News Activision, Call of Duty, Lootboxes, and the REAL Outrage Economy
- Thread starter lashman
- Start date
OP
OP
- Thread Starter
- #5
Ah I see, I thought you had made it
I’ll give it a watch once I get home.The economics of games are completely different than our childhoods. (most of our childhoods) I used to ascribe to the theory that if AAA games had a higher base price, we wouldn't see Microtransaction nonsense at the current scale. I didn't think hard enough about this viewpoint. Flat out, there is just more money to be made by taking the worst techniques of mobile games and laying them on top of our console/pc games. It isn't a base price, its a buy in price. In fact, the only place you see 'traditional' game experiences are those games which are exclusive to a platform.
COD:MW (2019) is published by one of the more corporate and famously greedy publishers in the Industry. Its a little funny that we can still be shocked by a publisher leveraging FOMO against us while saying "fuck you, pay me".
Epic has led the way in a new PR strategy that Activision likes as well; direct anger at the developer and stoke the ongoing social media war between players and developers. Player complaints are ineffectual to actually removing the offensive pay to pay schemes and they don't even have to pay a PR person! Pay us more and feel guilty about sharing your discomfort.
I'm happy to have a such a large backlog these days. I can just pull out my binder of console games or my steam library and shut out the fucking noise.
COD:MW (2019) is published by one of the more corporate and famously greedy publishers in the Industry. Its a little funny that we can still be shocked by a publisher leveraging FOMO against us while saying "fuck you, pay me".
Epic has led the way in a new PR strategy that Activision likes as well; direct anger at the developer and stoke the ongoing social media war between players and developers. Player complaints are ineffectual to actually removing the offensive pay to pay schemes and they don't even have to pay a PR person! Pay us more and feel guilty about sharing your discomfort.
I'm happy to have a such a large backlog these days. I can just pull out my binder of console games or my steam library and shut out the fucking noise.
Great video.
Touched on a lot of things where I had difficulty expressing myself in several occasions, like how it is a little bit infuriating when you are lumped in with some idiots as a tactic to dismiss your criticism. Takes a huge amount of energy to try to raise above that noise, only to find out that the "other side" simply had no intention to argue in the first place.
These days everyone is weaponizing their fanbase, but the gaming industry is certainly a "pioneer" on that aspect. And that includes what the video mentioned that they are creating all those controversies so they can keep doing all the shitty things in the confusion.
Again, good video. The only thing I would add is how sad it is seeing several indie developers adopting very similar strategies when the opportunity presents itself, after spending years trying to sell the image "we are not like the big guys".
Touched on a lot of things where I had difficulty expressing myself in several occasions, like how it is a little bit infuriating when you are lumped in with some idiots as a tactic to dismiss your criticism. Takes a huge amount of energy to try to raise above that noise, only to find out that the "other side" simply had no intention to argue in the first place.
These days everyone is weaponizing their fanbase, but the gaming industry is certainly a "pioneer" on that aspect. And that includes what the video mentioned that they are creating all those controversies so they can keep doing all the shitty things in the confusion.
Again, good video. The only thing I would add is how sad it is seeing several indie developers adopting very similar strategies when the opportunity presents itself, after spending years trying to sell the image "we are not like the big guys".
OP
- Thread Starter
- #10
Excellent analysis. I agree with 99% of it.
The only slight particular I disagree on is when he mentions difficulty at 7:02. Yes it can partly foster competitiveness/toxicity (the other side of the coin being that it can foster community, encouragement and co-operation; see: Souls, La-Mulana), no I don't think that makes it un-artistic (in the case of my two examples, I'd argue the opposite), and it definitely doesn't inherently relate to comparisons of how much one has spent. I understand the overall point though.
The only slight particular I disagree on is when he mentions difficulty at 7:02. Yes it can partly foster competitiveness/toxicity (the other side of the coin being that it can foster community, encouragement and co-operation; see: Souls, La-Mulana), no I don't think that makes it un-artistic (in the case of my two examples, I'd argue the opposite), and it definitely doesn't inherently relate to comparisons of how much one has spent. I understand the overall point though.
It's easily going to be the biggest CoD in years just from riding the title alone.
As for the video it paints a very dire picture that unfortunately makes a lot of sense looking at how things always work out in these situations.
Gaming industry's become a very sad place these days, not that it wasn't clear for years this is where it was headed but still. Hopefully all the independent successes lead to small companies growing into more conscious industry giants of the future because if not then this is all fucked.