Name a lesson no one has learned throughout gaming history

As the title says, name a lesson in gaming no one has learned. Because "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".

For me: hyping the "competition killer".

Even if the product turns out decent, more often than not, that's never true. When successful, it just co-exists (see: Sonic the Hedgehog, which was hyped as a Mario killer by SEGA, now it co-exists and Sonic fights Mario in Smash). Another example, the Steam Deck, which when announced the press and Valve's fans called it a Switch killer, to Valve's credit, they admitted it isn't to compete, let alone kill Nintendo's handheld. Still didn't stop the claims and click bait (like below).

But when it fails, DEAR GOD! One infamous example is the RPG Two Worlds, which was hyped to kill Elder Scrolls (and given how much Bethesda, mainly anything by Todd Howard that ISN'T Morrowind is reviled on the internet, that would've made a lot of people's days). Yet it was a disaster of meme levels.

But that's my choice. What's yours?

Never ever...Evah, take system wars too serially. lol :P

• Don't become arrogant from your success.
• Never follow in the wake of a phenomenal success expecting to get a piece of all that money, especially in a manner that lacks substance, is without vision, and simply tries to mimic the most superficial aspects of whatever that is.
• Don't release an inferior game next to a far superior one, especially when they're very very similar to begin with.
• Don't make consumers feel cheated/exploited.
• Don't take your player base for granted.
• Game makers if they have creative conviction should stick to it, don't listen to the whining masses, developers who pander to the loudest complainers (people who will just complain anyways) will just run their franchises into the ground by alienating the supporters they do have.

Each time i see a Steam Deck video, it reminds me how irrelevant it made the Switch.

E3 is nothing more than hype.

Racism is bad. Woman are equal.

@nintendoboy16: For me, it's making the release date being more important than the quality of the title. MS and Sony seem to have learned that lesion, but most 3rd party has not.

Corporations aren't your friend.

Hyping Second Life-like services.

It failed as everyone knows.That’s because most people are satisfied with simpler SNS such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and don't need the hassle of a virtual world. In fact, no one cared about Miiverse or PlayStation Home.

People who don't learn the lesson are now hyping the Metaverse.

I think this thread is about you

/thread

That’s good advice. But compared to Twitter, this place is full of well reasoned individuals with well thought out points and opinions. Twitter makes me appreciate this place far more. Twitter damn near gives me nose bleeds…

No doubt. Twitter is the "no mans land" of console wars.

It is sad some folks take this shit very serious but how else can we entertain ourself without those broken ones.😂

@Pedro: Well said

Paying for online multiplayer. We take the L for all eternity for that one

Nintendo is doomed since 1889

People don't really want new experiences, they want something familiar with an interesting peripheral gimmick, and a shiney coat of paint. I'm not trying to give creative stagnation of the AAA industry a pass here, but if we gamers were honest with ourselves, they make the same crap because that is what we buy.

And I'm not trying to act all above it either. I say this fully aware that 75% of my game collection is fighters, racers, and adventure/platformers.

They’re bound to run out of lives at some point, right?

No platform is better than another. Except for PC, it is superior to all.

Not all JRPG players are weaboos

@Pedro: "E3 is nothing more than hype."

Isn't that the point? Get people excited for games to come, be it surprise reveals, or more in depth demonstrations of games we do know about but know very little of? And sometimes even offer windows of when we can expect it.

Always bump down ps game ratings by 1 point on GS, bump up xbox game ratings by 1 point

Never trust reviewers, they're full of crap most of the time, just look at Belden ring and ff7r, 2 of the most over rated games in history.

- Hardcore gamers, gaming is a for-profit industry, not a charity. Gaming companies are not your friend.

- Hardcore gamers, gaming is a privilege, not a right.

- Appeal to everyone will actually appeal to no one. That is, trying to appeal to more groups will actually alienate the existing groups as the interests of some groups will conflict with the interests of others.

@onesiphorus: Who has ever argued/believed/stated that gaming is a right?🤔

No matter how much you shill for a gaming company they don't love you.

Companies acting like they exist in a bubble, or thinking they offer a product only they can provide.

Two examples: when PS3 was close to launch Sony told people to get a second job... Instead people could opt for the cheaper 360 or Wii consoles, or they could stay with last gen instead.

When AAA devs choose to move away from singleplayer games and tell us that 'gamers want multiplayer live services' we can simply buy our games from devs that do provide the games that we want and the fun that we seek.

These company love me that's why they keep releasing masterpieces after masterpieces. well accept remedy because control suck.

cant wait for Quake reboot, Next Metro, Alan wake 2 and Project 007

@warmblur: It is a shame that lesson has yet to be learned.

Pre-purchasing!

Microtransactions do not give a sense of pride and accomplishment

Pre-ordering games - can we stop doing this?

Supporting unfinished/broken/microtransaction filled games at launch - again can we stop doing this?

Thinking when a game doesn't sell 10's of millions or gets 9's on all the review sites the game is trash.

