A Gaming Rant

What has happened to the gaming industry?

Recently, I started co-streaming with my partner on twitch -Yesitsmocha on twitch- (shameless plug I know) but after streaming every day for an entire month now, my frustrations are through the roof.

There is no co-op story game content anymore. New AAA games feel cheap and tacky with the co-op or multiplayer mode taped on as an afterthought. Everywhere I look online pushes people in my position towards online PvP games that force you to be overly competitive meaning you have to up against people who don't play any other game or , yes I'm going to say it, hackers/cheaters.

Take counter strike 2 for example. A game I REALLY enjoy playing with my partner and community but have had to move away from after only playing it sporadically for a month because the cheating epidemic is through the roof. Valve refuse to do anything about it. They make you pay £12.99 so you have the pleasure of maybe not coming up against cheaters but it's all a façade. This is their biggest money maker and the reason they will never update their anti-cheat to really combat the problem at hand. Cheaters buy already levelled steam accounts for peanuts to buy and enable prime to soft cheat in the ranked mode (premier) and for what? To maybe get a chance at becoming pro? To become the best at the game? Or just to ruin other people's chances of enjoying the game they shilled money out for. If you think I am overexaggerating here as well, I'm not. A couple of professional CS2 players have been caught cheating in tournaments.

The other side of their money making isn't all sunshine and rainbows either. They have captured the absolute worst of the gaming community. The gamblers who think their next big case opening will make them rich. The underground market for the weapon skins in this game can go for for hundred of thousands of dollars. People can get rich for simply opening a case for the simple price of $1.99 - oh I'm sorry, they have now reduced this price to $1.85.

But I am not here to rant and rave about CS2. No, I am here to vent my frustrations with the way ALL co-op gaming is nowadays. We were told with the release of Baldur's Gate 3 that this was the only modern co-op story game that will be released and to not get used to it because it's not something that will happen regularly. BUT this was another single player story game that felt like the co-op was lazily slapped on before release to hype the game up beyond belief. Whilst playing it for the short time I did with my partner, I felt like an annoying NPC that could mess with the decisions he had made in the game and not have any influence into how anything unfolded. I felt useless in a game that was promoted to be the best story co-op game of our modern times. Why? Because it is all a marketing ploy.

Why are we forced to buy games at the full price of $60-$80 when they are all so underwhelming now anyway?

Yes. I understand we have games like it takes two and split fiction but again these puzzle games are so short and frankly just the same mediocre gameplay loop that doesn't really engage you after playing it once.

Why has the gaming industry become so anti-consumer? Profit.

Gaming companies have moved away from the era of producing top quality content to shill the next over-hyped, micro transaction riddled game that will leave you feeling underwhelmed.

If you have any suggestions for good co-op games, story games or any type of game you feel has fun content that isn't from 2017 and before - hop into the twitch chat at yesitsmocha and lets try to bring some joy back into the gamingsphere because it's looking pretty bleak right now.