Dictionaries are not specs for the English language, they are wikis. Twenty years later when “delulu” (a word popular enough that my 65 year old father regularly uses it) has fallen out of style, new readers would find it very useful to get the word defined in the dictionary.
> The old growth engines (microtransactions, live service games, season passes, user-generated content, loot boxes, eSports hero shooters, etc.) also no longer work, as neither general players nor whales find them appealing.
I just don't think that's true in a world where Marvel Rivals was the biggest launch of 2024. Live service games like Path of Exile, Counter-Strike, Genshin Impact, etc. make boatloads of money and have ever rising player counts.
The problem is that it's a very sink-or-swim market - if you manage to survive 2-3 years you will probably make it, but otherwise you are a very expensive flop. Not unlike VC-funded startups - just because some big names failed doesn't make investing into a unicorn any less attractive.
By the way, the games you named are called black hole games. They capture players and don't let go. They are scarce (about 1 in 40,000-60,000), and many industry issues don't apply to them. For example, market oversaturation isn't a problem, player retention isn't a problem, network effects aren't a problem, and old growth engines aren't a problem. They are like “winning the lottery,” but most game developers live in a world where they haven't won.
Another similar exception to the industry rules is the top 20-30 franchises, like NBA2K, GTA, FIFA, Far Cry, Call of Duty, The Sims, Assassin’s Creed, etc. Together, they account for about half the new game and DLC sales. Black hole games take another ~30%, and the remaining 19,000 annually released games share the remaining 20%, with the top 50 games making up 19/20ths of it.
What matters for 95%+ of game developers is performing well in that 20%. And they sell close to 0 lootboxes, for example.
The issue is that there is no obvious driver for growth at the moment and the industry has seen pretty obscene growth over the twenty years I've been part of it. That's made VCs very gun shy, particularly as a lot of the companies they've funded have nose dived pretty spectacularly. It's no surprise that the two recent successes Helldivers 2 and Marvel Rivals both come from publisher funding and for the latter has a very strong IP licenced for it. All of this is definitely causing a dramatic impact on the number of content producing studios getting VC funding and publisher investment in to new live service titles.
Outside of live service everyone is also looking for that new growth driver. In my opinion the chances are though we're in for a longish period of stagnation. I don't even share the OPs rosey outlook towards more "grassroots" developers. Firstly because they're still businesses even with a big name attached. Secondly because there is going to be a bloodbath due to the large number of developers pivoting in that direction. It'll end up like the indie market where there are so many entrants success is extremely challenging to find.
DBeaver is somewhat clunky, yes, but for me that's a minor downside since it acts as a Swiss army knife, regardless of what DB I'm trying to access. That saves cognitive load from having to learn multiple tools. Pretty much anything with a JDBC driver is fair game. It being cross platform is a big boon as well since I use all 3 major OS fairly regularly - Mac at work, Windows and Linux at home.
I managed to slowly claw it back by completely changing my reading method. I download ebooks on my phone and read in 5-10 min chunks throughout the day (where I’d normally be using social media or checking the news) followed by 1 hour at the end.
I’d personally go with a single function like “convert_object_type” and pattern match into different clauses such as “convert_object_type(obj, from: m, to: mm)” and so on.
At my firm we’ve standardized on import being used only for a short list of well known first/third party modules (e.g. Ecto.Query and Plug.Conn).
Application modules can be aliased, but not library modules. This is so that we don’t need to keep repeating the name of the application throughout the codebase while preserving clarity as much as possible.
Sadly, this curse is nearly inescapable if you want to play modern online multiplayer or PVP games. MOBAs, MMOs, shooters, racing games, etc. are almost all like this now.
I play all of those, I buy cosmetics because I have the cash and realize it’s an optional part of the game. But it’s amazing the quality of game people can play for absolutely free and never spend a dime. My friend for instance has probably gotten at least a couple hundred hours in Apex Legends now without ever spending a cent. On one hand I’m absolutely against micro transactions that give tangible gameplay impact but Im hard pressed to find issues with pure cosmetic purchases other than maybe how sometimes the marketing around them is manipulative and the Skinner box that is the loot box. I think Chivalry II has probably the ideal implementation of this. No loot boxes, just pay cash for the visual you want but it doesn’t effect game play.
Yes. I'm Indian, lower-caste (not Dalit) with a surname that does not reveal it, working in India. One of my most vivid memories is hearing colleagues at my first job (a large multinational conglomerate) casually use caste slurs (ch*mar) in my presence. Ever since, I never enter discussions about politics or religion. I keep my cards close to my chest.
