I’ve never seen any other industry be bewildered by the idea of caveat emptor as much as gamers. My favourite are the ones that act as if Steam allowing bad quality games on their store is a bad thing because it means they could spend their money on a bad game. The idea of “just don’t buy it” is a mystery to them.
How? Did he force people to buy and subscribe and endorse something?
No. Idiots bought in, sucking balls purchase after purchase.
stillwater@lemm.ee 11 months ago
GBU_28@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Agree. Like, it’s not water or transport. Just don’t engage.
I don’t like some movie franchises, and that’s fine, I just don’t consume them
yeather@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Agreed, don’t buy the battle pass, or better yet, don’t buy the game if all you’re going to do is complain.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They trick people into buying in. The majority of people buyi g these games are extremely susceptible to the tactics they use to get you to buy their games and when you buy thwm they have more tricks to keep you locked in. The people falling for it arent idiots. They just fall for this stuff a bit easier. Or they havent been shown how it works so they dont know what to look out for.
Things like fomo and gambling mechanics as well as clever pricing tricks are just aome examples. Tbere are conferences and lectures held by industry people for lther industry people where that talk about consumers like they are cattle or other livestock and how we can be manipulated if certain tactics are followed. Games are more like “storefronts” to them. In fact thats literally how the fortnite developers referto fortnite, a storefront. With a game attached.
So, no, bobby didnt force anyone to buy his games, he didnt point a gun at anyones head (well actually we dont know that and i think there was a rumour aomewhere of something like this, couls be wrong tho) but he did remove all choice and boil everything down to a basic game with an inflated shop which fans of activision and later blizzard games fell for, for far too long. CoD was one of the most popular games in the world and fans of the game took some time to realise that the same game was being re released with a new skin for years.
Bobby took away that choice by not releasing other games, he just preyed on the susceptable and knew exactly what he was doing.
So please dont pretend that, for all those people, simply not buying the games or in game purchases was “simple” for the majority of people and that in a round about way, people weren’t forced into buying into it. It just shows a lack of understanding and research into the subject.
Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 11 months ago
There are limits to this argument … at some point buying a shitty game is on gamers and they need to shop around for something else.
There aren’t that many tricks prepurchase of a whole new game publishers can use. The big one is non-refundable preorders and at this point I’d hope people have learned their lesson on that (I still do it for, e.g. Bungie, but I don’t trust many studios to that degree).
If you’ve got a refundable pre-order or you bought it post release and the game gets overwhelming negative reviews and you’re dissatisfied with your purchase, keeping the game is on you and presumably your friends that also did so. There’s plenty of other stuff out there to play, especially in the shooter space.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Doesn’t this argument assume that all gamers are equal?
Remember that gamers range across all ages, genders, and preferences of genre. There are vast quantities of gamers that will buy whatever is going to be popular at any given point, there a purists who require nothing but quality. There are nostalgists who crave what gaming once was.
Buying habits are mostly dictated by the sorts of factors
Saying rhat gamers need to vote with their wallet, or something to that effect as you have, doesn’t consider the fact that not every gamer is in it for the same reasons and capitalism will always cater for what is popular first and foremost. So if you aren’t someone who is happy to play fortnite or cod for the rest of your life without longing for change then you are likely part of a minorty. A subset of gamers who want things to get better even though that is very unlikely to happen.
Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 11 months ago
This argument acknowledges that we got it wrong when we started putting up “warning jumping off this cliff will hurt” signs.
If someone buys a bad game and they’re happy with it, then it’s fine, it’s not a bad game to them. If someone buys a bad game, they don’t like it, and they keep it, that’s on them.
There are so many ways to spend money here and so much competition. If someone doesn’t like the game then they just shouldn’t buy it, one shouldn’t blame Activision for making a game one doesn’t like and saying “they tricking me.”
Activision is not going to hit their numbers solely on people who are clinically lacking impulse control. Activision is going to hit their numbers on apathetic people that blame Activision for the poor purchase they decided to buy anyways.
This isn’t “the grocery store gives plastic bags and it’s on the consumer to recycle them, so therefore it’s consumers fault that plastic bags are littered.” This isn’t “the only option in town is unhealthy food so that’s why I eat poorly.” This is an expensive game, the primary product, something that exists purely to entertain. Truly if ever there was a case, this is the case where consumers needing to stop paying for junk they don’t want.
GBU_28@lemm.ee 11 months ago
If people are addicted, they need help.
Most of these games are made for adults. So if children agree addicted to them, then the parents are responsible for the habits/ purchases.
If adults are addicted, they should seek help.
I don’t blame beer companies for making beer, and people being addicted to that. I blame mental illness, and to a secondary degree, poor responsibility.
Life is tough but responsibility isn’t dead. That doesn’t mean there isn’t space for mental illness, but it must be acknowledged. Game companies aren’t evil.
makyo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The biggest problem this ‘buyer beware’ stance is that issues with alcoholism and driving after drinking are well known and well communicated. But the predatory practices in the gaming world are not well known or communicated. People know pretty well nowadays that when they walk into a casino they’re probably going to lose their money.
But do they know that when they sit down to relax and boot up their favorite game that it has been literally engineered to get them hooked and take their money? Probably not, it’s really only talked about at all in niche gamer communities like this one.
Should they be allowed to have storefronts in games? We still have alcohol and casinos so why not? But shouldn’t there be some work put in to make sure people understand what’s at play here so they can make that responsible choice?
dlrht@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I don’t act like cattle, so I’m gonna continue complaining 😃