We all love video games. They’re fun, they kill time and allow us to relax and have a great time. But, there are some trends that exist that interfere with our ability to relax and just enjoy a game.
Here are eight trends that are as annoying as they are common.
Season Passes
Season Passes, in theory, sound like a great idea. They offer a discount on a bunch of future DLC that’s planned on being released for the game you’re looking into buying. However, all they’re really doing is trying to get more money out of you up front, usually before the game is released or reviews have come out. So, you’re basing your decision on forking over extra cash for additional content on the idea that the game is as good as the hype is making it out to be.
Never base a purchase purely on the hype.
Annual Releases
This sort of makes sense for sports games. Updated official rosters, changes in strengths of each team, and ways to make the game feel more realistic are reasons why we all generally feel that they deserve to have annual releases. It makes sense.
However, it really doesn’t make sense from any standpoint aside from a simple cash-grab by the publisher to release other genres annually. No, Activision, we really don’t need yet another Call of Duty this year or another Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft.
Instead of focusing on quantity, why not instead focus on quality? It’s something both of those game franchises deserve more of.
Exclusive games
This has always been a thorn in a side of a lot of gamers. It doesn’t even make logical fiscal sense as you’re alienating other platforms of which more profit and sales could be made from the game.
I understand that Microsoft and Sony owned developers use this as a way to boost their own consoles as the one with “the best” games on it, but to me its telling that you need to pull this kind of crap to sell a console. It sounds more like it’s not as good as the other guys and you’re trying to sweeten the deal by offering extra goodies to get the sale.
As a PC gamer, I feel the same about games only found on the PC. I wish all games went on all platforms. Let the platform and the service be the judge of which one is the best, not some marketing ploy.
Overpriced DLC
DLC, or “Downloadable Content”, was always something that gamers felt a bit sour about. Why not release this content with the game? Why not make them feel confident about their purchase knowing that the developer will continue supporting it with new ideas after its launched?
Okay, I know it’s no longer the late 90’s and that idea has gone away. I do, however, object to the notion that any DLC should cost so much as to rival that of the original game or cost an exorbitant amount for what it offers. For example, Map Packs. How in the name of Cthulhu does 5 new maps using the same textures found in the original game, with no additional options or features cost so much? I know I’m targeting Call of Duty a bit, but it’s because it’s the biggest culprit of overpriced DLC, especially given the games lifespan. I’ve seen defunct MMOs that are more popular than a COD game after a month or two. Yet, especially with those season passes, they try to charge an arm and a leg for this content.
Always-Online DRM
Why? Why is this a thing? Oh noes, piracy! It’s the reason why we have to have such a draconian protection system in place. Please.
Quality games get lots of cash, even when massively pirated. Look at any of the GTA games. GTAV alone made $800 million and is in the Guinness Book of Records for breaking six different records. It was also one of the more popular games to pirate.
Look, everyone that makes something legitimate hates pirates for stealing their stuff. I understand it. But all you’re doing is punishing those who bought your game with this system that doesn’t allow them to play offline. Does your server go offline? Tough shit, you’re not playing the game you bought. It’s ridiculous. You’re not going to stop pirates from pirating a game. They’ll always figure a way to do it. Instead of trying to crack down on it, try figuring out a way that’s beneficial for them to buy the game. Take a look at Batman: Arkham Asylum for an awesome idea.
At least Steam and Origin allow you to play a game offline should you lose your internet connection or their servers fail to load.
Misleading marketing
I’m looking at you, Watch_Dogs! Remember, E3 2012 when we witnessed an amazing looking game. It had physics, weather effects and other goodies that made everyone’s jaw dropped and wallet open. Then, we got the game. Everything we saw, all of those goodies seemed to have disappeared and left us having to play online to play a single player game.
This isn’t the only game that has done this, but it was one of the biggest and most widely known to see this sort of crap happen.
Publishers, if you ever wanted to know why your customers are losing trust in what you hype up about your games, this is one of the main reasons. It’s hard to trust what we see at E3 anymore.
Unoptimized PC ports
Okay, so you take the time to port the game to the PC but do it so half-assed that it’s either barely playable or an obvious cash-grab. PC gamers aren’t looking for much. When a game is ported from the console, which many are and we do understand that it will happen, we just want a video/audio/keybinding options menu. That’s it. That’s the only extra thing we want. Otherwise we hope that you at least test the game on a few PCs using various popular hardware to ensure that it works properly. Batman: Arkham Knight was so bad on the PC it had to be pulled from retail while the devs fixed it and those who did purchase it were allowed to get a refund.
Hell, put out a beta first for PC users and we’ll happily point out any bugs for you to squash and make your job easier. We would love that over buying a poorly translated game and feeling as if we wasted our money on crap.
“Launch now, patch later” mentality
I think every gamer, regardless if you’re an XBox, Playstation or PC gamer will feel the burn of this one. “We ran out of time and had to launch”, “We figured the issues would only affect a small minority of you”, etc.. are the excuses we typically hear from developers when this crap happens. This isn’t even a rare occurrence either. Mass Effect Andromeda, released just last week, suffered from this issue.
If it’s not finished, delay it. We’d rather have a delayed game than a broken one!
