What The Internet Did To Gaming

Just this great intro made me subscribe

Those last 3 minutes hit hard, not only in videogames but in life generally. We're obsessed with consumption and we rush to finish all we can before we die

Anyone that's also burned out on gaming really owes it to themselves to play Tunic. I thought I had outgrown gaming but that game showed me that that is not true whatsoever. It has managed to capture my sense of wonder like no game since Outer Wilds.

The best mystery/discovery/no-Internet experiences for me were:
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Jak & Daxter
Little Nightmares 1 and 2, soon 3
Nier Replicant/Automata
ICO
Horizon ZD and FW (although much of it is discovered through journals, instead of feeding them to the player organically)

The Jak 3 Haven City Port easter egg is the fondest one for me. OG Naughty Dog creators at their finest

Pre-internet, there was asking your friends at school for help, or waiting for the next Nintendo Power or Gamepro and hoping there'd be an article about the game you're stuck on. You could even write snail mail to Nintendo's "game counselors" and they'd send a letter back with tips. Either way, those games taught patience!

can you shout out a petition to make nintendo games less expensive

A couple days ago my brother and I played 'It Takes Two' and we had a blast. Now I watch this video about MMOs vs. Local Co-op. I wholeheartedly agree with your message. 'Couch co-op gaming needs to make a comeback.' Indeed. Thanks a bunch for uploading this, TGB :)

The final point of the video really hits home. The need to consume has increased tremendously. That's a key point, I think, and one way to see it. There are a number of games in which the story plays a major part and the hint/dodge-every-attack/auto-aim etc. functions may serve the purpose of keeping you focused on the narrative and/or the massive scale exploration you mention in another video. Maybe it's necessary to differentiate between more or less linear platformers/jump'n'runs on the one side and relatively open-world RPGs on the other. The first won't make much sense when played with aforementioned functions since what is asked for is your dexterity, mastering button combos and showing great reflexes. The latter need facilitating options from time to time, though, lest the modern gamer might lose interest because of challenging encounters. That would be a pity for all of us who want to enjoy a good story instead of spending hours finishing off an end boss.

Best game from my experience in terms of throwing you into cold waters, great mix of amazing story and challenging maneuvering is 'Outer Wilds''... due to its laissez-faire approach it is not to everyone's taste, of course. I agree that every game experience is subjective and has a lot to do with one's personal approach. I went in without any knowledge, without expectations. 'Outer Wilds' is a real statement against tutorial-based introductions and internet-based achievement hunts. Just my opinion dude. Having said that, I have to admit that I did consult a walkthru 2 or three times in order to progress... after having been stuck for hours I bowed to the online community. In gratitude.

I mean... I rely on Steam reviews x10 more than any of the "press reviews" that easily get paid to lie with their scores (like Gamespot and IGN)

All the internet basically did to gaming is create a bunch of toxic controversy across the internet, harassing and attacking anyone for enjoying games they don't like and calling them bootlickers, harassing and attacking the developers that have Twitter, cyberbullying voice actors especially with the MJ actor from Spider-Man 2, sending Sakurai death threat over DLC and so much more!

All the internet has done is basically screwed up gaming from the get-go and I can definitely see why people outside the internet are sick of social media talking about it.

Super underated channel. u are gonna be fanous someday

Wow I love this channel

Now imagine with AI being able to improve images on the fly (already possible, not publically used yet). In a few years, you'll be able to start your old games from 1990, and get photorealistic sprites. We can even imagine being able to choose the graphic style...

I really miss gameinformer magazines. The cover art, the articles, and the little tricks of the new games are coming out. It was amazing!

couch coop was my childhood if i had someone to play with

I blame consumers, no one else. Modern products are shit because modern audiences are shit. Plain and simple. When i see people driving Tesla I 🤮🤮🤮. People are just brain-dead consumers, don't know a thing about fuck all. They just buy endlessly without question and it's only getting worst. That's what happens when you don't homeschool your kids. They become dumbass consumers! And yea Nintendo fans are more knowledgeable, less consumer hungry in general, I'll give you that. I got back into Nintendo in 2019 and they still have quality or quantity. There more for a old school audience.

PS. Remember Diablo II? That was MMO by the way!