Not if they've unlocked the "unlimited lives" cheat code.

Don't get high on your own supply.

Hey I liked Two Worlds 2, i'd play another one of those lol.

Seriously though, I'd have go with changing a game in a established series to try and copy other trends and appeal to a broader/more casual audience.

the last couple BF games are great examples of this - they tried to shoe-horn ridiculous customization into a "authentic WW2 game" (their words) in BFV, then went with the 'hero shooter' model in 2042 even though it made no sense at all in the context of that series. We later learned that 2042 was going to be a weird BR type thing until late in the dev process and they changed it.

Dawn of War 3 is another example - chased MOBA trends, alienated their existing audience, didn't attract MOBA fans, game was a failure.

or forcing Bioware to make Anthem.

Instead of trying to please their potentially large existing audience, devs try and chase trends, end up alienating their existing audience, and fail to attract the new audience they are going after since they will just continue to play the other games that executed the same concepts better.

With PC hardware vendors: Vendor lock in with features has a very poor success rate. Some companies can have a great idea. but then they just patent it, tie some crappy software around it and get litigious very quickly and the idea just ends up dying a death.

Flappy paddle buttons is an example. I was baffled as to why these are not standard with the new consoles. But it turns out Scuff has a patent and will just sue anyone who dares have flappy paddles. so they only end up on premium controllers and are treated as a remapping option instead of actual extra buttons and that's a real shame.

Nvidias GSync module is another one. It's basically being phased out in all but the highest of high end niche screens. Everyone else just uses the Vesa standard. The module is a good idea and, if nvidia released a public API for the thing, it could get more traction in the monitor sector. But nope....Gsync for Geforce GPUs only...suck it (they even screwed their own customers by not having adaptive freesync supported for years even though their cards could do it).

How many RGB control standards are there on the PC? can they be mixed and matched? I haven't looked at it much in fairness but, from the outside, it looks messy. It looks like every Mobo maker has its own standard.

No one learned? I dunno about that.

But of lessons people never seem to learn.

• Games and consoles are products not spouses. When you stop using your console or quit your favorite game. And you treat it like you had some break up. Then you probably need to get help.
• Devs getting too arrogant.
• Consumers getting too entitled.
• MMOs dont need your long term attention, if the game is solid enough, even if only for a month, that can be money well spent (ESO comes to mind here).
• Every mechanic is a piece of a whole. Look how the whole is served rather than making a mish mash of uninspired ideas. Sometimes the games that break the most conventions/rules are the best ones. Persona 5's UI comes to mind.

Don’t waste the player’s time with pointless bloat.

I feel like the vast majority of games would have improved by cutting out the lowest quality content.

I made a simlar point in another thread:

Is it me or Japanese devs obliterate western devs when it comes down to rpg?

@Maroxad: "Customers getting too entitled."

"But the customer is always right."

Seriously, outside of games, that mentality is freaking killing the morale of those who should be working to deal with it.

Like I've said in the past. If the majority of gamers quit with micro transactions today, there wouldn't be any games with it tomorrow. That's definitely a failure on gamers as a whole.

It more like a reality check for gamers who think their opinions are worth something.😮

Stop blaming the game for you being a scrub at the game. The challenge is not artificial (what a made up ass complaint, by nature its artificial you idiot), or unfair, or cheap if it has a consistent, reliable response from the player. You are the problem. Be it execution, adaptation, or critical thinking. Play better.

Yup! There's even old memes on this one.

That no matter what console you have, you're going to have just as much fun as the person with the other console.

This is interesting as Ubisoft follow this advise. So many people label Ubisoft games as horrible but they never listen and keep making them as they still have gamers who support them and are happy with their games.

Not sure if your point is a good or a bad thing, but if it's good then kudos to Ubisoft.

FYI, I'm not a fan of Ubisoft

How about all the people that run out and buy a new console right when it's out? Sad fools.

Another lesson that tends to be need to be relearned from time to time: Content sells hardware/services. the games industry is a content industry first and foremost.

Sony (PS3) and MS (X1) had to learn this. Sony relied on 3rd parties to make the games mostly while they just made the console. MS also didnt really want to make games. They just wanted to make the platform and services and let 3rd parties make the games (with the occasional poaching of a 3rd party title like Tomb raider). Both companies have and continue to correct this. Nintendo....er....it's a bit different.

More Recently this was a big contributing factor to Stadias failure and does anyone even care about Amazons offering? Google do not want to actually make games. They really have bought into "company X makes drama, google makes money" idea.

It would be no harm for PC hardware manufacturers (especially GPU manufacturers) to get in on the game making business too....even as more tech demo type games. A lot of PC gamers are quite happy on an RX 580 or GTX 1060. The PC is certainly not lacking games but very few games really push the hardware and justify that push. The PC could really do with more Crysis type games (the sheer cost of development is a hinderance for 3rd parties to do it on their own initiative though).

...Just as long as they are not exclusive to a particular GPU brand. That would be a stupid disaster.