| HoloDust said:
As for examples - I'm not sure if you're being serious at this point or not, cause I'm not sure I want to draw conclusion that you're believing that one game with easy mode can change things over night or that anyone implies that. But gather all the whining, "that and that % of players are not finishing games" stats, games being 'too complex", "too hard", "not accessible" over a period of time, and add publishers desire for more sales on top of that and you got whole genres that have been transformed to catter to mass market sensibilities. It's never one thing, and it's never over night, it's usually combination of iflux of new out-of-genre audience and publishers' desire to get more sales. This is the very thing that happened to C/W/RPGs, from once niche genre, that got slightly more exposure in late 90s/early 00s and then going AAA mainstream and creatively downhill ever since, recovering somewhat only in last few years with influx of games from smaller studios. |
Interesting point here. I never understood the urge to finish each and every game. I measure a game in the joy it gave me for the time, even if I never finished it. On the contrary, the games I enjoy the most, I tend to stretch out the end, exploring everything, trying to make the experience longer. For instance in BOTW I so far haven't beaten Ganon, although I'm probably more than able by now. If I go for the ending, I usually lose the interest to do all the side things. NG+ is something helping me to end games, as then I can replay it with added content.
And yeah, the step by step dilution of gaming formulas to abide to the mass market is pretty much a thing, that for a time let me drift away from gaming. Some companies and indies helped to rekindle my interest.
