Raw LLM Responses

I've been chasing that "people will like my art if I do x instead of the y I prefer'' fantasy for a long time. Seeing AI art stans' takes made me believe few care about the person behind that art, but when you explained how looking at a child's "crappy" drawings can make you interested and genuinely smile, I could definitely relate, yet I wasn't aware that I did this do every piece of art I engaged with. I'm studying game development right now and with the absolute mountain of great videogames that have come out the past few decades it's hard to think anyone will ever care about my small, flawed games because I was looking at it through the lens of art having an objective value. Without knowing the people behind a game I'm playing, I can still be engaged, but playing some small games that the developer(s) put their heart and personality into, **that** can be my main source of engagement. If I do myself a dishonour and play whatever slop CoD game came out last year, it'll probably be engaging for a while. Getting a nuke, leveling weapons, etc. can be rewarding, but the lack of a soul that game likely has will just not keep me coming back. It doesn't feel magical when you engage with a piece of media, mimicing art, solely made to make money. People in the music sphere often say the point of music is to tell a story, to express some idea of yours. I think the engagement we can get from games is much the same, even ones that aren't story games, but that enjoyment is bundled with the engagement that comes from using your mind (e.g. strategizing) and body (e.g. using muscles for precise movements in a shooter / simply clicking the sell button in a cozy simulation game) to overcome some obstacle, which completely fine, but to me at least, a great game has great design and a soul. There are also artsy fartsy games I've really enjoyed that lean solely into the soul aspect. Most of the games I make outside of school are just to show to friends and family, having those games be something I enjoy making instead of be the most addicting .exe files I can makes my pass time feel like an actual hobby instead of a side hustle I have to strategically optimize. I don't think gamers are at fault for liking a certain thing or expecting more. If I make a commercial game people open their wallets for, it better be worth it. But trying to live up to expectations I can't and don't need to for the stuff I share freely with loved ones is just silly.