Food preservation

[InfiniteWarrior]

Everything flows, everything changes

Has nothing to do with it at all.

Old games that required you to remember a lot have fallen out of fashion

Not really. Choice and consequence RPGs have been reduced to choice of weapon, choice of armor, choice of ammo, choice of how one's character looks, etc., superficialized and stripped of anything that might be considered controversial and, therefore, might affect sales. Afficionados of the game type have become an unserved and/or underserved audience in the process of steralization -- steralization of anything life affirming and soulful in favor of pure mechanics.

RPGs with branching questlines, choice and consequence that significantly alter the game world, the player character and the "lives" and/or fates of entire towns and characters are produced exceptionally rarely anymore and the reason for this, to hear Tim Cain tell it, is that there is a reluctance in the industry to produce them because one risk averse entity or other insists the time and money is being spent on "creating content no one will ever see," which is ridiculous because the nature of such games is what accounted for their replayability in the first place. People replayed them to access the content blocked off by the choices of each character they created upon the occasion of a new playthrough with a new character.

"Creating content no one will ever see" is a pathetic excuse for the phenomenon noted above: the reduction and superficialization of RPGs purely in the interest of obscene levels of corporate profit-mongering from the "masses". That's why people are now speaking of "modern RPGs" as a separate category from the deep, meaningful and enjoyable RPGs produced before the financial sector invaded everything, including the production of video games, in the late nineties and early aughts. So, we'll probably never see the likes of Fallouts 1-3 and New Vegas ever again unless something in the industry changes drastically.

 

[Suxar]

RPGs with branching questlines, choice and consequence that significantly alter the game world, the player character and the "lives" and/or fates of entire towns and characters are produced exceptionally rarely anymore and the reason for this, to hear Tim Cain tell it, is that there is a reluctance in the industry to produce them because one risk averse entity or other insists the time and money is being spent on "creating content no one will ever see," which is ridiculous because the nature of such games is what accounted for their replayability in the first place. People replayed them to access the content blocked off by the choices of each character they created upon the occasion of a new playthrough with a new character.

It seems to me that Tim Cain is only partly right. The entire entertainment industry has a problem with writers right now. Most films are remakes or franchises; something truly new just doesn't appear. It's the same with games. Writing a linear script is not so difficult, but thinking through a branching plot is really difficult. When Bethesda released Starfield, I decided that since it had an NG+ mode, they would finally make a normal quest system. How wrong I was. Even in those places where the player is given a choice, this choice does not affect anything, nothing at all. And the quests, as usual, are as stupid as possible: “Oh, you’re our greenhorn, so you’ll have to deal with the most difficult problem that affects us all.”

It's a writer's crisis.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

It seems to me that Tim Cain is only partly right. The entire entertainment industry has a problem with writers right now. Most films are remakes or franchises; something truly new just doesn't appear. It's the same with games. Writing a linear script is not so difficult, but thinking through a branching plot is really difficult. When Bethesda released Starfield, I decided that since it had an NG+ mode, they would finally make a normal quest system. How wrong I was. Even in those places where the player is given a choice, this choice does not affect anything, nothing at all. And the quests, as usual, are as stupid as possible: “Oh, you’re our greenhorn, so you’ll have to deal with the most difficult problem that affects us all.”

It's a writer's crisis.

Serviceable writing, i.e. writing that supports mechanics as opposed to the other way around, is a side effect of the phenomenon noted and of which you are aware. It's not the writers' fault. They're doing as they're told. 'Tis true: the entirety of the field of Arts & Entertainment has been affected by the risk aversion and corporate profit mongering that characterizes them all at this point.

Interesting video on the subject, if interested: 'Let Franchises End'. There are some pretty strong feelings about it among the public that corporate executives ignore at the peril of their precious profits. Triple As are in trouble and indies are taking off for a reason.

 

[Suxar]

nteresting video on the subject, if interested: 'Let Franchises End'.

42 minutes of reading subtitles is too much for me. I don't speak English.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

42 minutes of reading subtitles is too much for me. I don't speak English.

That's okay. Probably goes without saying that there is an equally prevalent phenomenon of RPGs becoming more and more like movies and less and less like video games. It's almost as though many developers have forgotten or never knew in the first place what sets the medium apart from all other forms of media: interactivity and not just of the "tactile" variety. That or they're just doing as they're told. RPGs are probably suffering from the fact that the video game industry has become "bigger" than the motion picture industry when it comes to public interest and predatory proft-mongering. It bothers me that younger generations may never know the truly nonlinear experience of older games unless they play those older games, which they don't seem much inclined to do, expecting instead better graphics and "epic", movie-like cinematics such as those we see in games like RDR2, which are completely separate with "missions" that must be played a specific way, else they fail. That kind of thing.

 

[Suxar]

That's okay. Probably goes without saying that there is an equally prevalent phenomenon of RPGs becoming more and more like movies and less and less like video games. It's almost as though many developers have forgotten or never knew in the first place what sets the medium apart from all other forms of media: interactivity and not just of the "tactile" variety. That or they're just doing as they're told. RPGs are probably suffering from the fact that the video game industry has become "bigger" than the motion picture industry when it comes to public interest and predatory proft-mongering. It bothers me that younger generations may never know the truly nonlinear experience of older games unless they play those older games, which they don't seem much inclined to do, expecting instead better graphics and "epic", movie-like cinematics such as those we see in games like RDR2, which are completely separate with "missions" that must be played a specific way, else they fail. That kind of thing.

You don't need to remind me about RDR2. In my personal rating, this is the worst game of all. The only game I started playing that I fell asleep in. I didn’t see any open world or RPG in it in 2 hours.