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[winjer]

An essay on how gaming has become so much worse, because of micro-transactions, loot-boxes, in-game currency, and many other schemes to extract money from gamers.
Might be worth watching, so more people can understand some of the tactics used to manipulate gamers into spending more and more money.

 

[mansoor1980]

just like any other industry , new ways to squeeze the consumer will be applied.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Did you mean me?

 

[Saber]

I think company are burning more money on psychologists than anything.
I never saw such alarming number of people defending cancer games. Its just like people don't see the problem on their games at all and are willing to fight for their company until the very end.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I think company are burning more money on psychologists than anything.
I never saw such alarming number of people defending cancer games. Its just like people don't see the problem on their games at all and are willing to fight for their company until the very end.

Is a toxic relationship. And the vast majority of gamers only want to "have fun" or escapism. And then is even worst if you add a competitive nature to the mix.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Great vid. Saw this one yesterday. Well worth a watch.

 

[Filben]

GameMaker'sToolKit also had a good recent video on FOMO. Nothing new for most of folks here but it's good to have something to refer to when talking to other people, especially easily manipulated ones.

To leave something positive, thoguh: there are good indie games coming left and right the last few years and the next years that didn't and won't do any of this AAA shit. With curated stores the visibility and market entry barriers are so low compared to pre-Steam era.

Don't just focus on the hugely advertised shit. Try out indies and games that aren't visual blockbusters. You're in for a treat then.

 

[Saber]

Is a toxic relationship. And the vast majority of gamers only want to "have fun" or escapism.

Thats the problem right there and hence why I believe companies employes psycological tatics.
Being fun doesn't mitigate a faulty product.
Imagine you buy a toy for your son which is super fun but damn cheap to the point of broken in a few hours.
You go and say "damn, this is a cheap gargabe". Problem is that if you say that in these times against a mega popular franchise you either tagged as hater or be spammed with "its fun". In their minds you're the enemy of the game/company.

 

[Fuz]

Gamers.

That's how.

 

[Fuz]

I think company are burning more money on psychologists than anything.
I never saw such alarming number of people defending cancer games. Its just like people don't see the problem on their games at all and are willing to fight for their company until the very end.

I don't remember who said "They strip you from your rights not by force but with convenience".

Sadly true, and not just for gaming but for all the aspects of modern life.

 

[lughnasadh123]

I grew up in the era of Atari leading up to now many decades later. Some years the best option was dumping a shit ton of quarters at an arcade. Or getting only a small handful of games a year. Or spending 70+ bucks for a Sega Genesis game when it was new.

We have the biggest choices of what to play, how to pay, and where to play them. It's fucking massive. I wish we had free to play games with optional stuff that's easily avoidable. I wish we had game subs like Game Pass or PS+Extra (screw you premium) that provide a massive value. Digital downloads on faster connections than ever imagined and NOT having to drive 20 minutes to return a rented game because you lived in bum fuck nowhere.

Hey, I get that everyone and everything deserves scrutiny in how they conduct themselves, but some of this is just wallowing in needless cynicism. It's also good to sit back, take a breather, and realize all the good that's out there as well.

 

[TheDraconian]

Tell that to the dudes who keep spending cash in stuff like Diablo Immortal & Genshin Impact. This shit won't be thriving if some folks werent so addicted to levelling-up their characters/waifus. A huge reason why I just stick to well made, fully developed single player games without that 'extra content' BS. Corporations just capitalize off people's propensity to spend on shit.

 

[Klosshufvud]

It's simple. A profitable and quickly expanding business tends to attract the corrupt pump and dump investors looking for easy ways to become rich. If it's not obvious by now, nowadays business and investing is more about finding the rising trends and capitalizing on those rather than making products of consistently solid quality. It's no secret that the best platform to play games on is entirely private and safe from the cancer of said pump and dump investors.

 

[anthraticus]

Mainstream gaming became a shitshow once all the AAA nonsense started around 05/06

 

[Solidus_T]

I remember when Halo 2 released with Blood Gulch on the disk, but you had to pay 19.99 just to access it, and the DLC code was released months after the game released.

 

[NightmareFarm]

IMO the complaints about microtransactions and lootboxes are overblown. You very rarely see games which force these things on players and when they do the companies get completely blasted like with Battlefront 2.

 

[feynoob]

Blame this dude

 

[Superkewl]

I don't like the current state of gaming, but I blame gamers more than I blame developers. They are the enablers of these predatory practices. If more gamers simply voted with their wallets, these practices would not be so prevalent, but they feed into it and then just bitch and moan.

I have my share of microtransaction purchases that I regret, but I blame myself, not companies for parting this fool with his money.

 

[BabyYoda]

I remember when Halo 2 released with Blood Gulch on the disk, but you had to pay 19.99 just to access it, and the DLC code was released months after the game released.

That's not true, Halo 2 released with Coagulation (a remake of Blood Gulch). Unless you were being sarcastic?!

