Do studios care about the games they make anymore?

Thanks to the growth of video game culture, game development has become a very profitable endeavor to take on. But has this chance to make a lot of money driven a lot of studios to focus more on ways of making money in a game rather than providing gamers with a good game?

It seems like it’s now the old times in which developers made videogames as passion projects where they wanted to tell a great story or provide a space for people to have fun with a few examples being The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time which I actually got to play as a kid and was one of my very first games that got me completely hooked on videogames as a hobby. You can tell the developers poured their heart and soul into creating a world that was intriguing with earth-shattering scores, enticing storylines, and gameplay that would make you lose track of time. Nowadays I feel like this aspect of games is missing.

Recently, every game you see has some form of micro-transaction or hides most of their game behind paywalls. A blatant example of this is a fairly popular game called Destiny 2. This game is marketed as being free but once you load into the game you can really only play about 1/4 of it without playing. If you want access to the rest of the game you have to shell out about $570. I get free games have to make money somehow but there are plenty of free games like Team Fortress 2 and War Thunder that give players access to the entire game with microtransactions being mostly cosmetical.

It feels like a lot of these games have constant bundles and other things that come out all the time. I think the biggest example of a blatant money-grab is the NBA 2K franchise. This is a sports game series that releases a new game every year. The thing is between these years there are barely any changes! There might be a slight graphics bump, updated rosters, and a new park to go play the same game you’ve been playing for the past 10 years. This franchise emphasizes people buying cosmetics and spending money to upgrade their character but the currency prices are outrageous and the in-game prices are even more outrageous which leads people to have to shell out hundreds of dollars before they can even begin to enjoy the game (ON TOP OF BUYING THE GAME!!).

Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of great games that have been released recently like Helldivers 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. All of these games give me hope that there are still developers and studios out there that want to make a game they can be proud to publish and doesn’t come off as a shameless cash grab. I’ve had the chance to play all of these games and enjoyed them greatly, in the case of Helldivers 2 the action is non-stop and it keeps you hooked with its booming sound effects and stunning visuals while Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the most complete games at release in recent memory, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 told a great story combined with intriguing gameplay. Games like these are the ones that I grew up playing and I hope that we see more of a shift towards this type of games in the future.

Gaming and Race: Facing Racial Barriers

Throughout my life, I’ve played video games with people from all over the world and made friends who live so far away it would take an entire day to fly there. I’ve learned so much about the world and how truly different everyone. With this, I believe this has made me a much more tolerant person. I believe that video games can be a great weapon in the fight against worldwide racism and it’s especially true in our youth.

When I was younger and playing one of my favorite games called Call of Duty: Blacks Ops II ( which I shouldn’t have been but that’s beside the point) I played with people that were really good and if they really impressed me I’d sometimes even send a friend request. I didn’t care how they looked or sounded (I didn’t even know the first) I was just impressed with how good they were at the game. Another thing is that now I had something to talk about with just about anyone at school since everyone was playing the same thing and we had something in common. What I’m saying with these stories is that gaming has helped to create a space where you’re not looked at any differently from anyone else and the only thing you might be judged on is your skill at a certain game.

Through my love of gaming, I made a lot of friends in school as I was always excited to discuss a game with anyone I honestly didn’t care who they were and I was just excited they liked the same things I did. It made me happy to have someone to play a game with and it led to some of the longest-lasting friendships I’ve had in my life.

Some friends I made while in middle school. I’m in the bottom left.

With all of this in mind, I believe that gaming can be a gateway to tolerance and acceptance throughout the entire world. When we pop our bubble and begin to interact with people from all kinds of places it can spark a sense of curiosity and a willingness to learn about different cultures and people. A friend who lives in Morocco told me all about the cool things over there, and this made me want to make a trip over there and visit. I’ve had a friend from Norway complain to me about how it is constantly snowing over there and the very cold temperatures which made me curious to also explore Scandinavia as a whole.

The world of online gaming has introduced me to some of the coolest people I’ve ever met and showed me that while everyone is unique in their own way there is so much we can have in common with people we know so little about.

Although gaming has created a space for people to meet and learn about each other there are instances in which bigotry runs rampant. Most gaming communities are very welcoming but there are parts of them where racism is the norm. You can encounter these in a lot of games and even have cases where people have been attacked in famous streaming platforms such as Twitch.

There have even been cases that I have faced this where I’d be playing and maybe I wasn’t having the best game or my team was doing too good against the other team and the unsavory language flew out. These instances seem to be more common in competitive games that tend to make people feel angry over losing and lead them to say things they really shouldn’t. There are also a lot of forums and places online that allow people to act in such a way due to the anonymity some websites allow. You can go on websites like Reddit and find “subreddits” dedicated to berating a group or even organizing attacks on people.

While there is a negative side to the interactions we get from gaming as there is one for many things we experience in life I still stand by the fact that gaming is a great way for people to make memories with friends and meet new people!