A lot of good games are made under the shadow of capitalism and it's weird to think about sometimes.

Like the whole concept of coin-operated arcade games. The extra life and continue mechanics seen in console games came from a cash incentive to make the player lose.

Or the fact that RPGs almost always charge the player for items. I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense as a mechanic, but I always wondered why people weren't given more healing potions.

The way IP laws work, I'm really curious how games would change once those are gone.

One way I see games changing with the destruction of capitalism:

I think online multiplayer games would be a lot more bearable. There wouldn't be the stratification between people who could afford putting more time or resources into a game and those who can't. Microtransactions and addictive gameplay mechanics wouldn't exist.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think history disagrees with this. There are a vast number of mod projects and community made games whose goal was to make a game based on another popular media piece.

    As a non-videogame example, D&D was built to take the mechanics of a table-top war game and create narrative adventures inspired by a mash-up of old Swords and Sorcery novels like Conan and Faffrd and the Grey Mouser with LotR.

    Another example would be Star Wars. There are a huge variety of mods for various games based on Star Wars. Pretty much any game that can be modded has a Star Wars mod of one kind or another.

    Having an interactive narrative experience where you can be part of a fictional setting you enjoy has long been part of the appeal of gaming, way back to the days of MUDs.