And that’s okay. It’s also not a “pile of shame”. If you’re in the mood to play something and then aren’t, that’s fine. Games are supposed to be fun. Don’t treat it as an obligation. Not every fucking choice in your life needs to be financially efficient.
Nope. I’m gaming to have fun, not to work off some backlog. And if I buy a game, barely touch it and never play it again, that’s fine. Keep the fun in games and don’t treat it as an obligation.
Some options you could consider include […] making your game free to play with optional upgrades sold via Microtransactions or Downloadable Content (DLC).
I am not sure this is better. I hate microtransactions usually more than ads.
Ads don’t cost you money, just time, and sometimes some screen space. They are annyoing and that sucks. But leveraging dark patterns as stuff like FOMO and other psychological tricks to nudge people towards microtransactions can cost you a lot. A business model, which relies on techniques from the gambling industry – also by catching some whales – is imo way worse than ads.
Such games aren’t made for all players, just for some who don’t have control over their expenses (or can really afford it).
I can live with DLCs as long as there aren’t so many that it becomes increasingly indistinguishable to microtransactions. But in the end I don’t want to buy a fucking lego set, where I have to constantly buy new stuff.
That’s why I prefer single purchase games. I am also ok with paying more for them if that means the devs get the proftis to keep the development of games I like going. Buy once – have it all. Keeping games at a comparably equal price over decades is imo not meaningful anyways due to factors like inflation. But the gaming community can be really unforgiving in this regard. That’s why ad-based or microtransaction-based games are taking off. A majority of gamers are uncritical enough that this works. And then they are surprised when it bites them in the ass…
If the “win for everyone” includes shipping a game as microtransaction-based instead of ad-based, I doubt it’s really a win. Microtransactions usually come with dark patterns and rely on techniques from the gambling industry.
Just saw a video today about how on steam roughly half of the best rated games are indie titles. Needless to say that the 2D graphics are not photorealistic.
Maybe, instead throwing money on graphics alone, focus on making fun games?
Best Co-Op game I’ve ever played with a marvellous community and its own subculture. It has been my absolute favourite game for a couple of years.
Stopped playing though when they introduced the “flappy boots” minigame. I know it’s optional and there are mods to get rid of it, but somehow this has killed the entire game for me. Silly, but can’t help the feeling.
In German I would say “die Luft ist raus” about this. Literally translated: “the air is out” and describes situations where something totally lost its appeal and is now just “meh”, although it was (very) appealing before.
If you haven’t played it before and like co-op shooters: give it a try. You probably won’t regret it.
I'm doing my part (unfortunately)
Stay strong this upcoming sale. The game you want but don't have temporarily licensed (AKA "own") is not going anywhere.
Valve ban advertising-based business models on Steam, no forced adverts like in mobile games (www.gamingonlinux.com)
Don’t panic, but an asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032 (arstechnica.com)
Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good: The gaming industry spent billions pursuing the idea that customers wanted realistic graphics. Did executives misread the market? (www.nytimes.com)
archive.is link...
What games have you sunk the most time into?
I was looking at my playtime for some games and realized I have over 450 hours in PlanetSide 2....
DarkPattern.games - a website that rates mobile games for their "dark patterns" (www.darkpattern.games)