 

[DaGwaphics]

An essay on how gaming has become so much worse, because of micro-transactions, loot-boxes, in-game currency, and many other schemes to extract money from gamers.
Might be worth watching, so more people can understand some of the tactics used to manipulate gamers into spending more and more money.

I have a natural immunity to all of these tactics. #CheapBastardsRule

Seriously though, I do hope that we continue getting games that are finished products and don't have loot or item shops. Maybe the game subscriptions can help support that, even if the scale is a bit smaller than in the past (like Plague Tale).

 

[nush]

I always buy my games in sales and quite often they'll have the "Super duper edition" cheap. When it's listed in the description it sounds like a lot of good stuff, when I actually get that it's just a bunch of skins, boosts or other shit that has no effect on the base game. Digital deluxe editions are for suckers.

 

[LazyParrot]

Ditch AAA games and watch most of those problems disappear.

 

[Rambotito]

1998 : buy a PC game from EB, install it, enjoy it, play online if you want = $49.99

2022 : buy a digital (regular, silver, gold, platinum, or ultra mega metal) version from 1 of 10 different storefronts, get a pre-order bonus of a skin or something, buy $15 of day one DLC, get a 60 GB day one patch that still doesn't work with AMD drivers, online is broken, servers are down, you've already been reported by a player for harassment before finishing the download, etc = $189 total cost ($300 in Australia due to exceeding bandwidth for the month)

Hmmm, wonder what happened?

BTW I think this all started with Quake 2. When it was released it was unplayable for anyone on dial-up. iD knew this and said there would be a patch coming. So they, to my knowledge, were the first to release a completely broken game and promise to patch it later.

 

[Outlier]

Did you mean me?

And lack of ambition from developers.

When the devs run out of steam, they turn to just making money. The publish only care about the money. So it all inevitably comes crashing down.

 

[Solidus_T]

That's not true, Halo 2 released with Coagulation (a remake of Blood Gulch). Unless you were being sarcastic?!

Maybe I got the specific map wrong, but there was a map pack that released earlier than intended in some stores, leading modders to find out they can play these maps without buying the DLC.

 

[mortal]

I notice a lot of people blaming developers and publishers, and understandably so, but yet there is little to no criticism of gamers/consumers who are creating the demand.
Developers & publishers keep doing this because gamers keep using them and paying for them. Why wouldn't a business whose entire goal is to generate revenue and make a profit not take advantage?
It would be irrational to expect them not to if there's demand in the market, especially in an increasingly competitive one as the gaming industry. It's a business, not a charity or NGO.

The backlash for NFTs in gaming was so severe and the adoption so poor that most publishers and developers that don't have the capital to risk aren't going to even entertain them.
Yet I do not see that same attitude when it comes to loot boxes, GaaS, and micro-transactions in games. Certainly not to the point where companies are compelled to turn away from those models.

Not saying complaining and voicing grievances online don't have their uses, but more often than not, these companies are more convinced by how gamers vote with their dollars than with their words.
More gamers need to start taking accountability for what practices they reward and what practices they punish.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Not a compelling video.

He's just targeting crotchety old men who already agree with him rather than putting forth a real argument. Completely ignores the strengths and weaknesses of multiple business models and basically ignores game design altogether.

I guess that's how you get clicks though.

 

[nemiroff]

It became a mess..? That's news to me. I mean, only if you play one type of game in an age where we have a near bottomlessness sea of diversity of games and how they are implemented. You can basically pick and choose exactly how you optionally "want to be monetized" or not. But this guy still feels the need to sluice everything into one stereotypical "modern game design" (for clicks, yes of course, I know, shoddy youtuber..).

I did play games in the arcades during the 80's btw, and I definitely don't want to go back, that's for sure.. Games back then was the definition of pay-to-win, short games, but with almost impossible level design to make people pay more money to progress... It was shitty and we knew it, but there was no option.

I think todays monetization, in those few games that are hyper-monetized, is for the most part the preferrable way, it's optional, and the games' progression is for the most part left alone (and this is where I think the activism is good; we've for the most part shunned the industry away from pay-to-win)

I'll destroy this youtuber logic in one short sentence: I didn't see a single fucking loot box or payable skin in Elden ring, arguably this years biggest and most awarded game.

 

[jaysius]

Publishers found out there was money even easier to get in cheaply designed trash when you use loot boxes and other microtransactions.

Now that this Pandoras box is open it‘ll never close, and we found out why her box was closed, because it fucking stinks.

 

[RAIDEN1]

I mean you just have to look at what Konami did with E-Football to see how bad things have fallen....

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

 

[GladiusFrog]

Idk, at this point I roll my eyes when I see these takes on the state of gaming.

To me, it feels like gaming is the best its ever been, There are so many options and the quality is still improving.

Indie games are prospering, and then there's always the emulation scene which has become incredible.

