Well I wouldn’t say that exactly. GTA 5 had a huge budget and a huge team and it’s objectively a better product if you compare the two (which is only to say they’re both great games but the bigger budget game has and does more).

It’s a matter of the motivations of the developers and their financial backers. If your goal is to make an ok game that maximizes profit focused mechanics, most of these AAA developers are hitting the mark perfectly. If your focus is to make a good game like it seemed to be with the BG devs, they absolutely hit the mark and are being rewarded for it.

This is just a reminder to an industry that is trying to tell us that pay to win mechanics are the standard that they do not in fact get to dictate what those standards are. We do. If a game is shit people will abandon it even if you poured millions into that product. The recent battlefield game is a prime example of this. Even something as guaranteed as a new battlefield game isn’t enough to overcome a shitty leadership team emphasizing the wrong things. The community bailed on their product and they’ll never get them back. All those millions in guaranteed revenue are gone forever.

[–] DreamySweet@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

GTA 5 does not look like a better product to me.

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

GTA V story mode was an excellent game, but it’s hard to realistically say a game from one genre is better than another, apples and oranges and all that.

GTA V’s online multiplayer, however, at this point is such a shitstain that I think it alone is enough to make the distinction clear.

[–] DreamySweet@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 year ago

but it’s hard to realistically say a game from one genre is better than another, apples and oranges and all that.

I agree.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is. But only in so far as the content and scope of the game far surpasses anything a smaller developer could ever hope to accomplish. You may prefer one over the other, totally fine, but objectively speaking you get way more out of gta 5 content and scope wise than bg3.

As others point out gta online is a dumpster fire but it’s still massive and allows you to do endless amounts of things, racing, heists, owning property, running businesses, etc.

[–] DreamySweet@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

More content doesn't mean better, especially when that content isn't the kind that I find enjoyable.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

This is just a reminder to an industry that is trying to tell us that pay to win mechanics are the standard that they do not in fact get to dictate what those standards are. We do.

Quoting for emphasis. We control the purse, we have the voting power of the wallet.