Why Can't I Buy the Game I Want to Play?

I spoke up a lot on this blog with regards to why I don't want to support certain games. It could be a certain form of DRM, or some monetization issue, or a piece of pre-order bonus. Why is this an issue to us gamers? Shouldn't we be thankful to the developers for making such great games for us? Shouldn't we cut them some slack and give them the money they deserve?

Actually, it is understandable when companies choose to use DRM like always-online requirements to fight piracy. Piracy is a problem, and it does eat into sales, and in truth, having a game connect to a server and having parts of the game run server side is a very powerful form of DRM that can be almost impossible to crack, unless the pirates manage to duplicate the server's role somehow. Whether or not having DRM will get people, who would otherwise download the game to actually pay for the game is another matter (there's no reason to believe they would still want the game if it's not free), but we can understand where game developers are coming from. The problem with always-online is obvious, server issues, internet provider issues, companies closing down, or shutting down servers; the fact is, technology is just not good enough yet, whether it's the game company or internet providers. And in many countries, internet is limited by data caps, and subscription is not cheap. Perhaps one day, when speeds can finally be fast and internet, reliable, and accessible anywhere and anytime without latency issues and wiring requirement, perhaps then, can we accept always-online. Now, however, it is just not acceptable, though we tend to be more forgiving if it's free-to-play.

Other issues like pre-order bonus and DLCs are just there to encourage sales, which technically isn't wrong. But it opens up abuse. Pre-order bonuses are content created before the game is released, meaning potentially, it could be something originally in the game, something purposely removed from the game just before release to, 1) encourage people to buy before reviews are out, i.e. trick people into buying a bad game, and 2) get people who didn't order the game to fork out more money for content that should be in there originally, effectively increase the price of the game by $5 to $15. Not a bad deal for the company at all.

These are things gamers don't want, and yet, we still buy games that have all these issues. The message we are sending to companies is that we don't mind their exploitation, as long as we get good games. They can inconvenience us however they want with DRM; they can sell us five minutes of content at a time for $15 dollars each; they can make crappy games full of bugs, log in issues and with server issues and we'll pay for them without waiting for reviews. They can do all these, and we won't mind. If we keep sending out these signals, companies will keep testing the waters, keep exploiting us more and more, trying to see how far they can go before we react, and they will do it with games that people really want to play.

I'm not sure if it's worth fighting anymore. Perhaps gamers don't really care, and people who are complaining are just the vocal minority. Or people are really just stupid fan boys, complaining about every little misstep EA makes but worshipping at the feet of Blizzard that does no wrong. You know, both Sim City and Diablo 3 use server processing always-online DRM but only one of the companies finally made their game playable offline.

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Blizzard Talks Diablo III’s New Path, Defends Online Req

Really? I'm kind of sick of developers treating legitimate customers like criminals by shoving DRM down our throat and now you want to treat us like idiots as well? Well, if it's meant to be played online, are you discriminating against your PlayStation players by not providing this awesome always-online experience? What makes them (as well as me because I do own a PlayStation) so undeserving of your full commitment to deliver to us the ultimate online gaming experience? Please male the PlayStation version of Diablo 3 always on as well. It's not fair that we don't get this feature.

It's starting to become obvious that the always-on feature in Diablo 3 is as a DRM. Now that the auction house is removed, their excuse for the persistent internet requirement is gone, and now they are looking for an excuse (and in fact have an excellent one as you can read from the interview) that they can fool their fans with. Even Heart of the Swarm (which I foolishly bought assuming it had the same system as Wings of Liberty) removed offline play.

Developers know that always-on doesn't sit well with gamers, so in order to still have it, they design the game with systems so as to justify it, and we saw how well that worked with the new SimCity as well as Diablo 3 hardcore mode. This was one of the reasons I only finished normal mode in hardcore for Diablo 3. I didn't play softcore because of the real money auction house, and it wasn't exciting nor fun. Yet hardcore was frustrating thanks to deaths due to lag, and my country's internet connection is considered pretty good compared to most of the world so I can't imaging how others play.

Always-on had another side effect - friends. I wanted to challenge myself, yet I get people dropping into my game and loading me with good gear or rushing me through the game, and it became increasingly rude to keep rejecting them. You know, some of us want to play offline, some of us want be play games to be alone, and no, being on social media and playing games with people over the internet is NOT being sociable. People are rude and dumb over the net, and if I want to play with friends, I do NOT need to be always on because I CAN contact them, because they are, well BY FRIENDS.

Quit being an idiot and assuming everyone's at your level because we can tell. The idiocy you see on your forums and YouTube comments represent the vocal minority, so just because most of them are not too bright, doesn't mean that all your consumers are.

Phew, got it out and oh well, back to boycotting your always-on DRM. (We generally accept always-on for free-to-play games, but even DotA 2 is adding LAN mode. So what's your excuse for not having LAN for SC2 tournaments? I know, monopoly and control.) (Yes, I know DotA 2 LAN still requires an internet connection, but I'm sick of seeing d/c at tournaments. At least the PCs are connected over LAN while the connection is merely to verify the copy of the game so d/c's or lag won't affect the game.) Wonder when it is when we can really combat piracy without punishing legitimate consumers, or is it even possible? Perhaps when we get fed up and totally stop purchasing games with such restrictions, and perhaps only then, will we know.

You know what? Aliens...

By now, many of us have had the chance to read about or play Aliens: Colonial Marines, and to put it simply, it wasn't good.

 

Many had hopes for this game, not only because of the license but also because of Gearbox, developers of the Borderlands franchise. The advertisements and interviews with Gearbox declaring their love for the franchise, and the long development time was encouraging as well, and the demo that they showed to the press dripped with atmosphere.

 

It's no surprise that, people, after all the hype surrounding the game, pre-ordered, and were horribly disappointed by the game at release. The gaming sites exploded with negative reviews and rumours on how the game could go so disastrously wrong after the awesome demo. People took to forums and social networks to express their displeasure, and accusations of Gearbox's dishonest behavior surfaced.

 

Did Gearbox lie to Sega and the gaming press? Why was the end product so different from the demo and trailers? There is talk that Gearbox outsourced the project, preferring to focus on their own title, Borderlands 2 instead.

And so, (some) people realized that pre-ordering games wasn't such a good idea after all, especially if the pre-order bonus was just skins or something pointless. And even if the bonus was good, you're really risking a lot buying a game that you know nothing of, besides a press demo, and as Gearbox has shown, press demos can be fake, and even consumer demos can be faked, seeing they just need to put together say, 30 mins worth of gameplay (whether or not it's taken from the full game doesn't really matter to them) and send it out to the gamers, and we won't know the difference until the game is released.

So that's our little lesson to learn from this saga, and if you still want to pre-order instead of wait for reviews, that's your choice, and if the bonus depends on the number of pre-orders, have fun with your gamble!