Good Day Gamers! 2024 was a challenging year for the gaming industry. There was an insane amount of changes like industry pushes for DEI, company takeovers / purchases, and lots of restructuring which led to many layoffs across the board. In addition, there was a consistent pattern of failing triple A games, in addition to constant social media disputes between Youtubers who were calling out the industry agendas and access media. All kinds of social media attacks came from industry professionals, journalists, and even developers who posted all kinds of hate directed at their own fans, saying things like “if you don’t agree with the games we make – don’t play them, or they’re not for you”. Before last year, it wasn’t often you would ever see companies openly say things publicly to dissuade sales for their own product before. A strange situation to say the least. But thankfully the winds of change are upon us… finally.

2025 is here and with it seems to be a bunch of changes that will hopefully bring back a sense of normalcy to the gaming industry at large. No more emotion terrorists invading the industry and holding creativity hostage to highlight. No more DEI or BRIDGE representation checkboxes, and finally no more political correctness in video games. It’s insane to even type out that last sentence. It’s video game entertainment, and it has become a wild animal that’s escaped and is terrorizing the town. The world is exhausted by all these garbage ideas, ruined franchises, androgenous gender swapped uninspired characters, and weak wokeness injected stories, all fueled by a false sense of righteousness through misguided activism. It’s played out, its boring, and it has been a cancer to the gaming industry for years at this point.

Not to mention the constant controversy about the standards of objective beauty and attractiveness in fictional characters. For some reason people seem to like to complain about the attractiveness of characters, but many times they aren’t complaining because the artwork may be immoral, scandalous, or possibly tempting for players, no. Instead they are complaining because in reality they simply don’t look like the fictional characters – (which is outrageous because characters DO NOT EXIST even though they are inspired many human characteristics) and yet somehow that offends them. What’s worse, is that somehow it was made to be everyone else’s problem, and regular people are usually made to be the villain just because they support or enjoy video games that the complainers find “offensive”. The truth no one has the right to judge or insult another person because of what video game they choose to play, especially mainstream video games that the majority of audiences get into. 2024 was filled with these kinds of condescending comments across the board and it was sad to see the integrity of some of the best developers crumble because of these internal struggles both between staff members in the companies and publicly with their fans.

The gaming industry 20 years ago was nothing like this. Hardcore action games of the early 2000’s were super engaging and entertaining because there was no social political agenda weaved into their stories or game design. Developers had true creative freedom and just made great experiences with fictional characters that were the ideal – not the sad and pathetic so called realistic interpretation of their characters we see today. Male characters were hyper masculine, female characters were hyper feminine, and both featured ultra defined muscles and outrageous physiques. This exaggeration was the ideal and it was done to fit the narratives and style for the games, and everything played into the overall experience for ALL players to enjoy – not specific groups of people or players. Back then games didn’t alienate their audiences like they do today, largely because the industry wasn’t filled with political activists, polarizing agendas, and people who are not qualified for the positions they have just to collect investor money.

Final Thoughts

While 2024 was a terrible year for games in general, there were a few titles that made it more tolerable and those games were designed with the core experience in mind over any agendas. Games like Stellar Blade, Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2, Black Myth Wukong, Astro Bot, Helldivers 2, Metaphor ReFantazio and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. These games were among the few that stood apart, but even still, there was still controversy with some of them because of the developers and journalist’s reactions with some changes that were added to the games. It was a tough year to actually get into anything because you just didn’t know which game was going to slap you in the face with wokeness or a messed up experience, even if you previously liked the franchise.

Going forward I’m excited for all the positive changes and removal of the polarizing social ideologies in gaming. Hopefully the developers have been listening to the audiences in general and will make critical changes to cut out the cancer that is DEI which is eating the industry from the inside out. It’s time for a fresh start – a clean slate. We all see what is happening and I’m sure developers and publishers alike are also seeing the collapse of some of the biggest companies, games, and IPs which should have them all shaking in their boots. They must know its time to make a change or go bankrupt, because now fans are speaking up more than ever, and creativity is screaming to come back in full force.

Finally I want to wish you a wonderful new year. May your 2025 bring you new and healthy changes for yourself and your families. Like I said before 2024 was a heavy year and not just because of the gaming industry and all the drama within it, but also dealing with real life difficulties. It was a challenge for many of us, but as we enter 2025, I encourage you to embrace the idea that there is room for growth, change, and positivity in your life. Stay positive gamers great things are coming!

As well, please bare with me as I continue to work on getting Inside A Gamer’s Life back to normal with pictures and content. I have a bunch of posts from last year that will be posted soon as I continue to catch up. I’ve been away from writing for a little while due to work and a death in the family which happened recently so things have been very hectic mentally. As things continue to move forward though, I am hoping to continue putting out my best work and hopefully soon update the site with content for each post again.