[ENG] Curse of Modern Gaming
I will probably sound like an old man here despite being a young adult, but... I was raised in the times where once you bought (or back then just openly downloaded the game from some shady sites, dropped it on some clean CD and wrote title with a marker) the game – you either had everything available to you from the start or you had to play long enough to unlock everything. The thing is – once you paid the price, you had the full game. But as I was growing up, so the industry was rapidly evolving and changing and... I think I witnessed with my very own eyes as the four horsemen of gaming apocalypse had brought their curses, their plagues upon the industry. Just like the ancient Egypt was haunted by many plagues – the modern gaming industry seems to suffer from highly evolved versions of them. The curses/plagues being:
(The colors below represents the harmful effects and how severe they are with red representing the worst plague and cyan representing the 'weakest' one)
But on the other hand you have games like Payday 2 or Dead by Daylight – with each one of them having dozens of DLCs which in effect causes that next to these 10 or 20 bucks you have already spent on a base game, you have to spend another 60 or 70 or God knows how many to just have a truly complete experience. And if these DLCs offered a lot of content – okay, I could somehow accept them – but since they only add new characters/weapons/maps and they demand for example 5 bucks for each pack containing one character and map? No way.
After all – whether we want it or not, DLCs are a common thing today and there is nothing much we can do about them – other than being careful when buying them and double, even triple checking if offered content is worth the price.
Lootboxes were flying under the radar of a wider media and general attention for a long time – but there was one game that brought them into the spotlight and shown the real, dangerous and harmful mechanisms and problems behind them. Star Wars Battlefront II (not the cool version from 2005; as of today the modern Battlefront II from what I know has 'fixed' this problem – or at least they made the game enjoyable and actually fun than during the initial release... Well from what I know since I didn't get to experience this game neither back then nor now). The game that spawned the enormous controversy surrounding the shady practices and mechanisms behind the lootboxes, as well as their morality and effect on a younger audience. And even if the game is generous enough to give you lootboxes for free like Overwatch – this doesn't solve nor change the existing problem and fact in any sort since the mechanism is the same – you don't know for shit what you will get.
Thanks to the Battlefront Controversy there are some regulations put in place about lootboxes and some games like Rocket League decided to remove them completely (which brought a mixed opinions since introduced 'blueprints' were supposedly much harder to get and costed much more than a simple lootbox with a key). Lootboxes will hang around, that's for sure unfortunately, but paradoxically... Thanks to the game that took it a step too far, we can at least be a bit more calm about their implementation... Well, for now – who knows what will change in few years, people seem to forget these kind of controversies pretty quickly.
But microtransactions are a totally other piece of bullshit. Have you bought some Riot Points in League of Legends, V-Bucks in Fortnite or even some booster for a really low price in your favorite mobile game? Well, you just became a victim of this plague – but just because you are affected by it; it doesn't mean you aren't aware of the way it works and how it affects the entire industry. I admit, I bought some RP back in the day, but as I got older I got a bit wiser and understood how harmful this practice can be. Look, long time ago a simple armor for a horse in Oblivion was outrageous and unacceptable for majority... If that was the case today, if people would still be so outrageous about shady industry practices – oh, how simpler everything would probably be... Today there are often microtransactions that often aren't that invasive, they don't scream right in your face and just patiently wait in the shadows when you will become their victim. But for the most part things available for microcurrencies are just cosmetics that no one forces down your throat... You know what? No, fuck this. Remember when I said at the start where I was raised in the times where you could unlock everything by just playing? What happened to that?! This should be the standard instead of the shady lootboxes or microtransactions but unfortunately it's the other way around. And when I say 'unlock everything' – I mean it, even the stupid cosmetics that changed only how your character looks!
And though microtransactions aren't as invasive on PCs or consoles – the main victim of this curse are mobile games – very often being cheap rip-offs of popular franchises or 'licensed' games trying to ride on a wave of popularity certain game or genre has currently – quite a lot of them have really invasive, aggressive microtransactions without which... Well, the game becomes too hard and literally unplayable for free. That's why I feel sorry for mobile gamers, finding even a decently good game that doesn't force you to pay every 10 minutes is... I think quite a difficult task.
