casw265 wrote...
In short, if developers/publishers need a few more dollars to keep making good games on the PC, I'm ok with it.
If developers need "a few more dollars to keep making good games on the PC" then they need a new business model. Players should not have to subsidize incompetent game developers.
There was a good reply to the author's article which I think wasn't strong enough but explains the position all gamers should be taking with regards to DLC:
Very interesting article Elysium. Before I start here, I
think you already know that I have quite a bit of respect for you both
personally and for your insights into the industry. And you have made a lot of
valid points in your article which I agree with. There is no doubt that this
industry is in major trouble and is going to have to have a paradigm shift or
risk melting down. I've been saying since last generation that the industry is
heading for another 1984 style crash and was largely laughed at in other
places. That said, I really take issue with the attitude you present to
customers demanding value for money.
I do not believe supporting day one DLC that is sold to me
by in game characters is necessary to fund the next Mirror's Edge. I do not
believe having ire towards paying $10 more for a PC version of MW2 that lacks
the multiplayer functionality that is integral to the PC experience is an
entitlement attitude. I do not believe consumers are to blame for the industry
failing because it's the industry that's failing. My company is struggling to
find customer growth right now and frankly, is teetering dangerously on the
brink. I'm not 100% sure who the fault lies with but it isn't my customers.
I've seen an alarming propagation of the point of view that
somehow consumers owe the industry something, almost like we work for them
rather than the other way around. No, we are the ones paying them, they are the
ones who are supposed to provide the product that we want. If some modern games
have unrealistically high budgets that require additional optional content (and
I have bought lots of DLC) or a million plus sales to make something
profitable, then it wasn't budgeted or planned properly and that's the
publisher's fault, not ours. The industry is so caught up in this arms race for
technical fidelity that they don't care if they cut off their own limbs to win
it. Yes, we as gamers are dazzled by the visuals in Uncharted 2 but are gamers
demanding that every game look this good or is the industry demanding that of
itself? Outside the gaming press, I never see people complaining that a sequel
to a game doesn't look substantially better than a previous installment.
Do you see the "thin-skinned entitlement and monumental
naivete" crowd complaining about Torchlight? Sure, some people wish it had
multiplayer but most are very happy with it and I haven't heard one podcast or
read one post where anyone said they refused to buy it because it lacked
multiplayer and that Runic Games owed them that. In the case of MW2, people
were mad because IW stripped everything from the game (dedicated servers, lean,
banning, mods) that made the previous games so great on the PC. You truly
believe the people who supported the previous games don't have a right to be
upset about that, especially when being charged a premium for it? Yes, there
are people out there who will never be happy and even worse, the people who
will steal games because they didn't get what they wanted. But those people
exist everywhere and I think it is very unfair of you to throw those of us who
feel we have well reasoned and logical arguments in with those people simply
because we don't like paying more for less in order to support a failing
business model.
I equate this to a far less extreme version of what the RIAA
and MPAA are doing. Obviously, this industry isn't going out and suing people
for stealing their games. However, the comparison can be made that they are
continuing to cling to a business model that isn't working and while some are
theoretically trying to evolve it (see EA and Playfish or Ubisoft getting into
animation), they are shifting responsibility to consumers to keep their current
model sustainable rather than adapt and change. As a consumer, your only
responsibility it to demand value for money and to support the products and
services you believe in. That's subjective of course and if you believe in
buying stuff like Warden's Keep or MW2 on PC, you absolutely should. But it's
pretty snarky to fault me for not doing so and saying why. I take issue with
being lumped in as someone with an entitlement attitude because I'm being asked
to either pay more for less or pay and then pay again because the industry is
spending itself into a death spiral and refuses to break out of it because
they're terrified of change. It isn't our job to solve the industry's problems,
people like Riccitiello and Kotick get paid millions of dollars a year to
figure this out. If they can't, then they should be replaced.
I can tell you right now, if the industry ever ends up in
the place you theorize, that will be the time I stop playing games.
P.S. Despite being almost broke, I have bought Brutal
Legend, Borderlands, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time, Uncharted 2,
Torchlight, Dragon Age, Ballad of Gay Tony (DLC), Forza 3, DiRT 2, have
pre-ordered Assassin's Creed 2 and once I can sell a couple of games I want to
shed, will probably buy Modern Warfare 2 on 360. This is just since September
and isn't counting the tons of other games I've rented in recent months. I
bought these titles because I believed in them and I wanted to support the
developers. I've done my part and then some.
PS: This is a very poorly built forum.
Modifié par marlowwe, 18 novembre 2009 - 05:03 .
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