Video games have reached levels of immersion higher than other forms of entertainment, add real $ loot boxes to that and it's clear publishers should worry about this, smart ones already are - Valve tracks Anti_Addiction_Rating for users to notify/suggest they play within healthy limits: https://www.pcgamesn.com/dota-2/dota-2-anti-addiction.
I genuinely miss gaming. When I try to get back into mainstream titles these days I evtually hit some roadblock mechanic designed to extract dollars and I’m just like, “This shit again?” and bail on the game.
Some developers do it right. Most don’t. There are so many games or experiences that I just don’t think will ever exist again. I don’t know that there will ever be another Ultima Online or EverQuest, or another tactical shooter like Rainbow Six or America’s Army that isn’t pay to win. Or that we’ll ever see another decent RTS ever. It sucks.
MMORPGs. They get developed now, I guess, but it’s all pay to win garbage. It’s not even the same genre IMO.
Space/tech simulators. We used to have X-Wing, Descent, Freespace, Mechwarrior, Fighter Ace, etc. There used to be an entire SECTION in stores that contained joysticks of all different kinds. Now we just have train simulator with garbage DLC skins.
Realistic, tactical, team-based FPS games. Rainbow Six, America’s Army, etc. The “one shot” kind of FPS where you didn’t just jump around like a bullet sponge.
Steam has been GREAT for small indie games, platformers, and new concepts like KSP. But we’ve also lost a lot as the major studios have all converged towards mass market games.
Somewhat related, I spent an ungodly amount of time recently playing Subnautica, and this reminds me that the underwater world has been pretty much forgotten by both games and sci-fi literature/movies. What was the last underwater game I played before Subnautica? Ah, Submarine Titans. A quite fun and beautiful (for that time) RTS. From 18 years ago.
I played through X-Wing Alliance last year. It seems weird that they haven't even tried just updating the graphics and re-releasing them. Surely there would be a market.
True about Flight Sims too. That's dried right up.
It's surprising about RTS games, you'd think that's pretty doable for a fairly small team.
It's hyperbole but it also seems to be true enough - only a few bandwagon genres seem to get published nowadays. If you happen to like strategy games or action platformers or bullet hell or metroidvania or anything but whatever's hot this year, well, you're SOL outside of indie development and the occasional "spiritual successor."
Realistic team based FPS: There's ARMA 3 for your heavy duty liking, and Squad is incredible. I believe insurgency is also slightly realistic
In the end all games become what management considers a good game in its shark eats shark, one up in manipulation - world.
Then there is the fact that a inferior aiming tool (game pad) became the Togo for most modern shooters.
Its feels like a product who's producer mastered the complete mental manipulation of its user-base ages ago. Suddenly all your interests align every time and you wake up feeling used and abused while distinctly remembering having a different opinion before the good times. Gaming might just be ahead of the dystopia curve here. No wonder Yuri-industries pushes the narrative of the strong, self-controlled consumer.
You are entering the town of Rantsend.
I don't know if Fornite has any scammy and/or addictive qualities. My understand is it does not and is making the most money of any game ever. Around 10 million per day at the moment. So yes, the funding will probably go to those types of games more than the GoW, BotW type of games.
Good games in the mobile market is far and few between.
There are a lot of really good games that exist to be played for fun, and not just to suck your money and punish you. Avoid Ubisoft, avoid fee-to-play, and ideally wait for “complete” versions of a game.
This is one reason I've stopped playing most games that have any kind of online or multiplayer element. Ones that either have a really strong single player mode or don't engage in these kinds of tactics (see civilization games) have been the ones that I end up enjoying long term.
I've found that I end up preferring indie titles not for any philosophical reason, but because many of them don't have the teams needed to create these kinds of mechanisms (successfully anyway). Mobile platforms make it significantly easier to you see it there a lot more too.
I've found that Darkest Dungeon is the game I just keep coming back to. No multiplayer, no micro transactions, just you against the game. And I also really like the dark fantasy setting and art style.
Plus it runs great on my X220i, which is nice.
