Preface - It's never cool to be mean to developers or the rando who is running an official social media account online. Be cool.
One thing I will never understand about gaming and gamers™® is that they always seems to justify their own poor treatment. Worse yet they attack others for pointing out the way they are mistreated. Whenever I see good honest players point out that a system is predatory or designed in a plainly unfair way, other gamers™® will undoubtedly come in and defend that bad thing. It's so odd that gamers™® can min-max everything but can't seem to factor in the fact they are getting less than they used to. It's like digital inflation. Games are more costly in upfront costs, hardware cost, time costs, and yet are getting worse in general.
I'm very much anti-battle pass/anti-season pass/anti-microtransaction all that sort of stuff. I'm old-school, just want to buy a thing and have the thing and have the thing be whole and complete. That said there are semi-decent ways to implement a system that is profitable for the vampire executives and also don't siphon every single coin players have. It's so weird to me that gamers™® not only keep buying into these systems but seem to defend them so vigorously online.
From "Pay to Win" to weird obtuse purchasable currencies/resources to needlessly limited time rewards to create artificial scarcity (pre-order, in-game store "deals", general fear of missing out practices), all dark patterns make games worse. Gamers™® defend these things saying "I DoN'T HaVe tHiS PrObLeM. iT MuSt bE A SkIlL IsSuE!" or whatever dumb shit. Every dark pattern in modern gaming is making the games people play worse intentionally. People talk about the enshittification of internet all the time but gaming as a medium/hobby has been enshittifiying since the advent of Xbox LIVE. The worst part about it to me is seeing such vocal defense for it online (social media at large, game forums, comment sections of gaming news/articles). It's not just that sort of conceding "well what can't ya do?", it's more so this spirited "This is good actually, and you're not a REAL GAMER if you don't like this."
For example a decent battle-pass (regardless of the game/genre) usually rewards players with enough in-game premium currency to buy the next one and maybe have enough left over for an item or two. That way it keeps you locked for longer and feeds into the habit forming design dark pattern we all hate. You're constantly having just enough premium currency to buy something, and topping off your balance is just a few extra coins if need be. Yes, people talk about the "whales" and "minnows" but even just the regular players and worse yet the gamers™® get a bad deal. Setting the fact this is a dark pattern aside (however I can't stress enough how mobile gaming's/casino gaming inspired dark patterns have made gaming worse), it's bonkers to me that gamers™® just say "VoTe wItH YoUr wAlLeT BrO!". They will say that or these sorts of things support the development of the game, knowing full well that that money isn't recycled and invested into the betterment of the game.
It's just so strange to me that gaming of all things has grown worse in just about every way since 2000's and yet the online culture around it seems to take pride in it being so bad. It's so strange that gamers™® can datamine the most Ph.D level mathematical optimal way to play through a game before it's even released but can't seem to parse that games should respect them. Games should treat them better. Games should be better.
: "Wow this system sucks. We should either get more rewards faster or things shouldn't cost so much. I like this game but damn this system blows, and it probably doesn't have to. The developers should be better to us."
: "If you don't like it don't play it. If it were bad it wouldn't be popular."
My larger point is gamers™® are bad, gaming should be better, player != gamers™®.
I'm very much anti-battle pass/anti-season pass/anti-microtransaction all that sort of stuff. I'm old-school, just want to buy a thing and have the thing and have the thing be whole and complete. That said there are semi-decent ways to implement a system that is profitable for the vampire executives and also don't siphon every single coin players have. It's so weird to me that gamers™® not only keep buying into these systems but seem to defend them so vigorously online.
I think it's partially that it's all they've ever known/can remember, and partially behavioral conditioning. They've been conditioned to think that number go up/"progress" systems are essential to gameplay and cannot remember a time when they were a bizarre, confusing, and unwelcome addition. This bullshit started, afaik, with Battlefield 2 all the way back in 2005 when each class had 1 (one) single alternate unlockable weapon. It's been 20 years but I remember being confused and wondering what the point was. 2006 gave us Oblivions horse armor, and after that everything gradually went to hell.
There was a time when PvP players were viscerally angry about anything that gave mechanical advantages to one player over another. Now people broadly support "progression" systems that require to play for dozens of hours to unlock doodads that make weapons mechanically better, meaning that new players are playing at a disadvantage for a long time, probably much longer than the average player's total play time, before they're on equal footing.
I think it's partially that it's all they've ever known/can remember, and partially behavioral conditioning. They've been conditioned to think that number go up/"progress" systems are essential to gameplay and cannot remember a time when they were a bizarre, confusing, and unwelcome addition.
That is frustratingly accurate. I know that tech advances at hyperspeed but it's wild that this much has changed in 20 years. This is some real hauntology/lost futures shit man.
It happens with so many things. Kids who came of age post 9/11, well white kids anyway, have no conception of a time when flying didn't require you to be herded in to a federal checkpoint. Zoomers don't remember snow falls from before the extreme climate fluctuations. They don't remember a world with far, far more insects.
