Modern gaming especially the western side has an ideological problem. It is captured by the progressive movement. Now, progressive is a very big umbrella term but the telltale signs of them are quite similar, an opposition to traditional gaming tropes, visual design element and story framing. It is real life western social movements such as CRT, DEI, LGBTQ+, feminists and social justice manifesting in digital entertainment mediums and the ecosystem that surrounds them. A shorthand for all these is called the Modern Audience.
Modern Audience in gaming is the concept that society have moved pass the old values that grew the video gaming industry to what is it today. The notion that the majority gamers hold progressive values and woke ideologies and demand their entertainment to hold to the same standards. The old guard of gamers are no longer a market force to cater to. The implication that it is the only business pivot that makes money sense. And to their credit they have managed to bamboozled a lot of gaming studios and publishers to move in that direction. From creating games with progressives design language to hiring progressive workers.
However they have missed one critical point there is no such thing as the Modern Audience in gaming. Gamers still gravitate to old school tried and tested design language from game mechanics, story to aesthetics. While small doses of progressive manifestation in games are usually tolerated, the manifestations taking center stage is where the industry broke then camel's back. Gamers revolted and the environment became hostile. One side wanting to push their agenda another side wanted to be left alone to a hobby they escape the real world to.
Here is the kicker, the industry backed the wrong horse in this race. The vaunted Modern Audience is a phantom consumer. Catering to this apparition is as good as burning money and good will the developers earned through hard work and dedication in the decades past. Progressive games or games build on progressive design language always get good media and online support. Games like Dustborn, Relooted, Assasin Creed: Shadows, Concord, High Guard and the latest 1384 Ex Voto. The pattern of gamer engagements are the same, gamers see social ideological design and get upset, the developers can't keep their mouths shut and proceed to stoke the flames by mocking and denigrating the gamers, the progressive crowds cheer for the game and the releases are meet with low sales and playtime. Inevitability this causes the developers to fall way short of ROI.
Here are the stats.
So again we can confer that Modern Audience is not an audience at all. They will only give you verbal or digital support. Where the money counts they can't be counted on to pull you through. Likewise the same can be said for the movie industry.
Modern Audience in gaming is the concept that society have moved pass the old values that grew the video gaming industry to what is it today. The notion that the majority gamers hold progressive values and woke ideologies and demand their entertainment to hold to the same standards. The old guard of gamers are no longer a market force to cater to. The implication that it is the only business pivot that makes money sense. And to their credit they have managed to bamboozled a lot of gaming studios and publishers to move in that direction. From creating games with progressives design language to hiring progressive workers.
However they have missed one critical point there is no such thing as the Modern Audience in gaming. Gamers still gravitate to old school tried and tested design language from game mechanics, story to aesthetics. While small doses of progressive manifestation in games are usually tolerated, the manifestations taking center stage is where the industry broke then camel's back. Gamers revolted and the environment became hostile. One side wanting to push their agenda another side wanted to be left alone to a hobby they escape the real world to.
Here is the kicker, the industry backed the wrong horse in this race. The vaunted Modern Audience is a phantom consumer. Catering to this apparition is as good as burning money and good will the developers earned through hard work and dedication in the decades past. Progressive games or games build on progressive design language always get good media and online support. Games like Dustborn, Relooted, Assasin Creed: Shadows, Concord, High Guard and the latest 1384 Ex Voto. The pattern of gamer engagements are the same, gamers see social ideological design and get upset, the developers can't keep their mouths shut and proceed to stoke the flames by mocking and denigrating the gamers, the progressive crowds cheer for the game and the releases are meet with low sales and playtime. Inevitability this causes the developers to fall way short of ROI.
Here are the stats.
| Game | Current Players | All-Time Peak | Est. Total Players/Sales | Current Fate |
| Dustborn | ~2 | 83 | ~11,000 – 13,000 | The game is still available for purchase, but it has essentially no active community |
| Relooted | ~1 | 57 | ~1,600 | The game is still available for purchase, but it has essentially no active community |
| AC: Shadows | ~3,700 | 64,825 | ~1.1 Million | Ubisoft facing financial troubles due to high development cost and low sales and the company created multiple studios with investment by Tencent to move their IPs into new studios. |
| Concord | 0 (Offline) | 697 | ~25,000 (Refunded) | Sony officially shut down the game and closed Firewalk Studios in October 2024 |
| High Guard (free to play) | ~500 | 97,249 | ~2.1 Million | After losing over 99% of its launch peak the game was shut down on 12 March 2026 |
| 1348: Ex Voto | ~59 | 427 | < 5,000 | New release struggling to find an audience |
So again we can confer that Modern Audience is not an audience at all. They will only give you verbal or digital support. Where the money counts they can't be counted on to pull you through. Likewise the same can be said for the movie industry.
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