Business and pleasure (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, May 02, 2025, 08:20 (2 days ago) @ ManKitten
edited by Cody Miller, Friday, May 02, 2025, 08:53

I remember when we could talk about games without thinking of business.

I'm guilty of this for sure, I think tons of people are. But why is so much discourse around games about how many players it will get? Can beat out some other competing game? Will it be financially viable? Will it appeal to XYZ playerbase?

I've tried watching some videos about Marathon… but essentially nobody is right off the bat just talking about is the game fun. It's always in terms of the larger placement within the business landscape of gaming.

I swear that the steam playercount charts are one of the worst things to happen to gaming since achievements. Who cares at all how many people are playing a game at any given time right now? Can you log on, find a match, and have fun? If so how does it matter at all?

It looks like this week about 25 people were playing Rosewater. Does that mean anything about if it's a good game or not? Of course not. If you're into adventure games pick it up immediately. I have a couple of problems with it but it was a solid 4/5 star point and click adventure.

Why is everyone suddenly an armchair expert on the business of video games?

Everyone liked Total Biscuit back in the day, but I kind of found him insufferable. His videos were so verbose about the most pointless things such as technical options, and 'value for money'. Like holy shit dude, just tell us if the game is fun, or if it provides an interesting valuable experience, and expand on WHY that experience is so valuable. I can't even watch videos about Marathon because everyone is talking about stuff even more uninteresting like market conditions, player counts, and if it's enough for Sony.

Who on earth has ever given a book review or film review and lamented 'Yeah, this book is good, but will it have the staying power in today's market? Can it attract enough readers?"

It's kind of hard to not start thinking this way yourself when SO MUCH of the discourse is about this rather than the experience of the game itself. I've definitely tried myself to think about only the game part of games, but sometimes you can't help but slip up. Sure, it's important to know illegality or harassment at the studio in a broader context so you don't support monsters. But if everything is above board, why can't the discussion be around the game?

From now on if I see anyone in an article or on youtube reference or mention steam player counts or whether a game can compete with another game, then I'm immediately disengaging unless there is some actual point to it.