Gaming Thoughts Of The Day 2.0

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

Nah, fuck that Riku is a dickhead. if he can't even respect me and quote my post that answers the questions he just asked, then I don't respect him.

[Bluecast]

[Bluecast]

Nah, fuck that Riku is a dickhead. if he can't even respect me and quote my post that answers the questions he just asked, then I don't respect him.

I somehow missed where he cut your post. Apologies.

[Sonikku]

http://www.capcom-unity.com/brelston/bl ... th-goodies

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

I can see both sides of the argument (minus the disrespectfulness on both sides), but honestly agree with Riku as it's stuff ive also said in the past here. These are businesses, not your mother. They want your money first and foremost. If you give them it you're just saying it's ok to continue doing that business practice. They will never stop and always push the boundries consumers are willing to work with.

This is a major problem I see with the world in general. Making money is not a religion. Capitalism doesn't mean "do anything to get rich". Its more profitable to exploit the employment laws of underdeveloped nations, does that make it right? No, no matter how much anyone tries to justify it or say its a choice or any other kind of excuse, a human being should know that exploiting someone for a gain is wrong.

That aside for just a moment, the whole idea that people "vote with a purchase" is skewed. Using the Garage example, buying many new games is like going to a garage thats got 5 stars in the yellow pages, everyone tells you its a great place so you take your car there and pay them to fix it, but then after they get that first payment, they start taking parts off from it, then selling them back to you, and when you get down to it they didn't even do the work you wanted.

Leaving personal opinions completely out of it, were all the final Fantasy 13 trailers videos of Lightning running in a straight line? When the PC demo for Dragon Age 2 was released it supported gamepad controls. All of the marketing for Dead Space focused on reanimated corpses and the commercials and trailers for Resident Evil 6 were based mostly on Leon's campaign. Game companies lie, and reviewers help them. Again Personal feelings aside, if you love or hate those things theres still the truth that Leon's campaign is only 1/4th of the game, dead space 3 features a futuristic city section and enemies that shoot back at you, Dragon Age 2 doesn't support the gamepad on PC and Final Fantasy was not filled with large sweeping fields and populated cities.

How would you know you hate it? The reviews are telling you you'll get what you want, the company is telling you you'll get what you want, but at the end of it all people keep finding its a lie. They thought they were voting for something they wanted but instead the company has their money and lots of it. Now add in the fact that the company might have already turned a profit and the actual weight of each vote is again decreased.

This model does not allow people to vote with their wallets, look at DMC. Capcom reboot the series despite DMC4 being their best selling game. I'm not bringing it up to harp, thats the numbers to it, I'm happy with the game that came out of it, but thats not what people wanted.

[Who Really Cares?]

Rable Rable

Video games are the same as any business. You wouldn't take your car to a garage if you didn't like how they dealt with it. You wouldn't go to a resturant if you didn't like what they did to the meat. As a consumer we vote with our wallet.

If you really think a 'company' should loose money as a business plan then you're deluded.

In the case of Mass Effect 3 if you didn't like how they handled the game you shouldn't put one penny towards it.

The problem in ME3's case was the big flaws were never pointed out in the reviews meaning most bought it at launch before the shit storm started. If i had known it was rushed and offered no real closure to the main story i would have waited till it was cheap or 2nd hand but because i really like ME1 and enjoyed 2 enough i got 3 at launch.

But looking on the Bioware forums and others many are saying the series [and in some cases Bioware games] are no longer day 1 buys for them. Me included simply because i don't like the direction they have gone under EA.

[Bluecast]

Voting with your wallet is skewed in some cases. Mainly in the examples given or just big AAA games like that. Which leads games with Micro Transaction to be more common. Full agree with the last two posts.

That said it can sometimes work. Xseed. The Last Story is the best selling game for them.
NOA was shocked how well Xenoblade did. Every other region it sold less than 200k and in the US sold 400K. XB is now about 800K worldwide. That game had zero marketing and just word of mouth. Now Nintendo puts X the supposed successor of Xenoblade on the Nintendo Direct English feed. So there are truths to the vote with the wallet idea.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

I agree that voting with your wallet is important. But it's not necessarily enough. I'm not sure that it's strictly what Riku's saying, but you can't just say, "If you don't like it, don't buy it. End of story."

As a gamer, if a game I was interested in playing gets ruined by one thing or another, I'm going to be annoyed by the missed opportunity. Sure I'll refrain from buying it (if I happen to know about the issue in advance), but I'll also gripe about it because I'll wish that game had been made the "right" way.

