Decline Degradation of game-making craftsmanship/technology in general

[sosmoflux]

The difference is I want the game industry to crash

 

[911 Jumper]

Infinity Africans will save this industry and the wider Western world.

Sony is making a bold bet on an African gaming startup to boost PlayStation’s reach in the continent

The Japanese consumer electronics and gaming giant has invested an undisclosed sum into Carry1st, a video game studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, via its Sony Innovation Fund venture arm, Carry1st told CNBC exclusively.

The deal is a strategic investment that will see the two companies partner on a range of commercial opportunities. For now, the two companies are in the “exploratory stages” of that partnership.

Cordel Robbin-Coker, CEO and co-founder of Carry1st, said talks with the Sony Innovation Fund began about eight to nine months ago, and that his pitch to the PlayStation console maker was that Africa is the next big market to find growth in video games.

“As large companies like Sony that have really strong footholds in tier-one and tier-two markets start thinking about where the next billion customers and gamers are going to come from, our pitch is that Africa is a prime market for that,” Robbin-Coker told CNBC in an interview.

“We believe very firmly that there is an incredibly underrated console opportunity in Africa,” Robbin-Coker said, citing countries like Nigeria, Morocco and Algeria as places where console adoption is rising a lot.

Sony is coming into an emerging gaming market with blistering growth potential. Sub-Saharan Africa’s gaming industry is expected to generate over $1 billion for the first time in 2024, according to research from Carry1st and venture capital firm Konvoy.

Many gamers in Africa are buying consoles on “gray” markets — in other words, from vendors who’ve imported consoles from overseas to resell them locally, Robbin-Coker added.

Sony is making a bold bet on Africa’s video game industry.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

can't wait to try my brand now PlayShaman, which turns on by rubbing wood sticks.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Some people have just really become addicted with the

 

[Arbiter]

1994
x-com - 3d, raytracing, destruction

X-Com is not 3D, it utilizes isometric 2D graphics. Not sure what you mean by ray-tracing in this context, the game certainly did not use ray-tracing for rendering. Or maybe you are referring to collision detection for weapon projectiles?

X-Com wasn't the first isometric game, for example Syndicate (1993) and Populous (1989) predate it.

 

[Fedora Master]

can't wait to try my brand now PlayShaman, which turns on by rubbing wood sticks.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/01/complex-systems-wont-survive-the-competence-crisis/

By the 1960s, the systematic selection for competence came into direct conflict with the political imperatives of the civil rights movement. During the period from 1961 to 1972, a series of Supreme Court rulings, executive orders, and laws—most critically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964—put meritocracy and the new political imperative of protected-group diversity on a collision course. Administrative law judges have accepted statistically observable disparities in outcomes between groups as prima facie evidence of illegal discrimination. The result has been clear: any time meritocracy and diversity come into direct conflict, diversity must take priority.

The resulting norms have steadily eroded institutional competency, causing America’s complex systems to fail with increasing regularity. In the language of a systems theorist, by decreasing the competency of the actors within the system, formerly stable systems have begun to experience normal accidents at a rate that is faster than the system can adapt. The prognosis is harsh but clear: either selection for competence will return or America will experience devolution to more primitive forms of civilization and loss of geopolitical power.

Classic example of a racist pushing their bs without understanding what's actually going on.

In 1960s, there was actual prevalent racism in a lot of US, so the Civil Rights movement was doing a great thing trying to fight against it. There was no equality of opportunity in a lot of cases, and people who weren't white males couldn't get into certain jobs, regardless of their qualifications/ability. I mean the country was just out of or still dealing with segregation, ffs. To put it in other terms that are commonly used now, there was no equality of opportunity, which is bad.

Today, it's a completely different thing, there is generally no overt institutional racism, and by mid 2000s, the country was mostly color blind. A black president was elected twice. But now, the Overton window moved, and the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, which fought for good things, has now morphed into the woke crap of today, which is a much more extreme movement, likely funded by US enemies. They are not fighting for equality of opportunity, they are fighting for equality of outcome, which is a much worse goal. When you insist on everyone having an exact outcome, regardless of how nature works, you start approaching the uncanny valley stuff of Communism and the like.

Sadly, this discussion is currently impossible to have at scale on an adult level, as it generally comes down to brainwashed retards on the left and the caricature racists on the right.

 

[Fedora Master]

Sadly, this discussion is currently impossible to have at scale on an adult level,

Because you are a prime living example of the Competency Crisis in effect, yes.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

And you, sir, are a prime example of someone who thinks he has legit opinions because his main conversational partner is his dog.

