So it's come to this. EA is planting their feet in defense of predatory microtransactions. Bioware is fully invested into the "less is more" mentality in their games. Activision is... well, it's doing what activision does best (and hemorrhaging money for it). The list goes on and on. It hasn't been a really good couple years for video game fans. We've really had some shady games shoveled our way and the industry has taken some serious turns for the worse.
... Then I come across this article. "Game Developers, it's time to stop listening to fans". It starts off by listing the Mass Effect 3 feedback as the start of "toxic fan entitlement" and it just leans into it from there. It talks about the various detrimental changes and adjustments that have been made to satisfy gamer feedback. It also talks about some of the outlandish requests that gamers have made. For instance, did you know that there was a petition to Obama about Devil May Cry? I didn't. Long story short, the article tries to make a convincing argument that gamer feedback isn't always productive. In that point I agree.
That's where my agreement stops though. The article highlights some of the outliers and uses them to make their case. However, it completely glazes over and attempts to excuse the main issues that are at hand. The main issues are and always will be the same. These are a lack of content, lack of optimization, bugs, predatory tactics, over-hyping, lies, lack of sufficient anti-cheat, DLC madness, P2W, paywalls, and even all out developer scams. THAT is what gamers object to, not the storyline of a DmC game. Yet these issues combined got less room on the page than some ridiculous petition that some gamers made to Obama....freaking Obama?! Who in their right mind petitions Obama about a video game?
Now, I do understand what this article is. Every major industry will fight to the death for their cash flow. The video game industry is no different. They are seriously worried that one of their major cash cows is on the chopping block, loot boxes. Gamers have been rattling their proverbial sabres about this issue and more for a very long time. Slowly and finally, legal action is being taken. I am so happy to see it. As a result though, we will see many more corporate sponsored articles like this popping up.
To be clear, I don't disagree with the article. It makes some very valid points. However, on the whole it sidesteps the major issues and focuses on the ridiculous. It tries to make it look like the vocal minority represents the whole. It makes it sound like we are being unreasonable in our requests by cherry picking their arguments. It makes us sound like uneducated fools that "just do not understand game development" and so are not qualified to make requests. In that, I completely and totally disagree.
When it all boils down to it, the majority of us really don't care about the minutia. We won't agree with every choice, but we will be more or less happy with the results as long as one request is fulfilled. Give us a fair product for a fair price. That's it.
... Then I come across this article. "Game Developers, it's time to stop listening to fans". It starts off by listing the Mass Effect 3 feedback as the start of "toxic fan entitlement" and it just leans into it from there. It talks about the various detrimental changes and adjustments that have been made to satisfy gamer feedback. It also talks about some of the outlandish requests that gamers have made. For instance, did you know that there was a petition to Obama about Devil May Cry? I didn't. Long story short, the article tries to make a convincing argument that gamer feedback isn't always productive. In that point I agree.
That's where my agreement stops though. The article highlights some of the outliers and uses them to make their case. However, it completely glazes over and attempts to excuse the main issues that are at hand. The main issues are and always will be the same. These are a lack of content, lack of optimization, bugs, predatory tactics, over-hyping, lies, lack of sufficient anti-cheat, DLC madness, P2W, paywalls, and even all out developer scams. THAT is what gamers object to, not the storyline of a DmC game. Yet these issues combined got less room on the page than some ridiculous petition that some gamers made to Obama....freaking Obama?! Who in their right mind petitions Obama about a video game?
Now, I do understand what this article is. Every major industry will fight to the death for their cash flow. The video game industry is no different. They are seriously worried that one of their major cash cows is on the chopping block, loot boxes. Gamers have been rattling their proverbial sabres about this issue and more for a very long time. Slowly and finally, legal action is being taken. I am so happy to see it. As a result though, we will see many more corporate sponsored articles like this popping up.
To be clear, I don't disagree with the article. It makes some very valid points. However, on the whole it sidesteps the major issues and focuses on the ridiculous. It tries to make it look like the vocal minority represents the whole. It makes it sound like we are being unreasonable in our requests by cherry picking their arguments. It makes us sound like uneducated fools that "just do not understand game development" and so are not qualified to make requests. In that, I completely and totally disagree.
When it all boils down to it, the majority of us really don't care about the minutia. We won't agree with every choice, but we will be more or less happy with the results as long as one request is fulfilled. Give us a fair product for a fair price. That's it.