How to enjoy video games, just don't know about anything even name of the game
That's how I have enjoyed Bayonetta game, because I had that game for while I started to playing that game i really enjoy that game, same goes to SMT persona 4 not golden because at that time it wasn't ported on pc so i played PlayStation 2 version on emu when I finished that game after amagi sagiri boss i thought the game was ended then i look into online found out there is extra dungeon I have to play to unlock true ending i played that it was satisfy, last game i have played Sea of stars I bought that blindly without looking at trailer or anything when i start to playing that game i start to enjoy it after i finished the game normal ending I was unsatisfied with normal ending I thought it was waste of time then i look at online found there is another ending i have to lock by collecting items I took guide from online to unlock secret path then unlock secret ending it wad satisfying experience with true ending.
So yeah, Best way to enjoy the game just don't look at online, but if the game is very good not mediocre like starfield which have promised many but never delivered it

There were gaming magazines like Nintendo Power that gave hints, codes, and walk throughs. Then of course there was the Game Shark 🦈

MMOs and MMO like games suffer from the internet in a huge way. New update with cool new stuff. Yea. Great. By the time you get home from work it is already solved and the "best" solution is on the internet.
You then can't get away from spoilers as you join a party to go do that new dungeon but everyone insists that only the "approved" build process is to be done.
Its no fun.

Quoting Charles Spurgeon, 2 thumbs up ;P He is one of the most famous Christian preachers of all time.

I think main problem in today's games is story, I played Gothic for most of the years, meanwhile I tried many famous ones like House of the Dead, then Risen recently, Kingdom Come Deliverance, PVZ the iconic game, I spent last few days searching for games like these, closest I found was Saints Row, rest of the games have too much complex controls and restrictions, also many games feels open world or AAA but the control show they are not exactly, those games are just expensive page flip kind of game, the games should establish clear purpose for the player, the reason why game as old as Mario or Prince or Persia is memorable to this day even when many of those are written in DOS, or high end games like Tomb Raider.

If all these things are not possible, the other way developers can move to make game enjoyable is interactions, there are some games where NPCs are fully AI, if GTA 6 can add those AI NPCs to game and we can have MMORPGs, real ones instead of flashy style, that would be enjoyable, but for me story and end goal is main factor for enjoying the game

word to mouth and sharing experiences with friends made me enjoy games more when other friends were playing it too.

I grew up on the point-and-click Nancy Drew mystery games, which I would play with my siblings. We would strategize next moves, crack codes together, and discuss whodunit. We had so much fun, even though the game wasn't online and didn't have couch co-op! 😊

This is a lopsided nostalgia trip lol. There used to be tip-lines you could call, with game "experts" on the other end who'd help you get through a tough level or help you find a secret. There used to be mountains of cheat code books and strategy guides published back in the day. Not to mention GameShark, and before that Game genie.

Since the very inception of gaming, gamers have been looking for hand-holding shortcuts, AND ways to cheat their way through the game. All the internet did was enable them to do it faster? More efficiently? It wasn't some wasteland of hints and external direction in the cartridge era. You and your brother just didn't seek that stuff out? Just like modern gamers are welcome to do the same.

It is convenient how when I tried to watch this video, the page didn't load because my internet router kept dying XD

I went back to my favorite games and meh, they are very hard on the eyes.

You will never get this.. you will never get this... lalalala XD

It's "ARPANET"

🙏👍

ARPANET, not APRANET.🙄

I think the Internet has ruined humanity never mind just gaming. The western World has gone nuts. That’s not to say there aren’t good things about the Internet but like with any movement it always starts off with the best of interest and gets jumped on by bad people who ruin it for everyone else.

I know exactly what you mean by the co-operative nature of older games of trying to figure out stuff. I used to love watching my older brother play games and try to help him with what I understood. He would even talk it through with me as he enjoyed showing me the games he played. One time, on Assassins Creed I, he hit a block on this level where he had to parkour up a tower to progress the mission and reached this balcony that couldn't be reached with how he knew the parkour system worked. Eventually he gave the controller to me to mess around while he was trying to look it up online and I actually found the way to progress! It made that moment so memorable for me and I think about it sometimes now among the other memories of playing with my brother.

I agree that modern games have definitely lost the art of couch co-op and I am happy to see that developers are going back to this with smaller games.