For now, we can be at least more calm about lootboxes and microtransactions in most games but... Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. No one knows what the industry will look like in 10, 5 or even 2 years from now. Let's just hope this plague doesn't get any worse...
Whereas patches in purely multiplayer games like Overwatch, League of Legends or Hearthstone are acceptable and let's be honest – necessary to keep the game fresh and balanced. Without them the games would get too repetitive, boring and in effect would just die. Back to the point.
Although this is probably the 'weakest' plague of them all and it's not that common as one would think... It very often just fixes the game instead of leaving all of these bugs and glitches in the product... Which doesn't explain why they didn't take the time to properly fix everything or create a day one patch on purpose (What I mean by this is openly saying that your game will certainly contain an aforementioned patch) so... That's that I guess
By giving you these two examples, these two games made by the same company and yet at the same time being polar opposites of themselves I gave you two sides of the same coin.
And I will fall victim to this plague once again due to upcoming Nioh 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 – I will surely pre-order them, BUT! I am peaceful about Nioh 2 and I already know that this money will be well spent due to one thing. Back in November there was an Open Beta of Nioh 2 for everyone to play and experience, after playing through it thrice – I know what I should expect, I know what I will receive and I am ready to put out my money for this. Of course this doesn't make pre-orders any less harmful or bad, but at least it's a very rare example of developer actually giving players a chance to experience the game before it releases so they can decide if the product is worth the money. But about Cyberpunk... Well, it's a wild shot. Game was delayed but I was going to pre-order it nonetheless and it will be only my fault if the game won't be good or satisfying because I placed my trust upon the company that gave us an enormous hit that was Witcher 3. But just because they made gorgeous and brilliant games, doesn't mean something cannot go wrong in the development process.
And very often people have huge expectations (just like with Cyberpunk 2077 - the hype train for this game is one of the largest in if not the largest recent gaming history) which are also very often quenched when the final product is released (the infamous Watch Dogs case where the game looked much worse than on it's E3 Gameplay is a good example here)
Although I am a victim of this plague, I am fully aware of the negative impact it can bring, because developers can milk a hell of money out of the game before it's even released. Because of that they can stop supporting the game completely... Sounds paradoxically? Well, true, and this would be the really extreme case as well as company would have to incredibly greed to pull something like this off... Everything is possible, even if it didn't happen yet.
If you really have to pre-order, think about it two, three or ten more times. Wait a week or two and if you will still want to pre-order the desired game, then... Well, just hope your money will be worth the final product. Because if your hard earned money will go to something that possibly will be another Dark Souls Remastered... I feel bad for you, alright? Well, technically it should be possible to get a refund on various platforms but... What if you discover all the flaws of the game after like 5 or 10 hours and being, I dunno – in middle of the story? You're stuck with this crap product with no possible chance of getting your money back.
There is a small chance that the plagues will stop, but for now all we can hope for (and fight – by denying shady lootboxes, microtransactions and excessive, overpriced DLCs with barely any features in it) is that these plagues won't get stronger.
Of course I didn't list everything, there are a lot of smaller plagues that are a common thing today – like subscription services such as PlayStation Plus, EA Access and so on (though everything today has a streaming service so it shouldn't be a surprise. Movies? Boom! Netflix; Music? Boom! Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Premium. Graphic/Photo Editor? BOOM! Photoshop! [Okay, there are free alternatives like GIMP] but... you get the point). Or all of the digital platforms, seems like nowadays every company wants to have their own digital marketplace and launcher – Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games, Battle.Net, Bethesda.NET and on, and on, and on...
As a community, we have a force and impact necessary to weaken these plagues, we may not rid them completely since after all these years they are stuck deeply within industry – but if we allow these plagues to grow stronger and worse... I already feel sorry for the future generations of gamers that will have to deal with industry packed with lootboxes, microtransactions and DLCs that aren't worth the price and much more...
Stay strong and don't let the plagues poison your mind!
Kind Regards,
Wing.
(The colors below represents the harmful effects and how severe they are with red representing the worst plague and cyan representing the 'weakest' one)
- splitting the game into multiple small parts or just cutting out the major parts of it, forcing you to pay twice, thrice or even more times to unlock full content – and yes, I'm talking about DLCs mostly, but whether we want it or not – there are two sides to this coin. Sides I'm going to talk about in a while.
