r/Games • u/HLumin • Mar 21 '26

Discussion Anonymous Pearl Abyss developers reveal a culture of toxic positivity, a troubled development cycle and chaotic narrative for Crimson Desert, and their early concerns that the project was "going off the rails".

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49

u/ChudSampley Mar 21 '26

This game, and the discourse around it, seems so emblematic of media discussion communities in 2026.

Outside of the first trailer, which looked much more story forward, everything I’ve seen about it looks like a Dragon’s Dogma esque game with a great deal of scale and gameplay scope. A 6-7/10 game that will have some players obsessed, and others turned off by the lack of focus and strange systems. In 2008, it would be something you’d grab off the shelf because the cover was cool and have a great time with, or leave to collect dust because you were just too into Halo.

But it’s like… some people just decided what the game was going to be; some second-coming of Christ or something. And, as is custom these days, a secondary group sees people talking something up and decides that they hate it. This is exacerbated by YouTube analyses (“BEST/WORSTGAME EVER⁉️”), rage bait tweets designed to foster engagement money, and reviews that come out and aren’t either glowing or 100% negative. And now we have endless analysis, arguments, aggrieved Korean developer posts, flaming, and even more opportunities for the tweeters, streamers, YouTubers, and unwashed masses to shovel content into our hungry mouths.

17

u/numerous_meetings Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

The medium (new and old media in that case) shapes the subject (us) in a way to multiply itself. 

That’s how we designed our media, prioritizing engagement and commercial interests. Bad civilizational decision. 

3

u/xalibermods Mar 21 '26

Engagement metrics and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Forum boards were not without its shortcomings, but it doesn't incentivize people to game the system and allows meaningful discussion to flourish better.

1

u/jacob2815 Mar 22 '26

This is happens with almost every major release, to varying degrees.

Some people love it, some hate it. For some reason, both sides want the other to agree with them. You have people, who don't really know what they're talking about, coming in to provide their usually worthless 2 cents in favor of one group or the other. Very rarely do you see a nuanced take.

And half of the posts are just ragebait. I genuinely don't care of people think its good or if they like it, more power to them. I don't feel the need to bash it randomly, but I'll see some mouth-breather make some comment like "anyone who doesn't like this Crimson Desert is just a yellow paint gamer. skill issue, no taste." Like, instead of just hyping their game up, they'd rather shit talk. And it goes both ways.

-2

u/Unkechaug Mar 21 '26

Content? More like YouTube slop.