Internet ruined SO much in gaming, and not only gaming in the world and our society. It's probably the biggest double edged sword in the history of human inventions.

Although I agree with your assessment, there was something you missed when mentioning game reviews. If the game has a horrible review by IGN, Kotaku, or other "journalists," I am almost guaranteed to be interested. Even back with Game Informer, they would rate games I found to be spectacular with low ratings, and boring games with high ratings merely based on the company who made the game. Almost like they were paid to give it a good review. It makes you wonder about those "journalists."

The biggest implication the Internet has over gaming, and I'm not afraid to say it, is how indie games have been corralled.

On one hand, the Internet brings attention to these excellent indie games that would otherwise have flown under the radar. On the other, the treatment of these games and their developers as "indie" has forced an iron curtain between them and the AAA space. Rather than up-and-coming visionaries being hired by companies and given a budget to make something new and creative, they're pushing out their own products on open markets. While this is good for the developers, making their own money without the middle man, it continues to divide these two sectors of gaming. A lot of indie games don't have much opportunity or resources to advertise themselves, outside of word-of-mouth. Meanwhile, AAA games advertise themselves through brand recognition and lazy commercials. There's a complete disparity between the quality of a game, and the endorsement it actually gets.

Indie games are forced into a position of inferiority, where no matter how clever and ingenious their stories or gameplay may be, will never really able to surpass that "indie" reputation since they don't have the budget or manpower to take them to new heights. Thus, AAA experiences remain predictable and stagnant, and despite their rapid development, indie games will eventually reach a state of stagnancy too. Especially when most are locked behind digital PC storefronts and aren't self-sufficient for the growing customer base of casual console players. Gaming is becoming divided into tribalism, not based on console, but tastes. This is the apex of the 7th Generation FPS dude-bro development. I don't want to sound like a cynic or gatekeeper, but gaming is doomed to run itself into the ground.

A game's true value has always been its longevity, that means after its "forgotten" it has a way of returning to discourse. Kind of like all the clips you mentioned that start with I remember doing this... or that. I think Killer 7 is one of the best examples. Hoping Xenosaga becomes the next. The business cycle does demand you consume fast, and as we have discover a bit of culture war is now needed to fuel the hype. I'ts an ugly business, and only after the dust settles can we engage with these games properly. That being said, ain't no body breeding that golden chocobo without a walkthrough in the 90s.

The internet killed all the johnnys leaving only timmy and spike. That's not going to be much fun for either of them, meanwhile johnny is optimizing the fun out of the next big thing.

The new york minute is now impossibly long.

Great video!! Cheers from Portugal

good content, nice to mention Viva la Dirt
league. But my mind still can't comprehend seeing League of Legends playing with controlloer xDDDDD

internet allowed knowledge to spread but also lack of knowledge, falseness, and ignorance.

These are precisely the reasons I've gravitated more towards board gaming, which is even more analog and takes us back to the roots of what makes games truly fun: human interaction. Unlike digital games, board games require players to be physically present, fostering face-to-face communication, strategy, and shared laughter or frustration. There are no microtransactions or battle passes—just pure, unadulterated fun, where every win, loss, or surprise is shared in real-time with people right next to you. Board gaming brings back that tactile, communal experience that digital gaming seems to have lost. It's not just about playing a game but about the connections and stories you create with others in the process.

I wish you will have millions of subscriber!!!

who complains about internet guides? some people have lives outside of gaming and don't want to spend a lot of time on just one part of a game some people have jobs relationships and other things that are more important than spending an hour and a half trying to get beyond one point in a game just so you can say "i did that without internet help" so if the internet can help me solve a really hard puzzle or help me beat some boss easier so i can get back IRL stuff as quickly as i need to then i say thank god for the internet and if the internet is also responsible for games getting better instructions/tutorials alongside making them not as hard on casual gamers then again i say thank god for the internet (i enjoy a good and rough challenge as much as many other gamers but just because one enjoys challenges doesn't mean you should not appreciate devs making games less difficult on players who might just want to experience the story of a game or a less intense version of the game's gameplay)

Great video and I agree with most of it.
But GameFAQs was definitely visited daily by most of us back in the 90s and 00s. Secrets weren't that "secret"