Being a thrifty gamer is easier then ever, Sales are often and very good. Games have more content then before ect...

But I guess being overdramatic and cynical gets the clicks.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Idk, at this point I roll my eyes when I see these takes on the state of gaming.

To me, it feels like gaming is the best its ever been, There are so many options and the quality is still improving.

Indie games are prospering, and then there's always the emulation scene which has become incredible.

Being a thrifty gamer is easier then ever, Sales are often and very good. Games have more content then before ect...

But I guess being overdramatic and cynical gets the clicks.

There's absolutely valid reasons to be cynical about the AAA gaming space, because economic pressures squeezed the developers and publishers, but the mythical $60 price tag hasn't changed and that cost has to be made up somewhere. The price of a game really costs, say $200, and the cost for that complete game experience is now spread throughout microtransactions, DLC, loot boxes, etc. This fragmented and predatory experience absolutely sucks ass for the consumer and is worth every criticism lobbed at it. The complete gaming experience, the de facto state for the gaming industry for about 35 years, is no longer present in the AAA space.

But you're absolutely right that the indie space is thriving because Unreal, Unity, and other indie-developing engines are allowing game-making by hobbyists to be more possible than ever. It's just that I can almost guarantee that if a big Microsoft, Activision, EA, whatever big publisher game comes out, it's not only going to probably have terrible performance for six months until patches are released, it's also going to nickel and dime me and try to take advantage of my brain's FOMO.

 

[ByWatterson]

Are we complaining about monetization? Oh hell yeah, let's do this again.

 

[winjer]

Idk, at this point I roll my eyes when I see these takes on the state of gaming.

To me, it feels like gaming is the best its ever been, There are so many options and the quality is still improving.

Indie games are prospering, and then there's always the emulation scene which has become incredible.

Being a thrifty gamer is easier then ever, Sales are often and very good. Games have more content then before ect...

But I guess being overdramatic and cynical gets the clicks.

While you are right about the indie scene and even some of the AA games, for AAA games, it has never been worse.

 

[Damigos]

Unfortunately this is a very good video

 

[Kagey K]

If you are only playing the "AAA gaming experience" I get the cynicism. That would possibly be the most bleak version of gaming.

Thankfully there's lots of other great stuff going on that you can play in between those AAA experiences to cleanse the pallete and get the taste of shit our of your mouth.

 

[SumJester]

It's clear some of the detractors didn't even watch the video, He's was very sensible on his opinion.

Then again, corporate social managers have the weirdest tasks these days...

 

[Tarin02543]

I used to laugh at my father saying current music sucks and that everything used to be better, and that was in the nineties.

 

[Chronicle]

Don't need to squeeze those willing to pay.

 

[levyjl1988]

 

[kiphalfton]

Was ruined by "casuals"

Games were good back in the mid-to-late 2000's. After that it became mainstream.

 

[ByWatterson]

While you are right about the indie scene and even some of the AA games, for AAA games, it has never been worse.

We are in the middle of Sony's prime, Capcom continues its renaissance, Nintendo outsells everyone and never bothers with this stuff, Fromsoft is winning GOTYs, EA is pushing single-player again, Microsoft is funding tons of single-player like Ninja Theory and Obsidian, and smaller teams are putting out AAA bangers like Plague Tale.

This while the worst offenders of monetization, Ubisoft and Activision, are either collapsing or need buyouts.

Your take is almost objectively untrue.

 

[speckz]

Soon we will need to MITM games via some local proxy to ad-block game ads.

 

[winjer]

We are in the middle of Sony's prime, Capcom continues its renaissance, Nintendo outsells everyone and never bothers with this stuff, EA is pushing single-player again, Microsoft is funding tons of single-player like Ninja Theory and Obsidian, and smaller teams are putting out AAA bangers like Plague Tale.

Your take is almost objectively untrue.

You point out a handful of examples and ignore all the crap that has come out of the AAA industry.
Talk about selective memory...

 

[SSfox]

Just play what you like and don't what you don't like, things will look much brighter to you believe me.

 

[Humdinger]

I've been seeing a lot of these videos lately, about "why isn't gaming fun anymore?"

 

[drotahorror]

Don't need to watch a video on failed tactics (for me atleast). I already know they're extremely predatory towards the younger crowd and not good for gaming in general.

 

[Guilty_AI]

While you are right about the indie scene and even some of the AA games, for AAA games, it has never been worse.

Tbf, what we call the 'AAA market' today is actually quite new. The size and budget of 'AAA' development teams pre-ps360 wasn't much different from those of modern AA and indies.

These megalomaniacal games with thousands of developers involved and astronomical budgets only started becoming prevalent with the 7th gen. To give you and idea, Half Life 2 had 1/4 the amount of developers involved when compared with Metro Exodus (and that was with valve making both the engine and the game at the same time).

 

[WitchHunter]

Just like porn, gaming was also the best in the initial 20 years or so.