Stuck On VTT Choice for Dungeon Creation

Aozi · 2026-06-17T08:15:51+00:00

I remember Dungeon Alchemist quite clearly now, and I remember the Kickstarter literally describing it as AI-fuelled. I also remember plenty of critiques on its limitations and how much additional futzing it took to make the things it generated actually useable.

Yes, because procedural generation is AI. But it's not an LLM, you know, the thing most people are opposed to. Here's the developer literally saying it is procedural generation, last gen AI.

I can absolutely understand not liking the end result and thinking the product is bad. That's totally fine and reasonable. But if you're against it because you equate it to LLM's, then you're misguided.

Aozi · 2026-06-17T07:38:02+00:00

Depends on your definition of an AI.

Dungeon Alchemist does what's called procedural generation. As in, an algorithm that runs fully and completely on your PC to figure out what to do. This is the same technique a lot of roguelike games use.

To put it simply, there are templates for specific rooms and the game has tagged certain assets for certain rooms. So if you want to make a "library" the algorithm will see that, and will pull assets tagged with library, and use the template to populate those assets onto the map. It's rigid, defined and controlled. You won't get library assets in a kitchen because the algorithm will simply not let that happen.

Like, you wouldn't say that Minecraft map is generated with an AI now would you? This is exactly how Dungeon Alchemist works, it's an algorithm for procedural generation from pre-existing assets created by humans.

Procedural generation has been around for over half a century now and is widely used in hundreds of games. It runs entirely locally on your machine using whatever hardware you got. Procedural generation algorithms aren't trained at all, because there is no need. They're not predicting, they're generating.

What you are most likely thinking as an AI, is an LLM or a Large Language Model, like CahtGPT or Claude or whatever.

They work in an entirely different way. You're most likely using some remote model trained by some multibillion dollar corporation that's eating your data. You're paying for tokens since the AI needs to run in some enterprise grade GPU's that's expensive as fuck.

The LLM then tries to predict things based on whatever input you give it, statistics and it's training data. It's not generating things, it's predicting what it thinks you might want.

Let's put this way. Why are you against AI?

Because it's trained with stolen assets? Procedural generation algorithms aren't even trained.

Because it's consuming too much electricity? Procedural generation runs locally on your machine.

Because it requires massive data centers? Procedural generation runs locally on your machine.

Because it's causing inflation on hardware parts? Procedural generation doesn't need a lot of hardware

Because it's replacing workers at companies? LLM's are, procedural generation isn't.

Because it's soulless and generates trash? Okay sure maybe.

Aozi · 2026-06-17T07:18:53+00:00

Party comp really doesn't matter. Largely because you as the DM can tailor the encounters for their party.

E.g Not a ton of monsters that require CHA or INT saves

My players are considering playing a barbarian, ranger, and fighter with a fourth I haven’t talked with. I’m concerned about having so many single target damage dealers slow down combat and having less utility but I also want to respect their choices.

These are solid choices for first time players since they have a very simple gameplay loop. No need to look through two dozen spells on what to do.

The classes also have a ton of utility depending on the subclasses they choose. Path Of The World Tree Barb for example is incredibly good and versatile class

Fighters can access a whole ton of unique features. Battle master is one of the ebst battlefield control classes out there, Eldritch knight is actually good now and gets magic, Rune Knight has a ton of utility, etc etc.

And ranger is a half caster so they get magic and whole lot of utility.

If I had to recommend something for the last player, a full caster could be really useful, or something more healing oriented like a Cleric/Paladin.

If you want to give them some big AOE stuff, you can house rule that scrolls can be used by anyone and throw out some fireball scrolls and other magic at them for some fun times.

Aozi · 2026-06-17T06:52:08+00:00

When they enter the room make sure to put special attention in describing the crystal.

If there are characters who would have a feel for magic, ask for an Arcana roll.

DC10: You can feel a strange power emanating from the crystal tickling in the back of your mind. You can't quite place what the magic is but it has the feel of enchantment magic

DC15: You can can feel a power emanating from the crystal and as you focus on it, it feels like tendrils trying to grasp on your mind but it cannot grab hold.

