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.
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.
I thought about this a little bit since you made some pretty good points, and I concluded you are correct that psyops through mainstream channels like YouTube bribery and news articles is the most reliable way to manipulate normies.
However, on a relatively free speech platform like X, influencer networks have become alternative loci of power. These people are coherent enough to coordinate an agenda, stick to it, and create intelligible pressure. That's the mechanism of control that we need.
This is distinct from the original GG approach which basically relied on populist momentum, a la that infamous quote about GG having no leaders. Unfortunately that view of the faculties of the average normie is a bit too rosy.
Basically, influence the influencers instead of appealing directly to the public.
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.
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.
I thought about this a little bit since you made some pretty good points, and I concluded you are correct that psyops through mainstream channels like YouTube bribery and news articles is the most reliable way to manipulate normies.
However, on a relatively free speech platform like X, influencer networks have become alternative loci of power. These people are coherent enough to coordinate an agenda, stick to it, and create intelligible pressure. That's the mechanism of control that we need.
This is distinct from the original GG approach which basically relied on populist momentum, a la that infamous quote about GG having no leaders. Unfortunately that view of the faculties of the average normie is a bit too rosy.
Basically, influence the influencers instead of appealing directly to the public.