You should keep it up, would love to see your progress in 3D modeling! (Of course, that is assuming you have interest in 3D modeling)

I pretty much agree with your whole point here, so I had to go back and re-read what we were discussing 😀

I think the fighting for scraps thing come from everyone having limited time for these entertainment. Games aren’t just competing with other games, they are also competing with Netflix and other such entertainment, as well as from games like Fortnite and Roblox. You can argue that these people won’t play other games no matter what, but they are still party of that growth that video game industry has seen. They are still part of that 3+ billion gamers the industry claim (or 100+ Million console gamers, if just talking about consoles). And I think that’s where some of the issue comes from, all companies want their share from that pie of gamers which leads to all these decisions.

That Blender recreation looks pretty good, I first thought it was some game mod that allowed you zoom in or get in 3rd person view where you took the screenshot. So really nice work there.

Well, I am not sure how game companies define their target audience, but aren’t these players part of the same “gamers” pie that all these companies want to get attention of? These kids would still be playing games if there was no Fortnite, but it’s the live service game that is keeping them so engaged that they don’t have time for much else.

Of course if they aren’t even the target customers, then that discounts this whole argument.

I don’t have the data Mat has, but anecdotally, I agree with him. My kid wants to sometimes play a single player game if he watches me play it and likes it, but it will always be when his friends aren’t online to play Fortnite with him. And it’s not just him, it’s all his friends and cousins and their friends and cousins. They play Fortnite / Roblox etc primarily, and occasionally, if no one is online to play that with them, they may take a look at something else.