Jimquisition: Accountability

[guntotingtomcat]

Fine point.

I like this guy because he's beating a slightly different drum to the other folk on the escapist.

I mean, liking call of duty!!! Whatever next?!?!

 

[archabaddon]

Jim's starting to grow on me. I might just enter that Jim+ contest

It's a good point for this week. Just to play DA:O, I have to use a PSN account, then an EA account, then insert a code for any unlockables, all just to play the game. I have a similar experience with Ubisoft games.

It goes to show that while honest customers are forced to jump through hoops to enjoy a game, pirates rarely do. Every time a developer puts in a new security function to halt piracy or deter used game sales, the paying customers always take it in the pants. It makes me want to buy fewer games, not more.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

I need to stop doing a standing ovation of just me at the end of every episode.

 

[Doom972]

I can tolerate having multiple accounts for gaming services, what I cannot is the need to log into different services for one game!
I still remember when GTA IV came out and I was expected to log in to both GFWL AND Rockstar Social Network, and that's for the boxed version.
A similar case is with EA becoming more and more of a control freak: Why do EA games require separate logins for games purchased online? I bought Dragon Age through Steam so why couldn't I simply log in and get my DLCs downloaded and authorized through them?
In an ideal situation this could have been unnoticed but while Steam seems functional 99% of the time, the other services don't seems as reliable (EA and Ubisoft).

This is a http://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c=03AHJ_Vuu7kIth9oYspAlixlWvKnCXV91Nab9vKV9Z7AxRLGGqEJKM49wOYjqETzgBnoR6mAY8KRUwunB42poOeRbTZcX64zgDz9n1wNI8kan_feZ3v1L60iwqHD0tyg3zkier6iptw6gqN1yrd9GFTM63po4VB8FFuQ

 

[Elliott Curtiss]

some very good and very valid points this time around so kudos to you jim.

 

[Irridium]

Reminds me of an article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7058-Experienced-Points-I-Have-Seen-The-Future-And-it-is-Annoying] I read about a year and a half ago.

Why do publishers/developer have to screw with such a simple process? I give you money, you give me the game, we all win.

But no, that was too damn simple and nice. They just had to fuck with it until it got to a point where features that were standard with a game are now used as a sales pitch.

Fucking hell.

 

[Alex Dzurik]

I'll be damned if Jim Sterling isn't slowly winning over the Escapist community.

 

[Yankeedoodles]

'Vitamins' with a long 'I'? I thought most Britons pronounced 'vitamins' with a short 'I'?

Anyway, interesting episode and your visual presentation is improving. I haven't run into any of the problems you've talked about and still get along fairly well gaming wise. Maybe I just don't play the type of games affected by these practices.

 

[TheDooD]

holy shit, I actually agree with him on this part.

First: if console games are about picking up and playing, why is there so many steps? Patching, installing, accounts, subscriptions etc. It's turning into PC gaming, and I expect at some point that the publishers will force entering serial codes at some point.

Second: DRM, yes, treating us like criminals is not the best way to go about business

Publishers are starting to think they're hot shit. They think they can abuse the consumers and the producers without any backlash. Used games, Let's plays, Walkthoughs, Speed-Runs all allow people to get into "their" product. It's a fucking shame that publishers that do nothing in terms of making games besides passing out money have so much power over everything. Punishing people that didn't have enough money or didn't hear about the game soon enough so that can't get that Day 1 DLC that's on the fucking disk or they'll have to pay before they can play online or download any DLC. DRM making things pointlessly hard. Killing well made fan made games based off their content yet allowing the bad ones to stay around.

Publishers should be lucky a majority of people simply just want to play game and will just go through hoops to enjoy "your" content. While the minority will most like run down the people that gave the green light to adding 2-5 barriers before somebody can properly enjoy your game. Publisher's needs to learn it's about US not THEM also give some proper kickback to the guys that made you lazy fucks rich in the first place.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Well shit, this is the first video where I agreed with every single thing he's said, but I guess it would bound to happen.

It's getting ridiculous with how many accounts I have for gaming let alone for everything else, but I think gaming is the worst. It irritates me that I can't play a damn game right away all because the server was down for some account that I signed up for that I never thought would get in the way of me playing the damn game, and waiting for it to come back up so I can play the damn game.

Nice pot shot at the haters at the end Jim, I laughed hysterically.

 

[Sylocat]

Well, it's better than the previous Jimquisitions, but it still seemed rather disjointed, like the first half didn't seem to put its points in any particular order or build up to an insightful point or solution.

