Let's Start with Gamers
All right. So, in my newfound mission to say all the controversial things, let's talk about Gamespot. They've a couple interesting articles lately dealing with gamers and how we're kind of dumb and entitled, and both of these at the same time.
This article pertains to how dumb we gamers are. It talks about how we used to get all the things for free, and now we can't anymore because the companies know we'll pay for it. It's about that without ever quite coming out and saying so, and trying to sound like we actually have a chance at saving ourselves.
This article deals with the entitlement issues. The summary is that a female developer for Bioware got bullied for ten days straight on Twitter due to some commentary she made on design and making games more appealing to a wider audience. Gamespot agrees with her. I do too. However, the first rule of the Internet applies here: do not read the comments if you want to keep your faith in humanity.
So, the first article talks about the current scheme of the developers to take as much money as they can from us. It doesn't talk about the attempts of developers to discourage the sale of used games, but instead deals with how companies try to maximize their profits on new properties. If you play video games at all, you're familiar with the most common version of this practice: downloadable content (DLC) that you have to pay for. Developers like that, because it's easier to expand on a successful IP than to develop a completely new one from the ground up, and there's substantial profit to be made there.
They're going for more than that, however. Newer releases are now coming out with things like soundtracks, promotional comics, art books, and things like that. Things that used to come for free with the game. The article totes Atlus as one of the developers who still adhere to the old-fashioned way, which they do. Their Persona series comes with all kinds of neat extras that you don't pay a dime for.
That is what it used to be like. I remember getting my copy of Earthbound when I was a kid. It came with this great player's guide that was half about the tips, and half about being part of the surreal, delightful experience that was Earthbound. It even came with scratch and sniff cards in the back. I scratched and sniffed all them damn things. Because they were there. I didn't have to pay extra for that. Now, if I want to get things extra I have to pay a couple bucks for 'em. Sometimes more.
The Gamespot article ends on the note of "Rah, we are teh consumers, let us fight back." But the reality is that we won't. The article acknowledges the lies of the industry, and how we numbly accept it. Frankly, the industry banks on it, and they know we'll keep shelling out the bucks.
Keep in mind. You can play MMOGs for free, and you can still find people who want to pay for this shit. We are begging the industry to take our money, and the only thing they're doing wrong is obliging us.
Which kind of plays into the entitlement article I mentioned as well. Jennifer Hepler is a developer working for Bioware who made a point six years ago (!) that not everybody likes to play games for the gamey bits. Video games aren't exactly going to replace books or films anytime soon, but the truth is that they are becoming a medium for telling stories in their own right. The most recent example of this was LA Noire, a story-driven sandbox game where the action parts of the story could be skipped after three failures to complete.
It didn't exactly bring down the industry. Furthermore, it probably did more to make that game in particular more appealing to a wider audience, which is what all the companies want. It's a business. They want more customers. The only thing Hepler did wrong was to acknowledge it and to admit that, from a design perspective, certain aspects of gameplay can turn off prospective gamers.
What happened was that gamers basically ganged up on her online and spent 10 days bullying her like crazy. It's a stupid, senseless thing that shows exactly how deficient most gamers are just in terms of being people. Acknowledging that developers want to make games that are fun for people who don't want to play games? Harlot!
Amazingly, when the studio manager for the Edmonton branch gave up on communicating with these unreasonable people, they became even more unreasonable: tweets and social media lit up with commentary about how Bioware has stopped caring about its most 'loyal fans' who want to offer 'genuine criticism.'
How sad to realize that these most loyal fans are basically a bunch of bastards who fail to understand the difference between respectful disagreement and saying a woman is like Hitler.