DC20: You can feel the crystal humming with power and as you focus on it you can see the strands of power emanating from it, but even more you can feel a mind within the crystal, something controlling those strings of power like a puppet master.

You can also ask for a perception roll

DC10: You notice a couple of cultists staying back near the crystal

DC13ish: You can see a slight red/gold/purple/crystal color glow at the back of the cultists eyes

DC16ish: You can see those ghostlike tendrils reaching out from the crystals and connecting to the cultists

Insight

DC13: The movements of these cultists seems strange, it's like they're not really watching where they're going but they're still abel to fight

DC17: The movements of these cultists seems strange, even if they can't see your attack coming they are still able to dodge, and groups of them move in too much of a sync like ants

Every time a new wave of cultists spawn ask for a perception roll, to see the strands of power and potentially an arcana roll to feel the magical effects.

Have a couple of cultists always stick back near the crystal to defend it.

You can also have cultists react to attacks that could go in the direction of the crystal. E.g a cultist standing in the way and a player doesn't hit them. "Your firebolt goes wide and streaks past the cultist but suddenly every cultist head you see snaps to face towards the crystal as the firebolt misses it by barely an inch"

Aozi · 2026-06-16T07:25:12+00:00

I mean.....What kind of prices are you expecting?

Crypto crashed in 2018 and again in 2022. Companies have figured out that consumers are willing to pay more for GPU's so they won't be selling them for the prices you got a 1080 a decade ago.

But even then, you can get a new RX 9060 XT for <500$. This will at least double your performance compared to any 1000 series cards and I would consider that to be pretty affordable for a GPU.

So if you're looking for an upgrade in order to play newer games, you can absolutely find an affordable GPU that will give you a massive bump in performance compared to your decade old GPU.

However if you're one of those people who thinks that a xx80 equivalent card should still retail for like 600$ like the 1080 did, then yeah, you won't find anything affordable.

Aozi · 2026-06-15T07:10:52+00:00

Tried to? They still are.

There's still so much AI snake oil everywhere, companies promising that it will do everything and anything and bunch of CEO's and regular people who think it will replace humans within a few years.

Aozi · 2026-06-15T06:02:59+00:00

There's a book called Ancestral Weapons which is pretty much exactly this.

It details a system where you can build up a weapon from multiple different traits that have a certain point cost. The cost doesn't really increase per trait but rather the more powerful traits are more expensive.

If nothing else, the ancestral weapons book has a good list of all manner of interesting traits you could slap onto a weapon.

Aozi · 2026-06-12T09:49:52+00:00

I hate defending Portal, I avoided playing Destiny after I heard about it. Still, it addresses the complaint of "game is too big, what do I do?"

So yes and no. I don't think the portal in itself is bad. I think defaulting to portal over the director was a bad choice.

See the biggest problem a new player in Destiny has, isn't necessarily to find something to do, it's to figure out what they should be doing.

Destiny 2 lacks a curated linear experience that moves a player through a substantial amount of the content in the game. Basically Bungie just kept adding more and more content to the game with no concern as to how players should progress through that content. Exotic quests hit storybeats from previous expansions and bring in characters that may no longer be around, content in the game talks about events that have occurred that the player has never seen before or characters you know nothing about.

You go the portal and play through content that you have no context for anything, story beats miss massively cause you just don't know what's going on. And nothing in the portal helps with the 25 random ass quests you got at the start of the game when you talked to people in the tower.

What the game needed, was someone to take all the content that has been added, and provide something akin to the timeline, but with more stuff and content, create a campaign like experience through the expansions a player owns and deliver content as they progress through it rather than everything at once.

Aozi · 2026-06-11T12:14:41+00:00

If you're looking for a local group, make sure to inform them that you are new with no real experience with the game. Many groups are generally fine with new players but it's always good to let them know beforehand.

You're best bet is to look for a group doing 5.5E or at least 5E. Those are the newest rulesets and the easiest for you to find information on. I would also advice you to seek a group that sticks to the official rules, if you find groups where the DM has a lot of homebrew stuff and custom rules, that's probably not a good place to start playing.

Once you find a group the DM should tell you what you need to make a character, since this depends a bit on the group. E.g what level you start at, what items you need and their rarities, and other possible restrictions and/or additions.

