Entitled gamers, corrupt press and greedy publishers

[patsu]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-21-entitled-gamers-corrupt-press-and-greedy-publishers

[size=-2]... and [strike]mature[/strike] degenerated Internet[/size]

We should revisit this topic every year.

 

[Davros]

Its can of worms time...

 

[mrcorbo]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-21-entitled-gamers-corrupt-press-and-greedy-publishers

[SIZE=-2]... and [strike]mature[/strike] degenerated Internet[/SIZE]

We should revisit this topic every year.

That was a good read. Thanks.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I particularly love this line

The Internet has matured to the point where everybody has a voice, and the barriers separating the voice of the well-informed from the probably insane have never been lower.

Honestly, I think the problem he's describing is not unique to the game industry. It's pretty much any company that sells a good or a service, including government. The relationship between the customer, the media and the provider/producer is basically out-of-whack, for good reasons and bad.

I personally find it very hard to read any kind of media now, because once I hit the comments section I just want to start a running rampage.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

And the developers?

There's the content-able and childishly "always-want-more" gamers, the corrupt and non-corrupt press, the too-greedy and the respectful-for-their-clients publishers mentioned in the article.

What about the developers? Developers who deceive about what they will deliver, who take the lead on draconian DRM themselves, developers who want to take away the pleasure of a good single-player campaign from gamers.

As far as I see it, there are good and evil developers too. Yet it seems that everyone tends to treat them as if they were the gods of benevolence and they must not be mentioned in this war of interests.

 

[MfA]

I blame sequels ... industry wants sequels, it doesn't have the professionalism to keep them on target (quality, intended audience, fundamental gameplay, atmosphere, etc). Whether it's a good game or not doesn't even enter into it at that point, you are betraying expectations ... and you're going to suffer for it.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Personally, I think the devs/publishers can start complaining only when they stop taking money for unfinished/faulty products, and stop blackmailing the press to get undeserved good reviews.

I point the finger squarely at the devs and publishers for the toxic relationship they've encouraged with both the press and their customers.

 

[tuna]

I blame sequels ... industry wants sequels, it doesn't have the professionalism to keep them on target (quality, intended audience, fundamental gameplay, atmosphere, etc). Whether it's a good game or not doesn't even enter into it at that point, you are betraying expectations ... and you're going to suffer for it.

Industry wants sequels? Look at all the people asking for Mirror's Edge 2!

 

[RedVi]

I blame sequels ... industry wants sequels, it doesn't have the professionalism to keep them on target (quality, intended audience, fundamental gameplay, atmosphere, etc). Whether it's a good game or not doesn't even enter into it at that point, you are betraying expectations ... and you're going to suffer for it.

Sequels are quite different in the gaming world because of the rapidly evolving capabilities. Sure, the COD type sequels make no sense to me - that's just an immature audience wanting infinitely more. Me, I like good stories and execution. I sometimes feel like a game is perfect as an ending to the series, but still feel like I want more. The main reason I want more however, is because of what could be done with newer technology - say, next generation. It's not because I want the story to continue. I guess in this way, a story agnostic approach like Final Fantasy makes the most sense.

 

[MfA]

Industry wants sequels? Look at all the people asking for Mirror's Edge 2!

So? I didn't say they only wanted sequels, I said they can't keep on target worth shit while making them.

I want Mirror's Edge 2, I don't want a standard "tactical" shooter with a different main character with parkour tacked on and a completely different visual style ... which is something the gaming industry is perfectly able to deliver and will get them a lot of hate.

 

[patsu]

I particularly love this line



Honestly, I think the problem he's describing is not unique to the game industry. It's pretty much any company that sells a good or a service, including government. The relationship between the customer, the media and the provider/producer is basically out-of-whack, for good reasons and bad.

I personally find it very hard to read any kind of media now, because once I hit the comments section I just want to start a running rampage.

Yap.

In the gaming world, I also noticed that at times, the vocal consumers think they are the developers, the publishers think they need to be controlled by the press (metacritics), and the press think they are the consumers (What's journalism ?).

Perhaps we have misunderstood Internet.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Sequels are quite different in the gaming world because of the rapidly evolving capabilities. Sure, the COD type sequels make no sense to me - that's just an immature audience wanting infinitely more. Me, I like good stories and execution. I sometimes feel like a game is perfect as an ending to the series, but still feel like I want more. The main reason I want more however, is because of what could be done with newer technology - say, next generation. It's not because I want the story to continue. I guess in this way, a story agnostic approach like Final Fantasy makes the most sense.

That's a bit narrow sighted and derogatory, no?

I always want "more of the same" of the games I enjoy.

Loved Syndicate 1 and 2, wanted more of the same. EA ruined it by shoveling out that POS Syndicate recently.

I loved Wasteland. Thank god there was a Kickstarter to offer "more of the same" as I would have blown a fuse if Wasteland 2 wasn't the same as Wasteland.

I loved Hitman all the way up until they decided to make the lastest Hitman nothing like the previous ones and made it more of a linear piece of poo.

I loved Final Fantasy until they decided that they wanted something more like realtime combat. Bleh. Give me more of the first 7 Final Fantasies and less of the ones that followed.

Wanting more of what you enjoy doesn't mean you are immature. I'm well past middle age. I started computer and console gaming back in the 1970's. I shudder in fear and loathing everytime I hear some publisher or developer say they are "reinventing" the game.