People are continually shocked when they learn that the US had free college and it was deliberately dismantled to keep black people out of higher education. They don't realize that Welfare has been deliberately dismantled since the 80s. They don't remember a world before "Shareholder value" and "Fiduciary Duty" kicked capitalist auto-cannibalization in to high gear. They don't remember a world before "No Child Left Behind", tech billionaire pushes to turn schools in to coder assembly lines, Christian fascist assaults on education, and massive de-funding transformed US schools in to a continual process of cramming for useless standardized tests.
All this shit is just normal to them, and always has been, and if you don't read old novels and watch old movies and understand that many of the things depicted in them really were normal you'll never know it was ever like that.
I think the worst would be seeing the social benefits and free education before being old enough to use them and then needing them after they were gone.
"Accesibility options that help disadvantaged people are bad actually because it may take away resources from my bideo bame and/or somehow prevent others from having the True Authentic Intended Hardcore Experience(tm)" is a strand of that needs to be dewormed immediately.
see also "IT'S AGAINST THE ARTISTIC VISION TO MAKE GAME ACCESSIBLE!"
Some people get really fucking gatekeepy about how other people that they never met ought/should/must play the bideo bame, and get really mad at even the suggestion of accessibility/difficulty options.
i really like my games bastard hard, but if someone wants to play those games on an easy mode, why would i care?
if anything i want people to experience the fun games i likeAdding accessibility options for people is great! I think you get a better design overall when accessibility is considered from the jump rather than bolted on post-release. I have never understood how things like adding some basic options somehow aren't "aUtHeNtIc gAmEpLaY ExPeRiEnCe". It's so fuckin' weird that other people not being able to play game is somehow proof it's a "ReAL" game. It's just so weird that these dorks and dweebs feel like exclusionary design is cool, especially when so many of them are excluded from other things in life and know how much it sucks.
I prefer my games hard because it gives me satisfaction when I win by the skin of my teeth. But I also prefer single player games because if something keeps fucking me up I can mod or cheat and move on to having fun.
Because I want to have fun. If somebody needs a cheat or easy mode to have fun that's no problem to me. Especially on single player. Like that changes nothing for me on my end. Who cares. I know gamers "care" in that they mistake their infantile gatekeeper shtick is a personality trait. But, you know, fuck those people.
good post 10/10
i would add that cosmetic microtransactions are also terrible
Agreed. I like alternate costumes, hell even joke costumes, but after a certain point the aesthetic falls apart in a noticeable way. Sometimes cosmetics feel really good and fit in the game world super well. Other times they just ugly, or overly designed, or worse yet confusing that doesn't convey information properly to the player. In general, I don't like having to open my wallet for these sorts of goodies either way. It should just be rewards for playing the game.
I rememeber when TF2 came out and they talked about how carefully crafted each character's silhouette was to convey essential game information. Then... hats.
Now there are few games where you can tell what team a player is on if they don't have an icon over their head.
I rememeber when TF2 came out and they talked about how carefully crafted each character's silhouette was to convey essential game information. Then... hats.
Oh yeah, the general shape of each class was so clear and distinct. I don't think hates were too much of a problem, I actually have more issue with some of the visual effects on the hats, cosmetic items, and some of the weapons. It's so much visual "noise" in an already noisy game. Even as a player with ~500 hours in the game it's a bit much to manage, not impossible but it's just kinda over doing it these day. It wouldn't be so bad if there were a way to disable it or something but it really creates a noticeable rift between the current game and the rather "old" (in relative gaming terms) game.
Maybe it's a combo of me not bothering with most modern games and being a grumpus but I feel like after cosmetics became the norm "friendly fire" stopped being as ubiquitous in online team games.
TF2 is largely still like that. Newer games have definitely let that go a bit in order to have wackier cosmetics. Especially games that have a massive number of characters to choose from. It's mutually exclusive to have cosmetics and make those games playable.
Removing the first 9 hats introduced with no explanation beyond a meme letter by Saxton Hale was such brazen market manipulation, I honestly can't believe they got away with it.
Like, as much as I love TF2's weird ass lore, I have to remind myself that the entire universe's goofy vibe was amplified by their hippy-bashing microtransaction mascot.
Good shit. I need to check that website. I have nothing to add except to say we used to have cheat codes. In a way, the cheat codes still exist but now cost money. Pay to skip is basically a level warp code you have to now pay. Pay to win is basically god mode cheat you have to now pay.
Battle pass is a type of monetization approach that provides additional content for a game usually through a tiered system, rewarding the player with in-game items for playing the game and completing specific challenges. It's a sort of opt-in rewards system in games. They are very popular in online games.
NO we should stop being so negative and cease complaining! And buy the 37362637 Expansion Story sims Pack from EA for 40$ so you can send your child to school or something