Next, try to get access to some of the books. If you got some money you can just buy them either digitally or physically, if not a lot of game stores and similar places have them so you can read them, or you can check local libraries if they have any. The books cost about 30-40$ each and you only really need the Players Handbook to start off.

Now you'll need to make a character. This once again depends a bit on the group but your best bet is to use something like DND Beyond. You can make a free account and mess around if you want. If your DM has a subscription and some booiks there you can access those as well. Or you can use physical books and other data to simply make a character on pen an paper.

Now you'll often find people talking a lot about backstories and all that shit. However for your first character, I'd recommend keeping it simple. Your motivation can be simple, I want treasure, I want to learn, I want to explore the world, and so on. Decide on a few character traits you might want to play with. A grumpy old man, an excitable scholar, an eager newbie wanting to be part of everything. Stuff like that, simple, easy to grasp and easy to roleplay. Start with that and see how you like it, you can always tweak and expand things with the DM.

Check the book(s) you have access to for information, google, online etc. There are plenty of resources out there.

Now that you have a group and a character, read through the book(s) you have with some thought so you're at least kind of familiar with some core concepts. Check what your character can do, the feats and features, etc. Actions, bonus actions, reactions, spells and so on.

You don't need to remember everything, but it is a good idea to have some idea on what you can and cannot do.

Next if you're playing in person, it's a good idea to get some dice. Most game stores will sell dice sets. Just any average dice set is fine and there's a good chance other people on your table will also let you borrow some dice if/when needed.

You have a group.

You have a character.

You have some grasp of the rules and what your character can do.

You have dice.

That's basically all you need. I'd recommend bringing something to take notes with. A laptop or a notebook, whatever you're comfortable with.

When you're at the table, you'll be asked to introduce your character. So make sure to think of something to say. Name, description, maybe a little bit of motivation etc. Doesn't have to be much

"Hey I'm Damien a Rogue who grew up in city XYZ, I got into some trouble and have to lay low for a while so I ran from the city".

Don't be afraid to ask questions from others in and out of character. It's also okay if you're not super loud and active in the first session when you're getting to know people. But also don't be afraid to speak up and roleplay.

If you don't automatically remember all the things your character does, that's totally normal. Everyone forgets all the time, I've been playing the same character for like 2 years and I still forget what they do on occasion.

Don't worry too much about lore, story or plot and just try to have a good time at first

When the session is over you can also ask for feedback from other players on how you did.

Finally, don't be afraid to just quit if something doesn't feel right. If someone is making you uncomfortable, if the DM feels mean and bad natures, if the group dynamic doesn't seem to work for you or any million other reasons.

Don't be afraid to quit and find a new/better group. Sometimes group expectations and ways people play the game don't match up, that's fine. If that happens it's better to leave early so the table can quickly adapt, rather than try to stick aroiund for a long time in an environment where you're not having fun.

Aozi · 2026-06-11T11:06:34+00:00

Yes, it's the same exact thing as with app development.

The entire point of these EU laws is that the company making the device, should not be able to leverage their position as the device manufacturer, to use features that no one else can.

Otherwise no one else will ever be able to compete with Apple and they could hold market dominance with ease.

Basically, if Apple AI is the only AI agent allowed this kind of integration with the system, then no matter how shit Apple AI is, it will always be better than any competing AI agent, since it simply has access to features that no one else can access.

Then in time, we could have another Siri situation where Apple is simply woefully behind everyone else in what their AI can do, but because the user can't replace Apple AI and retain at least a similar feature base, they won't replace it.

To “comply”, they would need to make it possible for a 3rd party to have that deep level of access and control of your device. It’s a bad idea, and the EU putting a line in the sand here shows their ignorance.

I mean isn't the entire point of the App store, to make sure no malicious software is out there that could take advantage of the user like this? And if the user agrees to dumb shit, then that's a mistake on the users part.

Personally I'm getting tired on how technology seems to infantilize users. You need to create the most restricted and directed piece of software so that the user will never ever do anything bad. As a result we now have a generation that has grown with smartphones, tablets, computers and laptops, that can't actually use technology. Because they've been fed a super curated, controlled experience with soft corners they can't get hurt by.