Influencing developers and publishers into giving their audience what we want takes more than positive reinforcement when they get it right, because that relies upon them stumbling upon the correct formula in the first place. We also need to criticize what we perceive as their mistakes, in the hope that they might take these complaints into consideration during future efforts to attract our custom.

As others have said, if two million "would-be" customers don't speak up about what the company's doing wrong, then the company will be content to view the one million existing customers as a blinding success.

I'll leave you with a link discussing some of the issues that could be solved by the "don't like it, don't buy it" approach, but won't be, because only nerds like us are aware of the depth of the problem and if we don't voice our opinions against it, the uninformed with continue to "vote with their wallets" in favor of these practices without realizing it:

http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/02/aliens-co ... e-3522819/

[Who Really Cares?]

I suppose the main way Ive started voting with my wallet this gen is i skip the yearly released games every other year and if DLC or a season pass is announced before the games even finished then i hold off and buy it cheap or wait for the GotY version.

[Sonikku]

This is a major problem I see with the world in general. Making money is not a religion. Capitalism doesn't mean "do anything to get rich". Its more profitable to exploit the employment laws of underdeveloped nations, does that make it right? No, no matter how much anyone tries to justify it or say its a choice or any other kind of excuse, a human being should know that exploiting someone for a gain is wrong.

I know what you mean about the shift of capitalism in general. Voting with your wallet can work in a free market, but it becomes less free all the time. AT and T and Verion now engage in collusion with Time Warner and Comcast to not compete with each other in ones respective territory I hate Time Warner's spotty service and high prices. But if I don't like it, I'd have to just stop using the internet. They're the only ticket in town. It's a problem when politicians can be bought off with campaign donations to the point of legalizing collusion between providers, handing out virtual monopolies, and passing legislation that stifles competition but is pure gravy for the 800 pound gorillas paying to keep a firm hand on things. Even voting has been largely castrated in recent times. Both parties rely on campaign donations like their life blood to win, so no matter who gets your vote, the aristocracy will now always land on top. Pretty soon the only way to vote with your wallet will be to become a hermit.

I get the whole point of Capitalism being designed to seek greater profit. But it has gotten way out of hand. I know corporations making profits in the billions just don't like paying taxes anymore. Not paying taxes, or even more ridiculous getting a refund on paying no taxes is a great way to maximize profit potential. As is reaping the full benefits of a government maintaining roads and infrastructure that help facilitate the every day operation of your business without having to pay a dime towards maintaining said infrastructure. I just worry if Capitalism taken to this extreme is sustainable. I don't think it is.

[Axm]

^Something like the internet or a mobile phone although still considered a luxury is actually mostly needed in this day and age. Not getting email is like not getting post 20 or 30 years ago. Something like a video game you don't need so you aren't forced into buying anything like you are saying is the case with expensive services.

Sure I'll refrain from buying it (if I happen to know about the issue in advance), but I'll also gripe about it because I'll wish that game had been made the "right" way.

I'm talking more about the people who complain about shit like DRM and DLC only to go and buy it anyway. The loudest way to get your point across is not handing money over a counter.

[Axm]

Right. You cant just argue morals and ideological views to companys in a capitalist country. Thats like trying to convince a homicidal theif in a gang to turn himself in even though everyone else in the gang wont. These companies get away with DLC and DRM because they continue to make money from it. Its a business model now. Pointing it out to them with just words and emotional rants does nothing to stop it. Money does. Laws would, but I dont think we'll see a law against luxury entertainment items.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Right. You cant just argue morals and ideological views to companys in a capitalist country. Thats like trying to convince a homicidal theif in a gang to turn himself in even though everyone else in the gang wont. These companies get away with DLC and DRM because they continue to make money from it. Its a business model now. Pointing it out to them with just words and emotional rants does nothing to stop it.

You're assuming people's complaints are only ever intended for the company's ears.

When people rant on a forum, like this one for example, they're not expecting the games company to read it. The only people reading are fellow gamers. Fellow gamers who might be swayed by these words to view said company in a different light, and think twice before buying their products.

[Axm]

And I have nothing against that. I would rant to if I had an issue. But im simply less vocal about it because im not spending money on stuff I have an issue with.

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

Neither am I, and neither are most people. Thats the problem the votes aren't counted per person. This is working because the minority are the majority of profits. The people who buy DLC is the minority, according to the NPD it falls between 5 and 10%.

What else are we going to do if we can't be heard any other way?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/only-6-of- ... pd-6279895