Jimquisition: Breaking the Bones of Business

[Wolcik]

I f***ing want my "thanks the god" ending cause otherwise I don't know what to - where am I suppose to pay, again?

The think about another crash is a very interesting idea - wonder which companies would die from it.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I, like Jim, am just as disgusted with EA as any other gamer out there, but I will still be purchasing Dead Space 3. Why? Because EA has Visceral Games over a barrel with this "sell three times as many copies as you did Dead Space 2 with next to none of the marketing, or we're tanking your IP" crap. It's fucking bullshit and is the epitome of how EA does business; don't craft your game for an audience, craft it for everyone, because if we can't get the entire world behind this game, why should we even bother? Even though there's little hope of Dead Space 3 making it's 5 million mark, and my contribution is unlikely to make a huge difference, I love Dead Space and I want to show my support for the people that slaved over it. Sadly, that also means giving money to EA.

Micro-transactions are wrong, they're complete and utter bullshit, and it's very sad that this is just one more thing working against the Dead Space franchise. Gamers are going to be turned off by this to the point of not picking up the game. Even scrolling through this thread, I see a lot of people saying "not buying it now", which I can completely understand; I am also at odds with wanting/not wanting to give more money to EA. The bastardization of the F2P market is just one of the many subjects covered in this video that make me very sad.

 

[teamcharlie]

Lovely vid, Jim. It's good to see people with integrity try to remind consumers and the industry at large that a reckoning is coming sooner rather than later as regards corporate profits.

As always, I suspect that the culprit isn't so much greed as it is fear: fear of losing stockholder faith, fear of losing jobs, fear of change, fear of posting a loss, fear of risk. I think that even more than greed is what results in the constant path-of-least-resistance attitude we see in the corporate world. The big players are simply too rich to risk any of it to make something truly great these days, even if that risk has the potential to pay off big. Greed makes you gamble. Fear makes you hoard.

 

[WildFire15]

I, like Jim, am just as disgusted with EA as any other gamer out there, but I will still be purchasing Dead Space 3. Why? Because EA has Visceral Games over a barrel with this "sell three times as many copies as you did Dead Space 2 with next to none of the marketing, or we're tanking your IP" crap. It's fucking bullshit and is the epitome of how EA does business; don't craft your game for an audience, craft it for everyone, because if we can't get the entire world behind this game, why should we even bother? Even though there's little hope of Dead Space 3 making it's 5 million mark, and my contribution is unlikely to make a huge difference, I love Dead Space and I want to show my support for the people that slaved over it. Sadly, that also means giving money to EA.

Micro-transactions are wrong, they're complete and utter bullshit, and it's very sad that this is just one more thing working against the Dead Space franchise. Gamers are going to be turned off by this to the point of not picking up the game. Even scrolling through this thread, I see a lot of people saying "not buying it now", which I can completely understand; I am also at odds with wanting/not wanting to give more money to EA. The bastardization of the F2P market is just one of the many subjects covered in this video that make me very sad.

This was kinda what I was getting at earlier with NCsoft. It seems publishers aren't interested in making solid products that appeal to an audience, but the sort of product that appeals to EVERYONE, as if they can make fans of both action and horror games interested then they might get the interest of the dedicated action and dedicate horror fans as well.
While Guild Wars 2 did it's own thing, it was still aimed at an 'international' audience while City of Heroes wasn't really of interest to Eastern players or for grinders or PvPers, so rather then keep it running for the 300,000 plus active players who were keeping the game profitable, NCsoft put it on the chopping block instead, shut down the studio running it, firing all 80 staff there and throwing the IP into it's deepest and darkest vault and refusing to sell it. This idea that you can't aim to please a group of players but instead have to aim for EVERYONE is pretty poisonous and will run major publishers into ruin before long, especially with the stupefying amount of money they throw behind these games.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Speaking as one of the biggest Final Fantasy fans I know of...

