It's not a problem for me just because of the cost. I want to play Expedition 33 but I'm not sure I want to pay $70 to do so.

I'm happy just playing my old ROM collections or booting up Cyberpunk or whatever. but now I just can't justify dropping $70+ on a game anymore.

sigh, I'll probably just end up going back to EVE Online.

And you know, if wouldn't hurt my ability to play more games if more of them were shorter.

From the article:

In 2024, a staggering 18,626 games were released on Steam, according to SteamDB, a website that tracks data on the popular PC platform. That’s an increase of around 93% from 2020, when 9,656 games were released.

By my count, if you don't sleep or eat and only play videogames you need every game to be about 30 minutes long on average.

I mean, it wouldn't hurt, but I'm gonna say it's not enough.

In all seriousness, I'm more concerned by the competition from social media and on demand video. I'm typing this, which isn't that interesting of an activity. Idling online is a huge time sink, and it's getting bigger.

Elden Ring has been praised by everyone.

It's one thing if a reviewer says it's good. His livelyhood relies on the video game industry thriveing. If you stop buying this game, the studio won't make the next game. If the studio won't make the next game, the reviewer can't review the next game. If the reviewer can't review the next game, then where does their paycheck come from?

So I'm not saying they knowingly artificially raise scores and sell games. I'm just saying maybe a 7 gets reviewed as an 8 just so the reviewer won't feel awkward when meeting with industry folk at the next industry get together.

But when gamers collectively band together, and say itxs 10/10, and game of the year, I feel rest assured that Elden Ring is as good as people say.

I have not bought Elden Ring. I have not played Elden Ring. In all honesty, I probably won't. Why?

BECAUSE YOU DON'T NEED TO PLAY EVERY SINGLE GAME JUST BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING!!! YOU CAN JUST NOOOOOT PLAY IT!

Don't blame too many games. Don't blame reviewers. Don't blame anything. This is only a problem if you let it control your life. Variety is good for everybody. Some games you can just let others enjoy. I'm glad Elden Ring is so great. I don't feel bad I missed it. I'm happy for you if you loved it.

Isn't that so much healthier of an attitude to have?

Reviewers rave about a game, I pick it up and play it, and they're raving about a new one before I've finished that last one.

That's why i only wishlist games that i'm interested in. by the time i get around to them, there's usually a sale and/or price drop. Some games have been on my wishlist for years, while I'm working through my backlog, waiting for their price to drop even further.

I've been playing The Binding of Isaac for decades. I've bought it probably 5 times on different systems, for friends, etc, bought the expansions as well. I've probably still spent less on that game than what a current AAA title costs, and I still have new content to play.

The problem with the industry is they are all trying to get the "next big thing" and they stick to the same formula, there's no innovation from the big studios anymore. That's also why I play way more Indie games, I think the last major title I bought was Tears of the Kingdom, and that was probably the last Nintendo title I'll purchase.

Silksong & Hades 2 will probably be enough to last me the rest of the year. Having 1000 games to pick from doesn't bother me because I don't need to play them all.

It’s the same with tv. I am very picky with my time. So i play very few games or watch very few shows.

This becomes even worse when you also want to play old gems that missed because you weren't even born, or because you had kid taste in your early gaming days, but there are worse things to complain at.

My first two video games that I had were Gran Turismo and Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, so at my 6 years old or so I already had negative time of hundreds of nice jRPG gems LMAO.

Hmm… newest game in my library is Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes from last year, which is a re-release anyway.

I bought 13 old-ish (pre-2022) games this year for less than $100. I have no reason to spend %60-80 of that on 1 game I probably won't even like, and that's if it clears the seemingly impossible "playable" hurdle.

Let me count upcoming games I look forward to playing/am curious about:

1. Ninja Gaiden 4 (Happy to wait for a deep sale)
2. Onimusha (Happy to wait for a deep sale and may even refund if I don't enjoy it)
3. Okami 2 (Happy to wait for a deep sale)
4. Marvel: Tokon (Will definitely wait for a deep sale—$10 base game)

That's it.

I definitely went to see more new movies at the cinema this year than I played new games. IDK where the industry is headed and I feel for all the underpaid, overworked developers at risk, but there isn't much I can do if publishers collectively decided to abandon my favorite genres.

The main problem I see is that creators and all of the people involved in creating games get a smaller share than they would have in the generations before and games aren't getting cheaper to make. It's the same with movies and music and everything. There's only so much capital and the pool of people fighting over it keeps getting bigger. It would be nice if people could make shit just for the sake of making it but instead every market has become a cutthroat competitive wasteland of bland bullshit and half assed or unfinished projects.

I buy tons of games. I hardly play most of them. So many have potential, but stay in early access or fizzle out and the developers abandon it. It really sucks, because I do see a lot of creativity and really awesome ideas that go to waste. Unfortunately, people have to make money to survive and can't just create art for art's sake.

How is having more options a problem?

I'm playing games that came out 10 hears ago, and I have a backlog of many years and I couldn't be happier with it.

It's better than no having anything to play.

At a industry level we all know that gamedev is not a great career. Specially if you are indie the most common profit is 0. But it's ok. You can do it just for the love of it as I do. I spent time making games just because I love it. No everything have to turn a profit.

This is also a lot of covid era games/funding come to fruition imo

The answer is slow gaming. If it is not still known as a good game 5-10 years after release, it is not worth buying.

Also helps avoid games which vanish like a fart after they get your money.

The problem is the immature critique and not the quantity.

you mean too many shit games. its insanely hard to put anything into whishlist, cause every game is one of these:

• phone game fps on rails, ported to pc, runs even worse than on mobile
• anime girl doing something generic, the gameplay is pretty much abismal at this point.
• pixelated sidescroller with the classic brown-green mario lookin map, but the leveldesign was random generated
• action roguelike that pops up an upgrade every .1 seconds
• ue5 horror game, where the first scene is an idiot going to a dark shed with the same flashlight model everyone used for 20 years now. runs at a cinematic fps on the lowest setting with dlss.
• visual novel but the aspect ratio doesnt fit any known screen resolution from the past 29 years
• good lookin game that is sitting in early acces for 7 years now. gets a balancing update every year, but we all know the campaign is never gonna get finished.
• ragegame where its hard to control your own character cause "hahaxdfunny"
• hardcore game that doesnt show you a tutorial, expects you to learn it from ingame, but since its hardcore it only has empty servers. devs tells you to engage with the toxic 200 ppl community in his little discord server.
• super popular multiplayer where noone communicates, but you are suppose to work together
• a game that was clearly made within a week, plays well, but its short and has no control settings. you never see the dev again on the internet.

there are so many games, cause it is just too easy to make something. the end is a neverending sea of slop. the worst part is, real gems are just almost impossible to find anymore.