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[Column] General: The Blame Game
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Normally I just find a way to blame players for the problems in the market, wait for the accusations of being “a dev kiss-ass” or “biased” (if that word is ever used correctly, I wouldn’t know) or “a troll” and then move on to the next piece. The freelancer is just a handyman with words; we have to keep moving on to the next one and the next one so a little hate doesn’t hurt us. This process is nothing new.
Read more of Beau Hindman's A Casual, Cornered: The Blame Game.
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Comments
I don't think content gobbling is hardcore, I think that's indicative of someone with way too much time on their hands.
Hardcore is more like what we got from Wildstar, where the available content is challenging/difficult.
Granted, the more difficult it is, the more time you will likely need to invest...but that's because you're overcoming a challenge, not because you are REQUIRED to spend 80 hours clearing an easy mode raid umpteen times to get the dungeon tokens for a piece of gear.
Again, time sink =/= hardcore
Love this article. Absolutely love it! I'll agree with the conclusion hinted very unsubtly in the fifth to last paragraph: Entitled gamers people are the problem to the genre.
"I want to visit your site for free, read your articles for free too. But if you show even one ad I'll never visit your site again!"
There are really people out there like that without any comprehension of how websites make revenue. [And I know that MMORPG has little control over it, but I just wish they'd put a bit more class in their ads instead of games like League of Angles doing flesh bars on each side of the article. Think of the children! The entitled children!]
Entitlement is bred by systems such as F2P that enable such attitudes. It is sickeningly worse to see were a game announces an expansion and people are demanding that it be free for them (for a game that doesn't have a subscription, like GW2 no less).
Beau, I like the fact that you prefaced this article with a disclaimer. Your rant is duly noted. The best part is that a lot of the "attitudes" you are whining about come from other articles written by your colleagues.
But yeah thanks for lumping the readers into one big pile and dumping your trash on us.
yes blame the customer because the developer failed to deliver what the customer wanted. then blame the customer again because the publisher advertise the things the customer wanted but never delivered.
clearly its the customers fault.
the reason so many players leave f2p games with in the first 60 days is because the publishers/developers spend all their time developing the cash shop and advertising instead of actually developing content. the games are engineered to attract the whales....the bulk player base doesn't matter to the company...since they aren't paying.
Challenge accepted...
Steam summer sale. The humble bundle. Black Friday deals at most gaming sites.
Many of the games that can be purchased during this time period are for pennies of the dollar. Never played KOTOR? Well now you can for $.99. That's 100 hours of content for a dollar or a penny an hour.
Did I mention the best part? It's not a f2p game. You won't have to deal with annoying advertisements every time you log on. You won't have to deal with the most interesting parts of the story being hidden behind a paywall. You won't have to deal with gutted features and low drop rates geared toward pushing you to cash shop.
I really hate to use this phrase because I generally feel it's false and misapplied, but this is actually a case of the "entitlement generation".
When I was growing up with video games there was a distinct "you must be this tall to ride this ride" feeling about the whole thing. If you didn't understand how to play and/or if you didn't have the time to play . . . you didn't. You moved along, video games weren't for you.
But we've moved into this really bizarre environment where game developers are trying to please people who have 30 minutes to spare. wtf? IMO, at some point, people need to make a decision, if you don't have time for an activity, then you don't engage in that activity. Ideally people would automatically behave in this common sense matter. But they don't. Instead they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want their big, expansive, intricate world with lots of depth and so on, but they also want to be able to jump in for 30 minutes and feel accomplished. That's entitlement.
Sure I understand that money needs to be made, but maybe we have too many development studios competing for the money from people who don't really have the time or ability to devote to gaming.
Sounds bleak, right? Nah. It doesn’t.
Uh, ya it does.
When your underlying tenent for playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game doesn't account or care for the fact that other players just don't stay to play, you have a problem. There are many nice single player RPG's out there that cater to a solo experience, have at em.
Stop misdirecting the blame: GREED is the problem.
Game companies are not developing games in order to further gaming... they are in it for the money. They make games that can appeal for the widest market possible, even if those drop out later on. They are not making engrossing and compelling worlds that make the players want to continue playing it... they are making themeparks that can be completed with minimal effort or grind, and then wonder why people leave after they've been on all the rides.
The MMORPG genre is in decline because there are no longer any companies out there that are making Niche/Dedication games, and instead aim for the widest money gathering net possible.
Consumers will do just that: consume. Give them something short and sweet... and they gobble it up, and leave. Give them some meat, and the NEED for time and friends, and you will have them for lifetimes.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I blame the developers 100% because they are the only ones with the true power to control the direction of gaming. Oh sure, you can say some idiot dumping $250 on a Founder's Pack is to blame, but the reality is, ONLY the developer has the power to do a damn thing.
It's all about choices... lets see, make a game that only 1% of the people will like that really is what we'd like to make or make game that 99% of the people will like that isn't anything like we'd like to make.... hmm, let's go with the 99%. Game is crap, they know it, you know it, and I know it... but for 2 months 99% of the players are in bliss. Then the hate train begins.
So no, I don't blame the consumers... I go right to the real guilty party and point right in their face and say, if you really wanted to make a change in the genre, there's nothing stopping you but your own greed.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people... well if there were no guns, that would be true, now wouldn't it. But you make guns now don't you. Don't sit there and say it's our fault if we use them in a way you didn't intend us to... but knew it was a real possibility.
