Trends I Dislike In The Gaming Industry

Image Source: Kryptoszene

According to mordorintelligence.com, the videogame market was worth $198.4 billion in 2021. That number is forecasted to reach approximately $340 billion by 2027, at a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 8.94%. To put that into perspective, according to marketdataforecast.com, the global smartphone market was valued at around $378 billion in 2020 (not even double the value of the videogame market) with a CAGR of 6.85%. The cultural influence of videogames is undeniable, pervading Hollywood, memes, popular television, and YouTube. As an avid gamer, I’m elated to see a hobby so precious to me accumulate such prominence. However, I’m certainly not elated by all of the trends in the gaming industry. 

My biggest grievance with the gaming industry is the egregious impact corporate structures have on videogames (cough, cough, Cyberpunk). Executives are pressured to appease the interests of the board of directors, who represent the shareholders. Notice a problem here? The shareholders, who prioritize valuable investment returns over quality games, can exert more influence than the developers themselves. This results in incomplete projects, disregard for employee well-being, and predatory pricing strategies. I understand that companies are reasonably concerned about profit, but it’s a shame to see potential in the industry squandered like this. Unfortunately, the solution is not as straightforward as imploring the "higher-ups" to quell their avarice. And as long as consumers continue inadvertently patronizing these practices, corporations and videogames won’t mix well.

You know what else sucks about the gaming industry? How about many of the popular game design trends nowadays? 

Battle Royales are stupid. Their premise is ridiculous, and there’s not much explaining I need to do here. Random loot is supposed to enrich the game with variety, challenge players, and encourage unique loadouts. Instead, it injects unwelcome RNG, removes skill, hardly encourages unique loadouts, and introduces additional balance issues as a bonus. Yay! Creating Battle Royale maps is a challenging process, exhausting tremendous amounts of time and opening up even more issues. Double yay. Finally, the objective of being the last survivor is rife with problems. Battle Royales scale traditional competitive multiplayer to massive player counts that exponentially increase the unpredictability in a game, meaning you can lose to an unlucky sniper headshot after dominating the lobby, which is less problematic in smaller lobbies. It is both exciting and dreadful to know that anyone can win in most Battle Royale games. As you can imagine, this "survivor" objective also disincentivizes aggression (effectively the "fun" part of the game). Say it with me now. Triple yay. 

Progression systems are also stupid–at least in most games. The point of them is to build a sense of accomplishment, thus improving player retention. These systems are often defective as it is hard to carefully craft a satisfying reward. I believe that the reward for playing a game should be a fun experience first and foremost. Breath of the Wild does it. Hollow Knight does it. Other games could stand to learn from this. 

As always, I don’t want to end on a negative note, so I’ll share my thoughts on a positive trend—the rise of indie games. As AAA titles continue to disappoint me, small teams of dedicated developers are blessing the gaming community with passion projects. Indie developers put quality before cash, and it shows in their work. The independent developer ecosystem is burgeoning as brilliant prospective game devs may revolutionize the medium. Despite my complaints, indie games alone give me hope.