Why I’m burnt out with Western games
Western gaming is sick. Rather than focusing on unique and engaging experiences, we’ve now hit a brick wall of stagnation. One where fun takes a backseat to tired political dogmas and sleazy monetization schemes. Frankly, I’m getting really burned out by it.
The inspiration for this piece came from a couple of stories this week. First off, we have one of the writers of Star Wars: Squadrons taking to Twitter, asking players to use his character’s correct pronouns. Then we have some feminist groups whining to Ubisoft about the lack of female representation in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Every time one of these left-wing limousine activists get uppity about something, you just have to sit back and roll your eyes. It’s the same complaints over and over, and the industry always folds like a deck chair. It must be nice to have so much time on your hands that you can be professionally offended for other people. You know, without actually helping them.
The industry is constantly walking on eggshells to avoid offending Twitter wackos, to the point that it’s completely hamstrung creativity. They were already risk adverse as is. Nobody wants to take a chance on new n’ tasty IPs, preferring to fall back on making the exact same games over and over again because they’re “sure bets”. Now everyone has to play it “safe” to avoid tripping over any political landmines. Because the “progressives” decided to make themselves the sole keepers of morality, and everyone just kind of went along with it for some reason. It really is some kind of dystopian nightmare future were living in, where artists are only allowed to make the “correct” kind of art. We were supposed to have flying cars and sassy robot maids by now, but ended up with this instead.
Yet the whole irony with this whole political correctness culture, is that its being offset by the insatiable greed of those same people in the industry. In a recent article, I laid in to how ridiculous the price increase to $70 USD is for next gen titles. What with all the microtransactions and loot boxes being shoved down your throat at a frequency that would make an OnlyFans thot blush. Many have likened the loot box thing to gambling. Which was debatable for a while. Then NBA2K went and put a literal slot machine into the game. So, yeah. Video games are just becoming big exploitative casinos.
Yet the industry keeps crying poor over how these are necessary due to growing budgets. Well, those big budgets have made for a lot of visual spectacle, but they haven’t exactly made for better games. Especially considering the growing number of Triple A bombs EA alone has pooped out over the last few years.
All of this is indicative of a games industry that’s grown stale and bloated. Much like film and comics, it feels long overdue for some sort of correction. Though whether that will happen, or what form it takes, remains to be seen. Games haven’t experienced the same fallout from the CCPVirus as other entertainment mediums have. Whatever the case, I’ve just kind of tapped out of the whole thing. There’s only so much one can put up with the same drivel before it stops being fun.
Of course that’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed any newer Western games recently. Doom Eternal was an absolute blast despite that little DRM spat back in May. However, they’re taking a backseat to what’s coming out of Japan and the emerging markets.
Nintendo has been absolutely killing it lately with the quality of games coming out for the Switch. Then again, this is a company known to always put fun and quality first. They’re also far less censorious than their rivals at Sony. Meaning that all those delightfully bizarre anime games that PlayStation California got their knickers in a twist about, are finding new homes. Which is certainly a complete 180 for both companies.
Due to the whole Sony thing, a lot of Japanese studios have also been discovering PC gaming. This is how I stumbled upon Yakuza, which rapidly cemented itself as one of my favourite franchises of all time.
Eastern Europe has also been knocking them out of the park. Yeah, the latest Metro game was lukewarm, but then we had Kingdom Come and Witcher 3 come out this generation. Which are both absolutely phenomenal titles in their own respective ways. Then there’s Cyberpunk 2077, which is set to debut this year. A title that’s shaping up to be mighty impressive.
It’s certainly a shame to see the Western games industry slowly collapse under its own weight into a stinking pile of mediocrity. But that’s their own doing, and they don’t even see a problem with it. Or won’t until it’s too late. At least there’s plenty of fun to be had in the mysterious East. As there always has been.
