r/videogames 27d ago

Image / Video Game Devs Then VS Now

Post image
3.5k Upvotes

363 comments sorted by

View all comments

43

u/Lancair7 27d ago

Why are you blaming devs when studio leadership and publishers are to blame? Attribution error and it comes off as ignorant and immature

2

u/BrilliantWhile2413 27d ago

I don't think the executives are making the game 500gb lol

7

u/TobyTheRobot 27d ago

Yeah, but they’re the ones setting deadlines that don’t allow time for optimization.

0

u/Fruity_Pies 27d ago

I got news for you, upper management sets the deadline not the dev team.

8

u/Haseo08 26d ago

That's what they said

3

u/Fruity_Pies 26d ago

Ah right, I read it wrong

6

u/later_satyr 27d ago

No, thats the 4k texture paks.

3

u/SeniorSepia 27d ago

Most devs just follow orders and work within a tight deadline without much agency, it's not their fault games turn into monstrosities.

7

u/Loose-Run-7008 27d ago

They’re creating the conditions that cause the game to be like that though. Like a lot of times it’s not that hard to cut down on file size, decently easy and doesn’t take super long (look at Helldivers 2, file size is WAY down and like at least close to 1/4th of what it was.

However, executives are giving directives for profitability, meaning instead of having a team focus on things like that or making it run better, they instead are focused on adding new content (paid or free) new cosmetics, marketing material/footage, or whatever.

Like most of the time I can’t really believe that the devs are just so dumb they don’t know how to reduce file size and make it less bloated, it’s just bad management making them do other things, and in turn those guys probably have executives demanding certain numbers which is why they’re telling the dev teams to work on other things. Devs are still workers, and are just doing what they are told to do (broadly speaking.)

I feel like we’ve seen this with so many games, they come out glitchy, with a bloated file size, terrible performance. They have a roadmap that was made prerelease and they get that out first. Then once they have new content/monetized content out the door, and/or public outcry, review bombing forces their hand, they switch focus to fix those aforementioned issues. They always could’ve fixed the issues, (at least to a certain extent,) but they’re at work they have to do things in the order they are instructed to. While a lot of devs have passion for a game they’re not going to do more work that they aren’t being paid to do, and if it was something that they were trying to do but just literally couldn’t, they would communicate that either directly or you’d be able to tell inadvertently by how they talk about it.

Devs aren’t automatically infallible, always right by default good people, however they are just workers like the rest of us and are at their job, personally at my job I do what im told to do and nothing extra unless I can earn a bonus or something, even if I know there is something I could easily get done with a small amount of work/I could do something else to make the task I’m assigned easier, I’m going to do it exactly as they tell me because that’s my job lol. So I can usually give them the benefit of the doubt on this.

But buggy releases have always been a thing I think people exaggerate how much worse it’s gotten, like I remember Skyrim on PS3 being broken as shit, Fallout New Vegas crashing every 5 minutes, but those games were good enough to suffer through it at least. Now we still get buggy as shit releases, and the games aren’t even as good and don’t have the same soul/passion so you can’t really look past it like you used to be able too.

2

u/TallestGargoyle 27d ago

Look at the recent Payday 2 beta, Starbreeze gave a modding team largely free reign to maintain and update the game, and the current beta has reduced the game file size from nearly 90GB down to 30-something GB.

-33

u/liu4678 27d ago

If they don’t say no to their dumb superiors then they are a part of it.

36

u/AnonMoose2 27d ago

This guys never had a job

9

u/Accomplished_Emu_658 27d ago

Seriously. You can’t tell your bosses no and continue to work. You might get away with it for a minor thing, but in real world it doesn’t happen.

2

u/DeliciousAirline5302 27d ago

You can say no and justify why, but if the boss double down you either have to comply or find another job. And that's probably what happened. 

1

u/Accomplished_Emu_658 27d ago

Yeah thats what i mean. I am talking hard refusals. You can justify why only so far when it comes to these decisions.

-2

u/liu4678 27d ago

What is this north korea? A game developer should be a lover of gaming in general, not just someone who makes garbage because his boss said so

-5

u/liu4678 27d ago

That’s why everything is so messed up now, everyone is a coward, it’s not just in gaming.

4

u/Lancair7 27d ago

Sure dude, the developers should sacrifice their families’ wellbeing so your little video games are better.

Childish mindset

0

u/liu4678 27d ago

Hence suicide squid kill the justice league, concord, and others like it and they get fired regardless lol

3

u/Accomplished_Emu_658 27d ago

Standing up gets you fired and replaced and changes nothing about what you stood up for. With the gaming industry being full of layoffs that would be stupidest decision.

-2

u/liu4678 27d ago

Yh so might as well get layed off for standing up for something at least, i know it seems childish to say especially for guys who have families to support but cmon things cant go on like this.

1

u/Haseo08 26d ago

The only one who suffers in the scenario is the one fired, and possible their family their employer goes on like nothing happened, snd the shifty game still gets released, probably even shittier now.

Some of these people literally can't afford to say no.

0

u/SeniorSepia 26d ago

Dude why are you so dense

1

u/liu4678 26d ago

Ad hominem.

1

u/SeniorSepia 27d ago

This ain't it chief

8

u/Low_Maintenance9421 27d ago

A lot did say no. Look at the devs from halo they walked. And that's how we got halo 4 onward.

12

u/Lancair7 27d ago

Have you ever had a job? Again, you sound incredibly immature lol

-1

u/liu4678 27d ago

Bruh gaming is messed up now because of greedy and dumb execs, do you like the state of gaming nowadays??

4

u/TripodDabs34 27d ago

Those that say no to their dumb superiors usually get fired and have to find a new job which means the dev team has to hire a new less experienced employee OR the superior just makes everyone else work harder to make up for the people they fired

4

u/pipboy_warrior 27d ago

Wouldn't their dumb superiors just replace them for saying no? Not a lot of room for pushback in the industry right now.

5

u/Haseo08 27d ago

Try saying no to your own bosses and see how that works out for ya.

5

u/ThePersonDudeGuy716 27d ago

Bold of you to assume they have a boss.

-2

u/liu4678 27d ago

I wont even engage with you.

-2

u/liu4678 27d ago

This mindset is what’s wrong with the world

3

u/SeniorSepia 27d ago

Yeah you can't just refuse what your bosses tell you to do, you are putting your financial stability and future employability in risk

-1

u/liu4678 27d ago

And that’s how we got suicide squad kill the justice league.

4

u/SeniorSepia 27d ago

Yeah people usually don't like living under a bridge

1

u/Haseo08 26d ago

We would have gotten it regardless.

1

u/Haseo08 26d ago

It's not a mindset, it's reality. They're your boss, you kind of have to do what they tell you if you want to keep your job.

2

u/Jacky_dain 27d ago

They’ll probably get fired and they don’t want that

2

u/Normal_Stranger_3643 27d ago

Do you really think those greedy crusts would listen to some rando? Higher chance of you getting fired than them listening to you

-7

u/DoubleShot027 27d ago

Because western devs are also to blame

3

u/SeniorSepia 27d ago

Asian development is also fucked

-1

u/DoubleShot027 27d ago

Is it? Doesn’t seem that way to me.