The Critical Gamer - We Won! Sony Reverses Course On Helldivers 2
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The lesson taken away from that would be "just integrate PSN accounts in the beginning so the gamers don't cry about it later"
So then you don't buy the next game at all and they learn their next lesson. The only reason shit like this has gotten as far as it has is because weak willed gamers have rationalized giving into their FOMO under the guise of "rewarding shifts toward our side". That's how microtransactions went from outrage over horse armor to complete acceptance of "cosmetics".
Have some god damned principles and actually stand for them for once and maybe things will actually start shifting toward our side rather than just shifting away at a "more acceptable" rate.
The reason they've gotten this far is because there's been near zero pushback and definitely ZERO victories. Nobody rolled back MTX. Nobody rolled back horse armor. When did consumers ever succeed in getting anything done like this?
What is needed to reform the games industry is constant, assiduous action where every incremental improvement is never good enough. The idea of just burning down everything until they give us 100% of what we want is a juvenile fantasy akin to the college kids camping out on lawns until admin cuts off all ties with Israel. Why? Many reasons, one of them being that you can't control the buying decisions of the normie kid or adult who just wants to have fun playing games.
A smaller, motivated force can steer a larger entity, but it can't just dominate the battlefield 100%.
Crushing Helldivers 2 based on a PSN problem that they've resolved is also a fantasy. Hardliners like you won't buy back in, and that will hurt them, but it won't kill them.
What about the skyrim/fallout paid mods? Although all that happens was that they were moved a bit later down the line. I expect the same thing to happen here, which is why i understand the need for scorched earth tactics. Since otherwise it will be normal in a year. shitstorm or none, all it change is the moment and then it moves back onto the track.
Good point, but literally everything moves back on the track without a motivated, coherent core, which didn't exist in the Skyrim debacle. All we had back then was a rabble of annoyed customers who figured one or two embarrassments were enough for the games industry to exercise better judgment.
In a sense, this is less about what the games industry notices and more about what normal people notice and support, because they are the battering ram.
Also, we often talk about the punitive culture used to keep libs in line, but they do a hefty amount of lovebombing as well. Neil Druckmann's cringy ramblings weren't applauded by Anita Sarkeesian (in the flesh!) for nothing.