Game Rant Somehow
Jan. 24th, 2016 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owsf2000I've tried to put this into words a few times now this week but I end up erasing it because it doesn't seem to come out right. So let's try again! People that read over my journal might come to the conclusion that I hate video games.
On the contrary, I actually still very much love video games. It's why I end up ranting about all the bullshit that is perpetuated by the big names in the video game industry today - the use of excessive DLC, buggy releases, full-price (at times FAR MORE than full price) pre-alpha ("early access") sales, to name just a tiny portion of what I've ranted on about over the last year.
If I gave up on the industry, I'd probably never speak of it again - after all it wouldn't be an issue for me anymore. Although it does mean I choose to "miss out" on a lot of games that could have been epic had they been done "right". But the push is to squeeze every single dollar out of a gamer's budget on a single game by charging insane base prices for a portion of the game, then finding new ways to sell DLC without calling it DLC. (Kinda like how some people like to make a distinction between DLC and "micro-transactions". Usually the only difference between the two is that you're actually downloading something with a DLC. Usually. Given that some DLC (lookin' at you Capcom) is just locked out content on the disc you've purchased, and some DLC (I'm lookin at you NIS) are just variable modifiers in the cases of free stats, gold, experience, or adding items to your inventory that are otherwise in the game.
All of this is done to hide the fact that the most expensive form of media entertainment (Compared to movies, books, music, and the like) even MORE expensive while letting them collect that money sooner (before the base game is even completed or bug-tested - indeed people are now charged money to do the beta testing, not that it helps with actual release quality) and more often, while doing less and less actual work for it.
They do this rather than trying to make the industry more accepted, understood, entertaining for, etc the general population. Why try selling 1000000 for 30 bucks when you can sell 100000 for 300 bucks right? But this approach is self destructive in the long term. But the short term thinking industry professionals either fail or refuse to see it. Why would they care so long as they can bail with a golden parachute before it happens amirite?
Right now you have an industry being propped up primarily by hardcore, long term, gamers. We're the type that aren't worried about paying a lot for our entertainment. But as the price tag continues to increase, the CHANCE of getting REAL mainstream market attraction fades. And eventually gamers are going to be FORCED to wake up and realize they just can't afford this shit anymore. By that time, every single gamer that gets alienated by the insane price tags will be felt pretty sharply by the industry.
I'm already alienated by most of the industry over this. There have been times back in the PS2 days when I actually went into gamestop and plunked down close to 300 dollars in games. (Hell, I did that once in 2014 although it just barely broke 200 that time - and overall I regretted it afterwards, unlike in the PS2 days.) So I'm doing the only thing I can do - vote with my wallet, the exact same way everyone who's encouraging all the BS in the industry is doing.
If you're tired of sloppy, poorly done ports, or excessive DLC whoring, etc. (Sometimes DLC can be done "right", but be honest with yourself, you know most of the time they just ripped the content out of the main game. "Oh we didn't have time to add it at launch" means "We decided NOT to add it at launch so we could sell the base game sooner and charge you extra afterwards.") then vote appropriately.
If a game is buggy as hell, get a refund. This is especially for Steam users. Don't just hope they patch it later. Refund it and play something else, then check back again later if it's something you REALLY wanted. Why are you paying for broken goods?
If the game has 100+ dollars of DLC, pointless or not, don't buy it. Especially at launch. ESPECIALLY if it's a digital release. At the very least wait for it to drop in price, and then try to avoid the DLC anyway.
If a company has a history of DLC whoring or buggy releases (At this point you can pretty much say "all of them" I guess) then DON'T buy the game at launch. Wait til you hear reviews about bugs which will definitely surface within a couple of weeks of release. Wait approximately 2 months or more on DLC Whorers since they adapted to those who refuse to buy a game at launch based on DLC Whoring practices by slowly dripping out the already completed, at times included on the disc, DLC over 2-3 months. A little each week. I find this is most common with JRPG types. If the DLC is still minimal after that long, it might be safe to attempt to pick up a copy.
Whatever you do, do NOT buy a game simply because you want to support your beloved developer. Publishers (And developers) are already exploiting this gamer weakness by pretty much threatening and actually proceeding, to dismantle the developer that fails to meet arbitrary publisher expectations.
