10 Modern Game Design Trends That Hurt Longevity. Right now there is a very strong emphasis in Modern Gaming on the ideas of Ease of Access, Familiarity, and Progression. Modern games are very cautious and overly nervous about scaring away new players (especially during the 2 hour Steam refund window). On top of that, because of the massive influx of new games constantly being released, modern games are also very eager to be familiar and derivative to help attract players who often suffer from new game fatigue and prefer to play what they already like. This happens in a very literal sense with constant remakes and remasters being released, but it also happens in a derivative design sense as well where even "new" games are often just heavily copying what's already popular. Look at the never ending wave of soulslike games being released for example. It's an unwritten law at this point that all new action games must be inspired by Dark Souls to some degree.

To contrast that, classic game design was much more concerned with being innovative, challenging, and unique, since game design of the past was viewed with a much more open mind as an emerging art form, whereas now modern game critique and discussion seems much more concerned with formulas and relying on past results risks are seen as the sign of an amateur rather than an expert. People love retro game design for many reasons besides nostalgia.

In today's video, I talk on what I think are 10 modern game design trends and ideas that I've noticed are becoming increasingly common that I think hurt the longevity of the games that utilize them in hopes of greater sales and critical acclaim. There are plenty more than 10 concerning trends in modern game design, of course, but these ten have been jumping out at me lately, especially within the genres I play like action games, character action, fighting games, beat em' ups, FPS, and even shmups.

Fantastic thumbnail, as always, made by the master ‪@boghogSTG‬

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00:00 Intro
01:37 Micromanaging the Player's Pace
07:03 Hardcoding Game Logic to Hardware Specs
10:19 Data Driven Game Balance
14:00 Novelty Driven Design
18:46 Mandatory External Accounts
21:22 EXTERNAL Adaptive Difficulty
24:43 Over Reliance on Meters for Balance
29:30 FanFictionalization of Game Design
32:43 Lack Of Entropy (Punishment for Doing Nothing)
36:25 Progression For Progression's Sake
44:25 Conclusion and Credits

#residentevil, #godofwar, #actiongames