Voting with your wallet or Why we can't have nice things

Communities Blog
1

EDIT: Short version at the end...

So this topic made me think about some stuff:
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/should-i-buy-starcraft-2/101811/
Long story short - i was against buying any Blizzard game because of their milking out the audience for money. And the argument was made:

And i started thinking about it. Is my favorite gaming companies just milking us for money?
Well no. I don't consider all companies as bad as some of them. For example, EA is notorious for milking their userbase. Activision is also known to be not really good when it comes to consumer trust. And yet, those are the largest companies when it comes to gaming. People yell and scream about the latest CoD trailer, they cry about CoD4 MW remaster being bundled with a considerably shittier Infinite Warfare. At the end, CoD IW will sell 10 million copies, and those people, that hated the trailer and screamed will buy the game, and the industry will learn nothing.
Why are we not punishing the gaming industry, when it fucks with us?
People yelled and screamed about the real money auction house in Diablo 3...


People keep complaining about Assassins creed being the same game over and over... But they still buy it. Call of duty being crap is a given at this point... Still the headlines said:

And on top of all that companies like Irrational Games, that graced us with Bioshock series closed doors, because the games was not profitable enough to keep the studio open. Great games barely make enough money to save themselves...

Userscore: 92%
220 thousand sales
Meanwhile Blizzard closing fan servers of Vanilla WoW, while saying "We will not support older versions". This is contempt. We don't support this game, but you are not allowed to support it either. Constant re balancing of SC2, because they can't find proper balance... And then we have the real money auction house... Or we had. Hearthstone is pay to win as fuck. And now - overwatch. The second coming of Christ. And it's just a Team Fortress style game.
I am not really sure where i am going with this, but what the hell... I got this out of my chest...
The world is unfair place. And most people are stupid. If you don't believe me - Black Ops 3 - best selling game for 2015...

TL:DR - Buy games that deserve your money. Stop buying Assassins Creed and Call Of Duty and then cry why they give you the same thing every year. They give it to you, because you keep taking it. Support companies, that deserve it and games, that are actually good.

3 Likes
2

very complex topic indeed and its not easy to tackle.

to look more deeply into this i reckon its imporant to understand why these games are so big, Why assassin's creed, and call of duty have such momentum and despite fans complaining about them they go to top the sales charts year after year?
i think they have become household names, where they had in the past some hits that made them incredibly popular MW? AC2? (i dont play them so i am not the one to say but based on what i hear i think its these two). This popularity along with a yearly release schedule means they have a very strong brand awareness, they have become brands in their own right as much as walmart and apple and google. Their strength is a self feeding loop of brand recognition, so long as they keep themselves active in the subconscious of people, they will keep selling huge numbers.

How many have bought a call of duty in the hopes that this year the game will remind them of what it was to play MW, and the same can be said of games like AC. then there are other cases take me for example, I myself never played AC 1 2 or 3, yet i bought black flag played it and enjoyed it all due to one aspect of the game and one alone, and while i had never played the others i knew what the game was about and to some degree the likeliness that i would enjoy it. How many more are there like me, who are not actively "fans"of a franchise but occasionally or even just once will buy into it because they got interested in some aspect of a game. for these players the game will easily serve the purpose as a stand-alone game, there is no requirement to buy into the whole franchise in order to enjoy a particular iteration of said franchise and in doing so enables more gamers to buy into them further bolstering their total sales.

just some thoughts that popped up...

3

The exact same question could be asked about GPU and CPU manufactures, why do we continue to buy gimped products and then go on forums and defend the companies that screw us over.

The short answer is that there isn't enough choice or competition in the hardware (GPU & CPU ) market, in the software market while there is competition it comes down to titles and who wants to play that game along with your peer group and if they are buying and playing a title also.....the bottom line is that they are all in it for the $$$ and a ROI to develop the next game.

MMO's are a good example of bleeding the customer base for cash after the purchase of the game with BIS gear sold in-game, it is just the way it works to keep all those expansions coming and servers humming.

1 Like
4

There are reviews for that. And all reviews in the last few years say one and the same thing... It's crap, don't buy this. And black ops 3 best selling game.

Only occasionally and just once don't sell millions... Only occasionally sells 50 thousand... People only occasionally buy into a small indie game for $5... And there is rarely a game sold million copies. I see your point though.