All the Bravest is disgusting.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Jim I love you and want your babies. Best episode yet.

Also TF2 proves that free to play still lives.

 

[Dead Seerius]

You know, it pains me to say it but I've been getting the feeling we might be in for another industry crash in the near future, and I would normally consider myself a very optimistic person. I hate doom-sayers, yet this borderline criminal squelching of paying consumers for more cash coupled with a few other recent industry practices that seem to be bringing the market nowhere but down has me worried.

I really hope I'm wrong. At the same time, though, what will it take to give these publishers a fucking wake-up call?

Great ending, by the way.

 

[irishda]

TL;DR: If you don't like the extras, don't buy them. You're not losing anything by NOT purchasing DLC, extra costumes, or fucking cheat codes.

I agree that's the proper consumer response: If it costs too much, don't buy it.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with criticizing the practices that cause those costs to go above acceptable in the first place. ALL of the practices mentioned in the video are unquestionably "less for more" cash-grabs or equivalent price hikes.

If you want to advocate change, you have to speak. If you want to cause change, you have to act.

It would be better serving though if he hadn't said in the video, multiple times, that he'd be willing to pay if the developers didn't A: charge so much or B: "beat him over the head with it." Which I'm not even sure I know what he's talking about. The closest I can think is that guy in Dragon Age that talks to you about some important mission, and then the game pauses to tell you you have to buy the DLC. But that's solved by just not talking to the guy again. If that breaks you out of your gaming funk for more than five minutes (or however long until you talk to someone else) than something's wrong with the game itself to begin with.

No, Jim's not arguing against the practices, as he made very clear in the video. He's just mad that they're "forcing him to" or "charging him too much". Which, on both accounts, are fucking stupid reasons. If he REALLY wanted to speak out about it, he would've made a video about how retarded you have to be to spend money on a fucking cheat code or a hat for your character. But no, instead its a video on how the video game industry will burn and fall because publishers have the audacity to fish for people stupid enough or wealthy enough to pay for extra shit.

 

[irishda]

Jim I love you and want your babies. Best episode yet.

Also TF2 proves that free to play still lives.

BUT IT OFFERS HATS FOR MONEY AT NO COMPETITIVE BENEFIT TO YOUR CHARACTER! THE CRASH OF THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY IS UPON US! Oh wait, it's Valve, not EA. That's fine then. EA WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR AMMO! UBISOFT WILL CHARGE YOU TO MAKE YOUR CHARACTER WALK!

(If you feel the tone is inappropriate to your comment, I apologize. I was looking to imitate Jim Sterling's apocalyptic tone in the video. Nothing against you personally.)

 

[spartandude]

TL;DR: If you don't like the extras, don't buy them. You're not losing anything by NOT purchasing DLC, extra costumes, or fucking cheat codes.

I agree that's the proper consumer response: If it costs too much, don't buy it.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with criticizing the practices that cause those costs to go above acceptable in the first place. ALL of the practices mentioned in the video are unquestionably "less for more" cash-grabs or equivalent price hikes.

If you want to advocate change, you have to speak. If you want to cause change, you have to act.

Atmos Duality... you sir are my new solemate
i get so sick of the "you dont like then dont buy it and shut up" mentality so many people on these forums have but you... i just want you to hold me

capcha- enjoy life you know what, i think i can now

 

[Ukomba]

They had an ok balance going with the micro transactions of Mass Effect 3. The packs were over priced, imo, but not necessary at all. A lot of these other ones though... it's just too invasive, it takes you right out of the game.

 

[KiKiweaky]

The ending was great hahahaha you have a serious point Jim I just hope the money grabbing tramps leading the headlong charge of the industry into this black hole realize that by turning business models like this on their head they are ultimately going to do more harm than good.

Maybe if they keep it up they might run out of customers mall chance I know but you never know.

 

[Right Hook]

yellow tie alternate skin? fuck yea!

