What is the worst thing about video gaming right now?

The biggest issue is gaming still considered a total negative in our society. Thus, many of industry issues years ago hasn't been fixed, and it is getting worse on today's corporation era.

I can say gaming industry is just much more ferocious than other software dev industries, and gaming adjacent industry such as gaming peripheral, streamers, and IP adaptation to other mediums are well-known of their fragility and inconsistency.

Microtransations + 70$ price tag + deluxe, gold, etc editions + average people justifying it, defending it and thinking it's ok. This is from a gamer/customer point of view, but I think people who work in the industry would probably point to terrible work conditions, unfair wages and bad culture and abuse inside companies, which I agree.

About DRM - you don't own the games on DRM-based services like Steam, EGS or EA Play. They just sell you a right to play a game on their conditions but not the game itself.

Other- all of the above, both the poll options and the other stuff mentioned in the thread. It's just a big fat greed-infused mess. (Like every other industry. <.< )

A mix of all of the above I guess. But I don't get these "back in my day" posts about gaming anymore, nor what a "modern" game is supposed to mean. Just seems like a lot of people love to shit on gaming and how everything is bad now, compared to these golden days of years past (reminds me of the "Humble used to have good bundles" meme seen on almost every bundle). This seems to be in line with the internet, as complaining and shitting on things is kinda the most common thing seen.

As gaming grew, it meant more shitty games will be present. I just don't buy into this whole gloom and doom shtick, nor think gaming is now in a particularly worse state than before. Two steps forward, one step back is what I would say. Gaming got big, it got mainstream, and that brings a lot of money. It has upsides but also downsides. I don't really agree that gaming is now worse than 15 years ago when I first played CS or F3. There are shitty and buggy games, but those were always present. It was just easier to not notice them since fewer games were released back then compared to now, where you get like almost 10k games a year on Steam alone.

So, gaming is better now in some ways, and worse in others, but overall, I still consider it in a good state and have the pros outweigh the cons.

View attached image.

Bad Online and DRM are my two major issues. The rest I can simply avoid and speak with my wallet.

day one patches are now the norm. 'its ok if it doesnt work, we'll fix it if eventually if enough people complain, and only to a standard where most people stop complaining'. just shitty publisher and developer mentalities when it comes to their duty of care to deliver a completed product that they're still happy to charge a premium price for. cant really think of many (if any) other products/industries where this is not just tolerated, but considered an industry standard way of operating.

and don't give me this 'so many different types of pc setups, they cant possibly account for all of them'. This happens on consoles as well, and also happens to ALL pc users regardless of component selection.

the cost its expesnive to get good pc

Everything in the poll.

DLCs of any kind (DLC, season pass, game edition)- for me its just extra milking the same game. Just give us full game as normal, cutting it like cake and charge for every single piece is trash by me.
I can say also prices. 60€ for a base game and then 60-100€ for editions? Why the hell i would pay 100€ for ONE game? Even i can easily afford it its a big no just cuz principle.
Also can say microtransactions if its more than cosmetics... Pay to win simply.
300 DRM... for this u need epic, for this steam, for this battlenet, for this origin... I just want it on one place

Every goddamn game has to be very long, open world (boring, full of shitty side quests and collectibles but empty at the same time) or survival / rouglike shit, microtransactions and dlc's... and lately removing games from distribution without any warning

The worst thing about gaming is
The need for day 1 patches!

Poor port quality on PC.

i dont want to make a thread, but i want people to see this, and this can be fitting to this topic if you try hard enough
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/03/us/video-game-gun-robbery-arrest-trnd/index.html
damn them violent video games

Microtransactions, but I picked "Other" because it's specifically things like in-game currency for in-game currency that buys lootboxes for in-game currency that buys progression or the other half of the game content or whatever. Robs 100% of the fun of the game, if it had any at all.

EDIT: Also FOMO seasonal events, seriously. I already have a job. I refuse to buy any game that will feel like a second job.