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I hate what video games have become

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Re: I hate what video games have become

#271

Post by Semaphor »

slightwinder wrote: post #253
Semaphor wrote: post #90

I’m glad there is this whole parallel universe of amazing single player (or MP-optional) games with absolutely no dark patterns, loot boxes or any of the shit people who play MP games have to put up with. I buy a game, and unless I get the DLC(s)/Expanions pack(s), that’s all I’ll ever have to pay. Civilization V: Over 2000 hours. Pathfinder: Kingmaker/Wrath of the righteous: Over 1000 hours each. Stellaris [0]: Almo…

Hasn't Paradox this sneaky thing going, where they put new mechanics from DLCs into the main game, but only useable by the AI? Thus shifting the balance slowly against the player and forcing them on the long run to buy DLCs to get a fair balanced game again. Similar to things happening in MMOs with extensions. A new extension usually forces most players to buy it fast, so they can continue to play with the other play…

Not for Stellaris, but considering that their games are pretty much about emergent stories, I wouldn’t even complain about it. For MP only the host needs to have the DLCs.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#272

Post by brailsafe »

flohofwoe wrote: post #186

This is just a self-inflicted bubble problem. There are now so many interesting games without any dark patterns on Steam alone that one can spend an entire lifetime playing awesome games without ever encountering a single loot box, just step a bit outside the AAA and mobile bubbles.

You're right, but only for you. This only works if all you want to do is play arbitrary interesting games, but that's almost never what anyone wants to do. The author liked Rocket League, and paid money for it, then disagreed with its direction. I like WoW. I disagree with a lot of its direction. Would I play anything else? Maybe, but probably not.

Everyone is playing Elden Ring. If I wanted to play it, but disagreed with the same things, I couldn't play other games and get the same experience.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#273

Post by wink »

codebolt wrote: post #266
wink wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's based on the platform. Nobody would've bat an eye at a Switch or PC game for an upfront cost, but asking 10$ for a mobile game was kinda unheard of. I think they misjudged the market response there. I can't say I'm not biased here, I basically hate 95% of all the mobile games I ever tried, or at least stopped playing after an hour - so a 10$ purchase for me would simply never happen, because I don't like the pla…

You could play the first 4 levels for free, like classical shareware. And it was released on both iPhone and Android.

Good point, then the argument is a little different, as it's more like an ingame unlock. I still think I remember the outrage about the price.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#274

Post by ajsnigrutin »

trinovantes wrote: post #93
cercatrova wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game trainers exist, at least on PC and Android. I feel no qualms about using trainers to grant myself unlimited in-game currency rather than buying their IAP ones.

Personally I enjoy games that bring a good challenge with the tools provided. The existence of IAP gates those tools or artificially inflates the challenge e.g. buy level boosts because the game purposely give little experience. I find giving myself unlimited resources (e.g. with cheat codes in the old days or with credit cards today) greatly diminishes the experience. At that point, why even bother playing? There's…

Oh come on... GTA(3, VC, SA) with cheats were great games to play... get all the weapons, be invincible, destroy everything, instead of a baseball bat, use a rocket launcher, instead of a bike, drive a tank.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#275

Post by ThatPlayer »

saithir wrote: post #188
telchior wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair criticism, but one that is only relevant in the first place because of freemium. Prior to that business model, there was no such thing as a company continuing to provide regular, ongoing support to a 7 year old game of the non-subscription variety. I mean, how or why would they? You release something; it makes 90% of its lifetime revenue in year 1; if you continue working on it for 6 more years, you're out of bu…

https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/Patches Yep, nothing to see here, no regular, ongoing support to a 20 year old game of the non-subscription variety at all. Warcraft 3 (from 2003) was similarly updated well into 2019. Now, most regular games only get 2 or 3 years of attention. > Along come NFTs, with potential permanent ownership... but gamers despise that idea, too. Oh no, how dare we despise things that anyone can…

That's only regular if you ignore the 8 years of no updates between patch 1.16.1 in January 2009 to 1.18 in 2017. The same year they released Remastered to sell people. They've since also added cosmetics in skins and voice announcers: https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/family/starcraft-remastered

Similarly Warcraft 3 had a 5 year gap between 1.26b in 2011 and 1.27a in 2016, which was probably about when they started development for Reforged, announced in 2018.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#276

Post by rockbruno »

sidlls wrote: post #25

Video games are like this because people pay for it. It didn’t start like this. Back when packaged games (i.e. shrink-wrapped cd/dvd cases) were the way games were delivered we had “online” modes that generally cost a fixed amount (including $0) to access. Then someone would experiment with something like a power up or level up for some tiny cost, or a “bundle” of them, etc. and guess what: the market overwhelmingly…

>Video games are like this because people pay for it.