- Lootboxes and microtransactions... Oh my... This is that one thing, that one curse/plague that in my opinion brought the most negative impact on the industry and it's the one that should have never happened.
- Day One patches – although introduced more recently, many games nowadays have gargantuan day one patches after release, reason being – the game was rushed, released too fast on the market without proper time to fix major issues with it
- And finally: Pre-Orders – giving developers huge amounts of money before the final product is even released and criticized. But know the difference – I'm not talking about some indie KickStarter titles that require necessary funding to complete the game – I'm only talking about AAA developers that milk out their new product before it's even released to the wider audience!
The Curse of Greed
Although it's hard to truly pinpoint the exact moment during which this plague started affecting the industry (for example a horse armor available to buy in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could be one of the signs something is off. It probably was). There is one thing certain – since it appeared (together with lootboxes and microtransactions) some developers started being incredibly greedy and they tried to milk out as much cash from their product as it was possible. But as I said – there are two sides of this coin. Maybe developers didn't have enough time to add more content and they needed to work extra on it after the game was released – there are a few examples of DLCs being great in the recent times, but I think that Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine for Witcher 3 are the peak examples of DLCs (though they are called Expansion Packs – before the term DLC was set in stone, there were expansion packs which were often cheaper than the base game and offered varied amount of content) being actually good things – adding a lot of content to an already enormous game and with the same content being truly worth the price. That's not saying DLCs are good – but it's important to see the difference between DLCs being worth the price and offering a lot of content and DLCs that are just a cash grab. There are also special editions of games that include all released DLCs like – Dying Light Enhanced Edition, Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Edition, Skyrim Special Edition and so on.
(Look at this. This is the Steam Store Page for Payday 2, above the prices you can find how many DLCs are there - 53. About the prices - 1€ is equivalent to around 4/4.5 PLN/zł so some DLCs cost 2 to 3€ where as some cost 7-8€. It may not look like a lot, but I remind you - there are 53 of them. Okay, if we exclude unavailable or free ones the number goes down to somewhere around 45, but it doesn't make it any better)
But on the other hand you have games like Payday 2 or Dead by Daylight – with each one of them having dozens of DLCs which in effect causes that next to these 10 or 20 bucks you have already spent on a base game, you have to spend another 60 or 70 or God knows how many to just have a truly complete experience. And if these DLCs offered a lot of content – okay, I could somehow accept them – but since they only add new characters/weapons/maps and they demand for example 5 bucks for each pack containing one character and map? No way.
After all – whether we want it or not, DLCs are a common thing today and there is nothing much we can do about them – other than being careful when buying them and double, even triple checking if offered content is worth the price.
The Curse of Randomness
And that is the plague that had the biggest and the most negative impact on the entire industry. Just imagine – put yourself like 10 years ago, it's a windy winter night and you are sitting in front of your PS3 happily playing some Uncharted or Mortal Kombat. Have that image? Alright, now imagine that you have to pay for a random thing – it could be something amazing but it could also be a total crap. And you don't know what precisely it is until you pay and open said thing. And even then you have to wait until the last second to see if the money was worth the price. Sounds... Pretty stupid and unfair, right? Well – say hello to lootboxes!
(Example of a lootbox - Hearthstone pack. You buy it - either for in-game currency or real money. And after opening the pack this is what you see. You don't know what you got until you click on each card. The only thing you can be sure is that at least one card will be Rare. And after moving your mouse to the card you can sometimes see the glow showing you what rarity of a card is there... But you still don't know for shit what you got until you check for yourself)
Lootboxes were flying under the radar of a wider media and general attention for a long time – but there was one game that brought them into the spotlight and shown the real, dangerous and harmful mechanisms and problems behind them. Star Wars Battlefront II (not the cool version from 2005; as of today the modern Battlefront II from what I know has 'fixed' this problem – or at least they made the game enjoyable and actually fun than during the initial release... Well from what I know since I didn't get to experience this game neither back then nor now). The game that spawned the enormous controversy surrounding the shady practices and mechanisms behind the lootboxes, as well as their morality and effect on a younger audience. And even if the game is generous enough to give you lootboxes for free like Overwatch – this doesn't solve nor change the existing problem and fact in any sort since the mechanism is the same – you don't know for shit what you will get.
