I’m pretty sure the current failure of AAA gaming has to do to companies getting captured by private equity, but the rise of lootboxes, of subscription-based games and NFTs softened up the AAA industry enough to make it vulnerable to private equity share grabs.
Disclaimer: I am NOT defending video game companies.
I think loot boxes and other fuckery are due to our unwillingness to pay more for the game itself. Shit, I remember seeing new games on the fucking Super Nintendo costing $60. That equivalent price today is almost $150. You can argue about profit margins and greed all day, but that’s an enormous difference. These companies have to make up for that somewhere. So in light of the fact we won’t pay those prices (I sure as hell wouldn’t), they had to get tricky.
The rise of lootboxes is equally to blame on those moron players who buy them. Especially the fucking whales, who spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on them. Recurringly. Whales fucking ruin everything they touch. They are to blame why most video games turn to shit, since they show the companies that it is much more lucrative for them to just release new lootboxes with some new super rare items or whatever instead of actually releasing meaningful content. And I mean who can blame them, really? Creating lootboxes barely costs anything wrt to development costs and time, but making new meaningful content does. Fuck whales.
It’s easy to blame players, but gambling compulsion is a known psychological phenomenon that can bypass the reasoning of some particularly susceptible people. The law quite often leans towards it not being players’ fault they’re so addicted, hence no ads for casinos.
Honestly, we kind of need the law to catch up - on sports betting too.
we kind of need the law to catch up - on sports betting too.
The law was there, for a long time. Then a couple years ago it just… disappeared? It baffles me that every sports event now is nonstop ads for gambling. I guess when you have a casino bankruptor running the country, this is the idiocracy you get.
I’m pretty sure the current failure of AAA gaming has to do to companies getting captured by private equity, but the rise of lootboxes, of subscription-based games and NFTs softened up the AAA industry enough to make it vulnerable to private equity share grabs.
No, it’s the wokes!
Disclaimer: I am NOT defending video game companies.
I think loot boxes and other fuckery are due to our unwillingness to pay more for the game itself. Shit, I remember seeing new games on the fucking Super Nintendo costing $60. That equivalent price today is almost $150. You can argue about profit margins and greed all day, but that’s an enormous difference. These companies have to make up for that somewhere. So in light of the fact we won’t pay those prices (I sure as hell wouldn’t), they had to get tricky.
The rise of lootboxes is equally to blame on those moron players who buy them. Especially the fucking whales, who spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on them. Recurringly. Whales fucking ruin everything they touch. They are to blame why most video games turn to shit, since they show the companies that it is much more lucrative for them to just release new lootboxes with some new super rare items or whatever instead of actually releasing meaningful content. And I mean who can blame them, really? Creating lootboxes barely costs anything wrt to development costs and time, but making new meaningful content does. Fuck whales.
It’s easy to blame players, but gambling compulsion is a known psychological phenomenon that can bypass the reasoning of some particularly susceptible people. The law quite often leans towards it not being players’ fault they’re so addicted, hence no ads for casinos.
Honestly, we kind of need the law to catch up - on sports betting too.
The law was there, for a long time. Then a couple years ago it just… disappeared? It baffles me that every sports event now is nonstop ads for gambling. I guess when you have a casino bankruptor running the country, this is the idiocracy you get.