Boy I can't wait until PSO2 comes out

[PhotonDrop]

Anime was so awesome in the 90s.
What happened?

Avatar was the last good anime I've seen. And it's not anime!

Aside from the obvious infestation of little girls, somewhere along the lines the suits decided action shows do not need a full budget. The animation suffers, and many frames are laughably poor quality. Take Dragon Ball Super for instance. Many times the drawing is so sloppy that deformed blob on screen just barely resemble Goku and Beerus will have an emoticon for a face. Even One Piece, one of the biggest money movers in Japan, has this problem. These are entry level shows intended for little boys, so they probably slap whatever they can together for the deadline. I hear Japanese air time is highly competitive, which is probably another contributor to this mess.

Further aggravating the situation are the sales of Blue Ray releases. What's thrown on TV is basically a teaser for these things. Entire scenes could be redone, or in the case of more adult shows, a nipple may be shown where there would have been steam conveniently obscuring everything.

I am no expert on the subject and a lot of this is hearsay, so don't quote me on it. In fact, I barely watch anime at all these days, so you should probably disregard everything I just said. The last one I saw to completion was Samurai Flamenco a couple years ago. Space Dandy seemed entertaining enough, but yeah.

tl;dr I hate trying to have a serious discussion in FKL so...

Spoiler!

butts

Also, western TV networks have major issue with action shows too. It seems like, if it's not a brainless comedy cartoon for children, it won't last very long.

I have a terrible feeling the highly anticipated third season of Samurai Jack will not get the fair shake it deserves.

[PhotonDrop]

One other thing: animation is expensive, always has been. People have simply become lazy in their efforts to hide their budget cuts.

[Zorafim]

Even with the problems that animation faces, I feel like it was way better back when we had less technology and money to throw at it. I feel the same with gaming too.

"It would take too many resources to fill this city with exciting things to do."
Then why was that not a problem a decade ago?!

At least with gaming the issues are lowered with indie game developers who don't have the same constraints bigger companies do, so they're still able to put out high quality stuff. Which is ironic. Because something needs more money, it's of lower quality.


At least live action TV is pretty great now. Though I do miss my animal-people and fights on the moon.

[Outrider]

Even with the problems that animation faces, I feel like it was way better back when we had less technology and money to throw at it. I feel the same with gaming too.

"It would take too many resources to fill this city with exciting things to do."
Then why was that not a problem a decade ago?!

At least with gaming the issues are lowered with indie game developers who don't have the same constraints bigger companies do, so they're still able to put out high quality stuff. Which is ironic. Because something needs more money, it's of lower quality.


At least live action TV is pretty great now. Though I do miss my animal-people and fights on the moon.

I have only the barest knowledge of how the animation industry works, but my understanding is that the popularity of cheaper animation software on the PC has led to a lot of studios slashing their animation budgets. Cheaper animation then means that budgets are cheaper, which reinforces the lower budgets. There are also bizarre situations where the show's continued survival is not based on the popularity of the show but on its external revenue drivers. A common example was Cartoon Network's Young Justice show from a few years ago. From what I remember reading, the show was pretty popular (and having just finished watching it on Netflix, it was always decent). However, its merchandise was not selling anywhere near what it should be selling, so it was canned. (Apparently, it was also canned because it was more popular with girls than boys but the marketing folks were only interested in the boys market.)


Why do games seem lacking, though? There are some pretty easy reasons to point to.

Games are much more complex these days. Complexity often leads to an increase in cost due to needing more time/people to complete the task or needing to license middleware software solutions.

So actually, it's pretty obvious why something that may have been easier on a lower-fidelity, simplified game from ten years ago isn't as easy to do in a major AAA budget game from today.

I mean, let's just think of an example and run with it. Let's look at something like Baldur's Gate versus the latest Dragon Age. In an area, you'll have characters who will give you quests. Why are there (probably; let's just assume) more quests in something like Baldur's Gate? I mean, in Baldur's Gate you only had to create a simple character sprite for the quest giver, not an animated 3D character model. You didn't need to voice them. The actual gameplay and navigation through the game world was simpler in Baldur's Gate, so you didn't have to spend as much time or money on QA to make sure the quest functioned properly.

(There's could be other non-tangible reasons, too: maybe they determined that nobody was bothering with the quests so they didn't need to create as many; maybe it's miraculously just as easy to create this content in the modern day but the company doesn't currently have as many writers as it used to; etc.)

It's just... not nearly as simple as it might seem. I didn't know half this shit until I started making games on my own and reading development blogs and going to games conferences and all that stuff. Being informed (on this and any other topic) is super helpful!

I don't mean to call you out or anything; I'm sure I've said exactly what you're saying in years past.

[Noblewine]

Cartoon Network and Disney are kinda guilty of replacing what made them good with garbage. I wonder if the employee of these channels have to sleep with a nightlight because they can't handle their issues properly and reality scares them. lol.....

I admit that I grew up watching J.I Joe, Thudercats (original one) Transformers, Swat Kats, Looney Tunes and etc. However, I find it sad people think violence, nudity or content that pokes fun at life, sterotyping offensive. I blame PC culture.

[Zorafim]

Hey I just wanna say that I typed a super long response that took a long time to write, realized it wasn't worth sending, and deleted the tab.

I'm gonna tldr it though. Media is boring when it comes from big companies because it's processed goods. They factory churn it. Each decision they make is based on how much money they'll get for their investment, which I can hardly fault them for. They're working in cramped offices, slaving over cold software, so they can eat and raise their kids. But in the end, that coldness comes off. The difference between a big company game and an indie one is like eating processed food over homemade. You may like the flavors if they're new and different, but it all tastes stale after a while.

That's why I'm glad we finally have alternatives. A man can labor for years and pour his love into his computer to make something amazing and unique. And it feels so much more human than what we've been getting these past few decades.

[Outrider]

Yeah, I can't disagree with that. A lot of creativity gets suppressed in big corporate works. Sometimes it still comes through and it's just magical, though.

But yeah, I am way more interested in stuff coming from indie or niche devs these days and then occasionally dip into the big budget AAA games.

(Though, to be honest, I do play a bunch of big AAA games because they're often on clearance for $10 and can be completed in a weekend, which is a nice diversion.)

[PhotonDrop]

Gotta maximize those profits! With the way things are going I'm surprised we haven't had a second complete market industry crash yet.

[Zorafim]

Complete it in a weekend? Aren't most AAA games 40-100 hour long monstrosities?

Gotta maximize those profits! With the way things are going I'm surprised we haven't had a second complete market industry crash yet.

Seriously. I can't believe people still buy big games. They're more expensive for lesser quality than what small names provide.

[Outrider]

Complete it in a weekend? Aren't most AAA games 40-100 hour long monstrosities?



Seriously. I can't believe people still buy big games. They're more expensive for lesser quality than what small names provide.

That's true of games like Assassin's Creed or Fallout. Open world games, essentially.

I'm talking about random action games. Like... I got the latest Splinter Cell game for $6 at Target. I played through it over the course of a few days and completed it. That was probably closer to 20 hours but still it was just a few days of play. It's nice to play games where I can finish them, put them back on the shelf, and feel satisfied.

I generally don't play big endless games anymore. I'll maybe play one every year or two. I've found that most of the content in those games is too much like padding for me to enjoy. My time is more valuable than that!