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

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

#61

Post by makecheck » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

The problem for me is that games are rarely designed to be “complete” anymore. I assume there’s some kind of catch with most of them, and it’s tiring. Why spend time on a game only to discover that it’s actually missing entire chapters, or has major bugs, or is curiously un-fun without an oddly expensive “optional” item? (Clearly many people must fall for these schemes, otherwise so many games would not be designed this way.)

“Initial price” seems to be the lure. Game revenue would look a lot different if publishers were required to use the term “Submit DOWN PAYMENT of $0.99 (All Content: $200.00)” or “Pay First Month $0.99 (Price Per Month: $3.99)” or “Try Now (All Content: $389.00)” or “Buy Chapters 1-3 ($9.99)”.

Similarly, it would be very useful if publishers were required to show statistics on what percentage of people bought each downloadable pack. If you offer different downloadable chapters for instance and I see you have 50,000 downloads of the first chapter at $0.99 and like 10 people buying Chapter 2, I can conclude that maybe your game was not fun enough for people to want to play more. The platform may be able to determine this too, e.g. calculating an “average price per hour” factor that translates app time from those who purchased at least one component of the app, giving you a sense of how much time they were able to spend for their money.

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

#62

Post by PeterisP » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

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 mean, they aren't saying that players don't products, the point is that when "players will still happily arrive and spend lots of money" then (unlike earlier years) those players are leaving some other product (quite likely also made by one of the same few major publishers!) and spending less money there, so building that well-crafted product didn't bring new sales but cannibalized existing sales; and if the industry builds twice as much well-crafted products, the total revenue for the industry will be pretty much the same, with the only difference being that maybe one publisher will gain slightly more sales at the expense of another.

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

#63

Post by wccrawford » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

escapecharacter wrote: post #60

Blatant self-promotion: For us who grew up playing lots of video games but are now adults, we now have: 1. Way less time 2. A higher expectation of quality 3. More money Creating "Quality Time" entertainment is why I founded Escape Character. We're a platform for online experiences with a live actor. Since a paid actor is involved, and we pay them a suitable rate, events are ticketed even though they're online, just…

I'm not yet convinced that this is something I'd really like, but I have to admit I'm intrigued. And the prices seem really reasonable.

I feel like I'd be more sure (and more likely to purchase tickets) if I had a better idea of how it plays. The description seems to be lacking. Perhaps a short video would help people better understand what they're buying into?

To be fair, this is my problem with real "dinner theatre" as well. I simply don't know what to expect, and so I'm not likely to buy tickets.

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

#64

Post by escapecharacter » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #63

escapecharacter wrote: post #60

Blatant self-promotion: For us who grew up playing lots of video games but are now adults, we now have: 1. Way less time 2. A higher expectation of quality 3. More money Creating "Quality Time" entertainment is why I founded Escape Character. We're a platform for online experiences with a live actor. Since a paid actor is involved, and we pay them a suitable rate, events are ticketed even though they're online, just…

I'm not yet convinced that this is something I'd really like, but I have to admit I'm intrigued. And the prices seem really reasonable. I feel like I'd be more sure (and more likely to purchase tickets) if I had a better idea of how it plays. The description seems to be lacking. Perhaps a short video would help people better understand what they're buying into? To be fair, this is my problem with real "dinner theatre…

That's valid! I think communication and setting expectations around immersive events is an unsolved problem.

We have a gif here: https://twitter.com/dustinfreeman/status/1096887625779048448

And a secret highlight reel from our premiere show: https://escape-character.com/secret/TheAluminumCatHighlights...

For many immersive events, lots of people are curious, but afraid that they'll be forced to act, or put in an awkward situation. It doesn't help that most "immersive theatre" events are so expensive to run they haven't really tried to expand out of the rich early adopter urbanite demographic.

Initially our closed alpha format had audience speaking to the actor, but we repeatedly found out that the average person was intimidated. We recently switched to a mouse-based/ouija-like UI you can see in the highlight reel. This has been surprisingly expressive. We don't use audio or text chat at all for the audience anymore. More info on my blog: https://dustinfreeman.org/blog/immersive-theatre-mice/

If I was to describe these events honestly, I'd called them "streamlined D&D" or "training wheels LARPs", but I think D&D and LARP* are intimidating mediums to the average person.

* Live Action Roleplaying.

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

#65

Post by livueta » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

escapecharacter wrote: post #60

Blatant self-promotion: For us who grew up playing lots of video games but are now adults, we now have: 1. Way less time 2. A higher expectation of quality 3. More money Creating "Quality Time" entertainment is why I founded Escape Character. We're a platform for online experiences with a live actor. Since a paid actor is involved, and we pay them a suitable rate, events are ticketed even though they're online, just…

Interesting. The concept is remarkably reminiscent of elements of The Diamond Age. Was that an inspiration?

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

#66

Post by strictnein » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:22 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…

Some of the space battles in Battlefront 2 approached the fun I had playing X-Wing and TIE Fighter, back in the day.

It's a little too fast paced and frenetic, but dodging between large girders on a huge space station while being chased by an enemy A-Wing is still quite fun. Or looping around the back of a Star Destroyer in an X-Wing.

If they took that engine (which already featured decent enough AI controlled bots), slowed things down a bit, and wrapped a campaign around it all, I'd be sold.

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

#67

Post by strictnein » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

grogenaut wrote: post #43

pnw_hazor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Titanfall 2 had one of the best singleplayer campaigns for an FPS over the past 5 years. Really fun and unique.

It's multiplayer was good too, but it was launched in a really bad spot that was 100% EA's fault.

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

#68

Post by the-pigeon » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:26 PM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #61

The problem for me is that games are rarely designed to be “complete” anymore. I assume there’s some kind of catch with most of them, and it’s tiring. Why spend time on a game only to discover that it’s actually missing entire chapters, or has major bugs, or is curiously un-fun without an oddly expensive “optional” item? (Clearly many people must fall for these schemes, otherwise so many games would not be designed t…

There's a ton of modern games that don't do this.

Most of the top games your find on metacritic for Switch, PS4, PC and Xbox One don't do that.

For example games like Breath of the Wild, Witcher 3, and Read Dead Redemption 2 are complete games without the catch you are talking about.

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

#69

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

ehsanu1 wrote: post #18

billfruit wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> but showing the whole action from a roof-top or sky camera or atleast traditional football broadcast like camera would make it more watchable I'm quite sure this is very intentional with Rocket League broadcasts. There's even a "director cam" that Psyonix built for this purpose, and it is still used often. It's just that it's not as exciting or impressive when you're not seeing it from the player's view for whateve…

[deleted]

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

#70

Post by trophycase » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

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…

You want the production to kick off? There's nothing wrong with just airing the game, I don't need commercials and interspersed ads and huge breaks and player backstories and all this other fluff that comes with "production values". I like how technical the casters are now and not catering their commentary to lowest common denominator viewers, so someone who plays the game can actually learn something interesting. Besides, "production values" are literally just resource sinks anyway.