Has datamining killed exploration and secrets in video games?

Has datamining killed exploration and secrets in video games?

I was reading this (blue-reflections.net/ragecandybar/projects/pokegods/) and remembered the old days when people would make massive theories about video games. Saying there may or may not have been shit in a game, back when games felt far more alive. half of that mystery is gone these days because dataminers and lets player faggots who make clips showcasing every secret in a game. We'll never have shit like mysteries, fake rumors, or that bullshit "cryptid hunting" that was popular with the GTA games.

The worst part is there's no real way to fix this, is there? No one is gonna just not datamine if you ask them.

They probably will if you tell them you're a journo.

Yes and no

yes

every game that tried to hide secrets in recent years got datamined, it's inevitable at this point.

Remember when the BoI dev got super assblasted when his whole ARG was fucked over by somebody who edited hex values?

The long and short of it is Yes.

No matter how cryptic or well-hidden something is, even if explicit meta-consequences are made clear for data-mining, it's going to happen with anything but a small cult following; and even then places like reddit specialize in ruining communities and mysteries whether or not they have anything to do with the subject, or in this case have even played the game.

See: Undertale, Payday 2, Binding of Isaac, and other recent releases that tried to have some real mysteries in their game. Every time they were datamined, and the creators either completely cut the content or punished the community.

I really dont get this, people are going to explore and find secrets in games one way or the other. Why stop adding them because some faggots can datamine? Thats fucking retarded

I can understand the sentiment but at least some devs still do it. I think there are some secrets going down in the hat in time game last I heard.

In Undertale's case datamining made people more interested, because the dev hid some cool stuff in the game.

You cant tell me more than 0.01% of a playerbase is going to datamine