Industry practices that you dislike/hate?

[NightmareFarm]

Microtransactions? I don't have a problem with this. Lootboxes? Meh. But if there's one thing that grinds my gears it's forcing bots into online play. Especially when the game doesn't even let you know which players are bots and which are humans. In Splitgate this drags down an otherwise fun game. Most players are bots. I'd rather just wait like 5-10 minutes or even longer for a full set of human players. If I wanted to play with scrub CPUs then I would play the offline mode.

Edited May 19, 2022 by NightmareFarm

[kingpotato]

For sure lootboxes, I dont mind Season passes, but I dont want to gamble away my money like on loot boxes. Also another thing I hate is when games are rushed, if a game needs to be delayed to avoid this so be it but games being released super buggy or straight up incomplete is also annoying. 

[NightmareFarm]

1 hour ago, kingpotato said:

For sure lootboxes, I dont mind Season passes, but I dont want to gamble away my money like on loot boxes. Also another thing I hate is when games are rushed, if a game needs to be delayed to avoid this so be it but games being released super buggy or straight up incomplete is also annoying. 

I also think delays have long since became very obnoxious as every AAA company does it nowadays, it's basically the norm when it should be the exception. I get that it's important for devs to complete games properly but they should just wait until they're confident about when the game will release before revealing the release date. They always hype consumers up and then do the bait and switch and say oh no it's next year. 

[Shagger]

24 minutes ago, NightmareFarm said:

I also think delays have long since became very obnoxious as every AAA company does it nowadays, it's basically the norm when it should be the exception. I get that it's important for devs to complete games properly but they should just wait until they're confident about when the game will release before revealing the release date. They always hype consumers up and then do the bait and switch and say oh no it's next year. 

 

I have spoke of this before, but the real problem with delays and games coming out unfinished and buggy is about game companies announcing release dates way too early. This is exactly what happened with Cyberpunk 2077, they announced the release date at E3 while all eyes were on them to start taking in preorders almost a year before said release. We all know what happend next, the game got delayed on less than three occasions for them to feel compelled to release the game full 18 months after that E3 announcement knowing it was still busted. If they had just waited to announce the release date when they knew they would have the game ready, that entire controversy could have been avoided. 

 

I fully agree @kingpotato, if a developer/publisher is faced with a choice of releasing a half baked game or delaying, delaying it is the best option every time, but they should some common sense and only announce a release date when they know that can make that date and have the game not nesserily perfect (It's asking a lot to ask them to find every bug in a modern game), but at least complete and fully functional. Do that, and very likely will not have to face that dilemma at all.

[Reality vs Adventure]

I really don't like the direction games are heading in by giving more attention to online play and not the campaign. Online play is cool and all when you have good internet and w/o hostility from gamers. But it becomes an excuse to pass on creativity and story telling. It's a dumbing down of creative incentive. 

What I hate most is probably companies that provide digital games only available from that seller. That will eventually makes us pay multiple subscription memberships for games we want to play instead of having all games available for any console physical or digital copies (an exclusive here and there being an exception). There is a term for having to pay multiple gaming subscriptions and I forgot what it was. (anyone remember?) 

We all have burden enough for having to pay a bill for every electronic device we have. I don't understand how the average consumer can keep up with everything. I remember in the 80's all we had to pay for was a $10 phone line. And maybe a cable channel. Now think about how everything is making us more and more poor with more and more devices. So I'm against the direction the gaming world is heading in. We have a consolidation, or publishers buying up developers. Then we have separation of sellers forcing subscription. Future of gaming is looking expensive if you want to play a variety of games. 

[NightmareFarm]

6 hours ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

I really don't like the direction games are heading in by giving more attention to online play and not the campaign. Online play is cool and all when you have good internet and w/o hostility from gamers. But it becomes an excuse to pass on creativity and story telling. It's a dumbing down of creative incentive. 

What I hate most is probably companies that provide digital games only available from that seller. That will eventually makes us pay multiple subscription memberships for games we want to play instead of having all games available for any console physical or digital copies (an exclusive here and there being an exception). There is a term for having to pay multiple gaming subscriptions and I forgot what it was. (anyone remember?) 

We all have burden enough for having to pay a bill for every electronic device we have. I don't understand how the average consumer can keep up with everything. I remember in the 80's all we had to pay for was a $10 phone line. And maybe a cable channel. Now think about how everything is making us more and more poor with more and more devices. So I'm against the direction the gaming world is heading in. We have a consolidation, or publishers buying up developers. Then we have separation of sellers forcing subscription. Future of gaming is looking expensive if you want to play a variety of games. 

I think story focused games should focus more on story than a tacked on online mode. But i'm fine with there being lots of games built mainly towards online play.

