Tyr
05-17-2010, 06:32 AM
Remember how I ranted back in 2009 about declining and stagnating game quality? Remember how I said I pretty much made a massive rant every year? If you do then sort your priorities out. Serously, why remember that?
Anyway the discussion we had on this (http://www.left4dead411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15667) thread inspired me to write my 2010 rant. I wrote it on the Escapist under another name but thought I'd share so you can read at your own leisure as I talk my head off about stuff. This time I believe, it's on the idiocy of the games industry. Copy-pasted from my Escapist thread.
I apologise in advance if this comes across as a great big melodramatic bitch, (which it pretty much is,) but I feel it needs to be said. Granted it is very long, I hope you read it but I can accept that when I rant I tend to go on for far too long so no hard feelings if you don't.
What's up with the games industry these days? All I seem to hear is stories about how more people are being laid off from Videogame Giant X and how these companies are placing the blame squarely at the feet of us, their customers. As far as they're concerned we pirate, cheat and lie our way to get their product without them getting any profit. We're horrible horrible people and should be treated like the criminals we may or may not be.
As a gamer I find myself having to jump through more and more hoops to try and play a game. I have lost count of the times I have signed on to online services to be allowed to play a game I have bought. That's not even the reason for this wee rant here, I've grudgingly come to accept this as a given now, granted I do often find myself weighing up the benefits of owning a game with the annoyance of having to find a way to be able to play it but that's my problem I guess.
My problem here is with the cluelessness of the game industry higher-ups. Recently the news has come through of EA's new nominal fee to buy codes to enable EA Sports gamers to play online. Granted this isn't going to be an issue for people who buy Madden 20XX because they're not the target of this new system. However those who enjoy renting, trading or reselling are going to find themselves having to pay a nominal fee to play online.
This comes most likely after the realisation of the games industry that, holy shit, people are trading renting and reselling games! I think the estimate was that a game may be traded, rented or resold up to four times in it's lifetime. The answer that idiots came up with was that game companies are only earning a quarter of what they should be!
Anyone with a brain will tell you that the very reason people do trade or rent or buy previously owned games is because they are people who don't want to buy a game. These aren't lost customers; they're just people who weren't keen to buy the game from the shelf and who most likely wouldn't have even if they had no other option. Fair enough too when, with EA Sports in mind, the same game is released every year - people don't want to necessarily buy the same game every year. What they do want is to be still able to play it so as to ensure that there will still be people to play with online.
But do I think it's wrong for companies to get a nominal fee from people who use their products without paying full price for it at a store? After all these are people who don't actually contribute to the game company but still benefit from the product.
Well yes I do think it's wrong.
Seems petty of me doesn't it, but really if I buy something that thing becomes mine and I should be able to do what I want with it as long as that falls within the law. This includes selling it to someone else. Now if someone is paying me for something shouldn't that thing also become theirs? EA doesn't think so, EA thinks that this person should buy the game from a store because they're a customer of EA's not of mine. Can you imagine if this same logic applied to everything else? If I sold my bike the person who bought it from me would have to pay a fee to Avanti before they're allowed to use it. If I sold my car the person who bought it from me would have to call Mitsubishi and hand over their credit card details to get a code for the engine so it would turn on.
But it seems the game industry's special.
Because it is after all us who are the reason for the recent decline in the industry. Us. We're the bad guys. It's not the fact that, with the recession in mind we may be less susceptible to buying full price games off the shelf and may be turning more to cheaper options of renting or buying pre-owned games. It's not the fact that after slowly accepting some of the hoops we have to jump through to play games we may be becoming less inclined to buy them because we're just not bothered any more. It's not the fact that in recent years the games industry has been working on perfecting ways to block out their customers.
Because that's what's happening. This may be a minor gripe but I'm a PC gamer, I pride myself on not having to subscribe to the systems that console gamers have to so they can buy add-ons and junk. It's one of the few advantages of being a PC gamer. If I want to buy a game or an expansion pack or a DLC add-on I can just take my credit card, pay and be done with it. Not so any more it seems. I bought Mass Effect 2, I enjoyed it a lot. I was keen to buy the DLC, even though what I've heard of it is nothing but "meh". But it seems I'm not allowed to purchase these things with money any more. I have to now buy arbitrary points in a system that is also broken, manipulative, sneaky and a bunch of other adjectives.
