Alternate History: What happens to gaming if the internet never existed?

[vivster]

SvennoJ said:

vivster said:
I dread to think how bad gambling would be in games without a central hub to complain about it and push back against predatory monetization systems. P2W would be rampant because there are less incentives for people to buy cosmetics.

Though I wonder if society would've even existed or would still have a need for video games. I'd fully expect that by now without the internet we'd either be nuked or live in 1984.

How do you envision those loot box systems would have come around without the internet? What would be the point of P2W if all there is is local multiplayer?

Without the internet actual journalism would still have existed to prevent 1984 or WW3. The internet much more helps 1984 than pevents it...

Arcades have been pay to win long before the internet existed. Believe me, there is always a way to introduce people to gambling. There are TCGs, sticker collectors and gatcha. Kids will pay for anything to look cool in front of their friends. That hasn't changed with the internet and would never change.

You mean the journalism that wouldn't be free because of their very limited reach and easy controlability by the state? Journalism is only a small part of freedom. What has an even greater effect is people's ability to reach beyond their borders and experience different lives. It's hard to lie to a population when the internet presents them with constant answers to their questions. And yes, modern journalism also manages to lie to the public, however it's rarely for political gain and it's only affecting a portion of the population and not 99% as if it would be without internet.

vivster said:
I dread to think how bad gambling would be in games without a central hub to complain about it and push back against predatory monetization systems. P2W would be rampant because there are less incentives for people to buy cosmetics.

Though I wonder if society would've even existed or would still have a need for video games. I'd fully expect that by now without the internet we'd either be nuked or live in 1984.

It's hard to see how post-launch monetization would have ever been a thing without digital distribution. It's something that literally only came about because the internet facilitated it.

I think you might be forgetting that aggressive monetization(arcades) and gambling(TCGs) existed long before the introduction of digital games. If anything the internet first curbed it because of the easier access to cheaper games, after that it became predatory to the max. The internet has shown us how far companies are willing to take it and you can't tell me that they wouldn't have done the exact same without the internet. Give their creativity and ability to squeeze ever more money out of their customers a little bit more credit.