 

[std::namespace]

i actually wanted to make a similar thread because i posted in the total war thread and it made me think that they didnt improve the tactical combat in 20 years...
and the idiotic shiteaters just keep fucking shoveling that garbage inside

so, what games are technically interesting recently? i dunno if i should count gpu tech

1983
artillery duel - terrain deformation by explosions

1994
x-com - 3d, raytracing, destruction

1995
worms - artillery duel 10 years later

1997
total annihilation - very large maps and unit counts

1998
thief - uses room connections to mildly sim far sound propagation

2001
il 2 sturmovik - best flight physics, can break wings by diving at mach1

2002
medieval total war - large scale unit counts, with the illusion of individual engagement, i believe it was larger than shogun
battlefield 1942 - netcode capable of 128 peeps on 1 server, this might not have been a netcode bottleneck though

2003
silent storm - environ destructible

2004
rome total war - switch to 3d models for units, this is a gpu perf or mem bottleneck, the unit counts even bigger now maybe
soldiers heroes of ww2 - individual vehicles control, penetration mechanics

2005
falling sand - its not a game but eh... artillery duel on roids
fear - popularizes goap in ai

2007 x64 era, multicores roll out
dwarf fortress - large scale really running simulation
stalker - live ai agents on 1 grid that is larger than all other 3d shooters at the time
sega rally - persistent track terrain deformation

2009
minecraft - block world, written in java...

2010
achtung panzer kharkov 43 - penetration mechanics, larger than soldiers heroes of ww2, persistent wrecks

2014
factorio - large scale world sim like df

2015
guild wars 2 - popularizes utility based ai arch, though its probably used in far older games, who knows...

2017
mudrunners - track terrain deformation

2019
noita - 1983 artillery duel did it best kek

2020
song of syx - same as dwarf fortress

i dunno if havoc physics counts, its just a sim effect without gameplay reasons, but first used in london racer 2000, than again other racing games had physics

i left out a bunch of racing games with a vehicle damage model

its a sad list...

1983
tank wars - destr environs kek

1993
frontier elite 2 - newtonian sim

1998
die by the sword - mesh separation or at least faking it

1999
panzer elite - damage model, pen mechanics good?

2000
steel beasts - pen mechanics? did it have it?

2003
street legal reacing - detailed car parts damage model, not the drive components

2015
kerbal - large body grav pull sim

 

[std::namespace]

1994
x-com - 3d, raytracing, destruction

X-Com is not 3D, it utilizes isometric 2D graphics. Not sure what you mean by ray-tracing in this context, the game certainly did not use ray-tracing for rendering. Or maybe you are referring to collision detection for weapon projectiles?

xcom is 3d, yeah raytracing in a general sense

 

[Arbiter]

1994
x-com - 3d, raytracing, destruction

X-Com is not 3D, it utilizes isometric 2D graphics. Not sure what you mean by ray-tracing in this context, the game certainly did not use ray-tracing for rendering. Or maybe you are referring to collision detection for weapon projectiles?

xcom is 3d, yeah raytracing in a general sense

This is what X-Com 1994 (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown) looks like:

What you posted is a screenshot of a different game.

 

[Elttharion]

The Next Generation Of Workers Is Less Tech Savvy Than We May Think

Why gen Z’s lack of IT literacy is a serious business risk

Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem

Gen Z has a tech skills gap at work. Here’s why

According to a recent study by Dell, 37% of Gen Z said their education did not adequately prepare them with technology skills they would need for their job. Meanwhile, 44% said they only learned very basic computing skills. These results are particularly surprising given that Gen Z is the first generation to grow up fully immersed in computers and phones.

In a 2022 report, the U.S. Census designates Generation Z as "the youngest generation with adult members (born 1997 to 2013)."

Young kids fresh out of college are the ideal workers for most big studios as they will work long hours for very little pay.

 

[std::namespace]

What you posted is a screenshot of a different game.

says who?

 

[Arbiter]

What you posted is a screenshot of a different game.

says who?

Stop embarassing yourself:

 

[std::namespace]

Stop embarassing yourself:

pumpkin...
a: i have more hours in xcom than you
b: if you dont understand templates in c++ im not interested in talking to you

 

[Ravielsk]

A core part of the decline is that most gaming companies are now publicly traded. The second you go public you and your entire company is at the mercy of what amounts to a bunch of faceless goblins with 0 accountability and the singular goal of making more and moar money. And this requires perpetual and nonstop growth otherwise the goblins will not get more and moar.

Now if you have ever attempted to run your own business you might know that infinite growth is impossible. Especially when in a industry that for all intends and purposes is only for leisure. Its natural to have better years and worse years, better sellers and worse sellers that is just how business works but a publicly traded company has to always grow otherwise the goblins will be unhappy.

Obviously you can expand to a point but eventually you always hit a point past which you cannot really grow immediately or cannot grow past period. At that point the only thing left is to start cutting costs and pray it will not affect the product too much. We are in the phase where it started affecting the final product too much and there is nothing that can be done about it because that would require the goblins in charge to accept that they will simply have to do with less before they get more.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

The Next Generation Of Workers Is Less Tech Savvy Than We May Think

Why gen Z’s lack of IT literacy is a serious business risk

Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem

Gen Z has a tech skills gap at work. Here’s why

According to a recent study by Dell, 37% of Gen Z said their education did not adequately prepare them with technology skills they would need for their job. Meanwhile, 44% said they only learned very basic computing skills. These results are particularly surprising given that Gen Z is the first generation to grow up fully immersed in computers and phones.

