Can Gamers come to terms to the reality that the Gaming Industry Been Day One Greedy?

[The Intergalactic Koala]

All the bytching about battle passes, season passes, expansions, live services, and microtransactions, but let's go back into the time of predatory practices.

These babies were the epitome of hoes sucking you down to the last quarter. The first level/fight is easy, but then the difficulty ramps up. Thus allowing you to spend a shyt load of quarters and being succumbed to the machine. You want to beat the game, you want to get the highest score, but what is it worth for your name to be scratched out when the reset button hits.

Now the talk about games being complete, compared to modern days... Game development was so easy and accessible, along with it being buggy and having a shyt ton of issues that require you to rebuy the damn game (GOTY edition).

Bu bu but, it was still a good time, especially having the PS2 which was the GOAT console:

"Koala, you a hating ass marsupial. Gaming was legit for the time and the companies cared for the customer"

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"Okay, but compared to nowadays. Gaming didn't require a lot of accessories and downloads to have fun. You play it out of the box!"

"That was for fun tho!!"

To get through the difficulty because games around the time use "difficulty" to make the short game longer and companies were in bed with movie rental stores like Blockbuster.


Lets cut the bullshyt and dead this whole "gaming was better back in the days" argument, because even then, companies were trying to make a buy. Remember the constant accessories you had to cop to get a whole entire experience with the Super Nintendo. The rumble pak and memory pack to get the most out of the Nintendo 64 games. The 1900 numbers to get game tips.

The magazines that forced you to be a lifetime subscriber, so you can get tips on how to beat a game. The expensive games of 1998. Sega tripping with their huge pile of consoles before they bowed out with the Dreamcast. The shovelware of the Nintendo Wii. These sorts of things were a big factor even for the time, but rose-tinted glasses. Never mind, the fact that Atari pumped out bullshyt that almost led to the demise of the gaming industry. The PC market having subscription services (Imagination Network) and overkill hardware prices to get a good experience to playing a video game.

The industry been destined to be predatory.

This is not a pro business type of thread, but more of an enlightening one. With the arguments of Microsoft overkill capitalism, Sony's tone deaf approach to the industry, and Nintendo's reliance on relics...nothing change but the currency.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Counter point: the gaming industry isn’t greedy, consumers are entitled

Everyone wants 100+ hour games, state of the art graphics, flawless performance, voice acting, motion capture, tons of accessibility controls, replayability/new game +, additional free content, constant innovation/new IP, maintaining legacy IP, etc.

And they want it now, not in 3 or 5 years, where are the fukking games???? Also, yeah, and 70 dollars is just asking way too much for that

 

[Renegade47]

theres always a capitalistic aspect to anything you consume. the issue is and where greed comes in they do not know when to stop trying to squeeze more money.


why is it not standard to release a full game without battle passes and season passes?

yea you can play without participating in the pass shyt but you are missing out on content essentially playing an incomplete game.

take tekken 7 for example which is a game of match ups you have to be familiar with to be able to be good at the game. if i dont buy a dlc character and i come across them online theres no way for me to know how to counter them because i cant lab them because i didnt buy the dlc. thats an issue that shouldn't exist.

and the greed is also hindering the core game. lets use madden and 2k for example. they have focused on myplayer and ultimate team so much that the core games are a decade behind they havent had any improvements or innovation so its 2023 and when i played 2k23 for the first time it still felt like 2k12.

they going too far these days

 

[NZA]

technology used to limit nonsense, now it enables it

 

[Adeptus Astartes]

Counter point: the gaming industry isn’t greedy, consumers are entitled

Everyone wants 100+ hour games, state of the art graphics, flawless performance, voice acting, motion capture, tons of accessibility controls, replayability/new game +, additional free content, constant innovation/new IP, maintaining legacy IP, etc.

And they want it now, not in 3 or 5 years, where are the fukking games???? Also, yeah, and 70 dollars is just asking way too much for that

Ether...

Kids these days are lucky as hell. Back in my day, you'd have to buy a magazine to get a review. You'd buy a game based on the back of the box.

 

[Bboystyle]

What industry isnt greedy? OP thought he had one

 

[Easy-E]

Counter point: the gaming industry isn’t greedy, consumers are entitled

Everyone wants 100+ hour games, state of the art graphics, flawless performance, voice acting, motion capture, tons of accessibility controls, replayability/new game +, additional free content, constant innovation/new IP, maintaining legacy IP, etc.

And they want it now, not in 3 or 5 years, where are the fukking games???? Also, yeah, and 70 dollars is just asking way too much for that

Boy, say this shyt on Reddit and watch the pitchforks come

You want $60 games and no microtransactions and no delays and no crunch?

Get ready for more 10 hour linear games and litterally all your favorite game series to go away because the shareholder money disappears.

Gaming has problems, but, a lot these guys/girls didn't game in the early 90's, mid 90's, late 90's.

Hell I refused to play Resident Evil 4 and that may be the most important modern game ever.

They remastered it and I'm hooked...then game journalists bytched about microtransactions that came out a week later...and the same exact microtransactions that both the 2 remake and the 3 remake.

 

[Regular_P]

I disagree with the overall point of the thread. Games have become predatory casinos that have conditioned the younger generation that it's normal to fire up a game and get blitzed with microtransactions.

