now with the release and rise of Apex Legends is seeing how these now stale numbers are already starting to move around in regards to the level of engagement that Fortnite now commands versus what it commanded only weeks ago. The pace that the market is moving is pretty incredible in direct contrast to the landscape even just 5 years ago when MOBA's owned the world. This in…

I do think Esports is let down by bad production quality of the telecasts, for eg: Most Rocket League telecasts seem show most of the match from each players camera, quickly switching from one player to another, but showing the whole action from a roof-top or sky camera or atleast traditional football broadcast like camera would make it more watchable. Even with CSGO and Overwatch, similar problems, the game designer…

I bet football broadcasters would broadcast shots from the players' points of view if they could.