For example, someone discovered that 'stamina' (like arcade credits, but recharging over time even when you're not playing) was a great way to monetize, since people will want to open the app more and play and see ads because if you don't you're Wasting Hearts! That's leveraging frustration for sure, but it turns out frustration keeps people playing as much as fun does. And now you wonder why stamina systems are all over microtransaction-laden mobile games.
This seems to be a pattern I see in every industry, and with every product. Whenever a market is created, things improve up to some point, and after that they degrade. I wish there was a way to stop this evolution at the peak of quality, before the decay and customer abuse takes hold.
I have a feeling the power of contrast is at work, though I'm not really 'into' gaming enough to bring much evidence to bear.
And now think about how publishers view this sort of demographic. This realization is what actually made me drop my disdain for companies like EA. Gaming has gone mainstream. When this happens to anything, the optimal means of monetizing things shifts radically. When you have people that will buy 'artistic products' (as opposed to e.g. - a coffee maker) absolutely blind and will even shell out money to buy products piecemeal, it's hard to be angry about companies taking advantage of this.
All this means is that you're no longer their demographic. In the movie industry this kind of sucks since there aren't thousands of amazing independent films being made. But in the games industry there are! We're undoubtedly going through a gaming golden age right now, so happily step away from the 'mainstream' and consider that the games that fit whatever craving you're having do exist, but it's entirely likely that you've never heard of them before. This is because they don't have those nice 8-9 figure marketing budgets of 'mainstream' games, but also even word of mouth is difficult simply because there are just so many great games.
Addiction is measured not by what or how much you do, but by negative impact it has on one's life.
It doesn't matter how much pot you smoke, or alcohol you drink, or how much coke you do, if it doesn't interfere with your life.
If you lose your job or steal from your family to hit the casinos, that's an addiction.
If you turn down a job because it's in a different city and you depend on a local doctor to keep giving you a prescription drug, that's an addiction.
If you flunk out of school and turn down any opportunity to be self sufficient because you spend all day smoking pot, that's an addiction.
If you flunk out of school and turn down any opportunity to be self sufficient because you spend all day playing Fortnite, that's an addiction.
If I'm going to deal with another day of getting my front end auth to work, I dont want to deal with it sober.
I can deal with it sober, but its significantly more miserable. I drink way more coffee(which is still a drug) and lose probably a few extra hours of productivity.
I'm really not sure how to handle this, because if I'm on weed, its on 100% of the time I program. If I'm off weed, I dont crave it, except when I'm stuck for 5 days on a stupid issue with little resolution. Or I'll be at a party and not want to drink alcohol.
However there is an On and an Off. If I'm on, its every day, uncontrollable. It makes me significantly more productive, so much so that friends consider me the smartest person they know. (The reality is I just work 12+ hour days since I became addicted 3 years ago)
When I'm off, things that suck, suck without any help.
Maybe you could try to lower your coffee consumption and drink relaxing teas instead. You could also take a few days off work and try to figure things out.
What is your heart rate like? How much do you sleep? How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?
If you're heart rate is constantly up and you sleep very little (4-6 hours) and you drink more than 4 cups of coffee a day, my opinion would be that you're suffering from anxiety. If you treat the symptoms (without weed ofc :) ), the underlying physical stress might go away and you'll notice that you can program whilst not being under the influence.
Best of luck
I can barely order a pizza.
I always found this odd, and it sounds more like a proxy because we don't have a good way to measure the real thing. Which raises lots of questions.
If your actions show that you're willing to give up major things in life for that addiction, if you know that it's harming your life but still go on, then you're addicted.
If your actions show that you're not willing to give up major things in life for that addiction and you actually can and do put it aside whenever needed, then you're not addicted.
If you never really had to choose, possibly because it's not harming your life yet, then we don't know and can't know if you're addicted, as it's very subjective and talk/expressed opinion is not a reliable predictor of what you'd actually do.
Furthermore, that's in line with the general understanding of how we distinguish between "simple" conditions, behaviors and genetic differences versus diseases and disorders - the key factor is whether it's causing harm and distress.