When I played SF2 on SNES, there weren't a bunch of skins hidden behind paywalls. COD4 didn't have $20 gun blueprints that were tied into the current meta of the month. FF7 didn't sell each disc individually.

We're also in a time where it's much easier for companies to communicate with their fan bases/customers, yet they generally choose to ignore or antagonize them. Just check the recent launches of Warzone, Battlefield and Halo. Look what 2K and Madden do every release.

Activision released the original Warzone in 2020 and they're taking it completely offline in September. All those skins and blueprints people bought will be useless. That's after taking Verdansk, Rebirth Island and Fortune's Keep (was only up for five months) out of the game over the past two years. They did this to force the player base onto Warzone 2, which is a vastly inferior game. You never had to worry about being unable to play games back in the day.

Sports games should be downloadable updates. They barely make any gameplay adjustments on a year-to-year basis and the general focus is on MyPlayer modes instead of the actual game.

There is a market for shorter, more linear games but publishers choose to ignore that market and only chase the microtransaction, goliaths with 40+ hours of gameplay. Not everything needs to break sales records to be successful but these companies are run by people looking at spreadsheets instead of people who actually enjoy gaming and are in touch with the market.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

When I played SF2 on SNES, there weren't a bunch of skins hidden behind paywalls.

Instead this was up charge back then

 

[Regular_P]

Instead this was up charge back then

I said skins.

SF was the exception back then.

 

[Easy-E]

I agree with OP until you use the word "predatory."

Ya'll throw that word around so much that you forget that ppl have shown that they are willing to pay for this extra shyt to the tune of billions

Another thing, the average gamer does not go on forums, reddit and YouTube to bytch about microtransactions.

The because gaming channels are damn near 100% positive.

The gaming industry is way bigger than ya'll think.

 

[DaSk8D00D]

I agree with OP until you use the word "predatory."

Ya'll throw that word around so much that you forget that ppl have shown that they are willing to pay for this extra shyt to the tune of billions

Another thing, the average gamer does not go on forums, reddit and YouTube to bytch about microtransactions.

The because gaming channels are damn near 100% positive.

The gaming industry is way bigger than ya'll think.

I think the “predatory” aspect moreso comes from microtransactions and loot boxes being pushed on kids at a very early age.

I was watching a video on this just last night and basically the point was that the industry has always tried to find ways to get more money out of the consumer like the examples in the OP, but in the modern era it’s wayyy more sophisticated and normalized, with all the various Battle Passes, currencies, Premium/Deluxe/Collector’s editions, and any other DLC or microtransactions.

Also a lot of these larger developers and publishers nowadays are hiring random SaaS tech bro’s for various roles and you can see that influence in a lot of areas where game design and business intersect. They know how to “hook” people into playing stuff constantly but in the long run you start to see how a lot of games really just want to keep you busy and regularly playing moreso than making sure you’re actually having fun at all times. That’s how a lot of gamers end up playing shyt is super addicting st first but over time starts to feel like a “chore” or “a second job” and they develop a weird love/hate relationship with the game

 

[Easy-E]

I think the “predatory” aspect moreso comes from microtransactions and loot boxes being pushed on kids at a very early age.

I was watching a video on this just last night and basically the point was that the industry has always tried to find ways to get more money out of the consumer like the examples in the OP, but in the modern era it’s wayyy more sophisticated and normalized, with all the various Battle Passes, currencies, Premium/Deluxe/Collector’s editions, and any other DLC or microtransactions.

Also a lot of these larger developers and publishers nowadays are hiring random SaaS tech bro’s for various roles and you can see that influence in a lot of areas where game design and business intersect. They know how to “hook” people into playing stuff constantly but in the long run you start to see how a lot of games really just want to keep you busy and regularly playing moreso than making sure you’re actually having fun at all times. That’s how a lot of gamers end up playing shyt is super addicting st first but over time starts to feel like a “chore” or “a second job” and they develop a weird love/hate relationship with the game

I see people say this a lot with not a lot to go on.

1, the average gamer is like 35 years old. So "microtransactions and loot boxes being pushed on kids at a very early age."

2, "They know how to “hook” people into playing stuff constantly," Gaming has grown a lot over the last three decades. Before microtransactions ppl were leaving the PSX on all day until after school to finish a boss, the difference is, now, the market has shown that they are willing to pay a premium to "enjoy" a game. Gamers are demanding easier, more assessible games and, again, willing to pay to make them easier as opposed to moving on.

What do ya'll expect EA and 2K to do when they still selling 8 to 10 million copies of their games every year AND they paying for Ultimate Team and VC? You think they are just hypnotized into paying while ppl complain every year about the games losing features?

3, "Also a lot of these larger developers and publishers nowadays are hiring random SaaS tech bro’s for various roles and you can see that influence in a lot of areas where game design and business intersect." Again, I get what you're saying here, but, I'm well pass excusing gamers...put the sticks down and play something else. These games aren't flopping enough for me to believe that companies wouldn't move on if ppl legit weren't buying.

Again, do I support it? No. But, gamers have to take responsibility for creating this environment.

 

[BBG]

That's why BBG cannot lose


If everyone believed in the philosophy I preach we wouldn't be in this predicament. But either way I win because all it takes is patience. And I'm still stuck on a game that's older than kids in kindergarten right now, so it ain't shyt for me to wait for a sale.


The same lack of self-control that's allowed the average whore to make a living on onlyfans is also apparent in the gaming community.

@CouldntBeMeTho