Octopus Overlords

I have been pretty heavy into RdR 2. It was until last night, almost a perfect game... Until I ran into a niche problem across multiple consoles that crashed me repeatedly.

The solution involves hopping offline, formatting your drive, reinstalling the game, and eventually replacing your console. It's been known for a while, and doesen't seem to have a cix in the pipeline.

I have decided to put the game down instead. RdR is the first game that I picked up since Civ 5 and Sunless Seas. Fallout 4 SUCKED. Hated the new game mechanics, forced crafting, settlement and weapon systems. GOD I hated that game and quit about 15 hours in.

I hate microtransactions, I loathe online anything, and the content reserved for online transactions or just shelling out for special editions.

Now when I do play. games I don't have patience for six, ten or 12 hour sessions. Two hours max.

I don't like the direction of gaming and I'm glad I'm not much into it anymore.

Just that you only have 2 hours, doesn't mean Factorio won't steal you another two.

Looks like you're on the same boat as mine. I played CSGO everyday for at least 6 to 7 hours, almost 4k hours on record. Now I don't play it any more because I raged a lot and I'm happy that I quit that game long ago

As someone who experienced games on consoles and handhelds during the 1990's and 2000's (where cheat codes, unlocks, and player skins flowed like wine) I find all microtransactions to be scummy. Convenience, pay2win, aesthetic, you name it. It's an exceptionally greedy time in an exceptionally greedy industry.

That's why I prefer good old PC games which can be played offline without any transactions.

jackalope wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:23 am As someone who experienced games on consoles and handhelds during the 1990's and 2000's (where cheat codes, unlocks, and player skins flowed like wine) I find all microtransactions to be scummy. Convenience, pay2win, aesthetic, you name it. It's an exceptionally greedy time in an exceptionally greedy industry.

That's why I prefer good old PC games which can be played offline without any transactions.

While my instinct is to agree, my mind knows better. There are examples of it done wrong (EA), but in general I'm OK with it. Here's why:

When I started PC gaming back in the late 90s, a new game cost $50-$60. Costs for running a game company, from production to employees to electricity, have risen with inflation. Games have not. The games I bought in 1998 should cost ~$73-$93 now. They don't. PC game prices have been, effectively, decreasing. Back then, there were no microtransactions. But there were expansions, which were basically DLC on a disc. They normally cost $20. That would be $31 today. That means that a typical mainstream game with two expansion packs then cost ~$95, and should cost ~$147 today. Today, $60 for a game and ~$45 for three large DLC (the equivalent of two expansions) costs about $105, less if you get the season pass. That's a bargain for the same content.

Skins/weapon packs/that sort of thing are, of course, not something you would have seen for sale back then, when Cavedog used to give away new Total Annihilation units every couple of weeks for free. The thing is, though, those aren't actual content. They're not levels, or story, or whatever. They're aesthetics, and if I don't like them, I can ignore them. I'm poor. I'm well aware that those weren't put there for me. They're put there for the guy who makes enough money (or is dedicated enough to a specific game) to drop hundreds just for a sparkly gun skin. And I don't blame the companies for those. Those things cost a minimum of time to create (aesthetics don't require much testing and don't affect balance), and make a ton of money. Given that we already touched on how games+DLC have effectively dropped on price by staying the same while everything else got more expensive around them, I'm not going to argue with those few rich folks who are, effectively, paying the game companies the money they need to stay in business while I play the actual content for less money. Those weapon skins allow rich people to pay part of my share of the game's price.

Of course, progression tied to blind packs, game with artificially slowed gameplay that can be countered with cash 'boosts' and that sort of thing are a different story. Those are skeezy. But at the same time, the market has grown so much since then thanks to digital distribution that for every underhanded game out there that looks cool, there are dozen that are similar but aren't trying to scam you.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:03 pmThat's a bargain for the same content.

My perspective is that what they didn't keep up with in inflation, they got in reduced overhead. Instead of huge million-copy prints, they release a million digital keys. Instead of buying shelf space in stores, they put it up on websites. Instead of glorious spiral-bound 50-page full color manuals, you get a PDF.

What I see is a shifted market; one where money costs less to get and has become more accessible across the board. I can buy games from indie developers hosting their own websites outside of Steam now if I so choose, or from one of several different platforms. The base of gamers and social acceptance seems to have blossomed, too - so there are more customers and more money to be had. That's incentivised companies like EA to focus on feeding shareholders and investors instead of pandering to customers.

While I agree that mega-companies are profoundly driven by greed and working hard to stripmine their customer's bank accounts - there's a wonderful surge of indie folks taking advantage of an easier entry point into the market too - and that's where I find a lot of my fun lately.

I took 5 month traveling, so that was 0 gaming time. And generally last few years, i had little draw to gaming. I will fire up something once in a while, but realistically i am just not into it anymore. Every time i fall for steam sale, i have to no consider, will i ever play it. Since even when i do play something, it generally few of my favorites. Like something from Total Was series.
Just bought witcher 3...... everyone say it is the best rpg of last 5 years. Amazing this and that. And i am just hoping i get 10 hours into it .
Havent started it yet and would be happy to get into it, but not keeping my fingers crossed. I guess getting older also plays a role.

I've been gaming a little lately. I'm about to finish GTA five. I got RdR 2 almost to the end. I don't have the heart to finish. Same thing happened with the original RdR.

I'm trying to get into Wasteland 2 but I keep bouncing off it. It's a very complex game. I also loathe having to track multiple party members with differing roles.

I love the isometric view and Fallout 2 inspiration though so I keep trying.