Thanks to the Battlefront Controversy there are some regulations put in place about lootboxes and some games like Rocket League decided to remove them completely (which brought a mixed opinions since introduced 'blueprints' were supposedly much harder to get and costed much more than a simple lootbox with a key). Lootboxes will hang around, that's for sure unfortunately, but paradoxically... Thanks to the game that took it a step too far, we can at least be a bit more calm about their implementation... Well, for now – who knows what will change in few years, people seem to forget these kind of controversies pretty quickly.
(Example of microtransaction. League of Legends and Riot Points. 50zł/PLN is equivalent to around 12/12.5€ - and coincidentally Legendary Skins cost exactly 1820RP. Shortly - if you really want a legendary skin, you need to spend 50PLN on it. But if you want an Ultimate Skin [I am not going to delve into differences between them] - you need to spend 100PLN cause' the skin costs 3250RP. Of course, no one forces you to buy it, but... Does it really change anything?)
But microtransactions are a totally other piece of bullshit. Have you bought some Riot Points in League of Legends, V-Bucks in Fortnite or even some booster for a really low price in your favorite mobile game? Well, you just became a victim of this plague – but just because you are affected by it; it doesn't mean you aren't aware of the way it works and how it affects the entire industry. I admit, I bought some RP back in the day, but as I got older I got a bit wiser and understood how harmful this practice can be. Look, long time ago a simple armor for a horse in Oblivion was outrageous and unacceptable for majority... If that was the case today, if people would still be so outrageous about shady industry practices – oh, how simpler everything would probably be... Today there are often microtransactions that often aren't that invasive, they don't scream right in your face and just patiently wait in the shadows when you will become their victim. But for the most part things available for microcurrencies are just cosmetics that no one forces down your throat... You know what? No, fuck this. Remember when I said at the start where I was raised in the times where you could unlock everything by just playing? What happened to that?! This should be the standard instead of the shady lootboxes or microtransactions but unfortunately it's the other way around. And when I say 'unlock everything' – I mean it, even the stupid cosmetics that changed only how your character looks!
And though microtransactions aren't as invasive on PCs or consoles – the main victim of this curse are mobile games – very often being cheap rip-offs of popular franchises or 'licensed' games trying to ride on a wave of popularity certain game or genre has currently – quite a lot of them have really invasive, aggressive microtransactions without which... Well, the game becomes too hard and literally unplayable for free. That's why I feel sorry for mobile gamers, finding even a decently good game that doesn't force you to pay every 10 minutes is... I think quite a difficult task.
For now, we can be at least more calm about lootboxes and microtransactions in most games but... Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. No one knows what the industry will look like in 10, 5 or even 2 years from now. Let's just hope this plague doesn't get any worse...
The Curse of Speed
(Okay, first of all forgive me but I couldn't think of any better name for this one.)
For quite some time it seems like the developers try to release their games as fast as it's possible (Okay, this year is a bit different since two of the most anticipated releases – Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2 were delayed from first half of 2020) – but games like FIFA, Call of Duty and so on are released annualy, very often as fast as possible, even despite containing a lot of bugs and glitches that in effect cause the day one patch to appear. And also very often – this patch is at least several gigabytes big because devs didn't take the time to properly fix the most lingering issues with the game! Just... Why?!Whereas patches in purely multiplayer games like Overwatch, League of Legends or Hearthstone are acceptable and let's be honest – necessary to keep the game fresh and balanced. Without them the games would get too repetitive, boring and in effect would just die. Back to the point.
