Technical Artists lose races in Ferrari's

"More than you can afford, Pal. Ferrari."

Artists consume the largest amount of big budget video game development. Definitely more than most publisher's can afford to lose. 

Unfortunately all that money makes for pretty games that can't win races on a track. Just like cars are meant for driving, video games are meant for playing. All that processing power that is devoted to rendering the lighting and hair physics doesn't translate to push button, raise heart rate. 

Watching movies like Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, or the 2012 movie Dredd (costed less to make than The Suicide Squad), and having more "whoa" moments in 2 hours than most major games produce in 5 really puts the video game plight into perspective. 

The game industry seems to be full of designer bros that are more likely to own a copy of a Christopher Nolan film than a copy of Love Letter. I assume this, because major budget games want to wow people with visuals, like a movie would, but fail to wow players at all. They stand players in a shadow of a Colossus, but spend more time on the lighting and mo-cap than they do on the climbing interaction. Players then end up spending more time in the literal shadow of the art team's work, shooting arrows at weak points, than conquering a giant, moving mountain. 

So keep your Concord, your Suicide Squad, your Unreal Engine 5 and Ray-Tracing. No amount of God rays and refraction will replace the joy of getting 23 minutes into a Vampire Survivors level, the insanity of snatching an arrow for the winning kill shot in Towerfall, or the devastation of losing a beloved apprentice because my desire to solve a murder clouded my ability to see the consequences of seemingly benign words. Nothing on your screen is more real than a high-five, the shouts of victory and defeat, or the simple provocation of empathy. Spend some time among the breadless masses before you complain about the lack of cake plates.