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[–] 50 points 11 months ago* (9 children)

And the discoverability pipe is breaking.

  • No one reads oldschool curators like RockPaperShotgun anymore. They're barely afloat.

  • Generic algorithmic social media like YouTube tends to snowball a few games.

  • Forums are dead. Reddit is dystopian.

That leaves Steam's algorithm, and a sea of sparsely seen solo reviewers. But there are billions of people oblivious to passion projects they'd love, and playing AAAs or gacha phone apps instead.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    There are dozens of us reading rock paper shotgun!

    But yeah, the modern web sucks. It's all soulless algorithms and profit/rent seeking.

    Even if someone tried to make forums again, they'd probably fill up with AI slop.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    I mean, many forums are still live.

    The problem is engagement. Discord, YouTube, even Lemmy all ping you in your pocket and offer more “instant” dopamine hits than a forum or news site, hence they’ve sucked all the attention.

    It works. I’m guilty of falling into it for sure, even when I keep telling myself I will change my information diet.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Streamers are sometimes a good way to find indie games. My wife and I watch DieDevDie and he mostly plays stuff from itch.io.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Not a streamer, but I've bought multiple games because YouTubers like Real Civil Engineer or Dangerously Funny has played and it looked fun. All of these have been indie titles. Off the top of my head here's a few:

    • Planet Crafter
    • Incredicer
    • Coal LLC
    • Drive beyond horizons
    • Schedule 1

    A bunch more but I'm not gonna dig through my library. But yeah, I've spent a small chunk because of YouTubers like that. And they've all been a good time.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    John Walker (founder of RPS, back when it wasn't a window to Eurogamer style content) is currently doing Buried Treasure, a small review blog for things that aren't being appreciated by the masses. Well worth checking out!

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