Now they're made with marketable 'passion', 'dedication', and a team with 'a family atmosphere'. My personal favorite 'respect for the lore and previous games in the series' definitely never has made a triple A game worse for wear.

Disingenuous buzzwords with no objective meaning behind them are my favorite things to hear in a game. It tells me to steer clear as far away as I possibly can. Which is a shame because I'd like to be excited about vampire: the masquerade 2.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Steph Sterlings' recent video hits it directly. The big publishers see Balatro doing well, so they go copy Balatro. They spend a lot of effort looking for the next Balatro in all the wrong places. Their attempts to copy it will fail, because people who like Balatro will just play Balatro. This will continue until there's a new indie darling dominating the sales charts, and then they'll try to copy that.

The industry is deeply misguided.

[–] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It feels like it's always been this way. The amount of 'doom clones' from the way back times are not to be forgotten.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

It has, and its not just games though. Clothes, cars, movies, anime, even food all have trends. There are those that innovate, and those that imitate.