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I figured I'd go ahead and make a thread for people to vent about things in gaming they would want to change, but also things that they believe is positive about the current state of gaming.

Anything goes that is gaming related.

 

http://playstationenthusiast.com/article/why-isnt-online-free-for-consoles/

I'll start with one that I find a bit puzzling; two of the main console companies putting online play behind a paywall: Xbox Live, and PSN+. Why do the users of these consoles, myself included, pay upward of $60 a year for it when Nintendo and PC are free? For me personally, the reason I pay for PSN+ is for the free games and the server storage of my saved games/files, which I find pretty equitable; also, all the extra discounts you get with it. However, since opening a Steam account, which is free that also gives me cloud saves and files and such, plus games with even more discounts, it makes me question my spending an extra $60 a year for it.

 

Anyway, wot are some of your peeves/praises of the gaming industry?

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Yeah I'm rather disillusioned with Microsoft and Sony's pay wall overall as online is literally the only benefit to their subscriptions. You could argue that Sony handles it a lot better but still that's a bit of a chunk per year, it adds up in the end. Nowadays I don't really play console games online and on their stores there are no special deals ever possible for games I do want, so I'm just gonna let my Xbox Live Account run out and leave it dormant as I'm behind a console generation and I don't really use it all that much anymore, though I will say there are console online store games I SO want on PC, like Marvel vs Capcom and Radiant Silvergun.

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While I'm not against the idea of DLC, I'm kinda upset how $10-15 DLC items offer only a small bonus to gameplay and maybe add 8-10 hours to the overall gameplay. I just miss the days of pure expansion packs and such where that same $10-15 gave you essentially another 50% of the games worth of actual gameplay and content. An example would be Dragon Age Origins: Awakening. That was about 1/2 the length of Origins for about $20 and added a lot to the game.

Bethesda seems to be the only one that makes DLCs worth it anymore, though EA has gotten better about their practices recently

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37255025/lindsay-lohans-case-against-rockstar-games-over-gta-picture-dismissed

It's great to see an instance where these trolling court cases gets thrown out. They better have gotten her to pay for wasting the court's time; there's too many people like her that abuse the system and waste taxpayer money.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 5 months later...

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/fallout-4-694375/fallout-4-is-impressively-bad-1789739/

The first post sums up the vast majority of my gripes with fallout 4, but to add to that: power armor was a mech suit which is an example of the over complication of equipment, far harbor felt more like it was the main game, nuka world was the most utterly wasted potential of any place I've ever seen in A game period, and the base building which should have not been focused on for the main game and rather released with the workshop DLC only removed potentially interesting towns that could have been. Also that ghoul re-design looked like it was ripped straight from bethesdas other game rage and the artistic style of the previous games was replaced with the most cookie cutter plastic looking and surreally clean one-asset-fits-all designs, with Half the buildings still looking as though they were pre war. 

Sadly the honeymoon period hasn't worn off and most fans are singing high praise for a minimalistic game riddled with inconsistency and lazy storytelling, in summary making this picture all too real:

G8L13g5_d.jpg.a85d31a58092b79beda7e6b2267ec06c.jpg

Whew, meant to post my thoughts on this a while ago, but I totally forgot and when I came across that post, realized my original statement/review was a jumbled mess of saying "it bad, it very bad."

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I think the main issue with Fallout 4 is the hype that surrounded it for years and the ones who waited for it can't admit it's not the game they think it is. Remember how just shortly after New Vegas came out everyone was clamoring for Fallout 4 from Bethesda. We didnt hear a peep from Bethesda until E3 2015 when they announced Fallout 4 out of nowhere and a release date only a few months later. At that rate, the hype train was at full speed. Fallout 4 was in development for 7-8 years so there's no excuse why this game wasn't better than it's predecessors as well as TES: Skyrim. But it wasnt great. It was okay to good. Part of me thinks Bethesda hoped the Mod Community would  pick up some of the slack. But considering how much people were hyping the game and the high expectations that came with it, I think some people cant see how flawed the game.