Although this is probably the 'weakest' plague of them all and it's not that common as one would think... It very often just fixes the game instead of leaving all of these bugs and glitches in the product... Which doesn't explain why they didn't take the time to properly fix everything or create a day one patch on purpose (What I mean by this is openly saying that your game will certainly contain an aforementioned patch) so... That's that I guess
The Curse of Expectations
What do I mean by this? Well, to put it very simply – Pre-Orders. People often try to foresee and guess how the anticipated game will look like, how it will run on various platforms and so on, but... That's just that – wild guesses and theories. There is nothing sure about the game that hasn't been released yet (Okay, there are exceptions to this rule but... They happen incredibly rarely). And before further ado – I admit. I am the victim of this plague. I pre-ordered Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice like 3 months before the release due to the developer which I admired for quite a long time then – From Software. And I did the same thing with Dark Souls Remastered – a game from the same aforementioned developer. Where Sekiro was a golden shot and I didn't regret a single penny spent on it... DSR was the polar opposite. It is a matter of fact that I played through the game few times, it was a shameless cash grab – basic settings that should have been available right from the start when the game was initially released and a bonus bonfire in the obscure location of the game for 40€.By giving you these two examples, these two games made by the same company and yet at the same time being polar opposites of themselves I gave you two sides of the same coin.
And I will fall victim to this plague once again due to upcoming Nioh 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 – I will surely pre-order them, BUT! I am peaceful about Nioh 2 and I already know that this money will be well spent due to one thing. Back in November there was an Open Beta of Nioh 2 for everyone to play and experience, after playing through it thrice – I know what I should expect, I know what I will receive and I am ready to put out my money for this. Of course this doesn't make pre-orders any less harmful or bad, but at least it's a very rare example of developer actually giving players a chance to experience the game before it releases so they can decide if the product is worth the money. But about Cyberpunk... Well, it's a wild shot. Game was delayed but I was going to pre-order it nonetheless and it will be only my fault if the game won't be good or satisfying because I placed my trust upon the company that gave us an enormous hit that was Witcher 3. But just because they made gorgeous and brilliant games, doesn't mean something cannot go wrong in the development process.
And very often people have huge expectations (just like with Cyberpunk 2077 - the hype train for this game is one of the largest in if not the largest recent gaming history) which are also very often quenched when the final product is released (the infamous Watch Dogs case where the game looked much worse than on it's E3 Gameplay is a good example here)
(Looking at Cyberpunk 2077's Steam page you can see you can already pre-order it despite the game being released in 7 months. Okay, matter of fact - it was delayed, but you could pre-order it back in 2019 so this doesn't change much.)
Although I am a victim of this plague, I am fully aware of the negative impact it can bring, because developers can milk a hell of money out of the game before it's even released. Because of that they can stop supporting the game completely... Sounds paradoxically? Well, true, and this would be the really extreme case as well as company would have to incredibly greed to pull something like this off... Everything is possible, even if it didn't happen yet.
If you really have to pre-order, think about it two, three or ten more times. Wait a week or two and if you will still want to pre-order the desired game, then... Well, just hope your money will be worth the final product. Because if your hard earned money will go to something that possibly will be another Dark Souls Remastered... I feel bad for you, alright? Well, technically it should be possible to get a refund on various platforms but... What if you discover all the flaws of the game after like 5 or 10 hours and being, I dunno – in middle of the story? You're stuck with this crap product with no possible chance of getting your money back.
There is a small chance that the plagues will stop, but for now all we can hope for (and fight – by denying shady lootboxes, microtransactions and excessive, overpriced DLCs with barely any features in it) is that these plagues won't get stronger.
Of course I didn't list everything, there are a lot of smaller plagues that are a common thing today – like subscription services such as PlayStation Plus, EA Access and so on (though everything today has a streaming service so it shouldn't be a surprise. Movies? Boom! Netflix; Music? Boom! Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Premium. Graphic/Photo Editor? BOOM! Photoshop! [Okay, there are free alternatives like GIMP] but... you get the point). Or all of the digital platforms, seems like nowadays every company wants to have their own digital marketplace and launcher – Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games, Battle.Net, Bethesda.NET and on, and on, and on...
As a community, we have a force and impact necessary to weaken these plagues, we may not rid them completely since after all these years they are stuck deeply within industry – but if we allow these plagues to grow stronger and worse... I already feel sorry for the future generations of gamers that will have to deal with industry packed with lootboxes, microtransactions and DLCs that aren't worth the price and much more...
Stay strong and don't let the plagues poison your mind!
Kind Regards,
Wing.
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