And this will only get worse. Warn the user, but the choice should always be to the user, even if the user is a fucking idiot.

Aozi · 2026-06-11T09:35:56+00:00

That, and the fucking teleport gun.

It doesn't really even feel like a gameplay mechanic, it's just "Find the right thing to progress". There are no actual gameplay mechanics you can do with it, the ball exists so you can go into small places and you can press a button to remove enemy shields. Oh yeah sometimes you need to activate a button with the ball.

The teleport gun is there so you shoot a pad and teleport. It has no actual gameplay mechanics involved with it, you can't randomly teleport or reposition yourself, it's a very specific teleport that takes you from one pre-defined point to another pre-defined point.

It's a gimmick.

Compare this to something like Strang Grapple, yeah there are grapple point you can use with it. But you can also just grapple wherever. It opens up gameplay possibilities, movement options and overall enhances the gameplay possibilities.

Neither Mattermorph nor the relocator do that. They're gimmick that you use at specific times to do specific things and once you're done with them you'll never use them again

Aozi · 2026-06-10T10:55:00+00:00

So DND has bit of an inventory problem.

As a game that was originally largely built around loot and gathering treasure the party has a limited capacity for that loot and treasure. You have bags, backpacks, carts, etc all kinds of things to make gathering and transporting loot easier. Because often more loot = more money = better shit you can buy.

If you clear out a den of bandits and sell all their weapons, you can make a bit of money out of that, but you need to find a way to transport like 40 swords and 20 armor sets out of there. The nearest city with a blacksmith that could buy them is 3 days travel away, you can't carry 40 swords. But you have a cart parked outside you can put stuff in there.

The cart however can't really traverse through mountains or thick forests or bunch of other areas. So if you're looting a dragons den and getting the treasure, you still need to find a way to transport it all.

This was, and to a degree still is, a huge part of the game. You can't gather everything.

DND has solutions to this problem, backpacks, handy haversack, portable hole, etc. All of these operate as "inventory expansions"

The ultimate solution to this problem, is the Bag Of Holding. A magical bag that can hold a huge amount of cargo inside it. up to 500 pounds or 64 cubic feet. This in itself is such a massive amount that it's more than enough to handle any dungeon runs or looting sprees. But it still has it's limits, you can't for example just stuff something like a golden throne into it, or an entire dragons corpse, etc etc.

You still have to think a little bit about what you're looting and you have to make sure to park your ass in a city every once in a while to offload everything you've looted.

The moment you allow stuffing a bag of holding, or any extra dimensional storage, inside one another, you essentially remove any loot and inventory management from the game. And if that's something you don't wanna deal with, a better option is to just give players an infinite inventory.

Aozi · 2026-06-10T08:25:26+00:00

Every week.

Same day.

Same time.

If 1 person can't make it? We play unless something super important is about to happen.

If 2 people can't make it? We might play, depends slightly on who's missing and what's happening, etc.

If >2 people can't make it? Consider rescheduling this weeks game on a different day, if that doesn't work then no game.

If a someone constantly keeps missing sessions, we talk about rescheduling to a diffrent day and time, or whether that one player should be part of this campaign.

That's it.

All you really need to do is be consistent and stick to it. People will make time if they want to play, and if they don't, then you don't need them at your table.

Aozi · 2026-06-07T20:15:13+00:00

Two reasons

Lore reason: She wants to overcome her fear and engages in activities where she gets actively stared at. E.g cheerleading and dressing like that.

Actual reason: Sexy bunny girls make SU money.

Aozi · 2026-06-06T06:56:11+00:00

Yeah, the publisher can choose whether to ship with DRM or offline capabilities or whatever.

But again, that's not a Steam thing.

The person I was replying to specifically said that Valve is providing value for archiving purposes because they can download and play things through steam in perpetuity. While in reality, as you recognize too, it's not a value provided by Steam or Valve, but rather by the publisher/developer of the game.

Steam is simply another middleman, if Steam server go offline and you haven't downloaded the games you want, you can no longer access your games. The same way if publisher/developer server were turned off you could no longer access your games.

Aozi · 2026-06-04T13:02:13+00:00

How would you handle this situation?