I hate this argument because it implies you have any power in this situation. They don't do this because the majority likes it, they do it because there's a select group of whales that are willing to spend ungodly amounts of money on this crap. They're the ones who dictate how these games operate and no amount of "vote with your wallet" would change it.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#277

Post by idleproc »

flohofwoe wrote: post #186

This is just a self-inflicted bubble problem. There are now so many interesting games without any dark patterns on Steam alone that one can spend an entire lifetime playing awesome games without ever encountering a single loot box, just step a bit outside the AAA and mobile bubbles.

Partly. I stopped playing multiplayer games years ago because I was missing out on so many good single player ones. But wanting to play an online multiplayer game these days puts you in a very large bubble with very few options. After scanning the top 10 multiplayer games on twitch it seems the majority follow similar principles.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#278

Post by xeornet »

royjacobs wrote: post #194
prohobo wrote: post #183

This economic model for games is kind of required at this point, but the author is hitting on something true about the industry: it's not as good as it used to be. The golden age of gaming ended somewhere in 2005-ish, and now the vast majority of games are derivative and often worse than the originals in terms of gameplay. They sell because people like new content. They are also less about the art, and more about the…

>The golden age of gaming ended somewhere in 2005-ish. This kind of statement definitely requires a source. >They are also less about the art, and more about the money. There have never been more experimental and indie games released than now.

Not sure a source is required when he's simply providing an opinion, albeit assertively.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#279

Post by b112 »

mnsc wrote: post #117
tomatowurst wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's also super hard to build a great f2p and i think CSGO easily is the best. they bootstrapped it for almost 2 decades from a mod made by Minh Le to what it is today and I must say it is the only f2p game I regularly play. simply because it actually pays to play. I've made about $20 bucks this month from just selling cases given out randomly at the end of each match. It cost me nothing to buy yet the in game items…

> ... i think CSGO easily is the best ... > ... so it is a bit like gambling ... I hate what video games have become.

I hate what video games have become.

I think this is more than anything, an app store sickness.

It has spread a little to consoles and desktop, but I can still buy a 100% offline, single player game, which has the main purpose of entertaining me.

It has a story, a point to it, a mystery often, fun things to do which aren't mining or grinding away.

I pay 80 bucks for the privilege, and am quite happy to do so. It is worth it, giving me many hours of entertainment.

Some boast "oh I finished the game first run through in 8 hours" Really? Such players just ignore all the scenery, don't really explore, don't grasp the full mystery, just... fast fast! Gotta get this over with!

I play and take in the scenery, and games like the Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn are fun, take 50 to 100 hours to play this way.

Just reading things in-games, clues, discovering how these worlds got this way was 1/2 the fun of the game!

So stop playing on your portable addiction device. Its hold is more devious too, as it is always in your pocket.

Your PC, console, are with you on the bus. At work. In the kitchen.

Return to us, good sir. Return to real gaming.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#280

Post by HWR_14 »

yomly wrote: post #205
soultrees wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question out of curiosity - what do you get out spending that much on a game? I’ve heard some whales spending 10-20k a week and that’s probably not even the highest. Do you get genuine enjoyment out of it or do you ever feel fleeced at all?

I think those numbers are all relative? If you're a bored prince with billions of liquid cash and even more billions of yielding assets, do you really care about 10-20k of weekly outlays? Or reduce the scale, if you have 100k annual salary, do you miss that $3 a day you spend on coffee or $5 a week you spend on mobile gaming? ... or $15.99 a month you spend on Netflix? Everyone has a thing and a threshold they are co…

Some people have enough money that they don't care about the money. But other people become addicted and end up spending money they don't have.

Just like some people dropping 100k in Vegas in a weekend are paying for the experience and VIP treatment and others just need one more bet to replenish Johnnys college fund.

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