I've never likes the points systems. It's a cheap dishonest way to get more money out of your customers. It's a great idea, I'll give them that. How great is it to charge someone $20 for fifty "points" which they then spend to buy something they want that is selling for 30 points. Sure they can't buy something they want for the 20 remaining points but they can buy another 50 points for another $20 or maybe buy one of the things that aren't selling on their own merit, the things that sell only because people want to get rid of their 20 worthless points.
What would happen if a normal shop did this? Imagine buying "Pizza Club Tokens" when all you wanted was a pizza , ending up spending more than you wanted to on things you didn't want simply because these tokens or points or whatever you want to call them are completely and utterly worthless. It's a sneaky system that is used to manipulate customers and I think it's disgusting.
And people are getting sick of it I think. Personally I am finding myself spending a lot less on games recently. I didn't buy the Mass Effect 2 DLC because I couldn't be arsed jumping through the hoops. I certainly didn't buy Modern Warfare 2 for all the bollocks that came along with that and now that I think about it Mass Effect 2 is the only game I've bought this year, I only bought one game, (L4D2,) in the latest Xmas rush and, in the foreseeable future, I don't see any other title that will come along and make me want to buy it either. Game companies want to blame us for their decline well I blame them. If you constantly mess with your consumer base they will stop giving you money, it's simply how it works. People don't actually like being messed with and taken advantage of. I know; strange notion isn't it?
The games industry has been very lucky in the fact that gamers seem to be able to take the manipulation a lot better than other consumer bases can but, if the multiple layings-off is anything to go by, I think we're finally starting to get fed up and maybe it's being felt - unfortunately by the animators and programmers who's fault this isn't
Because the people who make these decisions and these manipulative systems are the ones at the top - the ones whose salaries are secure. I promise you this; if Bob Kotick's gargantuan salary or his millions in bonuses is ever threatened he'll just fire a couple hundred more employees.
And while this may be a very melodramatic rant I don't think the game industry is in decline or is going to die or anything quite that extreme, I am saying that the game industry is seemingly run by a group of idiots who can't see the bigger picture. I think that they're wondering why their goose isn't laying as many golden eggs as they're used to and they're just going to chop off it's head and look down it's throat to see what the problem is instead of thinking well maybe the old girl is just exhausted at the moment.
In conclusion, fuck Bob Kotick inter alia. If you're looking for the "tl;dr" that was it.
Anyway the discussion we had on this (http://www.left4dead411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15667) thread inspired me to write my 2010 rant. I wrote it on the Escapist under another name but thought I'd share so you can read at your own leisure as I talk my head off about stuff. This time I believe, it's on the idiocy of the games industry. Copy-pasted from my Escapist thread.
I apologise in advance if this comes across as a great big melodramatic bitch, (which it pretty much is,) but I feel it needs to be said. Granted it is very long, I hope you read it but I can accept that when I rant I tend to go on for far too long so no hard feelings if you don't.
What's up with the games industry these days? All I seem to hear is stories about how more people are being laid off from Videogame Giant X and how these companies are placing the blame squarely at the feet of us, their customers. As far as they're concerned we pirate, cheat and lie our way to get their product without them getting any profit. We're horrible horrible people and should be treated like the criminals we may or may not be.
As a gamer I find myself having to jump through more and more hoops to try and play a game. I have lost count of the times I have signed on to online services to be allowed to play a game I have bought. That's not even the reason for this wee rant here, I've grudgingly come to accept this as a given now, granted I do often find myself weighing up the benefits of owning a game with the annoyance of having to find a way to be able to play it but that's my problem I guess.
My problem here is with the cluelessness of the game industry higher-ups. Recently the news has come through of EA's new nominal fee to buy codes to enable EA Sports gamers to play online. Granted this isn't going to be an issue for people who buy Madden 20XX because they're not the target of this new system. However those who enjoy renting, trading or reselling are going to find themselves having to pay a nominal fee to play online.
This comes most likely after the realisation of the games industry that, holy shit, people are trading renting and reselling games! I think the estimate was that a game may be traded, rented or resold up to four times in it's lifetime. The answer that idiots came up with was that game companies are only earning a quarter of what they should be!
Anyone with a brain will tell you that the very reason people do trade or rent or buy previously owned games is because they are people who don't want to buy a game. These aren't lost customers; they're just people who weren't keen to buy the game from the shelf and who most likely wouldn't have even if they had no other option. Fair enough too when, with EA Sports in mind, the same game is released every year - people don't want to necessarily buy the same game every year. What they do want is to be still able to play it so as to ensure that there will still be people to play with online.
