As a person who has played maybe 2 games at launch/launch window in the last decade or so....
All of these points come from a mindset of FOMO.
The spoilers thing is a thing, but in my own experience, isn't that tough to avoid. You just stay out of threads or news articles about games you really want to play along the way.
All of your other points are varying degrees of FOMO:
- GOTY threads are meaningless fluff
- The conversation about games is VASTLY better 6-12 months after launch. And even better after 2-5 years.
- The opinions about what games are actually worth playing are VASTLY better 6-12 months after launch. And even better after 2-5 years.
- You can keep your expectations in check. I almost always play games 2-5 years after the fact and i know what to expect going in. It allows me to play games optimally for their best content, avoid major tedious parts, and know what to expect along the way. It's allowed me to enjoy games that people normally shunned because they had way too high of expectations.
- and in modern times, GAMES are VASTLY better 6-12 months after launch. The QOL and bug patches and GOTY versions of games with the DLC and all that packed in make most non-multiplayer games age like fine wine.
- If you like long games, keep loving your long games. The non-vocal majority agrees with you based on sales trends.
EDIT - you get screwed on multiplayer games though. Either the populations die and/or anyone left playing is a master or hacker in all but the most popular games.
I see it less as "coming from a mindset of FOMO" and more "coming from a mindset of wanting to be part of the cultural zeitgeist that encourages FOMO." Framing it as
solely the result of "FOMO" is a framing that refuses to incorporate the very-real sociological and psychological pressures of modern media consumption; it basically presents those who are financially less likely to succeed in a capitalist culture as responsible for wanting to be a part of said culture in the first place.
Essentially the way I see it is if the rich kids at school, who only stop talking about designer brands and the latest trends to sarcastically hate on charity shop clothes and Primark, blamed the poor kids for "having the mindset of feeling left out." It's a self-perpetuating cycle, really, and one that will only get better if those with power and/or financial means choose to stop perpetuating the culture that places them on a higher 'tier' to everyone else.
I mean that won't ever happen but one can dream haha
What you say doesn't make sense when you consider that some of the most popular games in the world have either a low cost of entry point or are free. If you want to keep up with cultural events and phenomenon then the barrier of entry has never been easier. Look at what it costs to play Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, Among Us, etc. I don't buy the sense that there is this gap being made wider when the biggest games aren't necessarily the $70 AAA Day 1 games.
That's the thing; those games
are the most popular parts of gaming right now, but if you interact with large swathes of gaming culture you really wouldn't realise it. GOTY lists are almost exclusively dominated by big blockbuster titles, the kind that are either already at, or will be at, those higher price points. Places like here see games like Returnal garner threads equivalent in size to the OT for the latest Call of Duty. A
lot of gaming 'discourse' from gaming youtube and beyond is based in the idea that one can, and should, play as many games as possible. Hell, in the tech space channels like Digital Foundry and Linus Tech Tips place a very disproportionate amount of attention on high-end gear instead of low or even mid-range stuff.
Gaming is more accessible than ever, that is true. But gaming culture is an entirely different thing, and it's one where there
are different bubbles based almost entirely on what one is financially (and... time-wise... I don't know the word lol). I mean, if you've ever agreed with someone calling Era a "bubble," then you should see what I mean here lol