 

I think the over-hype and overly high expectations is why Valve is afraid to release Half-Life 3. Valve knows what they are doing and I think they are looking at how Bethesda handled Fallout 4 and are probably agreeing the decision to not release it any time soon. Valve knows people want HL3, they clearly understand that, but I think it's gotten to a point where they wont be able to meet expectations the fans have set

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with Red above on that developers are going for too much glitz over functionality/story. But, I also think there are three other issues that permeate gaming that have caused this to happen in my opinion:

1. The Reviewer-Publisher relationship.

     Within the recent years there've been stories come out about the companies strong-arming reviewers to get good scores. If they don't give a game a positive review, when the next game comes down the pike their review copy might be a bit later than the competitors if it comes at all. All gaming sites and magazines rush to be the first to review games, especially ones like Fallout; being late to the party means less clicks and thus less ad revenue, which most cannot afford. So, they give games like Fallout 4 and Andromeda a free pass; only docking it very little if at all, which will cause many gamers to rush out and get the game.

 

2. The loyal fans of the game.

     Let's face it, there are people that blindly love certain games/series of games that are by consensus of most other gamers are not that good and they'll accept anything and vehemently defend game "X" until doomsday. Depending on how large this group is for said game it can make it sell good no matter what, so the companies will have no motivation to improve.

3. Safe praise.

     This is the other side of the coin to the concept of "safe hate;" i.e. that a game sucks because it sucks and "everybody knows that" and goes along with it in a herd mentality, which is a terrible position to take. When Fallout 4 came out in particular I held the unpopular view that it wasn't a good game; myself and those who had the same opinion as me, even gaming websites got a lot of static from the mainstream because we didn't just like the game because it was Fallout and thus is by default a game that gets a free pass. Bottom line is that unless people are willing to say the Emperor is naked or kill the sacred cow; in other words be objective then you will just keep on inviting bad games to be made.

Essentially if these points are not rectified there'll be another video game crash, but at least this time we have the indie scene unlike back in '83.

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On 5/19/2017 at 11:01 PM, Prince By-Tor said:

Essentially if these points are not rectified there'll be another video game crash, but at least this time we have the indie scene unlike back in '83.

No matter what, this market will indeed self-correct. There is a major gaming bubble now and investors will pull out very quickly once it pops from AAA studios that will throw out the 21st century equivalent of Atari Pacman (which was also pushed out just like Fallout 4) and various other bombs like E.T. No one wants a broken game in the long term and fanboyism is never sustainable for long term profit. Inertia dies, and before you know it you will have to be DMCing your own fans when they begin to create games like Pokemon Uranium to sate their own actual market demands, which is also a very unsustainable practice. You can only keep yourself going with die hard fans up until they, well, die off... You always want to have an open door for your franchises as to keep old fans intrigued and to bring in new customers.

I would argue though that The Reviewer-Publisher relationship is actually more one-sided the other way. Gamergate and many gaming sites have produced garbage such as this all in order to push a leftist social agenda into games, a traditionally very libertarian and free-spirited market. These loosers with their worthless gender-study and theater degrees wish to pour their self-righteous anointing upon developers such as Rock-star and it's best-selling GTA V to make them into sub-par sap-bombs such as Depression-Quest, Gone-Home, and Pokemon Black-and-Blue. This is mainly click bait media trying to hold back and leech off our culture and industry. This very well shows us that game journalism is a blackmailing prostitute. It may sell out to some and try to polish the proverbial dog-egg, yet we can clearly see they are not above demonzing innocent developers within the market for a quick buck and to attempt a social-hack of the market. This is an inherently exploitative relationship...Yet then again, if we look at the history of those who follow such ilk as the Frankfurt School and its subversive approach - its nothing new.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So Take-Two Interactive has just suddenly declared Mods illegal and shut down one of the biggest Grand Theft Auto mod platforms. Right...can't wait to see other developers jump on this bandwagon. Especially Bethesda and it's "Creator Club"...

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In all fairness, Creator's Club is a step in the right direction, per say. One thing when it comes to mods, some of the larger ones (ones that by themselves add 20-40+ hours of content) do deserve to get some sort of money for the troubles, whether its this, a tip system or a better way to convey donations to them. It's a much better system than the one Steam tried doing a bit back. Bethesda wont go after Nexus either.

