What keeps me playing?

The fact that of all the frankly offensive and toxic monetization garbage that has polluted and corrupted this industry, ESO, WoW, and a few other still remain some of the lesser evils. I am still able to derive some enjoyment from the experiences offered.

However, the fact that the lion's share of capital and talent is being poured into making PRIVATE virtual reality platforms for the super rich, milking the rest for $1400 video cards and $2000 monitors that offer virtually no perceptible benefit over previous iterations in any available titles, and that no one involved has the courage or integrity to blow the whistle on this travesty, there is simply nothing better available and likely won't be for a long time.

Sadly the exodus of talent and investment from public gaming has left a void where marketing and finance essentially rule the industry. Rather than being about "how can games be made more fun" it is now largely about "how can we manipulate social psychology and addiction to leverage the masses too poor to participate in our real offerings?"

Look what happened with the lead dev at Square Enix who was supposed to be bringing Ray Tracing and other updates to the Final Fantasy genre. The fact that he simply resigned during the middle of a billion-dollar critical production cycle, when NVIDIA was relying on them and maybe 1 or 2 other big company titles to carry their 250% markup video card price gouge release of the 2080 series, should really tell you something about what is really going on in the industry right now.

Part of this is that those making the decisions are no longer playing what is inevitably created by that agenda. During the heyday of WoW it used to be the devs would all play and raid in the game they made along with all the other players. It inspired them to create things that were fun and clever and engaging, because they were participating as well. It was a community, a shared experience. People were comrades, brothers and sisters even, if not quite seen as equals.

Now it is more like all the greedy are off playing Avatar VR and grudgingly put out some cash shop offerings to milk the peasants to fuel their own selfish addictions, while they hatefully condescend about how superior they must be to have been born to privileged, and actually believe it.

The fact that such an emphasis on exclusivity and gambling brings some of the most desperate and toxic personalities to the genre, is as unfortunate as the vanity and selfishness that pervades the private wealth industry making platforms only they get to enjoy.

Eventually this market will stagnate as there is no new talent brought in to create fresh and meaningful software to run on these million dollar wastes of space and perhaps companies will start making games that inspire people again, as opposed to just gouging them for micro transactions, as the many will be seen as a source of value once more, rather than a lesser liability in service to their malignant vanity needing something to look down on to feel good about itself.

For now the world is playing gouge the many and pamper the rich, and so it may be for all human history.

And what a sad pathetic tale that would be.