almost did not read this given that it was from theguardian.com. But it is not like most of the shit dribble filth those fuck heads normally post. It was an interesting all be a bit too short of a read. I agree with the article, mainstream gaming has turned into this boring shit fest of a mono culture. You speak out how most AAA games are just some boring mono culture and you get down-voted to hell. The game industry is turning into what the mainstream music industry is now, the same shit but with different facade. You play one ass creed, you played them all. In none of the games did I get attached to any of the characters or really care about completion other than a end goal being send by the devs. The article makes mention of game win states being based on some arbitrary goal is not that great, and I agree. A few companies have taken AAA games and made them interesting to me at least. Skyrim did not have a win state, sure you could finish the story but you could go explore, build a home, do other things after. That is a very neat way of handling it. Dragon Age 3 had a narrative and other than a stupid musical interlude had a pretty interesting set of events and a interesting environment to explore and I felt safe and happy doing so. I say this as so many games feel the need to be edgy by including some uncomfortable gay joke or racism for example for the lols and that makes me want to never play said game again. But it has gotten popular to have stupid narrative with hateful tones about them to make a game seem "cool" top the dip shit 12 year old that likes that kind of thing. The article has made mention to Splatoon as a game changer, and I will agree. I have not had that much fun with a competitive shooter since the unreal tournament days in late 99. It takes the basic concepts of a shooter but makes them unique enough to be neat and refreshing. Heck even the borderlands (1,2) games mix things up compared to the shit war shooters that have become so standard. You get random loot drops, have a pretty neat characters in the 2nd on that are even diverse for that kind of game. You can't get out of a bad situation with hiding behind walls or the such. What I want to point out as a contrast is that I think the AAA game industry will have a decent few games every year that will appeal to different group of gamers that want something actually good. On top of that, games are getting easier to make as tools and engines are becoming more polished to dev with. A good idea with a small team can turn into a good game that can be relased much easier than in the past. So the indie scene will keep getting stronger and pump out some interesting niche games that the corporate fuck wad bean counting shit fucks will not touch. Some of the best games in the last few year I enjoyed have been indie games. Example being games like: starbound, vanishing of ethan carter, y's series , ori and the blind forest, dust, legend of dungeon, and so on. I do think that the AAA studios need to devote some time in smaller groups maybe to reinvent and put out something new as well.