[Yaramaki]

There is a lot i dislike about modern gaming and a lot has already been mentioned like companies releasing half finished games and lootboxes and whatnot so i don't want to repeat the same things over and over, However my major beef with modern gaming has not been mentioned :

->Companies who don't care about the preservation of their games would be my top pick. How many games have disappeared from digital storeshelves to be forever lost into time well unless you got them when they were around, there is no legal way to get them anymore. How many games are already lost when nintendo closed down the dsi store and how many more will be lost when something like the 3ds eshop will be closed or sony closes down the ps3 and vita store, sure they got backlash for it and rightly so. I can't believe something like forza motorsport 7 and all it's dlc for example a game that's like only a couple of years old is not for sale anymore . Music and movies are preserved well, why can't they just do that for games. You See this is why physical media is so important.

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Yaramaki

[Shagger]

I responded earlier, but didn't really address the topic, so I'll do that because boy there is a lot to go through.

 

1. Abuse in the games industry. This should be number 1 on anyone's list. We all know about the issues with Activision/Blizzard and Ubisoft I'm sure, but I believe this problem, whilst maybe not as extreme as it was was with them, is certainly more widespread. Crunch, harassment (Whether it be sexual or otherwise), pay gaps between genders, discrimination and abuse is a part of the culture at too many game companies and it needs to stop. It's difficult to not support the companies who are guilty of this given how widespread the problem is, but stand with the employees and journalists who have face this shit and support them too.
2. Microtransactions. There was a time I was prepared to forgive them under certain circumstances, but I regret that as should every gamer as we have learned the hard way that if you give mouse a cookie, it will want a glass of milk, wait, no, it'll eat fucking everything. We were like, "Well, OK, microtransactions are fine so long as the game is free to play", then we were "Well, OK, Well, OK, microtransactions are fine in a premium game, so long as it's just cosmetic", then we were "Well, OK, microtransactions are fine in a premium game with gameplay effects so long as it just single player" then we were "Well, OK, microtransactions are fine with gameplay effects even in a multiplayer game, just so long as it's not Pay-to-Win" then we were "Well, OK, microtransactions are fine just so long as it's not a lootbox". There was a point that has sadly already passed that we should said "Fuck you! We've had enough". Pay-to-Win microtransactions and lootboxes are awful for obvious reason so I won't insult anyone's intelligence by going into that, but cosmetic microtransactions are just as awful because of how they affect the social aspect of the games. You no longer admire another player for thier rare skin because of the work and dedication it must have took to get it, you now look at them and think "Well, that prick obviously paid for that" even if, in fact, they did earn it hard way. It also crease a very toxic "class" environment were people with standard skins are free game for ridicule and even harassment and bullying. Believe me when I tell you that game companies not only want that, that's actually the goal. Fuck microtransactions and fuck any defence for them.
3. The false "Beta's". This is a problem that I think doesn't get talked about nearly often enough. his is when a game is sold in early access or as "incomplete" in a test phase, usually with an in game store with microtransactions and DLC for sale, then stays there for years usually never actually fully releasing at all. Games that do this to always have an excuse for lack of content or polish and also give the thier developers the excuse to contently "beg" for more from the fans. They often label the in-game purchases as "pledges" to rob the players of thier consumer rights and give the developers an opportunity to change whatever they want. It's a disgusting practice that prays on people's generosity and passion. Star Citizen is the crown jewel of this practice and has successfully scammed hundreds of million of dollers from it's fans, but there have been others. PUBG, for example, still claimed to be "in Beta" when is launched on consoles on disk!  Escape from Tarkov is another one that I'm convinced will never actually come out as it's been five years since it's so-called "close beta" stated. The worst part about this is that these fans who get scammed by this practice often totally refuse to see the facts and defend the respective developers to the hills. They've been completely brainwashed and that is the saddest part of all.

[Darth]

I don't have a problem with bots, to be honest but only if they make it clear that this is a feature and it's only for the first few games when you're new to it. If they're adding bots to every game when they don't have enough players, I definitely wouldn't like that. 

[Heatman]

On 5/19/2022 at 11:30 PM, kingpotato said:

For sure lootboxes, I dont mind Season passes, but I dont want to gamble away my money like on loot boxes. Also another thing I hate is when games are rushed, if a game needs to be delayed to avoid this so be it but games being released super buggy or straight up incomplete is also annoying. 

This is actually the very reason why I'm not fussing about the constant delay with release of God of War Ragnarok. For obvious reasons, the game isn't yet out and the company haven't given any specific date of its release. 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Heatman

[Scorpion]

I totally get your frustration. Playing with bots ruins the experience. A balance of human players would make the game much better!