Developers are to blame. 100%. The day that I can sit there and tell a developer to make a game a particular way to my liking and my liking alone and have it made is the day that I can be blamed. Until then, they reap what THEY sow.
Silence is acknowledgement of guilt when you are the accused. The author clearly said players are to blame for the direction that MMORPGs are going, and I am a player, so I am either obliged to respond and confront it, or accept that as a fact.
What exactly is your response to this mmoguy43? Are you agreeing with the author, or is your perspective any better than any of other respondents.
I agree... you are clearly responsible for everything bad.
(Welcome to the internet)
Very well said. I hadn't seen that point mentioned before.
I was with you until you injected your weird anti-gun rant which doesn't even fit as an analogy for the point you were making. Now if you had said that because some peoples' lives have been destroyed by MMO addiction (which I'm sure is true) that all MMOs should be banned then your analogy would at least have fit with the point.
Your point regarding MMOs was that consumers shouldn't be blamed for producers making a poor quality product. Your analogy advocates the belief that any product which can cause harm to people should be banned. Can you not see that those are two completely different things?
The game is so painfully obvious and easy!
What makes this hard is being surround by folks who just don't understand when they are suppose to move out of Telegraphs! Hands are being held and folks can't even do that right!
Unless you're fucking color blind it doesn't get any easier than that!
Move out of red shit!!!
Bleh! I blame developers almost exclusively. Yes, people grind through games like cray cray...get a life! I don't have time to play like that and it's disturbing if anyone does. I've met them. The game came out Tuesday and by the weekend they've reached max lvl and are bored. I'm sorry, but BRING BACK CoH! That's why I blame comapnies and developers. You had a game that was going strong like WoW after more than 5 years! It was still making money according to sources. It had a loyal fan base. It was subscription only at first and did fine, but YES ppl grumbled about the cost. So, they got F2P. The consumer will always want more for less, it's the nature of capitalism and consumers. Make a quality product that allows for almost total customization and allows for NUMEROUS options and playstyles. You'll do fine. Literally, all I have encountered in EVERY game I've played since the demise of CoH is wizards and witches, knights and their spinoffs, short meaningless grinding tasks, and design systems that limit my optimization of my toon (unless I fork out tons of cash, I'd rather pay a subscription and get access to everything) with endless armor swaps. In the end, developers are putting out crap. Don't blame the gamers, blame the developers and they're companies.
As I've said before, there are exceptions, but they are guilty of some of the things I've mentioned earlier. Yet, the exceptions are at least imaginative or put great effort into the feel of the game even if I may not be huge fans of them. GW2 and Wildstar are examples. Wildstar is dying and GW2 is starting to expand and diversify a tad. I think that game companies cater (like Hollywood) to a very narrow set of gamers. That's they're fault. It's almost always JUST swords and guns and blood and PvP. I want a bad ass knight or warrior or...blah blah blah
Games like CoH allowed MANY people to play. Sometimes all I wanted to do was get together with players i've seen or know and heal or control. Well, those actual powersets are not really around. Wildstar has great healers and buffers in their medics and espers. It's a start. I almost only play GW2 now..simply because there is nothing else. Wildstar is dead and AGAIN I want the customization I had in CoH AND I'll pay for it! It's just a simply lack of vision, diversity, and customization. I TOTALLY BLAME DEVELOPERS. Make something good and not crappy. The animation alone in WoW (not to mention endless silly quests) causes me to lose interest no matter how I fight it, usually before I reach lvl 20! Come on! After all this time that game should be much more further along than it is. Lame games!
Developers are not to blame. They do the research based on real numbers and make a game they know will make bank. How are they to blame?
If individuals would not spend any money on alpha's or beta's or early access, a game would only make money if people bought it after release. Like it used to be. Now, impatience and an abundance of disposable income get people to 'pay' for crap. How do we not know its crap? Well before any reviews or anything people are spending money in 'hopes' the game they think their interested in is any good. Now why on earth does a game 'have' to be good if people are buying into it before it's even fully made? Short answer? It doesn't. People are so bored and looking for something special they'll try just about anything. Not only that, they'll pay to try it. Once we stop doing this then developers will be forced to make better, more complete games.
Alot of PVE players buy into PVP games because they are not certain how restricting the PVP is. F2P and PVP and especially MOBAs are turn offs to PVE players in general. The average person who enjoys PVP games are much more likely to like the F2P/Cash Shop models because they can jump in for nothing or nearly nothing and start PVPing with minimal investment in time. They visit the cash shops and get to endgame and PVP their hearts out for 3 months. Then quit, then start into another game, wash, rinse, repeat. There is really no interest in the story or quest content. Does anyone really read what an NPC has to say anymore? So why make such things deep or really meaningful?
The Genre used to be MMORPG. Now it is more of a MMOSPG. Or an online game filled with people who solo through the game. The term roleplay innately involves more than one person. It requires knowledge of the game's lore, story and landscape. Thus the game needs to have impact or affection for its said lore and story. A well made, larger, difficult PVE game will keep its players much longer but it also takes time, money and talent to develop. If people are paying for and ingesting a bucket of goop, why spend the money and effort to give them lobster?
First PC Game: Pool of Radiance July 10th, 1990. First MMO: Everquest April 23, 1999
Honest truth is that the cost of making games has risen exponentially, due almost entirely by the need and want for better and better graphics.
Game makers are forced to suckle the corporate tit to get their vision out there, or now beg the community via crowd funding.
So many people say gaming has gotten worse than it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, etc.
Do you people even remember the games of that generation?