In a 2022 report, the U.S. Census designates Generation Z as "the youngest generation with adult members (born 1997 to 2013)."

Young kids fresh out of college are the ideal workers for most big studios as they will work long hours for very little pay.

That's to blame on iphone and apple relate computer hardware. Retards don't know how folder directories work for fuck sack with above effects already being felt on the school/education phase for the past 10 years.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Same studio (probably not developers), 11 years apart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTekcLCAZpI

Now I truly believe the whole technological degradation on how a early Roman Empire Legionnaire might be better equipped than a late Roman Empire Legionnaire.

The rise of stupidity/incompetence are real!

I've seen those comparisons for other games such as:

Arkham games vs Gotham Knights and even Suicide Squad
Earlier Battlefields vs BF2042

However, those are not apples to apples comparisons since multiplayer games such as S&B and Gotham Knights will often have lower visual fidelity to increase technical performance/fps, especially due to co-op. Single player games can afford to go more heavy on graphical spectacle since you only 1 player to worry about.

Same with BF2042 having to accommodate twice as many max players (128) vs half as many for previous entries.

 

[lycanwarrior]

A core part of the decline is that most gaming companies are now publicly traded. The second you go public you and your entire company is at the mercy of what amounts to a bunch of faceless goblins with 0 accountability and the singular goal of making more and moar money. And this requires perpetual and nonstop growth otherwise the goblins will not get more and moar.

Now if you have ever attempted to run your own business you might know that infinite growth is impossible. Especially when in a industry that for all intends and purposes is only for leisure. Its natural to have better years and worse years, better sellers and worse sellers that is just how business works but a publicly traded company has to always grow otherwise the goblins will be unhappy.

Obviously you can expand to a point but eventually you always hit a point past which you cannot really grow immediately or cannot grow past period. At that point the only thing left is to start cutting costs and pray it will not affect the product too much. We are in the phase where it started affecting the final product too much and there is nothing that can be done about it because that would require the goblins in charge to accept that they will simply have to do with less before they get more.

Sure, but the reason investors want increasing growth is because they want a return on investment (ROI) that comfortably beats inflation.

Otherwise, they could just stick their money into a money market fund or bank CD earning a "risk-free" 5+% interest rate.

And note that inflation is annual and cumulative. So if you aren't growing, you are falling behind.

The real issue is that the political and financial elites want inflation as the overriding policy at all costs; deflation (aka recession) is to be avoided.

 

[Azdul]

i actually wanted to make a similar thread because i posted in the total war thread and it made me think that they didnt improve the tactical combat in 20 years...
and the idiotic shiteaters just keep fucking shoveling that garbage inside

so, what games are technically interesting recently? i dunno if i should count gpu tech
(...)
its a sad list...

Creative Assembly started strong - and went downhill due to internal conflicts. Later Sega buyout was more about franchise than actual talent - which left long before that.

The sad fact is that people identify a game with a studio name - while the studio may no longer have 95% of the key developers.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Otherwise, they could just stick their money into a money market fund or bank CD earning a "risk-free" 5+% interest rate..

Of course, the money market fund or bank has to do something with that money to generate that 'safe' return (plus their own profit), so that doesn't really get rid of the demand for higher return investments.

 

[Azdul]

A core part of the decline is that most gaming companies are now publicly traded. The second you go public you and your entire company is at the mercy of what amounts to a bunch of faceless goblins with 0 accountability and the singular goal of making more and moar money. And this requires perpetual and nonstop growth otherwise the goblins will not get more and moar.

Now if you have ever attempted to run your own business you might know that infinite growth is impossible. Especially when in a industry that for all intends and purposes is only for leisure. Its natural to have better years and worse years, better sellers and worse sellers that is just how business works but a publicly traded company has to always grow otherwise the goblins will be unhappy.

Obviously you can expand to a point but eventually you always hit a point past which you cannot really grow immediately or cannot grow past period. At that point the only thing left is to start cutting costs and pray it will not affect the product too much. We are in the phase where it started affecting the final product too much and there is nothing that can be done about it because that would require the goblins in charge to accept that they will simply have to do with less before they get more.

Publicly traded companies do not create games that are worth playing.

Companies go public when they need money to take over the world - flooding the market with Barbie games, sequels, remakes and copycats of successful games - and buying out independent developers for their IP.

Pressure from investors will not interfere with creation of next innovative, groundbreaking game. Only with the next paint-by-numbers sequel of Assassin Creed or Call of Duty.

 

[lightbane]

The real issue is that the political and financial elites want inflation as the overriding policy at all costs; deflation (aka recession) is to be avoided.

There's more to that, as obviously politics are involved due to the whole ESG thing and the Sweet Baby drama.
Even earlier Asscreed games are better than many modern games.

 

[rumSaint]

General mainstream games are getting simpler and look more like shit to:
a) pander to normies and don't overwhelm them with too complicated mechanics
b) run on newest consoles with lowest possible effort put into development

This does not mean we there are no good games and everyone crying games are dead sound exactly like this