I picked it up right away and I can't be the only one who purchased the Jim Sterling 'Yellow Tie' Alternate Skin, not at a cost of ONLY $20 Jim Bucks*, my Sterlo-Wallet practically opened on its own!

God, it is so gloriously yellow.

*An individual Jim Buck has a retail value of 10 American dollars.

 

[mjc0961]

I keep throwing money at my computer, but still no Jim Bucks! What the hell is this shit?!

Anyway, amen Jim. A-fucking-men. Not surprised about the Dead Space weapon crafting thing though, they did the same shit in Mass Effect 3. When you play Mass Effect 3 you get a tiny amount of in game money. To get new weapons, do you just buy the weapons you want or earn weapons as you level up? No. You buy a pack and get a random assortment of shit. And the shitty packs are the only ones you can realistically afford with the tiny amount of money you earn by playing the game, but that's okay! You can BUY some Mass Effect bucks with REAL FUCKING MONEY so you can afford some decent weapon packs, which still won't contain and weapons that are any good for your current character, so go ahead and buy some MORE fucking Mass Effect bucks with real fucking money to try again! And people praise this multiplayer mode just because EA throws them a free map pack or character every now and then. You morons, you already spent far more than the map or character was worth by buying those stupid weapon packs. They aren't doing you a favor, they're ripping you off massively, and you're fucking praising them for it. AUGH!

And yeah, Capcom and their cheat code DLC can kiss my ass. $5 cheat code DLC for a $40 retail release that should have just been a $15-$20 DLC pack for Dead Rising 2 in the first goddamn place. And before anyone says "well it's a lot to add a new area to the map, record new voice acting, rewrite the story a bit, and add in challenges" to defend the release of Off the Record as a brand new game, no. You don't get to say that and do you know why you don't get to say that?! Because of Grand Theft Auto IV's DLC. Because of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas's DLC. That's DLC done right. Rockstar, Bethesda, and Obsidian all put in WAY more effort into their content than Capcom did for Off the Record, and they added it to the game as DLC instead of saying "Nope, buy this brand new disc instead." The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony are both full of new voice acting, new motion capture, new interiors, new vehicles, new weapons, new licensed songs for the radio, and both were $20 each at launch. Off the Record was a bit of new voice acting, motion capture recycled from the downloadable title Case West, one small new area, a very small number of new survivors and psychos, and some new challenges for $40 as a new game at launch. Rockstar did way more content for less money TWICE and it was DLC you could download for your existing game, and Capcom did way less content for more money and you had to go to the store and buy a new disc. And now the cocksuckers are doing it again with Dragon's Dogma, only this time with the excuse "Oh but we had no hooks so we had to charge you $40 for a new disc instead of $20 for DLC." Bullshit, patches are for ADDING hooks you nimrod. This excuse signals one of two things: that you're completely incompetent when it comes to game development, or you're greedier than fuck. Neither of these shine you in a positive light, Capcom.

Oh and fuck EA. Do I really need to say more than that? We all know that EA is the worst, I think "fuck EA" is enough.

There really is an easy way to do this, though it's already been said many times before. Simply let publishers know with your wallet what you'll accept and not accept. I buy EA games when they don't screw me over. I bought ME3 used, but I bought SSX new... because one had DLC practices I liked and the other didn't. I don't buy Ubisoft games on the PC period. I haven't bought a Final Fantasy game since 12, but I bought Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex: HR because those were good games that Squeenix had other developers make. Capcom is virtually dead to me, but I'll buy Okami HD just so they know that's the last thing decent they published. And I haven't bought anything from Sega since Valkyria Chronicles since they've shown they can't make and keep an IP to save their life save perhaps Total War, and a dev they own makes that instead.

Again, never say you'll boycot... because hardly anyone ever perseveres enough to stick to it. Buy what's good, buy what's fair, and let everything else fester as a signal to all publishers concerning what you're willing to put up with.

Except that doesn't work because all people like you manage to do is kill Radical Entertainment and Pandemic while everything you hate about publishers like Activision and EA lives on and continues to make them piles of money.