 

Still waiting for GTA V Single Player DLC... that was promised 3 years ago.

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On 6/17/2017 at 8:24 PM, Prince By-Tor said:

And they got their info. from Konami reportedly blacklisting ex-employees across Japanese video game industry

That really stinks.  Its spiteful crap like this that add to my negative attitude toward Konami.

Quote

Konami is pressuring other companies not to hire its former employees.

They shouldn't be allowed to do that, but I'm not familiar with Japanese law enough to know if there is a law against it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hoo boy...I've heard of shooting yourself in the foot but this is like someone firing an RPG towards it.

Oh and by the way, subscribe to SidAlpha if you can. He's a very calm, collected and professional video game journalist that doesn't throw accusations, doesn't scream at the top of his lungs and doesn't lash out at anything. Give his stuff a look.

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  • 6 months later...
On 1/13/2018 at 7:55 PM, Prince By-Tor said:

EA will lose its customer base if it keeps doing this stuff. Is there solutions to make money in video gaming industry aside from doing micro transactions aside from making a good game. Because making good quality games is the only game I can think of making. 

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Ohh it gets even worse: Leaked documents showing they're using AI to change video games DURING gameplay to force micro-transactions

It's not only EA, it could be a lot of other companies too. This seems to be from an outside marketing firm trying to sell their AI/ad tech to execs at game companies

The game in the presentation is EA's Anthem... developed by BioWare. Because people know about this it will mean one thing: It's gonna end up like BattleFront 2 and could cause BioWare to shut down (EA isn't high on them anymore cause of Andromeda)

 

There are some discrepancies in the slides so it could either be a poor marketing firm that didn't proofread or fake but at the same time, considering the mobile gaming market and EA's recent ideas make this plausible

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It does look a bit dubious, but then that wouldn't be the final product either, so it definitely is likely with their current direction and apparent business model.

We as the consumer just have to quit buying games that do this; look out for one another and warn other gamers. Eventually they'll get the picture.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@WarTraveller

Thos topic is overly specific and not gaining traction. Could you help me broaden this to a more general topic Traveller? What did you wish to accomplish with this topic? I don’t want to have to delete it but we have a strong policy about keeping threads streamlined and organized for ease of navigating and processing info about the site to facilitate more communication. 

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5 minutes ago, TheRedStranger said:

@WarTraveller

Thos topic is overly specific and not gaining traction. Could you help me broaden this to a more general topic Traveller? What did you wish to accomplish with this topic? I don’t want to have to delete it but we have a strong policy about keeping threads streamlined and organized for ease of navigating and processing info about the site to facilitate more communication. 

I wanted to use this to keep a sort of timeline on the whole Alex Mauer debacle, perhaps invite some discussion on her actions. But it got so numerous and so utterly petty on her side that I sort of gave up. You can delete this if you want.

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2 minutes ago, WarTraveller said:

I wanted to use this to keep a sort of timeline on the whole Alex Mauer debacle, perhaps invite some discussion on her actions. But it got so numerous and so utterly petty on her side that I sort of gave up. You can delete this if you want.

I think this sounds like a contentious topic best served for the dialogue section. Give me an idea of what you find to be the problem with this person and we will create a more general topic in that section.

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1 minute ago, TheRedStranger said:

I think this sounds like a contentious topic best served for the dialogue section. Give me an idea of what you find to be the problem with this person and we will create a more general topic in that section.

Well she's a petty psycho who doesn't take no for an answer, for one.

For a more unbiased opinion, it seems she does seem to be spoiled and...well, petty. I don't remember the details all that well, but I know she went to the ends of the earth to sue people she worked for, and felt like she was in the right all along.

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6 minutes ago, WarTraveller said:

Well she's a petty psycho who doesn't take no for an answer, for one.

For a more unbiased opinion, it seems she does seem to be spoiled and...well, petty. I don't remember the details all that well, but I know she went to the ends of the earth to sue people she worked for, and felt like she was in the right all along.

No. I am not asking for a character assassination. I am asking for a more abstract and general topic to keep these threads going. For example - there could be more people like this in the world doing what she is doing. So what specifically is what she doing wrong as a a general subject?  

