PC games of the olden days

[Amigoltu]

Posts like this:

Hidden

With this same repeating argument, I've seen many times, coming from people defending today's video game developing companies and their awful (for consumers) business practices and rapidly-decreasing respect for their customers.

It wasn't always like this. It wasn't always, that nearly every game was MMO, or needed Company's servers for some other nonsense reason, the real one just being further monetization coughBattle.netcough. Remember older games? Old CoDs, GTA San ANdreas, Brothers in Arms, and many many more. Those games were mostly primarily Single Player, and only had the multiplayer feature on the side. You could take your laptop into a middle of a bloody forest and play them. No internet access. More than that - with the LAN option, you could take a router, and your friends, and play together in the middle of that same forest.
To add to that, most of these games provided players with tools needed to create and host their own servers, to create game modifications for those servers, and pretty much keep the game alive long after the company ceased supporting it.

To address the comment in the picture - we DID own the game copies, that we bought the physical CDs of. We paid for them once, and we had them for life. We were completely independent of the Company, and that Company had no way of taking away our license of the game (apart from physically coming to our home and removing game from our every device). Why? Because it WASN'T A LICENSE. We OWNED the game copy. Sure, we couldn't distribute that game ourselves. But it's because the Company owned the Brand and the selling rights. But the copy we bought was ours. For life.

Things like this are no longer being done now. Look at WoW - you are literally renting the game, not owning it. And wow is just one example of many. So many games today would become inaccessible without internet access, without being connected to Company's servers (Reforged seemingly will be that as well, btw). There are no more server tools, no more free demo versions, there's company interference everywhere, microtransactions... These are no longer games, but rather, monetization software.

At the same time, don't get me wrong. I don't blame the Video Game Companies. They are merely opportunists. They see a way to get more profit, while putting in less effort, they'll take it. Of course. Those I blame, are the fans, the consumers. Because we, as consumers, can moderate, so to speak, these companies and their produced content. We can speak with our wallets. We have power over them. We can make them listen. And yet, gamers don't do anything against anti-consumer practices. The only ones seemingly doing anything good, are the pirates. But they are another kind of evil.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I ranted long enough...

 

[deepstrasz]

I rarely buy only internet games and it's from Blizzard.
I really suggest GoG.com for games or just to buy those games which aren't made the way you mentioned and don't like.
MMO players will obviously play and buy these because that's what they want and like.

I don't see the end of the world with this. There are so many older games which I still have to play and are replayable both in LAN and solo mode.
Ultimately, there's so much more to life than living in front of a computer.

 

[Amigoltu]

I don't see the end of the world with this. There are so many older games which I still have to play and are replayable both in LAN and solo mode.
Ultimately, there's so much more to life than living in front of a computer.

The point of my post is to address the arguments like the one in the pinned photo (I've seen these arguments frequently), and to point out the problem with the gaming community.
At the same time, what I said here, applies to any consumer community, really. We, as consumers, have power over the companies, that produce content for us. We can, and SHOULD be speaking with our wallets.
Yes, there is life beyond computer games, thank you for pointing that out *heavy sarcasm*. My post is primarily about relations between companies and consumers, the mistreatment by companies, and the inaction of the consumers.

MMO players will obviously play and buy these because that's what they want and like.

They "want and like" unfinished products? Endless buggy alphas and betas? No ability to check a game before buying via demos? Microtransactions?
Or maybe they like the fact, that as soon as the company cuts support for that MMO game, it will be unusable, because the company did not provide a way for players to host community servers? This thing should be illegal in the first place - selling goods, that can be terminated at any time, with no option of a refund.

 

[deepstrasz]

the inaction of the consumers

That was my point. The minority you are part of has no chance in "winning". There's nothing to win really. It's like fighting people not to buy clothes because they're too expensive or something.
I feel you but would really not bother staring a crusade. As I mentioned, I'd rather pay for something that's worth it, like a GoG release.

This thing should be illegal in the first place - selling goods, that can be terminated at any time, with no option of a refund.

I don't know about that. Basically, it's your decision whether you buy something or not. Say you buy a chocolate. It has an expiration date. If you don't eat it by that time, you can't get your money back or complain, really.
Might be a far stretched example but also consider games like Armies of Exigo which you can not play online anymore without external platforms like GameRanger or Hamachi because the official servers shut down for some reason. This happened two years after the game's release. And this grateful to the fact that they made LAN.

Currently you cannot play Warcraft III via GameRanger anymore on latest patch versions.

 

[Amigoltu]

That was my point.

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. AAA dev companies these days are coming under massive amounts of controversy, and the consumer discontent with them is growing, from the looks of it. Even talking about Blizzard - look at Diablo Immortal fiasco. Look at blizzchung ban fiasco, that outraged not only gamers, but anyone, who speaks up for free speech. And similar things are happening with other companies like Bethesda, EA, etc. I believe a change is coming, with players moving away from these controversial AAA companies, and rather move towards Indie game devs, or less controversial companies like CD projekt, or Sony.

Basically, it's your decision whether you buy something or not.

At least people should be warned then, that the product they buy, is not permanent as it should be, and there's a risk of it being shut down, just like that.

Say you buy a chocolate. It has an expiration date.

Food is a different thing from goods like electronics. I could take for an example a car. You buy one only to have it break down, and then figure out, that only official garages could fix it, but they've all shut down. And it's illegal for you to fix that car yourself, and it's also purposefully made, so you could not disassemble it. To me that seems like fraud.

 

[deepstrasz]

Look at blizzchung ban fiasco

That's different. Things like these might happen to anyone.

look at Diablo Immortal fiasco

I guess, mostly Diablo fans were outraged but it does not matter. China will buy the game while non-Chinese will mostly buy other ActiBlizz games, they won't stop just because of that, trust me, especially when they announced Diablo IV.

who speaks up for free speech.

If you're going to scream in the middle of a movie in a cinema or in a theater while there's a show going, it might be free scream speech but that won't mean there won't be consequence.
People are confusing free speech with anarchy and/or breaking of rules.

Sony.

Does Sony make games for PCs?

I could take for an example a car. You buy one only to have it break down, and then figure out, that only official garages could fix it, but they've all shut down. And it's illegal for you to fix that car yourself, and it's also purposefully made, so you could not disassemble it. To me that seems like fraud.

Sure but that's an exaggeration. These games don't promise the world. You can see something about them before buying them. The shutting of servers, is another story which might or not happen and they are covered because such a thing might help their company still live.
It's like with banks which change policies all the time without you being able to recontract again. Basically, they're changing your contract all the time.

Ultimately, people will buy what they think it's good for them. And since, we are a minority, guess who "wins".

 

[Feng Shui]

It's a market. It's always been a market. No Messiah complex or "GAMERS UNITE!" warcry is going to change that. Like it or not, Triple-A devs/publishers make a looot of money from pretty much each title people love to hate. The economic backlash from pissing off the die hard fanbase or "real gamers" is a minuscule blip of the bottom line -- and as it stands, that's the way it'll remain. It's not all bad though. You've already identified the solution.

with players moving away from these controversial AAA companies, and rather move towards Indie game devs