Actually seeing a lot of that in this thread. I guess you guys forgot about this episode already:
http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/castfire/mini/18ea65ba17000d6179dc89cb748eaa71.jpg

Buy the game to show that there's a market for these games, but whine your ass off to show that we don't want this DLC bullshit anymore. And don't buy the DLC. Not buying the game and not buying the DLC are two massively different things. Not buying the game makes the publisher think nobody wants that kind of game and they don't make that kind of game anymore (and probably kill the studio that made it). Not buying the DLC makes them think nobody wants that kind of DLC and MAYBE if that message gets across, the message of high sales for the base game but low sales for the DLC, finally they'll fucking stop.

But no, most people I see seem to fall into two camps: the "I'm not buying the game at all" camp, and the "I already bought the game and the DLC is cheap so I'll buy it even if I am getting fucked up the ass." camp. Seriously, I've seen people defend the Saints Row The Third forty weeks of DLC making you buy costumes that should have been unlockable for free like they were in the first two games with "It's cheap so I'll just buy it!". I hate these people SO MUCH for what they're doing to gaming, for the message they are sending publishers. And of course, I hate the people not buying the games at all for what they're doing to gaming as well. Once again, thanks Activision boycotters for not buying Prototype 2; Radical Entertainment is no more and CoD lives and sold better than ever once again in 2012. Good job guys! You showed Activision what for and got exactly what you wanted. ...Oh wait.

So yeah, remember the message from the previous episode. Buy the game but have yourself a righteous whine about the business practices. That's what this video is in some form: "I'm buying Dead Space 3 because I love Dead Space, but FUUUUUUUUUCK you EA for the micro-transaction weapon crafting rooms!" And if you love Dead Space, you should buy it too. Just be sure to not buy any Dead Space bucks and do some whining about it. If you buy the game and the bucks, they'll just do it again for the next game, and if you don't buy Dead Space 3 at all, there may never be a Dead Space 4.

I cannot lie, I'll be slightly happy the day one of these truly despicable publishers bites the dust. It's a shame THQ went under when it was one of the better examples.

THQ had online passes, on-disc DLC, overpriced costume DLC, cheat code DLC, shitty PC ports, piles of shitty licensed titles, unimaginative CoD clones, and more. It wasn't one of the better examples, it was one of the worst examples. The death of THQ as a publisher is a good thing. I feel bad for all the innocent developers losing their jobs in the transition to new publishers or not being bought at all, but at the same time, I celebrate the death of one of gaming's awful publishers. Burn in hell THQ, and let your death be an example to other publishers.

 

[Altered Nova]

I've never really had an opinion on these kinds of exploitative practices before now because I don't usually play games by the publishers that are the worst about it, but recently it seems like everyone is starting to do this crap. I pre-purchased Dead Space 2 Limited Edition because I love that series so much, but now I'm seriously considering boycotting the third one. I loved Borderlands 2 because the DLC they release generally contains plenty of new, well-thought out and implemented content and is reasonably priced, but just this week Gearbox released 15 new costumes for the game priced at one dollar each, which is ridiculous.

Seriously game developers I respect, stop shamelessly milking your franchises.

 

[Gamegodtre]

To answer the question about what I said at the 3:13 mark --

I was talking about Namco Bandai, a company very much at the vanguard of bullshit DLC. It charged for gold and XP in Tales, it sold you only half a game with Katamari Xbox 360, and it was very much one of the earlier adopters of on-disc DLC with SoulCalibur. Namco's kind of fallen into the background these days now that EA and the like have run with the ball, but that ball was kicked very hard by Namco a few years ago.

to be fair to Namco Bandai the Level +5 up and Gald + stuff never got mentioned in the games so unless you looked for it in the DLC you would never know of it, also on the PS3 Graces version some of that was free,such as the free item packs it wasn't much but it was free, also for Graces F they sold you the new game + grade shop options the level up stuff as well as the Gald however i think it was Extra Credits who said it best in one of there old episodes that sometimes people do not have time to grind so to spend a dollar to stop the grinding and save yourself a hour of doing so is a just price and while not a direct quote it catches the feel of it, at least in these games there are no in game prompts to tell you of them breaking the 4th wall letting you know that it is a game. The real sin in Namco Bandais case is the DLC costumes that are 4 dollars a piece, jut were the fuck do they get off charging out the ass for costumes that in the old Tales games would have been free its fucking ludicrous.