Don't worry. Developers are the people, not a company. The actual talent, if they care about the industry, will move on and form a new group and continue to do what they do best. The best of the best always do this. It's not your job, or duty, to make sure a particular group of devs stays together by accepting shitty products/service. All you do by accepting those shitty products/services is ensure you WILL receive said shitty products/service. Stop hurting yourself. Stop hurting the rest of the industry.
But yeah, I love video games. :)
I just wish I wasn't expected to pay $300 dollars for the same content, but more poorly coded, than I would have received for $60 just 5 years ago. Fuck off with your inflation comparisons. They aren't relevant unless you also adjust salaries of the typical gamer for inflation as well. (Hint: It doesn't look good.)
Dammit, this still isn't exactly how I wanted it all worded, but I'm sick of trying to rewrite it. So let's just let the rant fly and I'll try again next year. XD
On the contrary, I actually still very much love video games. It's why I end up ranting about all the bullshit that is perpetuated by the big names in the video game industry today - the use of excessive DLC, buggy releases, full-price (at times FAR MORE than full price) pre-alpha ("early access") sales, to name just a tiny portion of what I've ranted on about over the last year.
If I gave up on the industry, I'd probably never speak of it again - after all it wouldn't be an issue for me anymore. Although it does mean I choose to "miss out" on a lot of games that could have been epic had they been done "right". But the push is to squeeze every single dollar out of a gamer's budget on a single game by charging insane base prices for a portion of the game, then finding new ways to sell DLC without calling it DLC. (Kinda like how some people like to make a distinction between DLC and "micro-transactions". Usually the only difference between the two is that you're actually downloading something with a DLC. Usually. Given that some DLC (lookin' at you Capcom) is just locked out content on the disc you've purchased, and some DLC (I'm lookin at you NIS) are just variable modifiers in the cases of free stats, gold, experience, or adding items to your inventory that are otherwise in the game.
All of this is done to hide the fact that the most expensive form of media entertainment (Compared to movies, books, music, and the like) even MORE expensive while letting them collect that money sooner (before the base game is even completed or bug-tested - indeed people are now charged money to do the beta testing, not that it helps with actual release quality) and more often, while doing less and less actual work for it.
They do this rather than trying to make the industry more accepted, understood, entertaining for, etc the general population. Why try selling 1000000 for 30 bucks when you can sell 100000 for 300 bucks right? But this approach is self destructive in the long term. But the short term thinking industry professionals either fail or refuse to see it. Why would they care so long as they can bail with a golden parachute before it happens amirite?
Right now you have an industry being propped up primarily by hardcore, long term, gamers. We're the type that aren't worried about paying a lot for our entertainment. But as the price tag continues to increase, the CHANCE of getting REAL mainstream market attraction fades. And eventually gamers are going to be FORCED to wake up and realize they just can't afford this shit anymore. By that time, every single gamer that gets alienated by the insane price tags will be felt pretty sharply by the industry.
I'm already alienated by most of the industry over this. There have been times back in the PS2 days when I actually went into gamestop and plunked down close to 300 dollars in games. (Hell, I did that once in 2014 although it just barely broke 200 that time - and overall I regretted it afterwards, unlike in the PS2 days.) So I'm doing the only thing I can do - vote with my wallet, the exact same way everyone who's encouraging all the BS in the industry is doing.
If you're tired of sloppy, poorly done ports, or excessive DLC whoring, etc. (Sometimes DLC can be done "right", but be honest with yourself, you know most of the time they just ripped the content out of the main game. "Oh we didn't have time to add it at launch" means "We decided NOT to add it at launch so we could sell the base game sooner and charge you extra afterwards.") then vote appropriately.
If a game is buggy as hell, get a refund. This is especially for Steam users. Don't just hope they patch it later. Refund it and play something else, then check back again later if it's something you REALLY wanted. Why are you paying for broken goods?
If the game has 100+ dollars of DLC, pointless or not, don't buy it. Especially at launch. ESPECIALLY if it's a digital release. At the very least wait for it to drop in price, and then try to avoid the DLC anyway.
If a company has a history of DLC whoring or buggy releases (At this point you can pretty much say "all of them" I guess) then DON'T buy the game at launch. Wait til you hear reviews about bugs which will definitely surface within a couple of weeks of release. Wait approximately 2 months or more on DLC Whorers since they adapted to those who refuse to buy a game at launch based on DLC Whoring practices by slowly dripping out the already completed, at times included on the disc, DLC over 2-3 months. A little each week. I find this is most common with JRPG types. If the DLC is still minimal after that long, it might be safe to attempt to pick up a copy.