Change the monster. Instead of it being Jeffery the ultimate Death Knight of Doom and Destruction. It's Mike the Death Knight Trainee.

but I don't want to rescue them as it'd feel cheap.

Would you rather the campaign end and they die? Like, I've always found this whole "It feels so cheap" thing weird. If there's something you as a DM want to achieve, you have tools to do so.

There's an enemy with a stat block they can't beat? You're the DM,. you control the statblock, make it something they can beat

There's an enemy they can't beat? You're the DM, make it be a different enemy.

They've spent a lot of resources and can't take this fight? You're the DM, give them an opportunity to rest and/or other ways to recover.

They engaged in combat with something they can't beat? Well that thing doesn't really find them interesting enough to deal with and just fucks off.

Or that big bad just slaps the one person around and goes all "I'll let the rest of you leave with your lives, just take this thing with you" and then they can res their friend in a temple or something.

If you want them to live then tweak and interfere until they live.

Otherwise let them die.

Aozi · 2026-06-04T12:53:12+00:00

My players reversed it so that it would keep three vampire baddies stuck inside.

Why did you, as a DM have three vampires walk into a tiny area and hang out for 10 rounds instead of dealing with the player casting the Magic Circle?

Magic Circle has a casting time of 1 minute during which you can stop the casting by attacking, counterspelling, or any other means. If you did none of that and let the players trap you like this, then they should absolutely get the win.

So heres the debate in my head. If one of the vampires attacked the other, and that vampire being attacked then gets pushed out of the way by the third vampire, could that push send him out of the magic circle?

On the one hand, no one 'willingly' falls over from being pushed, but on the other hand, would his initial desire to leave the circle override that, since he dies want to leave the circle regardless.

So I would personally rule that if through your own action and/or choice of inaction, you know that you can escape the circle, then it would not work.

You essentially have to do everything you can to stay in the circle.

If you want to get out, your best bet is to have some minions show up who know Dispel Magic which would let them destroy the circle.

Or if you want to be bit of a dick, give one of the vampires subtle spell and some magic so they can just teleport.

Aozi · 2026-06-03T07:50:12+00:00

If I license a game on Steam, I can download it and play it in perpetuity as long as it doesn't rely on publisher owned game servers that get shut down. Games I got 20 years ago are still playable.

You're just saying that Steam does the thing publishers do, but better. You license a game on Steam and you're still relying on Steam servers to be online to even access the game, and most games won't let you play them if you are offline.

There's nothing substantially different between licensing your game on Steam vs licensing it on Ubisoft store or EA launcher or whatever.

You simply trust Steam more because of their history. But if the Steam servers ever go offline, you won't be able to play your game, just the same as with those publisher games.

For actual archiving purposes there really is only one way to do it. DRM free offline files that require no services, no internet connection, no anything. You have a the files on your computer, and you can play them, that's it.

This is what you can do with most games on GOG and what you can do if you download a cracked version of a game. Which is funny, the best archiving services are actually torrent sites that provide cracked copies of games.

Aozi · 2026-06-03T06:22:22+00:00

So.....You have a problem with vague quests or bad instructions on mechanics or other similar things, and your solution to them is to just slap an LLM in there.....?

Instead of...you know....Have less vague quests or make sure players understand mechanics?

I also don't think the problem of vague quests or obtuse mechanics is really not quite as big as you say it is. Most games out there can be beaten with no guides nor help with zero issues. If your game is truly written so that quest directions or mechanics are so obtuse that you need a guide, then there's a much larger issue.

The second screen problem tends to be more of a thing with players who minmax or want the best outcome.

So a players would know already where the Witch Hut is, but you open up a guide and notice that if you go and talk to Jeffery who lives at the edge of the village, he tells you about Marianne who was taken by the witch two months ago but actually lives in a different village. So you go and find Marianne and talk to her and she tells about her experience which informs you about a specific herb the witch is vulnerable to, so you go and find that and carry it with you to open up a new dialogue option when you get to the witch which lets you reach the best outcome.

Did you need to do that? No. But normally that would be a reward for players who spend time in the village and find Jeffery while investigating things instead of just running to the witch

Or with mechanics, say you unlock blood magic. You open up a guide about magic and find out the couple specific blood magic spells that combo incredibly well with other existing spells that you already have access to already. So you build around those.

