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low rated
IMO, 2014 was a disaster of a year for new video games. As far as I know, there were no good original games (not including expansions) made in 2014, and I didn't buy any video games in 2014 (again, excluding expansions and DLCs)

Always hoping this year will be better, however I'm not expecting it. And surprisingly, DRM isn't even near the top of my list of why I can't find good new video games anymore.

While we all hate DRM, for me, I avoid supporting companies that put DRM and other crap in their products as a matter of principle rather than practice. A comparison of DRM in principle versus DRM in practice:

DRM in principle:
-No refunds or reselling
-End-user has no rights and your service may be discontinued at any time for any reason (or no reason)
-Publisher reserves the right to screw up your machine, including breaking your DVD drive, damaging your solid-state drive, snooping on your computer and Internet communications (despite the fact that people in the U.S. are supposed to have the right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution, big government and big corporations all too often collaborate and make "exceptions" to anti-snooping laws when the snooping is done in the name of "protecting the nation"/enforcing copyrights/insert some other lame unconstitutional reason here). Bottom line: The U.S. has become as corrupt as a third-world nation - it's just better at hiding it than the third-world nations.
-Buying products with DRM is just rewarding and encouraging it

DRM in practice:
-Buy games on Steam at 80% discount or save money on bundles
-Steam has an offline mode, so you aren't locked out of your library if you lose your internet connection for a day.
-Not really that much of a problem in practice since 95% of PC game developers, their uncles, and their dogs publish on Steam.

So... what's really ruining video games?
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#1: Competitive/PvP/E-Sports

The main reasons for video games IMO:
-Entertainment without other people being able to barge into your game and turn it upside down or grief it.
-Rest and relaxation - it's your time off after a day's work.
-Exploring virtual worlds.

With those principles in mind: I absolutely HATE PvP/competitive games/e-sports.

PvP in a nutshell:
-Cheaters/griefers. Except that they only get tossed out of the game if they're detected or reported.
-Toxic communities.
-No rest or relaxation; play to win rather than play to enjoy
-No exploration, instead just competing on the same set of maps.

I can't begin to describe how many potentially good games I've been denied because they were PvP focused. Roughly 80% I browse through new game releases and immediately click the "Next" button when I see "PvP oriented" or similar.

Does every FPS/TPS need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
Does every strategy game need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
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#2: Dark/gritty/gory/horror/zombies

Ever since 2008, it's almost like every premium game has been rated ESRB M (Mature 17+). While I'm old enough that the age limits aren't a problem for me, I consider dark/gritty/horror to be largely distasteful and unoriginal.

-It's disrespectful to my computer's CPU and video card. Every virtual blood splat and/or other gory effect is unneeded extra work for my CPU and video card.
-It's disrespectful to the end-user. I find dark/gritty/gory/horror to be distasteful, and I would rather be able to see my character's surroundings instead of aesthetically unflattering digital blood and gore everywhere.

Around 6 years ago, I refused to buy or support anything rated Mature or above. With every new year, the number of new premium games rated ESRB T or below kept decreasing and almost every new premium game was rated ESRB M. I had no choice but to re-evaluate my content standards - my new rule is "ESRB T or below is highly preferred, ESRB M rated games will be evaluated and previewed individually". (It doesn't help that the ESRB has been very inconsistent with their ratings in the last 8 years).

Even with my newer and more permissive content standards, premium games in recent years have had a nasty habit of pushing the limits of what's acceptable.

I'm tired of dark/gritty.
I'm tired of zombies/vampires/werewolves/horror.
I'm tired of unnecessary distasteful virtual gore.
I'm tired of the same old crap year-in, year-out.

When does it stop?

Am I the only person who has a sense of decency remaining?
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#3: Centralized Online.

MMOs. I used to like them, then I learned that I hated MMOs over several years. Every MMO that I've spent money on, I regretted it later. So I stopped buying MMOs and switched to freemium MMOs. Those turned out to be money-grubbing crap as well, so I quit MMOs.

Even the centralized online non-massive online games have been crap recently as well.

Here's what I hate about centralized online games:
-Publisher/developer always controls the game balance and content. This means that you are constantly at the mercy of the nerf bat. If the servers go down, you can't play.
-No mods, character editing, or manual saves. If you screw up, the result of your mistake gets written into your save file on the remote server - there's no way to reload your game and do things differently.
-Grinding and farming / game as work instead of enjoyment. There's a toxic mentality in a lot of online games that people should have to "work for their rewards" in a GAME. I'm a productive member of society with a full-time job, why the hell should I have to #*%&ing put in effort to "earn rewards" in a GAME (that's supposed to be my TIME OFF after a day's work)??? Just give me a singleplayer offline game with console commands or a save file editor, if I want an in-game item and have no time to "earn" it, I will just enter a console command or edit my save file.
-Centralized online = subscription fees and money-grubbing.

