crotalidian said:
OK I think it has been established that Starcraft II is a good (fantastic?) game. As such I want to play SCII.
My dilemma comes in the fact that I am currently refusing to purchase anything that Activision has a stake in as their practices are so anti-consumer.
I also refuse to pay premium game prices only to be forced to be online (or jump through asinine arbitrary hoops) in order to be able to play the content I have paid for. Obviously that is single player and mutli by definition is an online game.
I'm hoping the Escapist community can help me out with this so I can make a decision based on facts and opinions of educated gamers.
so convince me either way....NOW. I COMMAND IT!
It's like this:
One of the reasons why the gaming industry does not change and engages in the practices it does is because people wind up buying their products anyway. People complain about the hoops they have to jump through, cash gouging DLC, and everything else, but typically after they have already purchused a product. If you go "ooh shiny" every time they wave the next big product in front you, and run out to buy the game, why should they bother to change? Your like a cash bag addicted to heroin (and games are your heroin). This is exactly why they focus on "Triple A" titles (there are no small titles for them to lose thieir money on as you 'teach them a lesson' allegedly through something you really didn't care about), and one of the reasons why Bobby Kotick can act like he does, and why I think he does it to appeal to other companies and investors: he's counting on the fact that he can act like a complete jerk and people are still going to buy his product. Right now all he has to do is point to his current behavior, and then point to "Starcraft II" sales figures. Whether or not "Activision" actually dictates policy to "Blizzard" is more or less irrelevent since they own it and are going to be getting the profits. Giving "Blizzard" the independance they posses is a profit motivated desician more than anything.
If you want other reasons, consider that they also did things like increase the price $10 over what PC software normally retails for. You buy this it proves that people will buy a "AAA" title for the extra $10 and encourage a coordinated price raise.
On top of this, consider that the game also seems to have been deceptively marketed. From what I'm reading a lot of people didn't realize that there was only one "Campaign" included in the game and it doesn't tell the full story. Perhaps this was on the internet and game sites somewhere, but a lot of people were irritated about this when they actually purchused the product. People could have been enforced of this en-masse but probably weren't for a reason. So what this means is that your ultimatly paying $10 more than normal for part of a product. Sort of like taking a three hour movie, and cutting it into 90 minute chunks so you can sell two admission tickets and make twice as much money off of it, though in this case they seem to be slicing it into three parts. Buy into this, it encourages similar behavior.
What's more Starcraft 2 was also being presented as having this epic budget, that's part of a marketing gimmick nowadays because people figure "if they are spending that much money, it must be good", it wasn't until after release that we were hearing that the game didn't actually take all *that* much money to produce, and while what is there is impressive it's also not the full package people were expecting, and had that belief reinforced by the amount of money being spent.
Agree or disagree, these are all arguements that can be made for why you shouldn't buy the product. Note that they have very little to do with the game itself, which is apparently quite good.
The people screaming "you should buy it" and the pressure to play online while everyone is currently doint it, nd it's "hot" are things the companies are relying on. They are akin to the voices of the devil. I think you (and many others) know you shouldn't be supporting it, and figure "well I'll pass on the next one" but at the same time you probably deep down inside figure you won't, and in the end that is what keeps Activision and other companies doing the things they are doing right now.
Things have to start out small, right now "Starcraft 2" has already sold a ton, however if you want to make a differance be one of the first people to say 'no' keep at it with the next few products no matter how awesome, and take the high ground that you also passed on other products. Communicate skepticism at claims made about games before release, especially when the company is playing it's cards close to it's chest, and understand that if you don't rush out to buy the products with the raising prices and get enough people to do the same, companies will slowly come around to lowering prices to a more reasonable level.
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Oh and for the record, I have defended "Starcraft 2" in other threads, however since I'm not a huge RTS fanatic (despite having enjoyed the original quite a bit) it wasn't that big a deal for me, I figure I'd get it in a year or so for less money in all likelyhood.
That said other games (ironically in a similar genere) like Ubisoft's latest "Settlers" game which I had every intention of buying were games I rallied the will power to not purchuse due to company policies.
At any rate here is the best arguement I can make for why you shouldn't buy it.