Whatever you do, do NOT buy a game simply because you want to support your beloved developer. Publishers (And developers) are already exploiting this gamer weakness by pretty much threatening and actually proceeding, to dismantle the developer that fails to meet arbitrary publisher expectations.
Don't worry. Developers are the people, not a company. The actual talent, if they care about the industry, will move on and form a new group and continue to do what they do best. The best of the best always do this. It's not your job, or duty, to make sure a particular group of devs stays together by accepting shitty products/service. All you do by accepting those shitty products/services is ensure you WILL receive said shitty products/service. Stop hurting yourself. Stop hurting the rest of the industry.
But yeah, I love video games. :)
I just wish I wasn't expected to pay $300 dollars for the same content, but more poorly coded, than I would have received for $60 just 5 years ago. Fuck off with your inflation comparisons. They aren't relevant unless you also adjust salaries of the typical gamer for inflation as well. (Hint: It doesn't look good.)
Dammit, this still isn't exactly how I wanted it all worded, but I'm sick of trying to rewrite it. So let's just let the rant fly and I'll try again next year. XD
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no subject
Date: 2016-01-24 05:54 pm (UTC)It's like me, and how I fervently, wholeheartedly wish for the next big, inevitable video game industry crash to occur sooner, rather than later. I'm not saying that because I hate video games. I only hate the fucking industry[1] that makes the video games, at least in the form in which that industry currently exists, anyway. I want all of that shit to burn to the ground (figuratively, definitely, but perhaps even literally, in more than a few cases) and for a new batch of publishers and developers to rise from the ashes, learn from the obvious, asinine, bone stupid mistakes made by the money-grubbing assholes who came before them, and then not make those same mistakes.
That's a pipe dream though, I know, because even if the industry does utterly crash in the next year or three or five or however long, it won't be long before the ones who come along and try to pick up the pieces are indeed starting to do the same old retarded shit all over again. *weary, defeated sigh*
[1] - The fact that we even have to use that word at all, the fact that it has indeed become a huge, soulless, corrupt industry over the course of the past two decades or so, is flat out sickening to me.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-24 06:22 pm (UTC)"10 Reasons The Video Game Industry Is Heading For Another Crash" (http://whatculture.com/gaming/10-reasons-the-video-game-industry-is-heading-for-another-crash.php)
I feel like I could have written that myself. Hell, in fact, I feel almost like I have written that myself, except just spread out over several dozen LJ posts over the past several years.
(But then, it has new shit that I hadn't even really considered before reading it, such as in his point #4 about too many re-releases of old games on new consoles, where he says the following: "It’s about time the games industry called this trend for what it actually is: monetised backwards compatibility." Yes indeed, that, right there, is the real reason why current consoles lack true backwards compatibility, so that they can release "HD remakes" of old games for full price and such shit like that.)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-24 06:27 pm (UTC)To paraphrase a few:
"Oh, bah, the industry isn't heading for a crash, you're just doomsaying."
"You know, you shouldn't be insulting your readers by implying it's their fault."
"Nah, the industry is too big to crash and is actually doing better than ever."
And so on and so forth with similar horseshit.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 03:08 am (UTC)On his last point:
"The high sales of certain titles leads companies to believe that a similar game will do well, so trying to push something completely new out the gate gets knocked back as everything is bet on ‘what works’ – an ethos consumers are more than happy to prove right."
This has always been true, even before the first crash. Ever think about why there were so many spaceship/alien destroying type games on the market back then? It's because that was the FPS of the early 80's so to speak. People bought it, and dumped it as soon as the next in the category came along. (Well, dumping was hard to do since you didn't do used games much back then. But they'd sit at the back of your game box after they fulfilled their purpose. I remember reading a documentary on Imagic - the second 3rd party developer born after Activision in the 80's. During that they were discussing the plans for one of their new games to launch the company with and one of the devs snickered mid-way through the description "It's another freaking space shooter." ^^
"That's what sells!" the CEO of the company argued back. And it was true, they sold like hotcakes and launched the company successfully with it. (That company went bankrupt in the crash though.)