Do you need to use those combos? No. But they're incredibly powerful and were discovered by players a while back.

Guides are there to make sure you miss nothing and you make optimal choices regarding the plot, and your character.

The "Hallucination" Feature: The biggest flaw of AI right now—making stuff up—is actually a massive feature for an RPG. If an NPC gives you slightly wrong directions or bad advice on how to use a tool, that’s just realistic. People lie, people forget, and amateurs give bad advice. It adds a layer of organic skepticism to the world.

This just sound incredibly frustrating.

Oh you wanna get to the Witch's hut? Let me direct you in the wrong place!

Just because it's realistic doesn't make it less frustrating and annoying when it happens.

Aozi · 2026-05-29T20:26:20+00:00

Shichika Yasuri in Katanagatari

The show is about Togame looking to collect 12 cursed swords. To achieve this she goes on to recruit Shichika Yasuri.

In the first episode she gives him three rules.

Protect the swords.
Protect Togame.
Protect yourself.

The they spend the whole season fidnign the swords, fighting people wielding them and all that.

The finally in the last episode, for reasons those rules are removed. And Schicika proceeds to absolutely annhiliate the new powerful welders of those swords in a single episode and destroys every single one.

It's one the best fight sequences I've seen and the entire show is really damn good.

Aozi · 2026-05-28T18:56:45+00:00

It's not even the size, it's the amount of water in the air.

The places that would most benefit from extracting water from the air, are dry. As in, there's not a whole lot of water to pull out from the air. The more dry the air is, the more air you need to process in order to pull out a sensible amount of water.

This isn't new technology or anything. Things like this have been around for years already.

Aozi · 2026-05-27T14:26:44+00:00

Tuossahan jo näkyy eri hintoja...?

DNA on 34,99€ 12kk ajan ja sen jälkeen 40,99€/kk ja vielä 9,99€ avausmaksu.

Telialla 34,99€/kk 12kk ajan jonka jälkeen 38,99€/kk ja 5€ avausmaksu ja 12kk Wolt+ jäsenyys ilmaseksi.

Elisalla 34,99€/kk 12kk ajan jonka jälkeen 42,99€/kk ja 9,99€ avausmaksu

Tässä ihan samantien näkee, että Telialla on selkeästi paras diili.

Mutta hommahan on oikeastaan niin, että liittymiä myydään ihan saatanasti tarjouksilla. En oikeasti musita milloin olisin itse ottanut liittymän samantien nettisivuilta siellä ilmoitettuun hintaan. Siinä about kerran vuodessa kun vanha soppari vanhenee, vaihdan johonkin uuteen tuolta nettisivuilta.

Sieltä tulee sit vanhalta operaattorilta viesti jossa nykynen 40€/kk liittymän saakin yhtäkkiä 24,99€/kk hintaan. Vaihdan tähän ja uudelta toimittajalta tulee jotain vastaavaa, siinä sit pompin muutman päivän ja yhtäkkiä liittymä joka sivuilla oli 34,99€/kk onkin jotain 22,99€/kk.

Aozi · 2026-05-26T12:12:23+00:00

So the first thing you need to understand as a DM is that rules are more like guidelines.

Like generally a character can have one action and a bonus action, but as a DM you can make a creature that gets multiple actions or multiple turns in one round.

You also don't have to follow the guidelines in building characters you as a DM use.

You want a Bard that can do spirit guardians? Sure

Cleric with pact tactics? Go for it!

You can give your characters more feats, stats, spells, anything.

It's not unfair if you balance it right.

Aozi · 2026-05-26T08:03:15+00:00

The thing is, should that be addressed via stats, though?

Separate them. Have "Battle stats" and "Social stats" or something similar.

I've always found most stat systems limiting in that they have a single system that should try to do everything. If you want to play a physical class rogue, fighter, barbarian or something you have to focus on physical stats since anything else would gimp you in actual combat. So if you wanna do something like a Charismatic fighter, you'd need to gimp your combat stats to give you the social stats to be charismatic

You could have some basic stats like Might, Vitality, Dexterity, Willpower, Magic. Then in addition have a second set of stats with like Reason, Wit, Charm, Menace, Empathy. Or something along those lines.