Not really... Intel can pay the websites to misrepresent their products... Gearbox can't. In day one there will ne both streams and reviews everywhere. If you don't trust the reviews go to Twitch amd watch the gameplay itself.

I understand, that it's about brand recognition. People rather buy CoD that they are familiar with, than Painkiller, that they are not. They rather buy Diablo, that they are familiar with, than Torchlight, they are not. But God damn... Firefly is a free MMO, less grindy, better looking and many people say - fun. Wow still have 5 million users... And Blizzard says "we can't run vanilla and Burning Crusade servers for may be a million people each"...

5

There was a day when I used to buy a game unconditionally, pay full price the second it came out just because it was the next in a series that I really like. Those days are over. In my experience it used to be that very few sequels did not live up to or improve the original. Starting with when I bought Super Mario World, I knew I'd like Super Mario World 2. This continued to hold true for a long time, Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3, all of the Mega Mans up to X6, the Syphon Filter trilogy, Metal Gear Solid series, Silent Hill 2 and 3, the list goes on. However, I can draw a line in time where most of these franchises decided quality didn't matter anymore. Now there is not a single game that I won't wait for lots of reviews to come out for and wait for the price to drop from $70 to $40 before I'll even consider buying it. You have to assess each products value and vote with your wallet for sure. Please don't ever pre-order for any reason whatsoever, it's horrible for the industry in every way.

6

I love a quote from Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) in his Human Revolution review:
There is simply not enough hours in the day or memory in a disc to make a game as deep and complex as Deus Ex because of all those expensive golden pixels, modern graphics have to be build from...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oE54GSVxUQ
People keep saying, how visuals are not important, how Gamplay is more important, and then, CoD Infinite warfare is being pooped all over, because it looks 2010... And people still wanting better visuals, no matter more time spent on visuals mean less time spent on the gameplay. i.e. ACUnity, SW Battlefront, etc.
And i am here, still playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, because modern gaming industry can rarely go down the middle of absolute eye cancer inducing visuals or soul crushingly bad gameplay. Sometimes they use those two, and this is when things like Ride To Hell happens...

7

Really? you do not think there are alliances between game developers and the sites that review games? The problem with games is that any opinion is subjective based on a given persons opinion which is based on their own expectations of what the game is suppose to be, hardware is solid, that is defined by real-world numbers within a given set of variables and while it can still be subjective to one reviewers opinion it has to be backed-up by real world numbers in terms of performance but yet Intel can skew those numbers by passing out the highest binned chips in a given generation and selling the public the lower-binned stuff with the same model number.

The biggest problem with game reviewers is like I said above it is subjective based on their opinion, not what a person might enjoy, want, or expect, they can give their opinion and a general over view of play dynamics and interactions but that doesn't mean that you or I will find it enjoyable just because a reviewer did and gave it high marks....it's called hype.

But I do agree about going over to twitch and watching a extended play of a game your thinking about buying, it just makes sense to watch the interaction and get a good feel for the game before plopping down 40-60$ on something based solely on a review, we have all bought highly rated games that we hated along with not so stellar titles that we played and enjoyed, different strokes.

8

You obviously haven't played overwatch, though I do agree with you. People are stupid little sheep.

9

What the industry is doing from a business standpoint is brilliant... Selling essentially the same game over and over again cuts down dramatically on costs, adding in DLC gets even more cash from people, pay to win is only fun for the people getting paid, preordering allows the devs to get cash for doing almost nothing (really... all it takes is a trailer, it's literally the same exact thing as kickstarter). I do not like where the gaming industry has gone. I remember growing up playing tanks on the Atari 2600... try to dlc that shit and see where it gets you.

The problem is people have enabled these practices by not understanding how to vote with their wallets... sure there's a decent portion of people who get the game unconditionally because they don't know any better (because they're 13 and they recognize the name) rather than understanding what constitutes a good game, which is possibly due to a lack of great games nowadays. But, the majority of people buy the game just for lack of knowledge, or basing it off of what their peer group will play with them. (Personally I could care less about what my "peer group" will play, I'll play whatever damn game i feel looks good and fun regardless of what they would play).

The other problem is that developers aren't listening to what people have to say (with their words) anymore, just their wallets. I don't like what has happened to AC... It used to be one of my favorite franchises (at least for the first 2 games, then I could see the writing on the wall when they started making "spin-off" titles immediately after...). I still got it because I had hopes that Ubisoft would pull their head out of their ass and actually release a good game again, I was wrong.

