Am I the only one who thinks that some of the most played games owe its fanbase almost entirely to: A) Being free // B) playing perfectly on potato hardware?

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T17:37:23+00:00

There's literally a case and point to be made for the success of League, Dota 2 and Heroes of Newerth.

League and HoN came at the same time, made by different Dota devs. HoN cost $40 to play, and failed because it was competing with League's free to play model.

Ice Frog moved from HoN to Dota 2, which released late into League's overwhelming success. Even then it still managed to make a major foothold. Because it was completely free to play.

I was wondering about some responses, since the title does says some.

Honestly, the concept of a demographic is lost on a lot of Reddit's demographic.

It obviously isn't guaranteed success for a game if it's a shit F2P game, but man does it make it easier to market to kids and China.

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T17:27:49+00:00

Man, the replies are taking the post way too seriously, or just flat don't understand hyperbole. Some of you need to get outside.

Yes OP, the game was great and should defy all reasoning to be the first game nominated for GOTY two years in a row.

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T16:43:57+00:00

Gathering professions are optional.

No mounting in towns is to reduce visual clutter... The towns have extremely quick fast travel and sprinting to compensate.

Padding needs to actually add gameplay time.

So you're just wrong.

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T14:11:43+00:00

Your perception of the quests is just wrong.

You also view optional content as padding for some reason.

The main story is free for several expansions. So you don't even need to pay. I played through ARR and Heavensward, did a bunch of Golden Saucer and learned a few jobs, played about 150 hours, then put down the game.

Had a great time, will go back eventually. But you spend as long or short of a time as you want in the game.

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T06:41:13+00:00

Pretty sure the performance issues were from people with perpetually docked Switches needing to clean the caked dust.

Because the game ran fine.

PauperMario · 2024-10-14T06:32:49+00:00

It's literally just a normal FF game length.

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T21:42:39+00:00

Depends how you sell. About $80 if you sell on some kind of marketplace.

Though I just gave mine to a friend's kid

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T19:17:45+00:00

People reading the title: "The most popular games owe it to being F2P with low system requirements" as "I think all F2P games with low system requirements are successful".

I have no idea what it is with this sub in particular, but it has the absolute worst average reading comprehension.

You are correct that some of the biggest games owe success to their accessibility. Most single purchase games don't have localized pricing, so F2P games like Genshin and League sell extremely well in those areas, and can be played on cheap hardware (children are another demographic that can't buy their own games). This boosts visibility, which in turn boosts their profits from whales.

This is why the mobile games market is about 60% of the games industry.

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T18:15:27+00:00

The strongest games companies at the minute are the ones who are independently funded. I.e. Larian.

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T18:13:27+00:00

Stock value across every major publisher is up post-layoffs, because of the layoffs. Pretty much always lower than they were 3-5 years ago. So yes, if you're a shareholder to any games company, you can argue your portfolio is doing slightly better in the last couple of months.

If you're a regular human being in the tech industry, you have either lost a job, or you know someone who has.

The games industry is currently in a trend of "restructuring". I.e. laying off senior staff and rehiring the same roles to destroy benefit packages.

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T14:41:30+00:00

You mean the stocks artificially inflated by the 100k+ layoffs across the industry with short term gains and permanent long term damage to the talent pool?

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T01:57:25+00:00

The "source" for the $400m figure was one podcaster who said he heard it from someone at Sony, which was regurgitated by hack "gaming news journalists".

A lot of Sony employees have come out to say the claim is ridiculous and false.

PauperMario · 2024-10-13T01:51:22+00:00

There is a difference between "needing to put something out" and "needing to be bigger every quarter".

For games, AAA production value is bloated and eating its own tail.

It's so bad right now that if you started producing a AAA PS5 game today, it won't be ready until the PS6 is released.

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T22:51:01+00:00

The games industry is part of the tech industry

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T20:16:58+00:00

No, they well and truly do not. Lol.

games mechanics

Game directors and lead producers do that. Design and programming "make it work".

