I got one of those Xbox One consoles finally, and that’s the last console I was looking for at the moment. Apparently obtaining raytracing hardware is so difficult at this point that the Xbone used market hasn’t gotten any cheaper, but I did manage to grab a VCR model at an acceptable price and all seems fine with it. I was initially looking for an S for the sake of saving space, but I can make it work with my current setup. So why did I, someone who often waits around for quite a while for new things to be very cheap, decide to just go for a classic Xbone and not go for the Sexbox? Let’s just say that I’m in a very “just do it because you can” mood lately. Maybe the fact that I’ve hardly left the house due to the eternal death plague has contributed significantly toward that. I really just wanted to play some games on Rare Replay, and that’s been cheap for a while as it is.
I have a bit more reasoning behind the decision to just go for it, though. I’ve mentioned the Second Crash before, where the video game industry would collapse once again, even though it supposedly looks really good right now seeing that people including myself are investing into video games while having not much else to do, and even then I’ve figured out other hobbies as well because everyone needs some kind of break from their usual. I don’t really see the raytracing hardware taking off at this point purely on the marketing of graphics. That’s probably why the second bank is in the loading speeds dependent on special SSD architecture. I feel like that’s more of a game changer, but still not enough to sell me on a whole new console that may just end up being replaced with a “pro” version a few years later. Considering I haven’t bought a new console as new from a retailer or direct since the Wii U, and even then it was significantly discounted, that’s just a bit of my feelings toward consoles mixing with my tendency to want to get things secondhand for whatever reasons I do.
Really, it does comes down to the games, regardless of AAA or indie, or alleged indie but AAA level production, and there’s what feels like a stagnation to the point where I hardly look forward to new games now and am more just catching up on ones I’d been meaning to play. That overall attitude in turn is making the pre-owned and “retro” market much more enticing to people as a result, and really driving home the importance of game preservation so people can be able to play things without having to spend exorbitant amounts of cash on a single game that had a very limited print. Even at this point it seems like a significant amount of “new” game releases are re-releases or remasters, with the occasional remake, so they’ve at least realized that. But when those are much more looked forward to than a fully new thing, even if they’re low-effort as far as updates, it seems like the prime has passed for a typical modern game.
Of course it wouldn’t be a post complaining about the state of the industry without mentioning the mass amount of free-to-play games which feature unlimited microtransactions to generate way more revenue somehow than coming out with semi-frequent varieties of games, and then having that aspect creep into full-price games from repeat offender publishers, and even on top of annual releases for paid games. As well, if these games are training young players about these mechanics being a normal thing, it’s either going to hit a breaking point where there’s a movement against that sort of thing in any game or it’s just going to be practically a requirement for any game, like how online multiplayer modes were being shoved into random games where they didn’t actually fit.
You may also note that I’ve recently bought into VR as well, having played PSVR previously and not too long ago setting up a new gaming PC built to handle VR. I’ve generally enjoyed my time with VR so far, and I feel like there’s a whole new field of potential there, as long as it isn’t squandered by focusing purely on full-priced 20-minute “experiences” or mandatory logins which tie a bunch of real-world data together for the sake of advertising. If the PS5 is going to support VR natively or just keep it around as legacy PS4 support, who knows at this point. They probably don’t know either and are probably looking into the playing field to see if it’s worth investing in an updated kit as well as compatibility with the previous. In general, though, VR seems like the big way forward if they realize it, and I only wish it was more accessible to those who haven’t saved up big money to contend with whatever the graphics card and general parts market is, as well as those unwilling to sign themselves even further into Facebook’s web of whatever they’re even doing at this point. The technology is finally there and just needs to not be killed off by stupidity, but given human history, it could really go either way.
It seems even mods for games aren’t immune to the same problems that are causing professional studios and companies in general to implode, with extremely long waits for extremely ambitious mods that turn out to be very average if that, even with consideration for how it’s generally unpaid passion work, as well as random staff members somehow being part of the mental plague of humanity which contribute to its downfall. Maybe the issues with development in general are why I’ve shifted my focus away from game-specific programming things and more toward general art stuff that could be included in games at the moment, as I try to figure out what I can do on the side and not exhaust myself as I keep pursuing this path where I want to do apparently everything. Since I’m also a developer as a job at the moment, I really don’t want to burn out there as well. I do have ideas, but I’m working on refining them in whatever spare time I give myself to do so, then I can at least have a starting point instead of being overly ambitious.
It’s not like the Second Crash is going to immediately cause game stock to be generally unavailable, so my main reason for going for getting all of these games and related things set up now is really due to the desire to do things because I can and managing to find a window of time in the general market where I can do so before it’s not possible cheaply enough. If I didn’t get my PC build together when I did, I don’t know if I ever would this year. I wasn’t even targeting raytracing cards, just looking purely for general performance since I don’t really know of any VR games that do hardware raytracing. Likewise, who knows if or when raytracing hardware will be available for anyone who’s not a criminal trying to manufacture drug packets for children though money laundering schemes of selling things for 20000% of MSRP. If video games could advance, the industry needs to not hand over the keys to local crime syndicates as well as stop acting like them in the first place. Ideally anyone who’s going in as an indie isn’t going to sell out from desperation either. If I had to be a criminal to make money from selling games, then I’d just make all of mine free, but I don’t think it’s that far gone. I don’t even want to pursue making money from streaming games due to the parties involved who would get a cut. Whenever I get to the part where I want to make music and have figured out something for that, we’ll see what I do there.