The thing is... money talks. Most game devs are going to do all they can to make money (all businesses are in the business of making a profit). Passion and quality on the business's side rarely equals money. On top of that: CoD, AC, Battlefield, Halo, etc. are safe bets for a company to make a lot of money (Low Risk - High Reward). Compared to trying to introduce a new game changer (High Risk - Low/Med/High Reward). This is why Apple has made the same product the past decade and a half... because:

And yet, Apple was the most profitable company in history during a recent quarter. CoD keeps making the same product and they are on top if not near the top of the sales charts every year for the same reason.

10

No, i haven't... Blizzard, Ubisoft, Gearbox, WB etc are on my blacklist. I am not giving them my money until they show me they deserve it.

There are critics like TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling, that i can trust with their opinion.

PS:
Every now and then, somebody from the darkness will come to the light...
http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/16/capcom-to-prioritize-completeness-even-if-it-means-delays

11

Hey I'll argue for apple though. Good centralized work ecosystem is what I have needed to succeed at college and I only just realized it. I'm pissed, but it'll save me time. Most people don't think of it as a tool though. Its the 1700 USD thing that timmy can show off to his freinds in the playground. But thats not a game, thats a tool, a work environment.

With games we expect curation. I like the games where I control something or outsmart others. FPS games, stealth, MMO, and whatever the fuck Deus Ex is. I also like cars so Gran Turismo is my standard there. I don't expect what everyone else does, however.

We complain of being in need of innovation but then bitch about the innovative new things because its not the spyro we used to have or whatever shit. We complain of the new COD but then run around for 12 hours the first day in the game playing with jump jets. No one is looking at this for what it is. Game devs are not your freind, they do not care about you, and the big ones do not care about whatever story. Maybe one or two cogs in the clock do, but the whole thing is forced to turn anyways to get a profit.

And thats the point. The Uke-lele devs care so we buy their game and support their kick starter. Mighty number 9 was a cool concept, so everyone was talking about it. The pile of shit the last guardian has been for, what? six fucking years? THAT is the true gaming community. The people that hack PSP's into computing clusters, the people that mod their favorite game and end up maknig a HUGE franchise (counter strike for example). THAT is the gaming community, freinds.

Now you also don't have to buy anything. If you liked the first three spyro games then play them till you can't. There is no reason to sink a shitload of cash into anything. I'm never going to buy earthbound but I LOVE those kinda styled games. I like harvest moon. Guess what I bought? I like RPG's, so mhy buy anything past something like .HACK that I am already in love with. I don't want anything past that. So thats how I vote. You won't see me rushing out to get the new cod, or even the new CS (I played 1.6 until a few years ago, maybe 4?, when I got source and I got GO in a freebuy), but I might go buy the new persona or Shin Megami Tensei for my 3DS.

Past that people are looking at the bullshit consoles. Whats so bad about nintendo? I have always liked them. Fucking weird ass dale who lives under the bridge knows who mario is. Everyone knows nintendo. I think that they are the company everyone wants but BECAUSE its nintendo everyone shits at them and laughs. Mario Kart isn't Gran Turismo, but I still love it. I hate fighting games, but Smash is the only game I will play in that genre. Ever played xenoblade? What about Zelda or Trauma Center? Tony Hawks Downhill Jam was fun and hell the port of Overlord was better than the PC version, I think.

Everyone wants to be grown up and all that, but really we're all still shit smeared little babies that whine about every little fucking thing. So why not instead of fighting over stupid things, why can't we just be comfy with what we have instead of constantly consuming like the blob? Thats how we got into this mess. Next steam sale don't buy anything. YOU DON'T HAVE TO. I haven't in years. I don't have any money but I really don't need it either.

12

Dude, yoou are more angry than me :D

Don't even get me started on this one...
Recently i have heard about the innovative new feature of the Division: if you have 2 monitors, the second one could be used to have your inventory and map and what not always open... Genius. Why have nobody ever thought of that?
Well, we had that for the last 5+ years, but critics shat all over ZombiU... Wonderful 101 is still brilliant game... And DS series of handheld consoles is the best selling handheld consoles series evar...
Yeah... The division... Brilliant new innovative feature...

13

"I heard that blah blah" Yup uhuh sure, why would I care about XYZ rumor? Why should anyone? We get pissed off for no reason. Just wait and see what it does. I personally have been trying to mod games like Starmade to have the complex as shit map on one screen, system controls and utility lists on another, and the game itself on the main. I think its a great idea if its true. But I'm not going to read into it, I'm just going to wait.

