ddickinson: The older gamers might resist more changes, but there are lots of new gamers who will think the new practices are the norm and put up with them.
Ixamyakxim: I'm scared to death of the day when the younger kids raised on "free to play" "games" that are little more than microtransactions with a pretty UI come of age. I'm always worried that's the future of gaming :(
Which would be a bit of a disappointment, because that will be the day I'm done with a hobby I've really enjoyed for a good long while.
Fortunately the hobby has gone well beyond a child-level age range, which is good because kids are pretty stupid.
Also, the running 8 year backlog is good to have because it insulates for the scenario of the industry completely shitting itself and dying for a while.
Should make for some fun conversations if the worst comes to pass, though...
"Hey, wanna play mobile multiplayer with me? You can pay for power-ups so you don't have to spend time actually playing the game, it's the greatest!"
"No, and fuck you. Get that shit out of my face before I bludgeon you to death with your own smartphone."