Video 🐽games are great. But while I love the medium dearly, and always will, I’m slowly becoming more and more tired of actually playing a❀nd liking games.

So ღmuch of the industry that once drew many of us in when we were younger is filled with hate, as see🔯mingly comes packaged with any time spent on the internet nowadays. It’s a harsh online environment, only made worse by the industry struggles that so many studios, big and small, face on a daily basis. That said, there are still those few games that rekindle what makes video games so great, and as we see more of them surface, there’s hope that we’ll see positive shifts over the next few years.

Reason One: The Internet

First off, we have oh-so-glorious social media. T🔯his is an i༒ssue that extends outside of just video games, of course, but the internet is Not A Good Place™.

, “All they wa෴nt is engagement, that’s all they want. They don’t care about quality of conversation, they don’t care about anything, they want engagement, they want you on it as much as possible… so what kind of world do they want?... They want the world on f*cking fire.” He also states, when referring to improving the quality of platforms like X/Twitter, “We can’t have the conversation that needs to be had because the only place to have the actual honest conversation is on Twitter, and Twitter has a vested interest in not having a conversation that’s 🍸critical of itself”. Something that has become even more painfully true since Elon Musk took the platform over.

But back on the topic of video games specifically, this just means that every platform online is mainly filled with non-meaningful conversations that often fuel hate under the guise of criticism, with people rallying to scream into the void about entertainment they disagree with, directions they don’t like, and abusing people who work on them as a result of disagreements. Despite the source being, you know, entertainment.

This isn’t to say entertainment can’t be criticised; criticism is the way things improve, and online connectivity means a 𒁃more diverse range of criticisms c🤡an be heard. If you truly love a film, game, or television show, critique often comes from a place of wanting it to be better. The problem is, they’re not heard, and it all gets sucked into one loud spiral of negativity and toxicity..

This is why I tend to stay away from social media, and have done so for a while now. It’s not a good place to be, it never has been, and it n꧙ever will be - but it’s also unavoidable, especially when my job revolves around video games, the internet, and direct criticism itself. As far as I step back, that negativity reaches me, and it’s a tiring thing to endure when all you want is to continue loving video games, and to see them improve as time goes on.

Reason Two: The Industry

Even when I can avoid online negativity and just sit back to enjoy games as🌠 they are, the industry itself feels like it’s constant༺ly throwing curveballs directly at the people who keep it afloat; as monetary demands grow, the scale of the industry does not grow with them.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Thousands of d💙evelopers, writers, and creators get 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:laid off year after year, and though big-budget games keep comiಞng, it constantly feels like video games are on a decline. Not quality, but success.

Maybe it’s because games are taking too long and costing too much in the hands of poor management. Yes, they still sell well, and there’s no doubt that GTA 6 - potentially one of the most expensive games to make - will be profitable within mere hours of its launch. Howe🎶ver, it just feels like development studios are more susceptible to ongoing struggles when the average development time for triple-A titles is reaching over a decade. Whatever the reasons, it just ꦺmeans it’s only more tiring to enjoy games.

It’s not even a case of ‘back in my day’ - I got into the industry professionall𓆏y right as E3 died out, so it’s not like I’m an old-school resident of any ‘good old days’; and even then, the video game industry has faced crashes before. It simply feels like the joy is sapped, where there ꦡwas once more excitement for games, it now just feels like most of the successful games are driven with profit over passion, and the studios with passion run the danger of risking either monetary failings or incessant hate.

But then, it’s still important - now, more than ever - to recognise the games that are created out of passion and do well as a result. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stardew Valley, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3, Balatro, and even games from this year so far like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Schedule 1; each and every one of those games was not driven by looming companies and monetar🐭y demands, nor running the risks of mass layoffs. They are people who want to make games, and had the opportunity to create the very games that they envisioned.

I’m Tired.

I dreamt of working in this industry. And despite a number of twists, turns, and downright crushing momeꦯnts, I still have so much work I’m proud of, and work that I want to continue to accomplish, all driven by the fact that I have this strong passion for games. But more recently, it feels more difficult to find the space in my mind to enjoy them, when it seems like the online world is filled purely with hate towards them, and the industry feels like i✤t’s collapsing at a slow and steady rate.

We still get those games that offer something wonderful - if we didn’t, there wouldn’t be much of an industry, and I certainly would have already left it. Part of me retains that hope that, with each success of smaller studios and more passionate teams, we’ll see a shift; that we can, one day, step back from triple-A, as double-A and indi꧒e developers l🅰ead the industry rather than struggle to just land a breakout.

Those moments of 🥃sitting down and staring at your scree꧋n as you pick out something to play, only to continue staring for longer than you planned, never landing on anything in particular? Those moments are more and more frequent, and a lot of the time, I’m left wondering if it’s even worth trying to enjoy games anymore. But then those few games, those that offer something so surprising and magical; they are the hope.