Consumerist - It’s Time To Start Treating Video Game Industry Like The $21 Billion Business It Is. Thanks HARDOCP.
Explains why games should be more like books. or something.
Pigeon wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 23:03:
Y'all talk about voting with your wallet, and bemoan we only get these kinds of games because we still buy them; but when there's an article that basically says we really should expect more from a multi-billion dollar industry y'all turn your noses up at it and spout something about the free-market.
NKD wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 15:23:Pigeon wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 15:05:
Ya'll are unnecessarily clouding the issue. Yes there will always be people that complain no matter how good a game is, or have unrealistic expectations. Yes there's subjectivity involved, but that doesn't mean you can't tell what's unreasonable and what isn't. It'd be like looking at a color palette and saying I can't tell at what point red turns to purple, so I'm going to pretend neither color exists.
It's more like saying I can't tell at what point red turns to purple, so I'm going to leave it up to individual's own eyes to determine for themselves, and not try to enact some arbitrary rules about what's red and what's purple, maybe creating a new bureaucratic agency to handle it.
I don't see why people here have such a hard time accepting the idea that game publishers HAVE NO LEVERAGE ON YOU. You can live without their games. You can withhold your money. If enough people refuse to buy a title, that studio is shut down within 6 months and they don't do that shit again.
If you're repeatedly giving your money to EA or whatever other publisher you despise, and then crying that you need to be protected by Valve, the government, or the Easter Bunny, while still handing more money over... well, we have a word for people like that.
Rules and regulations are there to stop people from being victimized by heartless corporations, not to stop people from victimizing themselves.
Overon wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 17:55:
The problem is consumer expectations. Consumers don't seem to expect much from publishers, their expectations low so they buy buggy incomplete broken games. You have to change the consumer's expectations for the publishers to notice and improve.
panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 17:41:jdreyer wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 14:50:panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:59:
Do you support legislating the labeling of everything because stupid people refuse to accept that the contents of a coffee cup might be hot and they should be careful while handling it?
You should watch this documentary before spouting off about hot coffee. McD's spent a lot of money to try and portray this as a frivolous lawsuit, when a) they should never be serving coffee at 195 degrees, and b) they shouldn't have had cheap cups that explode on a mere 3 pounds of impact.
That's fair and all for a specific instance, but it doesn't change the fact that lawnmowers need to have stickers warning people against sticking their hands in the spinning blades. For real. Hot coffee is just the easiest go to example for the practice of idiot proofing the obvious.
jdreyer wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 17:40:
One of the things I've noticed about the industry is that it is going mainstream. For instance, gaming sites and mags used to only have game and computer hardware ads in them, now they're more mainstream with ads for cars, coke, etc.
jdreyer wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 14:50:panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:59:
Do you support legislating the labeling of everything because stupid people refuse to accept that the contents of a coffee cup might be hot and they should be careful while handling it?
You should watch this documentary before spouting off about hot coffee. McD's spent a lot of money to try and portray this as a frivolous lawsuit, when a) they should never be serving coffee at 195 degrees, and b) they shouldn't have had cheap cups that explode on a mere 3 pounds of impact.
jdreyer wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 14:50:panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:59:
Do you support legislating the labeling of everything because stupid people refuse to accept that the contents of a coffee cup might be hot and they should be careful while handling it?
You should watch this documentary before spouting off about hot coffee. McD's spent a lot of money to try and portray this as a frivolous lawsuit, when a) they should never be serving coffee at 195 degrees, and b) they shouldn't have had cheap cups that explode on a mere 3 pounds of impact.
NKD wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 15:23:Pigeon wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 15:05:
Ya'll are unnecessarily clouding the issue. Yes there will always be people that complain no matter how good a game is, or have unrealistic expectations. Yes there's subjectivity involved, but that doesn't mean you can't tell what's unreasonable and what isn't. It'd be like looking at a color palette and saying I can't tell at what point red turns to purple, so I'm going to pretend neither color exists.
It's more like saying I can't tell at what point red turns to purple, so I'm going to leave it up to individual's own eyes to determine for themselves, and not try to enact some arbitrary rules about what's red and what's purple, maybe creating a new bureaucratic agency to handle it.
I don't see why people here have such a hard time accepting the idea that game publishers HAVE NO LEVERAGE ON YOU. You can live without their games. You can withhold your money. If enough people refuse to buy a title, that studio is shut down within 6 months and they don't do that shit again.
If you're repeatedly giving your money to EA or whatever other publisher you despise, and then crying that you need to be protected by Valve, the government, or the Easter Bunny, while still handing more money over... well, we have a word for people like that.
Rules and regulations are there to stop people from being victimized by heartless corporations, not to stop people from victimizing themselves.
Pigeon wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 15:05:
Ya'll are unnecessarily clouding the issue. Yes there will always be people that complain no matter how good a game is, or have unrealistic expectations. Yes there's subjectivity involved, but that doesn't mean you can't tell what's unreasonable and what isn't. It'd be like looking at a color palette and saying I can't tell at what point red turns to purple, so I'm going to pretend neither color exists.
Beamer wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 14:14:
The problem with applying all this to code is how do you define "works?"
It's the same problem I have with people irate over unfinished Early Access. How do you define "finished." If a developer just slaps "V1.0" behind a game, it's finished. It's release. Yeah, there may be bugs, but show me a single game ever made without bugs. Yeah, it may not have all the features, but virtually every game has had features cut in the final months of release.
It's easy to say when something doesn't work, like SimCity during its first (week? weeks? I don't even know), but that's the exception. Nearly every single other game "works" at release.
I just can't come up with a way to write a rule/law that clearly covers everything. Fallout 3 arguably didn't have an ending, does that count? Some games have show-stopping bugs that impact 10% or so of play-throughs, do those count? The Thing touted a trust/fear system but Thing changes were entirely scripted and mooted that entire "feature," did that count?
You can objective tell if a book works - you can either read it or you can't. You can objectively tell if a movie works. You can objectively tell if a blender or microwave works. Automobiles are more difficult, but there are ways to do it based on repairs needed.
Software? Much harder.
panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:59:
Do you support legislating the labeling of everything because stupid people refuse to accept that the contents of a coffee cup might be hot and they should be careful while handling it?
panbient wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:59:
Why should the industry change their methods when the consumers themselves make those methods profitable and successful?
Cutter wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 13:20:
So if you buy a car and doesn't work, you're cool with that? Hey it's only 30 or 40 grand, whatevs right
ldonyo wrote on Jun 10, 2014, 11:37:
That should not be too much to ask.