The main problem: there's way too much online in modern video games. It's always this online, that online, whatever garbage online. Some scummy publishers even go as far as to add microtransaction advantages in otherwise offline games.

tl;dr; I've had enough of this "every video game online" crap, just give me a solo game already!
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Rant over.
high rated
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DivisionByZero.620: Even with my newer and more permissive content standards, premium games in recent years have had a nasty habit of pushing the limits of what I deem to be acceptable.
FTFY :D
Post edited April 17, 2015 by tinyE
so nothing to do with annual franchises
dlc whoring
seasons passes
carving up a game to sell as dlc
overprice dlc
micro transactions
sequelitis
each sequel being the same
" cinematic experience"
movies with interactive bits
and so forth

and the general fun being sucked out of gaming ?

alright then gotcha
Okay, for the record i love rants because often they talk about truths most buttered up 2015 idiots cant be a part of intellectually. So thumbz up to your post. I can agree with you on the pvp part for sure. Pvp communities are scum and the worst people will always end up in those games. Sick people. As far as the mature, well everyones sensitive and they dont wanta get sued and theyre legally protecting their ass. Not buying a game at age 60 cause it says mature on it, isnt a good excuse to hate a game, there are plenty of other reasons. People love blood they always have look at friday the 13th, its fun if its not real. Not everygame should have it you're right maybe there is too many zombie things but thats not a huge problem in the industry. The problem is were not getting games like baldurs gate, neverwinter nights, no HUGE sandboxes anymore since like elder scrolls. Maybe theyre too focussed on graphics i dunno. They need to make more games like TWO WORLDs and make that game better. tons of those types and we get nothing ever except another indie game. I think thats what your missing here, the fact is all these games coming out are fine, they just havent figured out how to make the games that we really wanted. which is weird cause they made plenty of them in the past....

Also, just for the record. I cant STAND steam. If i buy a game, im not running third party crp in the backround even if its in offline mode.
Post edited April 17, 2015 by nuketakuler
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DivisionByZero.620: As far as I know, there were no good original games (not including expansions) made in 2014, and I didn't buy any video games in 2014 (again, excluding expansions and DLCs)
Transistor, Child of Light, and Freedom Planet. There are even more if you consider mobile games like 80 Days. Either way, you might be interested in those because they don't suffer from the things you're complaining about.
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DivisionByZero.620: As far as I know, there were no good original games (not including expansions) made in 2014, and I didn't buy any video games in 2014 (again, excluding expansions and DLCs)
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227: they don't suffer from the things you're complaining about.
What, like fun? :P
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tinyE: What, like fun? :P
or being broken on release ?
needing huge day 1 patches
day 1 dlc
" early acces" ie paid beta testing

on top the rest i mentioned ?

i will agree with the thread starters dislike for everything moving to online gaming but i still avoid online gaming like the plauge
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tinyE: What, like fun? :P
You dare sully the fun of those games? That's it—I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at dawn!

Or are you taking a stab at OP? I don't mind dark and gory (though it's a bit overused these days and loses some of its effect because of that), but the prevalence of online is definitely a growing annoyance. I have single-player in my blood, and developers seem to forget people like me exist. I'd add procedural level generation to the list of things ruining games, too, because random areas will never be the equal of purposeful level design and too few people seem to be capable of using it as more than an annoying gimmick. That said, I have high hopes for We Happy Few.
First: have an upvote for your well thought-out post.
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nuketakuler: Pvp communities are scum and the worst people will always end up in those games. Sick people.
Yep, almost every PvP game that I know of has an utterly scummy community. Trash talk, toxic and abusive behavior, and cheating are almost guaranteed issues in a PvP game.
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nuketakuler: People love blood they always have look at friday the 13th, its fun if its not real.
Not everyone likes it. I prefer to disable it, save a bit of CPU/GPU power, and clear up my screen.
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nuketakuler: Not everygame should have it you're right maybe there is too many zombie things
There's a zombie apocalypse of zombie games.
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nuketakuler: The problem is we're not getting games like baldurs gate, neverwinter nights, no HUGE sandboxes anymore since like elder scrolls.
This comment alone deserves another upvote. There's no reason why Bethesda/Zenimax should have a monopoly on heavily moddable open world sandbox - would be nice if CD Projekt Red made an Elder Scrolls clone using the Witcher 3 engine.
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nuketakuler: Maybe they're too focused on graphics i dunno.
Huge problem these days and part of the reason why no one else makes anything similar to Elder Scrolls - the number of artists required would be enormous. Solution: a heavily moddable open world sandbox game with 2.5D VGA graphics like in Might and Magic 6-8. (Might and Magic 7 has the best 2.5D VGA graphics that I know of - take a look at it and you will never dismiss 2.5D sprites and VGA resolution as ugly again)
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nuketakuler: They need to make more games like TWO WORLDs and make that game better. tons of those types and we get nothing ever except another indie game.
Indie games have their own problems - lack of content, everyone making their game look like Minecraft, focus on "original game mechanics" (read: awkward and clunky game mechanics that aren't in AAA games for a reason).
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nuketakuler: I think that's what you're missing here, the fact is all these games coming out are fine, they just havent figured out how to make the games that we really wanted. which is weird cause they made plenty of them in the past....
Problem is that the free market is a form of democracy. Buying a product is effectively a vote for it. If too many people are willing to buy games that are absolute cheap crap, the publishers will be all too happy to make more crap games for cheap if it will sell for $60 on release.
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tinyE: What, like fun? :P
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snowkatt: or being broken on release ?
needing huge day 1 patches
day 1 dlc
" early acces" ie paid beta testing

on top the rest i mentioned ?

