The Tepid Take

A few years back, the media was reeling following the reveal of Alexa, an artificial intelligence that could, without fail, order some lentils to your flat. This kind of technology, which had been on its way for a while, was finally something that would be available for the public. It’d be like having HAL in your house. Or maybe, just maybe – it’d be more like Honda, if only for the innovation of one spaniel-haired muse. You see, almost ten years ago, James May was writing a column for The Telegraph on all things cars (and other occasional acts of pedantry). One such incidence of this column was about the delivery of car parts. Factories producing motor vehicles all across the world operate on the same “just in time” principle: the parts for every single car that, moments later, rolls off the production line, are delivered at nary a moment’s notice. The factory doesn’t want the inconvenience of storing a vast collection of rims, chassis and window panes, not least because doing

The world of video games is full of contradictions: expecting high quality sequels of favoured franchises to be delivered year on year, despite these games being incredibly resource intensive in production; a series of complaints about payment systems in modern games leading to the divisive loot box system; even Half Life 2 is an anachronism, another double-edged sword. Valve’s golden goose – a game that spent 5 years in development hell and cost $40 million to produce – heralded the arrival of Steam, the latter-day go-to platform for cheap PC games, and a catalyst for indie game development in the mainstream. Valve, purveyors of crafted, high quality experiences, are effectively responsible for a new renaissance. And yet, in spite of this vast sea change in the market for video games, the pricing structure of those at the top has remained stagnant. Why? I’m writing this article because of the recent slew of videos on the YouTube channel Extra Credits, focused primarily on AAA