Oh, and I like COD single player, thank you very much.

Imagine the rage if a God of War game came out that didn't offer more of the same? And was instead a first person shooter with a modern reborn Kratos. Or if the next Uncharted game turns out to be a top down action RPG? Or if Doom 4 was released as a 3rd person cover shooter with QTEs. Or the next Killzone is a tower defense game.

Regards,
SB

 

[Acert93]

And stirring the pot are the invisible, "Vocal gamers on corporate payola" that pretend to be consumers but are the worst parts of the corporate/journalism worlds.

 

[Cyan]

Sometimes one just wants to outrage. That's capitalism.
But thinking about it twice, money gouging is not restricted to videogames alone, and a few game publishers are not exactly the worst when it comes to that either. Capcom are one of the worst though, so are Activision -I still have unfinished business with them, but I won't be getting my well earned money back)

You want to protest and yell at times, yet one still ends up buying the game.

CliffyB said recently that if people are really outraged they ought to vote with their dollars/euros/whatever and not buy those games, and send a message, but no one ever does it seems.

Also, some features are relevant to the casual or non hardcore gaming public, how much they add of those features to really gain market is another story.

The market is going to dictate how games are going to be made, if every Tom, Dick and Harry want to play COD -BF3 like games, that's what people will make.

Gaming is not the "casual" industry it used to be, now they make more money than some movies...

 

[Akumajou]

Now?

Videogames made money than movies since Halo 2 broke ridiculous sales records in less than a month when it launched in 2004...

Although it might be debatable which game set or broke records (in comparison to films sales) earlier...


Also the "corporate payola vocal gamers" are very poisonous to this industry.

 

[tuna]

I loved Final Fantasy until they decided that they wanted something more like realtime combat. Bleh. Give me more of the first 7 Final Fantasies and less of the ones that followed.

FF8, 9, 10 play very similar to 7. And playing them again makes me feel that ATB is ready for the grave.

 

[Cornsnake]

Let's see we have the developers / publishers that make games with a attitude of release now, patch later, or maybe not. If your game has some critical bug no-one else seems to have, good look luck trying to get it fixed. They implement DRM schemes that make piracy all the more appealing. And they try to nickel and dime us at every turn trying to make pay to win games.

And then we have the gaming press who can't even admit that some of the questionable things they do could create the mere perception of them being untrustworthty. That side with the developers / publishers sooner then they would with their readers when they could just as easily have taken a neutral stance.

And now we have the word "Entitlement" thrown around like an insult. So how the hell does that make me want to buy your games or read your website?

IMO part of why that happens is because they rarely have to deal with gamers directly. Gamers are just like any other consumers, un-informed about the product they want to buy, and make stupid requests all the time. But you wouldn't insult them to their faces because they would take their money elsewhere.

All of this has been getting worse lately. And if you want to take this to the furthest possible extreme then we find a different hobby, and they go out of business. It probably won't get that far, but the AAA industry is putting itself at risk here. They need the most money stay in business, yet for us it's never been easier to play games outside of the AAA industry. Gearbox destroying it's reputation with Alien: Colonial Marines will hurt them. The way EA handled the new Sim City will decrease that game's lifetime sales and hurt the next game's chances. They already pulled the plug on the Medal of Honor franchise.

And when their terrible business practices come back to bite them is the ass we aren't supposed to point and laugh at them, because people might lose their jobs over this. Your losing money is because of your stupid decisions, not because anyone is laughing at you. Maybe the problem here is they don't like to be treated the same way they treat others. If only there was a solution to that.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, making a good game is hard. They should not try to use cheap marketing tactics to push sales artificially. Bad product should die a natural death. The more they enrage the users (e.g., bad product/service sold as gold, badmouthing competition instead of improving their own products), the more negative we will become when we found out the truth.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

CliffyB said recently that if people are really outraged they ought to vote with their dollars/euros/whatever and not buy those games, and send a message, but no one ever does it seems.

I do. Rocksteady will never see a penny of money from me ever due to the crap they pulled with Batman: AA on PC.

Bioware will never see another penny from me ever again due to how they absolutely ruined Dragon's Age and to a lesser extent Mass Effect.

Bethesda is currently on probation from me for ruining the Fallout IP (IMO) and dumbing TES into the ground.

EA is on my do not buy list for not selling their games on Steam. But that's more of a general "I don't buy anything unless it's on Steam" unless it's something extraordinary (Blizzard games and Guild Wars 2 are the only exceptions in the past 5 years).

So, yes, I definitely don't give developers or publishers my money if I don't like what they've done.

So, lots of games I'll never get to play unless I do it at a friend's house. But that's no big deal as I already don't have enough free time to play all the games I want to play.

Regards,
SB

 

[RedVi]

That's a bit narrow sighted and derogatory, no?

I always want "more of the same" of the games I enjoy.

Fair enough, I just feel that there is a dire need for quality over quantity with some franchises. That was my point. I'd rather an approach where each instalment of a game spans one generation, with maybe an offshoot that doesn't belong in the same universe as the main game. That's me, and that's based on single player story driven games. I'm willing to be patient to see something done right, and done in ways that couldn't be done with the last due to technological restraints. It's great when they can refine a game 3+ times in one generation, but I've been finding these types of sequels far too lacking for my taste this time around (COD, Uncharted, etc. etc.).