Honestly, I kind of hope Bioware just destroys these people. The company deserves better for all the hard work that they put in. They do community right. It's a shame their community is such shit. Any reservations I might have felt for blowing a cool hundred bucks on the collector's edition of Mass Effect 3 are pretty much gone - that company deserves my business for standing up for its employees and for having to play with such a bad hand.
tl;dr: gamers suck and should die in a fire. Except for the cool ones. I'm friends with them. :)
This article pertains to how dumb we gamers are. It talks about how we used to get all the things for free, and now we can't anymore because the companies know we'll pay for it. It's about that without ever quite coming out and saying so, and trying to sound like we actually have a chance at saving ourselves.
This article deals with the entitlement issues. The summary is that a female developer for Bioware got bullied for ten days straight on Twitter due to some commentary she made on design and making games more appealing to a wider audience. Gamespot agrees with her. I do too. However, the first rule of the Internet applies here: do not read the comments if you want to keep your faith in humanity.
So, the first article talks about the current scheme of the developers to take as much money as they can from us. It doesn't talk about the attempts of developers to discourage the sale of used games, but instead deals with how companies try to maximize their profits on new properties. If you play video games at all, you're familiar with the most common version of this practice: downloadable content (DLC) that you have to pay for. Developers like that, because it's easier to expand on a successful IP than to develop a completely new one from the ground up, and there's substantial profit to be made there.
They're going for more than that, however. Newer releases are now coming out with things like soundtracks, promotional comics, art books, and things like that. Things that used to come for free with the game. The article totes Atlus as one of the developers who still adhere to the old-fashioned way, which they do. Their Persona series comes with all kinds of neat extras that you don't pay a dime for.
That is what it used to be like. I remember getting my copy of Earthbound when I was a kid. It came with this great player's guide that was half about the tips, and half about being part of the surreal, delightful experience that was Earthbound. It even came with scratch and sniff cards in the back. I scratched and sniffed all them damn things. Because they were there. I didn't have to pay extra for that. Now, if I want to get things extra I have to pay a couple bucks for 'em. Sometimes more.
The Gamespot article ends on the note of "Rah, we are teh consumers, let us fight back." But the reality is that we won't. The article acknowledges the lies of the industry, and how we numbly accept it. Frankly, the industry banks on it, and they know we'll keep shelling out the bucks.
Keep in mind. You can play MMOGs for free, and you can still find people who want to pay for this shit. We are begging the industry to take our money, and the only thing they're doing wrong is obliging us.
Which kind of plays into the entitlement article I mentioned as well. Jennifer Hepler is a developer working for Bioware who made a point six years ago (!) that not everybody likes to play games for the gamey bits. Video games aren't exactly going to replace books or films anytime soon, but the truth is that they are becoming a medium for telling stories in their own right. The most recent example of this was LA Noire, a story-driven sandbox game where the action parts of the story could be skipped after three failures to complete.
It didn't exactly bring down the industry. Furthermore, it probably did more to make that game in particular more appealing to a wider audience, which is what all the companies want. It's a business. They want more customers. The only thing Hepler did wrong was to acknowledge it and to admit that, from a design perspective, certain aspects of gameplay can turn off prospective gamers.
What happened was that gamers basically ganged up on her online and spent 10 days bullying her like crazy. It's a stupid, senseless thing that shows exactly how deficient most gamers are just in terms of being people. Acknowledging that developers want to make games that are fun for people who don't want to play games? Harlot!
Amazingly, when the studio manager for the Edmonton branch gave up on communicating with these unreasonable people, they became even more unreasonable: tweets and social media lit up with commentary about how Bioware has stopped caring about its most 'loyal fans' who want to offer 'genuine criticism.'
How sad to realize that these most loyal fans are basically a bunch of bastards who fail to understand the difference between respectful disagreement and saying a woman is like Hitler.
Honestly, I kind of hope Bioware just destroys these people. The company deserves better for all the hard work that they put in. They do community right. It's a shame their community is such shit. Any reservations I might have felt for blowing a cool hundred bucks on the collector's edition of Mass Effect 3 are pretty much gone - that company deserves my business for standing up for its employees and for having to play with such a bad hand.
tl;dr: gamers suck and should die in a fire. Except for the cool ones. I'm friends with them. :)