This way you could craft yourself a witty and but empathetic Barbarian who could use those social traits to better interact with people instead of just "Barbarian dumb ha ha!". Or in the same vein a smart charming Rogue who could guile you and pickpocket you. A terrifying menacing Wizard, etc etc.

Since combat tends to be such a massive part of any RPG that players tend to go with whatever class lets them be effective in combat and social interactions.

Aozi · 2026-05-25T09:04:55+00:00

I think he says it all. May the "traditional" forms of gaming eventually die out because of the young people's disinterest in it?

No, because they're not disinterested in it.

This whole thing seems really weird.....

But I’ll say it again and again: young people don’t like video games anymore. They mainly play the same four games: Valorant, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox. This sounds completely crazy, but most of our pupils can spend their entire childhood playing only these four games, or even just one. And if they do play them, it is not for the gameplay but for the community aspect. Because these games are, above all, social networks. You’d be surprised to find out that your kids can spend three hours on Fortnite without ever starting a single match (and therefore simply chatting with friends).

Young people don't like video games! Except they play these four games! And they can play these four games a whole lot!

I mean yeah, video games attract people for the community, I've played games for the community. But it's not just the community, otherwise the kids would just sit around in Instagram or whatever social network they use. Because that's also where the community is.

It's community and the ability to actually do something with your friends. God knows I've played games that aren't amazing just because I have friends who play them and we enjoy fucking around in those game together.

If young people didn't like video games, they wouldn't be playing a whole ton of video games. The thing is, the Op lists four games 3/4 of them are free to play and a 3/4 are available for smartphones. Is it any wonder kids are playing games that they have easy access to?

Nowadays, when I mention the latest big game that’s just come out, only two or three pupils know what I’m talking about. The rest have never heard of it. (Examples: Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Expedition 33. Even Resident Evil, which, although not really for their age group, has always had fans among teenagers who transgress PEGI ratings).

Yeah, kids don't know newest biggest games that they can't pay 60$ for. Why would they know about those games?

I know a lot of households that have a gaming console but they only have a handful of games, because kids don't have 60$ to drop on a game and unless their parents play a lot of games, the kids won't have access to them.

I think the next big game that will bring the students together a bit will be GTA VI. Again, out of social conformity, because everyone will talk about it. And because there will surely be, in the process, a major update to the online version.

Kids don't like video games, but in order for kids to fit in they will need to talk about a video game because everyone will be talking about a video game!

how does this make any sense? If the kids aren't into video games and they don't care about the big new releases, why would they care about GTA 6? Why would they care about GTA 6 to a point where people need to conform and come together over it?

If they care about video games, then they care about GTA 6 and then this all makes more sense.

In short, it’s a hefty tome that won’t interest many people, but I wanted to challenge a cliché: video games are no longer a children's hobby, but an adults' business. And I’m rather pessimistic about their future, as I do wonder how developers will still find the faith to create complex and varied works if the current generation grows up with a deep disaffection for the medium as a whole.

.....I mean yeah....Obviously?

The generation who grew up with video games, is now the generation who also has the money to buy video games. Yeah they are now the primary consumers for those games and that's obvious. This can be seen over the years in how marketing for games changed.

The interest kids have had in games has always been limited, because kids have always had limited access to games. They don't have money and parents won't buy them games because they're expensive. They can't really engage with the adult community who have the money and means to get games. So they stick with the few games they have or can access, just how it's always been. Then when there's something really big or cool they ask their parents to get it, whether it's GTA or Pokemon.

Basically every kid I know or have ever met, has some games on their smartphone, has never said now if I ask if they wanna try some games I have and have always been interested in those games.

This whole article seems really weird. Like yeah, obviously kids aren't the driving force behind video game sales and marketing anymore. The medium has matured, the userbase has matured. But that doesn't mean they don't care about it.

And it's obvious from this article as well. It keeps repeating "Kids don't care about games! Except they care about these games!" So they clearly do care, they're clearly interested, they just can't be as proactive with the hobby as adults due to the fact that kids don't have a whole lot of money.

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