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I hate what video games have become

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Re: I hate what video games have become

#511

Post by decebalus1 »

Not sure I agree with such a sweeping opinion about 'what video games have become'. I've been playing video games since the early 90s and quite frankly I've never been happier with my gaming career like I've been in the past 4-5 years. And haven't been paying anything for it (aside from the price of the game). Maybe I'm playing the 'wrong' games? I also don't play any EA games out of principle..

I do agree with the underlying sentiment. But these pay for play schemes are so easy to ignore. I play CS:GO and get a lot of enjoyment out of it without paying for skins or special weapons or whatever.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#512

Post by ajmurmann »

holler wrote: post #66
dado3212 wrote: post #7

I have basically the opposite opinion of this article. I often hold up Rocket League as an example of a great free-to-play game. 1) You 100% can unlock a lot of cosmetic items through free play. 2) The items that you buy have absolutely no impact on gameplay and are just visuals. For the same reason that people wear nice clothes in real life, why are you surprised that some people want to look cool in a video game? A…

One complaint I've had with RL recently is that it seems like they've put all their energy into new visuals and cosmetics while leaving the game mostly unchanged. The standard multi ranked map sometimes feels boring and I've wondered why they don't add different types of maps to the mix; spheres, tubes, different physics, goals in the center, figure 8 map(?), embankments (like map in season 1), etc. I guess it's simp…

They added those types of arenas years ago and removed them all. In the ranked games these honestly felt to gimmicky and I'm pleased that the differences between arenas are now only cosmetic.

They still keep adding other game modes some of which are only there for a few days.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#513

Post by babyshake »

> Like you are watching Avengers End game in Netflix and they ask you if you wanna pay 5 dollars more to watch Captain America use his well known outfit instead of regular clothes?

I don't think it would be this exactly, but I can absolutely see this type of thing happening.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#514

Post by Spinnaker_ »

jerf wrote: post #472
failrate wrote: post #428

There are so many new and dufferent games being created at all times, I defy you to even point in a general direction and say "this is what video games are". Coupled with that is the horrible viewpoint that the money for your game is now "wasted", which assumes that most everything we buy is kept, when in reality, most of what we buy is transient: food, energy, garments.

Most people who say this mean "this is what AAA video games are". Rocket League is arguably not AAA but is clearly taking its more recent changes from it. As you say, many new things are being created, and the solution for the most part is simple: Don't buy AAA. It has almost no appeal to me anymore, and even when I hear about some franchise I like or used to like, I just assume the worst if it's making the leap to A…

I don't think it's necessarily AAA games. I don't game much anymore, but the last five games I played are: Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of The Wild. None of them have the problems mentioned.

It seems like it's really easy to avoid microtransactions, etc.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#515

Post by xeromal »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #502
xeromal wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in your camp. I'd posit an additional piece of my thinking. I feel like gaming, even with microtransactions, is probably one of the most affordable pieces of entertainment you can have. During covid, the height of my old-man gaming, I was probably playing an hour or two each day and 4 hours each weekend. That's about 700-800 hours a year I play. If I spent 200$ in skins on COD's battlepass, that is still an incre…

I think I saw that some of the old arcade games were actually rigged to get harder at certain points to get more quarters/tokens put in them, then there was the countdown timer after you died where you could continue if you put more money in. Video games are for-profit companies and these days they are in heavy competition with each other and all the other distractions around. I can easily spend about $40-50 to go to…

Yeah, that's exactly what I was getting at. I've wasted way more money on bad movies than games.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#516

Post by 650REDHAIR »

idleproc wrote: post #277
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.

My biggest problem with MP games is that there is little room for casual gamers in these competitive games anymore. It stops being fun when you get dunked on repeatedly and it’s getting harder to find community servers where people are playing for fun and not to win and clip it for twitch/YouTube/tiktok.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#517

Post by Kiro »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #500
Kiro wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in most games I know what I'm getting so there's no randomness. I buy a chest of 1000 gems in order to buy X in game. How is that gambling? Sure, some games force the randomness on me through chests with unknown content but that's not what I'm paying for.

"Chest of gems" != Loot box (which is probably what freedom2099 meant when they said "chests")

Not sure why you're telling me that. freedom2099 is the one conflating things. The article is about Rocket League, a game without loot boxes.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#518

Post by vl »

auto wrote: post #372
jimmyjazz14 wrote: post #363

Over the last few years I have gotten hundred of hours of enjoyment from games like League of Legends, Valorant and Halo Infinite and couldn't even tell you how to spend money on those games if I wanted to. I honestly doubt I would have ever picked up any of those games if they were not free and I'm guessing since many other would say the same thing the lobbies would be empty and the games would die. In those case th…

My experience lines up with yours, as a looong time Halo veteran who is a bit bummed with the state of Infinite, I'm happy to not pay a cent, despite spending thousands on Halo over the years. I've also spent a decent amount of the previous year playing Valorant, and I almost feel bad that I've paid nothing for it, but the the problem is that apparently the economists Riot employs have figured the sweet spot for sell…

> despite spending thousands on Halo over the years

But how could you have spent thousands? Original Halos don’t have micro transactions.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#519

Post by gknoy »

paulmd wrote: post #405
__ryan__ wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look “good”? Come on. If not having the Pickle Rick decal for your car makes you play worse it has nothing to do with looking “good”. Perhaps look “like I own this exclusive cosmetic”, which applies to offline as well, don’t you think? The real problem is that loot boxes are gambling, and are addictive, period. It triggers something in otherwise rational people, especially children, that makes it feel good to spend m…

At some level it probably does. Even in Rocket League, which is more cosmetic than most, if your teammates are passing to you more than they would have with the default skin, then you'll do better. As a medic in team fortress 2, I usually pocket and ubercharge the players with cosmetics. It's an important team resource, and the odds of someone with a "default" skin making good use of it are fairly low. Much like plum…

This is the first really good example I've seen of cosmetics having a gameplay effect. I hate that it's true, but I really appreciate you mentioning it -- signalling of skill is super valuable, and if cosmetics are a reliable enough signal, that's interesting.

Re: I hate what video games have become

#520

Post by stuu99 »

oneoff786 wrote: post #459
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #430

The fact that all consoles charge money for "online play" irks me. I mean the internet is there for a reason.

Online play typically involves servers to authoritatively host the game. It’s not just “the Internet”.

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