Think of it this way - Imagine someone made a thread about Salvia when we could have a topic generally about Substance Abuse. The latter would have more discussion and promote broader conversation.

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10 minutes ago, TheRedStranger said:

No. I am not asking for a character assassination. I am asking for a more abstract and general topic to keep these threads going. For example - there could be more people like this in the world doing what she is doing. So what specifically is what she doing wrong as a a general subject?  

Well THAT...I can't tell you. I'm not even sure why she was mad at the company.

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8 minutes ago, WarTraveller said:

Yeah, that's probably a better idea.

Can I trust you to found the topic and set up a non-snarky, non-partisan, discussion with non-leading questions? We can Title it: Controvery in The Arcade: Contentions and Poltics of the Game Industry. 

We can start with Battle Front. And I will merge the Nintendo Killing Fandom thread.

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5 hours ago, WarTraveller said:

They also told shareholders that their removal wouldn't affect profits. X

Yeesh - so they are giving one story to their investors and me story to their consumers: ‘we need them to profit’ and ‘we need to do something about loot boxes to profit.’ Investors are listening to all they are saying to consumers and will bail out. Investors don’t want their money tied to the insolvency duplicity, especially for the long term. And  consumers won’t buy tripe EA insists is gold. 

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https://kotaku.com/nintendo-printing-money-profits-up-261-percent-1822581642

Man despite everything Nintendo has done the past few years with the Wii U and troubles with Fan Projects it looks like Nintendo is printing money again. I respect the developers of Nintendo though not with the company itself, I just hope it can finally lay off their fans, although now with them making so much they probably don't care at this point so hey free reign fans! XP

I mean there are a lot of games on the Switch I'd like to try out one day, so hey good for them. Although after the whole Wii U debacle do you guys think that their next console will be a flop years later down the line? It seems to be that case ever since the Gamecube (despite the Gamecube having a lot to offer at the time) wasn't as successful as the N64. I mean it seems that Nintendo regarding home consoles hits peaks and drops or could that just be me? With the Switch being part portable as well it stands to reason if this will be it for the Game Boy/DS line of consoles now, I mean for all we know the 3DS could on it's last legs in the next few years. I'm just curious on how it's all gonna play out though I will say that people will look back greatly on the 3DS as it does have a lot of great games.

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  • 6 months later...

Okay guys so there's been something on my mind lately regarding gaming as a whole, that being what's been going on with these Battle Royale games.

I have nothing against PUBG or Fortnite at all, it's pretty neat to have a lot of people enjoy such a game where you can free roam around an island until one team or only yourself remains. Since the tail end of Last Year it's just been taking the reigns all across gaming with planned tournaments even. Heck this year alone there was a tournament back in Vegas hosted by a Twitch streamer that became a big hit too. So for all of that said I must ask this.

What do you think about Battle Royale games? How do you think this effects Gaming as a whole?

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13 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

What do you think about Battle Royale games? How do you think this effects Gaming as a whole?

It's just the latest fad. Platformers, WWII shooters, motion control games, modern shooters, space shooters, open world games, now onto Battle Royale games. It's happened many times, and many have latched onto the trend before. It's just how this industry works.

That SAID, I hate Battle Royale games with a passion. I don't find running around in a field for 15 minutes before getting my head blown off by some random Twitch streamer haflway across the map who will go on to accuse me of stream-sniping to be fun. It's more that I hate both PUBG and Fortnite for different reasons; the former for looking extremely boring and the frankly idiotic legal stuff the developer has tried to do, and Fortnite because it turned some of my favourite Youtubers into one-trick ponies alongside those who exploit Fortnite for scamming or simple attention-seeking. Plus seeing all the low-quality shlock latch onto the trend is always depressing. Radical Heights, The Culling 2, Battlefield 5 has it, even Call of Duty Black Ops 4 will have a "Blackout" mode. Just the thing a game with fast-paced close-quarter combat needs!

My bitter rambling aside, this is but a fad. Everyone thought the glut of modern shooters in the wake of COD 4 would never end, but they did. It'll all blow over eventually, but not before someone takes the concept too far, makes it the straw that breaks the camel's back.

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