As for the on disc DLC yeah that is kinda messed up.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

You mentioned season passes. I would've figured you'd like them. If you're going to get the DLC, you pay for it all at once, and save money doing it. Where's the downside?

 

[mjc0961]

I made it about halfway through the video before I couldn't watch anymore. Why? Because this entire video operates under the ridiculous premise that if something is being offered for money, then the customer has to buy it. Therefore the devs/publishers are fucking us over. Here's a tip, and this is just me, perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

DON'T BUY THE FUCKING DLC AND FRANKLY RETARDED EXTRAS THAT COME ALONG WITH SOME GAMES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!

And this, boys and girls, is why you watch the entire video before you write a big stupid rant about something that may not be relevant. In this case, had you watched long enough, you might have made it to the part where he says that he doesn't buy most of this DLC.

So, yeah, before making a big stupid rant saying he should realize that he doesn't have to buy it, watch the video to see if he mentions that he already knows that so you don't make an ass out of yourself.

Also your thoughts on this are terrible ignorant anyway. "No complaining allowed, either buy or don't buy but shut the fuck up either way"? No. Fuuuuuuck that. We have every right to voice our complaints about terrible business practices. Whether we spend our money on it or not, we all damn well have the right to complain and no amount of "stop complaining guys!" from people like you will stop it.

No, Jim's not arguing against the practices, as he made very clear in the video. He's just mad that they're "forcing him to" or "charging him too much". Which, on both accounts, are fucking stupid reasons. If he REALLY wanted to speak out about it, he would've made a video about how retarded you have to be to spend money on a fucking cheat code or a hat for your character. But no, instead its a video on how the video game industry will burn and fall because publishers have the audacity to fish for people stupid enough or wealthy enough to pay for extra shit.

How the fuck do you know what he's speaking out against if you don't watch the video?! You already admitted that you didn't watch the entire thing, so don't sit there and act like you know what the video is about. What he said in the video and what you're claiming he said despite not watching the video are two completely different things.

I'm still buying Dead Space 3 because I love the franchise, BUT, depending on how the micro-transactions go, I may be writing EA directly.

People all the time say "vote or speak with your wallet", but that's missing 50% of what you need to do. Silence about it can send either no message or the wrong message. Don't JUST speak with your wallet, but also take that next step and tell the companies in charge WHY you didn't buy it. I'm amazed at how almost nobody does that second part.

When I was upset with Capcom's frequent DLC scams, I didn't buy their games. But I also told them why. When they refused to answer or to listen, I wrote the Better Business Bureau, listed my complaints against their anti-consumer behavior and business practices, and the BBB contacted Capcom on my behalf... and that definitely got results.

You gotta do more than "not buy". You gotta be vocal directly at them.

YOU are the customer. YOU are the buyer. YOU have the power of companies. Big companies like EA and Activision and Ubisoft and Capcom want you to think you don't have any power or influence over them, but they're entirely wrong. They are at the whims of their consumers, and there are PLENTY of laws in place to defend you from anti-consumer practices and behavior. They just want you to think they don't exist and you're helpless to resist or change anything.

You've all the power in the world to show them they're wrong.

*standing ovation*

Well said man. If you're going to boycott, you have to do more than just not buy the game. You have to contact them directly and tell them why you didn't buy the game. Otherwise they are going to just take the low sales the wrong way and kill Radical Entertainment, the cunts.