i will agree with the thread starters dislike for everything moving to online gaming but i still avoid online gaming like the plauge
Eh....I'm only pissed off about the "sense of decency" and "whats acceptable" BS. I'm in awe when someone throws out terms like that as if they are objective and finite.
I thought that last year was good for pc players, we got This War of Mine, Sunless Sea, Divinity Original Sin, Legend of Grimlock 2, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Shovel Knight, Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Wasteland 2, etc.
Now, big titles/AAA, yeah, it was luckluster, the only good one (for me) was Wolfenstein TNO.


#1

Depends, one of the best thing that happened to consoles was party chat, people like to whine about how "silent" multiplayer games are nowadays but considering that most of the time there will be a teenager cursing, yeah, i prefer silence. On the pc you have the mute option so it's not all bad but either way multiplayer nowadays requires that you get "x" friends to play with you, i use to play League of Legends but nowadays i barely play it because my friends moved on (to CSGO, the irony) and most of the games you will get some whiny kid cursing and sulking because the game isn't going the way he likes it.

The worst part is that it will always get you, you will be pissed about something, your team, lag, some bulshit that happen, etc... That's why i'm looking foward to get Killing Floor 2 and Starbound (well, also Diablo 3 and Dying Light whenever they get cheap), at least i won't get pissed off...

#2 "Am I the only person who has a sense of decency remaining? "

Yes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And a mixture of 1 + 2, i feel disappoint that the whole zombie multiplayer going on is always pvp focused, i still want to play a good coop experience that has survival and crafting elements, but alas, it's Early acess, low resources and pvp/griffing that i find.
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snowkatt: or being broken on release ?
needing huge day 1 patches
day 1 dlc
" early acces" ie paid beta testing

on top the rest i mentioned ?

i will agree with the thread starters dislike for everything moving to online gaming but i still avoid online gaming like the plauge
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tinyE: Eh....I'm only pissed off about the "sense of decency" and "whats acceptable" BS. I'm in awe when someone throws out terms like that as if they are objective and finite.
wasnt the OP asshatting around this place last year ?
the name seems familiar
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Cyraxpt: I thought that last year was good for pc players, we got This War of Mine, Sunless Sea, Divinity Original Sin, Legend of Grimlock 2, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Shovel Knight, Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Wasteland 2, etc.
Now, big titles/AAA, yeah, it was luckluster, the only good one (for me) was Wolfenstein TNO.
My thoughts exactly. People who were mourning an apparent dearth of good/original (or at least, games which made a credible and respectable effort to achieve both excellence and originality) completely overlooked some truly excellent games in the indie/"AAA-indie" scene. Hell, despite its flaws Sunless Sea was a fantastic game overflowing with originality and great ideas, and there's the excellent NEO Scavenger, as well as Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet.
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nuketakuler: Okay, for the record i love rants because often they talk about truths most buttered up 2015 idiots cant be a part of intellectually. So thumbz up to your post. I can agree with you on the pvp part for sure. Pvp communities are scum and the worst people will always end up in those games. Sick people. As far as the mature, well everyones sensitive and they dont wanta get sued and theyre legally protecting their ass. Not buying a game at age 60 cause it says mature on it, isnt a good excuse to hate a game, there are plenty of other reasons. People love blood they always have look at friday the 13th, its fun if its not real. Not everygame should have it you're right maybe there is too many zombie things but thats not a huge problem in the industry. The problem is were not getting games like baldurs gate, neverwinter nights, no HUGE sandboxes anymore since like elder scrolls. Maybe theyre too focussed on graphics i dunno. They need to make more games like TWO WORLDs and make that game better. tons of those types and we get nothing ever except another indie game. I think thats what your missing here, the fact is all these games coming out are fine, they just havent figured out how to make the games that we really wanted. which is weird cause they made plenty of them in the past....

Also, just for the record. I cant STAND steam. If i buy a game, im not running third party crp in the backround even if its in offline mode.
hey you pretentious douche hammer, I play PVP and I would hardly consider myself scum. maybe we should learn to pick our words a little more carefully, hmm?
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tinyE: Eh....I'm only pissed off about the "sense of decency" and "whats acceptable" BS. I'm in awe when someone throws out terms like that as if they are objective and finite.
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snowkatt: wasnt the OP asshatting around this place last year ?
the name seems familiar
yes he got mad when people started disagreeing with him/her. he did a thing about diseases if i remember correctly.
Post edited April 17, 2015 by Crewdroog
RE: Shitty PvP and PvP communities -

There was a game in production for a while called DOMINUS, it was the only MMO or PvP game I had been interested in in a long long time, and they cancelled it. I'm still heartbroken, really really badly. It was looking so good in so many ways (SO MANY!) and the community was awesome. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ):