If you play ANY mobile-style, free-to-PAY game, you are helping to destroy gaming. That includes any exceptions you think exist.
If you play ANY mobile-style, free-to-PAY game, you are helping to destroy gaming. That includes any exceptions you think exist.
I'm mainly talking about these new "but they're different" games, that have gotten so fucking popular, lately.
"Honky Stair Rail" and "Genshin Implants" or whatever the fuck they're called.
I don't care if you can play them without spending any money. I don't care if they're any good. None of that matters. The whole model of the game being funded by whales, spending money on in-game items and currency IS LITERALLY EVIL.
There is no way to do it ethically. That is an impossibility, on a fundamental level. There is no excuse for anyone to give these so-called developers and publishers ANY amount of money, attention, or engagement.
The only acceptable way to pay for a game as a service is a traditional MMO subscription, where you pay a flat rate per month/year to access 100 percent of a game's available gameplay.
I don't care what your excuse is. I don't care that you like anime tits and ass. I don't care if you think your chosen free-to-pay game is different. It's not.
Stop supporting this shit. Support real games.
A couple of years ago, I would have considered this to be a popular opinion, but about 35-40 percent of the internet posts I see in 2024 are related to either "Honky Stair Rail" or "Genshin Implants," and it's starting to freak me the fuck out.
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I mean for sure these games are bad for the industry but I don't think it's a moral failing for people to play them. The reality is that companies have learned how to manipulate and ease worse practices into games over time. It sucks that a notable number of people have fallen for it but accusing individuals of being at fault (especially here) isn't going to change the industry.
for sure these games are bad for the industry
Yes. I'm glad you agree.
I don’t think it’s a moral failing for people to play them.
No, it DEFINITELY is. Willingly helping to pervert and destroy a formerly constructive industry is immoral. Players and developers will all suffer, if this shit isn't stopped.
Also, the industry is already changing. You haven't noticed the price of traditional non-free-to-pay games rising, recently? You think that's entirely unrelated to this shit? The dollars that are going into the gacha hole are being sucked out of the traditional model. That's pressuring the traditional publishers to raise unit prices.
I'm not about to tell anybody they're evil for playing a game like this and not knowing any better. If you really wanna change people's habits, you'd be better off showing them what a better game can be. Even then, they could legitimately prefer their gachas or be addicted. I think that's pretty crazy but there's only so much one can do.
The AAA price increase was mostly just wanting more money and using inflation as an excuse. They're not necessarily hurting because of f2p games. Well made traditional games still sell but often times the big publishers put out unfinished crap or overload their full-price games with monetization anyways. Those may be hurt financially. Meanwhile, games like Elden Ring and BG3 have done extremely well.
The pressure to change needs to be put on the companies, not the individuals. What the individual mostly needs is awareness.
What the individual mostly needs is awareness.
Awareness, you say?
Like people making posts about this situation?
I mean, there are several people in this thread who didn't realize how popular and widespread these recent mobile-style games had become.
Yeah. Awareness. Kinda makes sense, now that YOU MENTION IT.
EDIT: maybe you need some awareness, yourself. One of the things that radicalized me enough to make this post is a survey I saw, where one of the anime bitches from these games was being voted as one of the most influential female video game characters of the current century.
These games are now major influences, in the world. They are raking in vast amounts of money and huge portions of mindshare. I'm not being hyperbolic.
Awareness is good but berating your average Joe is not the way to make any kind of systemic change. It will make them not listen to you or even actively work against you.
I get what you're saying. I haven't been exactly displaying ideal form, here.
I think what set me off is how some of these people responding are just being intellectually dishonest. The industry-harming, anti-consuming practices I'm talking about ARE definitely harmful. But people are like "hmm, could you cite some examples?"
It's like if I said "being hit on the hand with a sledgehammer causes injury," and jackasses came crawling out of the woodwork, doing their best smug-ass Elon Musk impressions: "hmmm. Interesting, if true. Can you cite some examples of this phenomenon?"
It's bloody fucking obvious that a hammer to the knuckles is bad for you. It's equally obvious that mobile-style milk-the-customer-for-everything-and-fuck-the-actual-gameplay software development practices are harmful.
Playing along with intellectually dishonest people isn't something ANYBODY should feel obligated to do. It's arguably something to be avoided.
Makes sense. I definitely feel the same frustration sometimes and think it's insane when people actively defend practices like these or try to sweep the problem under the rug.
I really find it disturbing that a couple of the comments have an "okay, Boomer" flavor to them.
Well, yeah, no shit. This IS coming from a place of "back in my day..."
Yeah, I do remember a time when games weren't as horrifically monetized as they are becoming. But the difference between me and the average pathological Boomer is that I AM ON THE SIDE OF THE YOUNGER PEOPLE. I'm advocating for them to have the good experiences that I have had.
I don't want them to be fucked over, stripped of their money, and abused by the corporate fuck-machine. It's disheartening to basically get a response that feel like: "whatever, old guy. I'm happy paying hundreds of dollars for a handful of .png files of anime tiddies."