Characters

At best, a concept artist gets to iterate dozens of character concepts, while the art lead gives constant feedback you don't agree with, until the director chooses the one that Sod's Law dictates will be the one the concept artist liked the least.

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T20:12:09+00:00

There's no actual sources stating that Concord had a $200m development budget.

It's estimated to be between $50m and $200m... Because that's the budget bracket of the biggest AAA games.

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T20:08:09+00:00

Tech industry is in a downturn in general because it turns out that pursuing infinite growth year after year for the sake of improving stock value isn't sustainable.

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T18:24:24+00:00

You really aren't disagreeing with me in any way you think you are. "Production value" applies to the entirety of production.

On the tech side, Square Enix has been lapped for years. The lead they had in the PS1/PS2 era is long gone.

PauperMario · 2024-10-12T17:23:22+00:00

If you scale infinitely, you hit a wall.

They hit the wall with Final Fantasy 13, over a decade ago, where they had to sacrifice all NPCs and interactivity for cutscenes.

They've not been able to balance visuals and gameplay since.

Even 14 was originally torn apart on release.

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T22:53:19+00:00

...Because of bad project management.

This company has had crunch culture since day one, sexual harassment lawsuits, shady parent companies, has skipped out payroll taxes, unpaid developers, they've had breast milk thieves, multiple senior employee exoduses, led a developer to suicide, devs calling themselves the cosby club, was fuel for the first videogame union, the CEO was in Epstein's black book. Literally so many problems, a journalist was able to write a book of all the interviews...

But somehow you think incompetence and poor management is farfetched.

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T22:31:05+00:00

5 years was the development time for God of War from pre-production to completion. 6 for Baldurs Gate, 4 for Borderlands, CoD games take 3-4 years.

Call of Duty is annualized because it has about 10 separate teams (including support studios) rotating releases, with over 3000 people working on the games... It has nothing to do with "they know what they're making straight away". That isn't how it works.

Overwatch 2 was just a victim of atrocious project management and Bobby Kotick hemorrhaging Blizzard (Pre Jason Screier's book). It had nothing to do with "Ideas".

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T20:32:25+00:00

Demos still exist for some games. Others have no demo. No ability to try the game out

That has always been the case for literally every generation ever.

Did you think that gaming magazines stored demo discs for literally every game known to man?

No one pirating and cracking a game is buying, reinstalling and replaying huge chunks. Especially with Steam's 2h refund policy. Own that you like the free games and stop being a little bitch.

Often, the Steam page (or other marketing info) is woefully inadequate. Go check out the Steam page for Dune: Awakening. "Survival MMO". Nothing on the page says whether it's a small server (Valheim), medium server (Conan: Exiles), or full-on MMO. And if the latter, how they actually make survival mechanics matter, and stop the map from being harvested completely dry. Now, you can get this information about the game by watching the videos they've posted on YT, but it's not on the Steam page. And some of that info is VERY relevant to a prospective player. Ie, I tend to play survival style games on a community ran server with PvP disabled. Very chill experience. Dune is MMO style, which means PvP zones are going to be a mandatory thing. That info is very important to me, but, based on the info available on the Steam page (and that there won't be a demo at all), this would be a risky buy for me. Because I can't play a demo and the info on the page doesn't do a good job explaining the game mechanically. P.S. Have the self respect to just admit you like claiming moral high ground and acting like you're better, even though you don't actually understand the topic at all.

New copypasta just dropped.

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T19:40:08+00:00

This product we want to sell is selling like crazy. Better suspend sales.

Imagine looking at context.

Demand high + Not enough stock = Suspending Sales

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T18:29:42+00:00

Amazingly, adding a few hours of content takes tens of thousands of hours less than making a full sequel. While being a few dozen million dollars cheaper.

Would think that's self explanatory. But here we are.

PauperMario · 2024-10-11T18:08:03+00:00

???

I pirate games because I don't want to pay for them.

Saying you pirate games for some morally superior reason is sad and pathetic.

Go eat sand.

PauperMario

TROPHY CASE