But that's why my analogy works; imagine if all you ever got to eat was potato chips. You'd survive, at least you a little bit, but your quality of life would be abysmal. On occasion they might not be too bad but in excess, or exclusively, you'd die young. Yes, it does take effort to consume something better, especially in a society incentivized to continue feeding you empty calories, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try getting a fresh vegetable in your system.
That's ... kinda pathetic for the industry, though not surprising for a genre that lost it's heart ages ago.
Someone pointed out to me a while back the main draw of human made art is the effort put in and the genuine connection people make with the artist. When you actually engage with the art, it's provocative and emotional and has that connection. Slop can't do that. It's like empty calories for the soul.
But that argument falls apart for commercial endeavors --- plenty of human made slop also exists and while it may look pretty (or in this case, sound pretty), the artistry is lacking. It's made to top charts, not build a connection. You lack the artist's emotions, creativity, the imperfections that make it genuine, even the backstory behind the piece, etc. All that is art.
County (and other commercial pop) has lacked that for ages. There are genuine artists out there, but marketing and promotional strategies tend to drown them out with slop. No surprise that side is getting the AI overhaul.
Before the Internet got social media, we had the GameFAQs voting thing; you'd get head to head popularity contests of coolest characters. Cloud always won, but it was nice to check daily to see who was most popular.
I still use GameFAQs, though. Even after the buyout, the guides are important to those of us RetroAchevement-ing through some older titles.
One of the worst US congress members shares a last name with me, but it's also so common that it's pretty diluted. It needs to be both infamous and uncommon, sharing a last name with millions of people ain't that.
Then again, Epstein is kinda common and I can't help giggle when I bring up a certain researcher with that last name and call her model the Epstein model.
Careful, some of us on older hardware have a bug where we overflow and crash the system. My second cousin bricked his system just by stacking the last two.
Artists don't have to throw away digital media, just they are adapting with process videos and live streams. A real proof of life sorta deal since AI is holding their craft hostage.
I can't speak to Rockstar directly but I do know some game companies send anti-union propaganda emails regularly. To take the next step and fire people is entirely believable given when I've seen HR push out.
She's full of crap with her argument about people leaving blue states, but I do have a lingering fear people will burn out before 2026 when it matters a little more. Wins better give us momentum and not complacency.
You basically described the economic concept of consumer surplus. When a product is entirely dependent on the price a consumer is willing to pay because the supply is infinite, the natural result is... this.
Except they shouldn't be price discriminating; it's easier and more effective to just offer tiered pricing structures (e.g. collectors editions) and eventual sales (e.g. 50% off after a year) to hit people at different places on the supposed consumer surplus curve. As you note, the undermines your confidence in the prices but you're likely a little lower on the curve compared to the "must have on day one" crowd.
That said, the whole theory also explains why freemium is so attractive. When there's no price minimum, the optimal price is 0 and you work your way up with features and perks (while also raising the price people are willing to pay by getting them hooked). It's all nasty business, lol
Ironically that also works for the metaphor given just how many Americans have terrible fast food diets, either by choice or necessity. Lol.