What's wrong with current day games as per the golden circle.

Disclaimer: this is of course, opinion and interpretation, all of it.

The golden circle is a concept I discovered while having to watch a TED talk by Simon Sinek. I had my reserves while starting it, as most of those corporate things are overly contrived in my opinion.

However, the more he talked, the more I found myself nodding my head in agreement.

In short: 

The goal of any business is to make profit, let's not kid ourselves, and so it should be, we all got bills to pay.

The approach however, matters a lot. Most unsuccessful businesses, ideas, etc, start from the outer circle and go inwards.

Most successful businesses work the other way around. If you want to listen to his full explanation, you can find the link here. https://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

Let's bring this to games nowadays.

Good example: Stardew Valley.

Eric Barone made this game on his own and his motivation was to make a game like his beloved Harvest Moon, but expand on certain aspects and perfect it, according to his opinion. That's the"Why"

The "How", he made this game, on his own, while working a day job, teaching himself most of the skills required to give shape to this game.

And last, the "What" It's a simulation game that lets you farm and make friends with the villagers.

Bad example: Mass Effect Andromeda

What: fourth installment in the Mass Effect series, full of micro-transactions, many plans for paid DLC.

How: Miss-managed from the beginning, many errors and conflicts within the production, sub-par writing, graphics, etc.

Why: Sell sell sell, DLC, loot boxes, apparel, etc.

That's why I'm afraid that Anthem will be a bust too. Producers were talking about a 10-year plan already. Read, 10 years of assured revenue from this franchise. The reasoning behind this could not be more wrong. It's like they aren't interested in publishing a good product now, but hook people on the promise of more content. Their "Why" is very obvious and honestly inspires little faith in me. Time will tell, I could be wrong, otherwise, I called it now.