Tada?

Also

Hardly. I like to think I'm more patient than most of the gaming community.

14

The majority of gamers do not subscribe to any video game community, they play what their friends are playing and have a good time doing so. Yes they may moan about how the new map packs cost too much and reminisce about the "old days" where they would get their money's worth but they do not have any power as consumers in their small friend groups.

1 Like
15

Of course they do...
I introduce Hand Of Fate to my friends. They introduced Skyrim a couple years back.

More power to them. If you are having fun - tell people you do. Tell them you enjoy the game. All i hear is how CoD is shit, and is still the best selling franchise. And i still remember MW2 debacle. Where the world was about to not buy the game, and then the leaders of "Don't buy MW2" have bought MW2.

16

True there are reviews and people like you or me will read those reviews but there aren't many customers like you or me. I buyed hyperlight drifter and am having a ton of fun with it, after having followed the devs for years I resisted to pay the Kickstarter, then I waited for reviews, and sure enough the game had some flaws, in the end I weighted whether those flaws would be detrimental to my gaming experience then I decided to buy it as an informed consumer. But how many fall prey to the hype machine, how many go Kickstart a game just cause some dude made a big game in the past, and then get burned when he I isn't able to deliver. How many are in the periphery of the gaming industry they may buy a game or 2 every 6 months. One they they find themselves walking past a GameSpot and see new Cod pre-order now sign, and they just might walk in and buy it.

Now I'm not saying that's all of the people but it certainly adds up, that is what marketing does, and I sincerely believe marketers are the son of the devil after having had to suffer through 3 courses dedicated to the subject. Marketing prevents consumers from making an informed decision that will benefit them marketing makes you believe that something is what it isn't.

Sorry for the wall of text, I'm from my phone

1 Like
17

I believe a lot of people are salty about IW right now purely because Blops 3 had insane microtransactions. The lootcrate garbage has to stop and quickly. How many more games can it plague and ruin? So far Clash Royale is the only lootcrate game that I haven't found to be a total scam or force you to play forever just to get your chance to roll.
The bigger irony is that people are fed up with the BS that console shooters have these days that they're jumping at Overwatch.. which is also an Activision product. Yeah, that'll show those Activision shot-callers whos boss!
I did buy Overwatch so I'm quite the hypocrite but I'm so fed up with everything about games these days. Every game feels like it's trying to psychologically manipulate me and get me addicted, every game feels so coldly calculated with fun pain and addiction in mind, I can't play any big name industry game without hearing sirens blazing in my head.
Thank god for Civ 5, it might be the only thing keeping me sane right now.

18

True, I was really referring to high school aged COD/Battlefield Bros who only really play the biggest and best multiplayer shooter with their friends for an hour or two. Of course they might own a few (10ish) other games etc. but they will always buy the latest COD just because all their friends are.

Hypocrisy on the internet? Nay, the real world?

My point is really that only the nerdiest of nerds actually get into that stuff and they tend to not have much of an influence on the general school aged "COD BRO" market.

It's like comic book fans vs people who go to see the latest superhero movie, they overlap but the comic book fans who do not see the movie have no influence on the average person who does.

19

Welcome to modern industry aka the current state of affairs in mass consumer high tech and mega global corporate culture.

Remember from economics the supply and demand graph. Here's a new one - shitty product vs ROI. This graph works like this: Manufactures will try to produce the cheapest (aka shittiest) product that will earn the the most ROI.

IIts not about "art" or pleasing the customer, or even "making a good product.". It's about the stock holder.

You could make a game that developing costs 20 million dollars, and generates 60 million in sales. Wow, you just earned the company $40 million. Oh wait, you could have made a much shittier version for 4 million that the jagoff customers still would have bought ??? You're artistic vision just cost the board of directors 16 million dollars. Have fun with you gamers choice award for greatest game play of the year, because you can gtfo because you're fired.

Today its not about exceeding your customers' expectations; it's about delivering the shittiest product your customer can tolerate so you can "hit your mark." Modern industry isn't about "great" or customer experience/expectations; its about jerking off the investors.

20

That's why indie developers exist, that's why underground music exists and will continue to its a way to allow people to express their artistic vision without the pressures of corporate culture. But then again this is capitalism and it's greatest strength is co-optation in the end corporations end up swallowing the little guys.