It got better towards the end, but then it was tarnished by that insufferable play-acting-smugness that basically says, "I'm going to pretend to take myself seriously and make a huge deal out of the fact that I'm pretending to deflect criticism... isn't that funny? It's funny, right? Seriously, LOOK HOW FUNNY AND OVER-THE-TOP AND WACKY I AM!!1!!!!"

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Hit the nail right on head with this one Jim. Also where do you sign up for your subscription? I want me a fridge magnet

Fuck publisher specific subscriptions, nothing has ruined a multiplayer service faster for me than me requiring another username and password on top of my psn account. I'm looking at you Konami.

And on used games, publishers if you want me to buy your games first hand then you better make damn sure it's worth the £40 asking price because if it is I'll buy first hand. If it isn't it either gets bought used or not at all, either way you don't get any money.

 

[shrekfan246]

probably the worst bit on gaming i've seen on the escapist ever
it's like you sat down and let "enraged random commentator #378539" write the script for you

there are a lot of good reasons for every single thing you criticized
some are inevitable and some are a more or less useful trend

or in short:
since none of those big publishers had to close down by now it doesn't seem to concern a big enough amount of people

Single biggest facepalm I've ever done at the expense of a post. Did you just post so that you could state you hate Jimquisition? Because you could have just said that.

I was going to rant at you, but I don't think you'd care anyway so I'll simplify my original thoughts: The publishers aren't out of business because they make millions of dollars publishing games, not because "The public doesn't care enough to close them down". (Edited last line here to make more grammatical sense.)

In an ideal world, do you really think EA would still exist after: Crushing and buying out other publishers/developers; Working employees for up to 100 hours a week (NOT at "crunch time"); Publishing five games since 2005 that have received average reviews over 89%-90% (Hint: They've published well over 130 games in the last six years); Draconian DRM in Spore and C&C: Red Alert 3, and requiring a constant internet connection at all times to play the single-player in Darkspore; And all of their terrible ad campaigns for Dead Space 2, Dante's Inferno, and Medal of Honor?

 

[Jamash]

Jimquisition+ sounds great (almost too good to be true), however when you said "40 Bucks a month", is that 40 Dollars or 40 Pounds Sterling?

 

[freaper]

I'm pleased that the first 5 comments aren't "Who's this cocky douche?" anymore.

Good episode, you mixed your points well with your acting.

 

[Johnny Impact]

And he's absolutely right. Even my Steam account -- run by Valve, ostensibly the good guys -- won't do anything on my laptop because I can't get my damn password recognized. (Yes, I logged off from my PC. Yes, I used the right password. Please don't try to diagnose me, I don't really care that much.)

Playing Borderlands online requires a GameSpy ID, which means they have your email, name, and so forth. I have never used GameSpy before or since, but it was chained to that game. There was no way to bypass except LAN.

I went through all the SecuROM bullshit -- other software being blocked (bye-bye, antivirus!), refusing to recognize the legitimate disc, and a host of other issues -- to play BioShock.

I don't have quite the list of memberships Jim does, but I am, shall we say, well versed in giving my personal information to complete strangers to do something I already paid to do.

I avoid map packs, premium memberships, and DLC like the plague. I can see the potential for doing that kind of thing instead of making sequels, but it hasn't been for me. This is at least partially due to DLC for games I care about being rated far less favorably than the games themselves. It strikes me as, "Here's a bunch of stuff that wasn't good enough to make it into the game. All the fat and gristle we trimmed away? We saved it, and we think you'll pay twenty bucks for it!"

This series is climbing from "mildly amusing rant" to something genuinely incisive and wonderfully sarcastic. Good show, Jimbo!

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

That was pretty good....mostly because it was full on truth.

 

[Shameless]

Jim, last generation had a subscription service, it was Xbox Live in it's early days.

 

[Uratoh]

My refrigerator has a wooden front...I don't feel I'd be getting the full value of J+.

 

[Grunt_Man11]

This is the perfect counter towards Extra Credits "Crowning Moment of Suck" episode. (They called the "Consoles are the New Coin-Op" episode.)

This is why Digital Distribution will lead to the second video game crash. People are too busy trying to stick it to Gamestop that they don't realize that they are in fact just sticking it to themselves.

To hell with Digital Distribution! I'd rather see it die, then see it kill the video game industry.

Jim, last generation had a subscription service, it was Xbox Live in it's early days.

Was early Xbox Live required to play the single player? No.

Was early Xbox Live the only method of playing multiplayer? No.


The formula was simple. Give money, get game. That's it.
Why the hell are people so determined to screw that formula up?