Re:Genshin Impact made more money in its first year than any...
by kitsunesoba on Thursday November 04, 2021 @03:08PM
(#29111265)
I think that's probably correct. Perhaps the only way to combat such an effect is some combination of reducing the game's competitiveness (so being optimized isn't as important to begin with) and elements of nondeterminism in the game's combat systems, making it much more difficult or impossible to pin down a "most correct" build.
Re:Genshin Impact made more money in its first year than any...
by somehnacct3757 on Thursday November 04, 2021 @03:29PM
(#29111507)
Players tend to hate randomness in PvP; they use the pejorative 'RNG'. PvE games increasingly monetize with social proofing, but this can create a sense of PvP even in PvE content. E.g. players get mad that the wizard class isn't as viable as the rogue class.
Your first strategy might explain the emerging success of sandbox games and battle royale games.
Players descend like locusts, then optimize and share their builds until they discover some emergent tug of war or rock paper scissors meta.
What remains is a cat & mouse game between players and developers, to find the reductive meta and then patch the game to shake it up. The players are highly coordinated thanks to wikis, and they consume content quicker than devs can create it. So the business model is no longer viable.