With recent big game releases, it's become obvious that a game is either a resounding success, or complete shit. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Kingdom Come Deliverance II is a ambitious masterpiece, and Avowed is lazy slop. 93% of Steam users recommend KCD2, vs 77% for Avowed.

And maybe this has been an issue for a long time, fed by the need to get viewer numbers on articles and videos, leading to more polarized opinions that give people a reason to pick a side, even if they're never going to play the game.

But as regular people, gamers, Lemmy posters, why are we doing the same? How is it serving us? Are we all influencers in waiting, hoping to up our updoot count and build a following of... dozens?

More than 2/3rds of players of Dragon Age Veilguard recommend the game on Steam. And yet reading the comments here and other places, you'd think that 90% of people who tried the game found it to be, not just bad, but absolute trash, with a small number of people chiming in that they actually enjoyed it.

And game studios are reacting much the same way, and are quick to start layoffs, or shut down all together.

But hey, we don't owe those corporations anything. But, as a community, do we owe it to each other to foster more honest correspondence?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Skyrim's varied gameplay systems?

It has stealth, it has magic, it has melee combat, it has ranged combat, it has dialogue options for talking your way through stuff, it has multiple ways of solving quest lines....

It's basically Skyrim, if it was smaller and more focused, with better combat, voice acting, level design, and heads and tails better writing.

[–] ampersandrew 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Obsidian getting dinged in reviews for making more focused games that don't waste your time and don't bet their company's entire future on its budget and scope has been very frustrating to see.

[–] ms_lane 0 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Because as it turns out, most people don't want games like that, only a very small, very loud minority wants 20min 'focused' games.

You're upset that a viewpoint you hold is not actually the universal common viewpoint you thought it was.

[–] ampersandrew 1 points 8 hours ago

They still average out to be very positive scores, so I don't think we can say most people don't want what they're making, and no viewpoint is universal, so don't put words in my mouth.

But you'll see the same people asking for a more sustainable game industry complain about what they find when they see it.