Shady business Practices in Video Games

[Pink Fluffy Cat]

This was supposed to be a reply in the "dead internet theory in online games" thread but since that thread was deleted, I'll just make another thread on my own.

A typical strategy in FTP MMORPG games is that they would run accounts with ridiculous high stats themselves and use those to engage competition with top players - just so those players will pay more in order to win the "competition" that's rigged from start. MMORPG is an eye opening scene, you'd see people invest thousands of dollars, several times above the average salaries, in the most soulless, contentless, shittest mobile trash you can imagine likes as if it was nothing.
There're also fake ads, which I don't know why it isn't forbidden but it must have been working like charm considering this strategy still dominates the mobile market after these years. What else shady businesses practice in the video game market you are aware of and what's your experience on them? Share if you like.

 

[PizzaW0lf]

Unfortunately, there's a lot that I know of.

The types I HATE
-Unfinished games/way too glitchy
-MICROTRANSACTIONS
-Fraudulent marketing/CGI trailers/Lying
-Games as a service
-DRM
-(Paid) crappy DLC/season passes/DLC before the game comes out...
-ruining a beloved franchise
-General lack of creativity and not willing to even make a sequel that builds upon the last game. Only remakes I guess.
-Obvious ESG pandering

Types I slightly tolerate
-Marketing doesn't have to be perfect
-Paid DLC is ok as long as it's worth it
-Some glitches/not fully polished

 

[Sketch Relics]

Speaking of MMO's, one of their poorer design decisions is using a form of power creep called parasitic design. Basically when they make a new mechanic to power up a character that doesn't really effect system design and is usually abandoned and left to rot after it's personal expansion. Like let's say you have an accessory that you power up by doing the content of an expansion and you really need it for this expansion to actually be stong, but come next expansion there is a new item that you equipt in the same slot that is even more powerful, easier to get (like you get it right away or something), and renders basically all the old content as irrelevant.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwHJqXKwRKM

Here is a good video explaining it further.
It basically ends up skinnerboxing the MMO by never advancing the mechanics of the game.

-Unfinished games/way too glitchy

You know, for glitches I think it actually depends on how much it effects general gameplay. Like Pokemon Red/Blue, Sonic Adventure 1+2, and LOZ Breath of the Wild are all stupidly glitchy games, but you generally have to be trying to cause a glitch to happen to actually see one.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2nGKBPzG2M

This is great and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.

Also can I just post the EA logos?

They just belong here to be honest, especially the sports one for releasing the same games every year with only updated rosters

Also, on the note of re-releasing games, Capcom released an updated version of Dragons Dogma with an expansion as a new standalone game, but didn't give owners of the first release to buy the expansion as DLC.

To my knowledge, this is the only time a company did this in the west, though it's kinda common in Square-Enix's Japan releases, with Kingdom Hearts being the prime example.

 

[Vetusomaru]

The ones I hate the most are paid DLCs. And I was happy when Nintendo avoided that shit during Wii/DS era. Unfortunately they joined this shit at 3DS/Wii U era and even main Pokemon games (from Sword/Shield and after) were affected by this shit.

 

[Vetusomaru]

A shady video game practise I really hate and not so many people talk about it is companies that not only they shamefully rip off other games but they even deny that they rip them off. And some of them have the nerve to sue other companies when they do the same. At least they could make their ripoffs more interesting and appealing but almost all of them are generic and blant as hell.

Puzzloop is the biggest victim of this practise, which is I felt no pity when EA shut down PopCap Games since PopCap Games made a fortune by ripping off other puzzle games including Puzzloop.

Puzzle Bobble is another big victim of this practise, especially at smartphones. I wouldn't care much about Puzzle Bobble ripoffs if it wasn't for the fact that all official Puzzle Bobble games for smartphones are shit and that all Puzzle Bobble ripoffs look so much soulless.

 

[Vetusomaru]

Young gamers: "Video games companies are so shady with their misleading trailers."
Old gamers: "Hold my beer."

("Preview" screenshots from Nintendo 64's Clayfighter 63 1/3. Greek Gamepro - and probably the American one too - shared said screenshots as actual ones for a Nintendo 64 game)

ClayFighter Extreme (63 1/3) [N64 - Beta / Tech Demo / Unused Stuff] - Unseen64

Preserving Details, Screenshots, Videos & more Lost Media for ClayFighter Extreme (63 1/3) [N64 - Beta / Tech Demo / Unused Stuff] Help us to remember cancelled video games!

www.unseen64.net

 

[Rams969]

Everything went wrong when Todd did this and we never stopped him, now is too late

 

[Rams969]

Now seriously, a very shady thing in videogames is how some old games are being made impossible to play, thanks to all those games being in servers the moment the companies shut them down to gain storage the game can't never be played again. If you want more info on this and how "games as a service" are destroying the medium please check out Ross videos about it, he is a great guy
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAX0gnZ3Nw&ab_channel=AccursedFarms

 

[Sidewinder91]

Bad optimization.

I get it, programmers generally have a huge list of bug reports to address so if they need to choose between 'holding down space for more than five seconds on the menu will crash the game' or 'this could be more optimized' they're going to spend their time fixing the CTD.

But at the same time, relying on powerful hardware to get around bad optimization is kind of the norm now, and is just bad craftsmanship.

 

[Pangolin]

I wish steam would let me download my games into a disk as a perm backup.

 

[alCannium27]

I wish steam would let me download my games into a disk as a perm backup.

you can do a backup of your local game files using the Steam UI, it'll pack those files into local files, using a format only steam can unpack of course, but if you are using steam, that's about as good a backup as you are gonna get without cracking the game. I exported all my games the last time I upgraded my laptop.

I, on the other hand, hate companies that actively sabotge video game preservation efforts, even when many old games are unlikely to receive a remaster, at least not before the source code goes puff in some callous accidents.

Not to mention the fact that I have no faith any "remasters" would be worth the names of the originals these days...

 

[manpaint]

I hate anything that play on "the fear of missing out". It's so predatory. Even Club Penguin had this back in the old days.

 

[Pangolin]

I hate anything that play on "the fear of missing out". It's so predatory. Even Club Penguin had this back in the old days.

Turns out I really didn't need all their dumb daily pins.