The gaming industry itself has ran into a a lot of problems recently with stereotypical gamers, violence, and DRM software. Usually when an 'outsider' hears the word gamer they think of young teens to young adults playing Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto, and not so much about the kid who is playing Mario, people playing Minecraft, or people like me who plays anything "puzzling". I may be completely wrong, but putting in myself in the shoes of a non-gamer, I can see me believing this due to the image that is created by the media. Sure, there are some stories where the news will report on how video games help people with ADHD, and improves brain reaction, but it's the negative reports that get highlighted. Especially with things like the Sandy Hook shooting.
Piracy has been another thing that has caused a ruckus with video game industry. EA is a good example of this by using SecRom, Always Online To Play, and Origin. But in the end, it just screws over the consumer, and not the jerk who uses a crack, Daemon Tools and calls it a day. Microsoft badly solves the piracy issue by the Xbox One's game-installation to the HDD and account, and claims the whole not releasing Halo 3 for the PC due to piracy concerns.
vanSulli wrote:
Guys, we need to talk about how shitty gamers are.
Example:
SimCity releases a Red Cross DLC that contributes 80% of the proceeds directly to the organization.
Everybody rages.
SimCity releases [something]. Everybody rages.
EA solves world hunger. Everybody rages. (this one didn't actually happen, but seriously. whaddup)
Borderlands 2 comes out with some new free character skins. Everybody rages.
We now live in a world were people have a problem with everything. But today, only a few game companies allow addon/mod support and creation. It's no longer the days of Doom and Quake where you can take a great game and make it your own creation. Now it's more like play the hot title today, and wait for the new one that comes in a year or so because you can't mod the game and/or too lazy to do it. Of-course, this is not always the case as some people still toy with things. I never liked the the whole "easy editors" like in-game level editors, as they make you feel like you have mental issues and are really limited.
Although Valve has been recently awesome with addon support for L4D2, CSGO and the PTI for Portal 2, they are not what they use to be in other departments such as The current SDK, addon support for Portal 2 and L4D1. I have not got a chance to play with UDK (because the download corrupted), but after some research, EPIC seems to still get the whole 'true' user generated content.
There are also issues with the modding scene with Source as I can't say crap about the other mods for other games. Around 2009, I started to always feel like you were in a contest with other modders with their projects on who's mod's was better, had better things, etc. I always tried to stay out of it like Portal: Awakening planning to release on the same day as Blue Portals back in 2010. Maybe this is caused by things like ModInformer which treats mods like a indie or a industry game, and that's a problem within itself. Mod's are suppose to be created for fun, and played by the public for no cost. But now it seems that all modder's all play wannabe indie developers and pretend that the mod is all next gen. They even ask, or even hire professional artists to work on their projects! (So much for "fan-made") I get it, you want to be professional so if you are looked by a game corporation, it looks good. But you are just raising the standards of what a mod should be and making it more slave labor. If you want to do a professional project, buy a Leadworks licence for 200$ or whatever, and leave modding what it was, a fun learning experience. An experience filled with problem solving, laughs, and ah-ha moments. For me, that makes modding special.
Sorry for the long post, but there are just thoughts I have with the whole gaming industry world and such. I maybe wrong or mislead to cause some of my opinions, but we must be aware that it's not because of EA, Microsoft, media, but it's about everything mixing into each other. Games are getting more complex, and people are becoming less impressed.
TL;DR "THINGS ARE GOING HELL IN A HAND BASKET REAL FAST!"