But do I think it's wrong for companies to get a nominal fee from people who use their products without paying full price for it at a store? After all these are people who don't actually contribute to the game company but still benefit from the product.
Well yes I do think it's wrong.
Seems petty of me doesn't it, but really if I buy something that thing becomes mine and I should be able to do what I want with it as long as that falls within the law. This includes selling it to someone else. Now if someone is paying me for something shouldn't that thing also become theirs? EA doesn't think so, EA thinks that this person should buy the game from a store because they're a customer of EA's not of mine. Can you imagine if this same logic applied to everything else? If I sold my bike the person who bought it from me would have to pay a fee to Avanti before they're allowed to use it. If I sold my car the person who bought it from me would have to call Mitsubishi and hand over their credit card details to get a code for the engine so it would turn on.
But it seems the game industry's special.
Because it is after all us who are the reason for the recent decline in the industry. Us. We're the bad guys. It's not the fact that, with the recession in mind we may be less susceptible to buying full price games off the shelf and may be turning more to cheaper options of renting or buying pre-owned games. It's not the fact that after slowly accepting some of the hoops we have to jump through to play games we may be becoming less inclined to buy them because we're just not bothered any more. It's not the fact that in recent years the games industry has been working on perfecting ways to block out their customers.
Because that's what's happening. This may be a minor gripe but I'm a PC gamer, I pride myself on not having to subscribe to the systems that console gamers have to so they can buy add-ons and junk. It's one of the few advantages of being a PC gamer. If I want to buy a game or an expansion pack or a DLC add-on I can just take my credit card, pay and be done with it. Not so any more it seems. I bought Mass Effect 2, I enjoyed it a lot. I was keen to buy the DLC, even though what I've heard of it is nothing but "meh". But it seems I'm not allowed to purchase these things with money any more. I have to now buy arbitrary points in a system that is also broken, manipulative, sneaky and a bunch of other adjectives.
I've never likes the points systems. It's a cheap dishonest way to get more money out of your customers. It's a great idea, I'll give them that. How great is it to charge someone $20 for fifty "points" which they then spend to buy something they want that is selling for 30 points. Sure they can't buy something they want for the 20 remaining points but they can buy another 50 points for another $20 or maybe buy one of the things that aren't selling on their own merit, the things that sell only because people want to get rid of their 20 worthless points.
What would happen if a normal shop did this? Imagine buying "Pizza Club Tokens" when all you wanted was a pizza , ending up spending more than you wanted to on things you didn't want simply because these tokens or points or whatever you want to call them are completely and utterly worthless. It's a sneaky system that is used to manipulate customers and I think it's disgusting.
And people are getting sick of it I think. Personally I am finding myself spending a lot less on games recently. I didn't buy the Mass Effect 2 DLC because I couldn't be arsed jumping through the hoops. I certainly didn't buy Modern Warfare 2 for all the bollocks that came along with that and now that I think about it Mass Effect 2 is the only game I've bought this year, I only bought one game, (L4D2,) in the latest Xmas rush and, in the foreseeable future, I don't see any other title that will come along and make me want to buy it either. Game companies want to blame us for their decline well I blame them. If you constantly mess with your consumer base they will stop giving you money, it's simply how it works. People don't actually like being messed with and taken advantage of. I know; strange notion isn't it?
The games industry has been very lucky in the fact that gamers seem to be able to take the manipulation a lot better than other consumer bases can but, if the multiple layings-off is anything to go by, I think we're finally starting to get fed up and maybe it's being felt - unfortunately by the animators and programmers who's fault this isn't
Because the people who make these decisions and these manipulative systems are the ones at the top - the ones whose salaries are secure. I promise you this; if Bob Kotick's gargantuan salary or his millions in bonuses is ever threatened he'll just fire a couple hundred more employees.
And while this may be a very melodramatic rant I don't think the game industry is in decline or is going to die or anything quite that extreme, I am saying that the game industry is seemingly run by a group of idiots who can't see the bigger picture. I think that they're wondering why their goose isn't laying as many golden eggs as they're used to and they're just going to chop off it's head and look down it's throat to see what the problem is instead of thinking well maybe the old girl is just exhausted at the moment.
In conclusion, fuck Bob Kotick inter alia. If you're looking for the "tl;dr" that was it.