Poll: Worst gaming trend?

[Greg White]

Online only DRM, no question. Microtransactions/F2P are annoying, but generally avoidable for any decent game, journalism corruption is avoidable by checking out multiple sources for gaming opinions, DLC/Season Passes I just avoid unless they're for a game I actually like(Dark Souls 2, for example), and I have no problems with early access as a concept, just that some of the games on there are kinda bad.

Misleading trailers does run a close second, especially after the fiasco that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, but always online DRM is a major deal breaker for many games. MMO's can get away with it since being online is a vital part of their functionality, but for single-player games there's just no excuse.

 

[Dalisclock]

Online DRM for single player games(which never needed it in the first place). Mutiplayer obviously requires a connection but there's never been a reason to require you to connect to a server for a single player experience, so they need to stop forcing it. Not to mention, someday when a company whose name rhymes with boobysoft decides that they don't want to spend money to maintain the servers anymore and oops, I guess I'm never playing that game again(Unless I become a dirty pirate and find a crack somewhere, if there is one).

Microtransactions I dislike in 2 flavors:
1.)Where the game is designed to make you buy the extra weapons/tools/gems in order to actually progress(Hey, EA. Didn't see you there)
2.) putting out DLC that really should have been part of the core game(and then charging another 20 bucks for it)(again, Hey EA and Bioware).

OTOH, In some cases it's not bad. Saints Row will offer you a bunch of DLC on steam and you don't need to buy any of it to play/enjoy/progress through the game.Most of it is extra costumes anyway, though "Gangstas in Space" and "Enter the Dominatrix" was quite good.

 

[Silvanus]

I voted microtransactions. In theory, they could be handled well, but they almost always end up cheapening the experience, or making somebody who has already bought them game feel cadged into spending more.

The presence of microtransactions undermined my enjoyment of Dead Space 3, for example, which I (otherwise) felt to be a better game than it was given credit for.

Free-to-play, on the other hand, I think is quite often a good thing.

 

[Something Amyss]

Should I select "game journalism corruption" if I think it's the people crying for ethics who are the problem?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

I'm just gonna say, yes.

My personal bug bear is the huge install bases and giving consoles the major flaws of PC's without the strengths.

 

[josemlopes]

Because I'm a rather smart individual and half of these don't apply to me, I'm gonna go with misleading trailers because I wanted Evil Within to be a SURVIVAL HORROR, dammit!

Is it irony you're going for?

In a cosmic sort of way, yes

I'd also accuse the PT of Silent Hills to be misleading too if only because I hope the entire game isn't first person. Buuuuut I'll save my Silent Hill tirade for another day

They already (its even in the game if I remember correctly) that PT had nothing to do with Silent Hills, it was just a scary thing for you to solve to get access to the trailer of the game.

When Bungie did that whole weird Halo 3 thing with the cryptic messages online it didnt mean that Halo 3 was going to be played by watching videos on the internet, the same applies here even if the misterious thingy was an actual playable game that even shares the same engine. I mean, again, they say it right there that there is no relation between what is in PT with Silent Hills.


OT: For me its something that isnt on the list and has been going for longer, the complete lack of balls of most game developers/publishers and how its hard to find a game that even tries to be unique compared to recent releases. Even Halo being a rather generic thing managed to try to be even more generic, before it tried to be the console version of an arena shooter but now its borrowing stuff from Call of Duty left and right.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Because I'm a rather smart individual and half of these don't apply to me, I'm gonna go with misleading trailers because I wanted Evil Within to be a SURVIVAL HORROR, dammit!

Is it irony you're going for?

In a cosmic sort of way, yes

I'd also accuse the PT of Silent Hills to be misleading too if only because I hope the entire game isn't first person. Buuuuut I'll save my Silent Hill tirade for another day

They already (its even in the game if I remember correctly) that PT had nothing to do with Silent Hills, it was just a scary thing for you to solve to get access to the trailer of the game.

When Bungie did that whole weird Halo 3 thing with the cryptic messages online it didnt mean that Halo 3 was going to be played by watching videos on the internet, the same applies here even if the misterious thingy was an actual playable game that even shares the same engine. I mean, again, they say it right there that there is no relation between what is in PT with Silent Hills.

Oh, yeeeeah.

Forgot about that. I've slept since then

 

[Scarim Coral]

To me that would be Online Only DRM.

Sure I can understand the reason for it (tighter security against piracy) but until the day I see some kind of an free and stable online provider, DRM will only do more harm than good (I mean not EVERYONE has the internet let alone a stable one).

 

[linwolf]

Should I select "game journalism corruption" if I think it's the people crying for ethics who are the problem?

What you have a problem with expecting journalist to have ethics. How, do you want them to make deal with developers and not disclosure it. Or fire a journalist for disliking a game the the site is advertising.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

To me that would be Only Only DRM.

Sure I can understand the reason for it (tighter security against piracy) but until the day I see some kind of an free and stable online provider, DRM will only do more harm than good (I mean not EVERYONE has the internet let alone a stable one).

Indeed, internet is presumed to be free and stable everywhere.
I'm living in Sweden, a widely purported land of internet for everyone, but I'm stuck with a mostly stable wireless connection..and..and, a cap of 20gb per month.
If doggedly sticking to my old contract with a soft cap (12kpbs/down afterwards) instead of the new ones with a hard cap (0kpbs/down).

Not that I think it is excusable even if internet was free and stable.
They would still be able to lease games and pull/change games whenever they so please.

 

[Something Amyss]

What you have a problem with expecting journalist to have ethics.

Nothing. And if it wasn't a highly transparent cover for gamergate's mob mentality, I might be on their side.

But as it is, the people crying for ethics are doing so in the same sense Fox reports news, and that's the biggest problem in my book.

 

[Something Amyss]

Indeed, internet is presumed to be free and stable everywhere.
I'm living in Sweden, a widely purported land of internet for everyone, but I'm stuck with a mostly stable wireless connection..and..and, a cap of 20gb per month.
If doggedly sticking to my old contract with a soft cap (12kpbs/down afterwards) instead of the new ones with a hard cap (0kpbs/down).

Not that I think it is excusable even if internet was free and stable.
They would still be able to lease games and pull/change games whenever they so please.

It's not presumed, because presumption implies thought.

They frankly don't care. You not having access to their game is a small price to pay to stick it to "pirates."

 

[linwolf]

What you have a problem with expecting journalist to have ethics.

Nothing. And if it wasn't a highly transparent cover for gamergate's mob mentality, I might be on their side.

But as it is, the people crying for ethics are doing so in the same sense Fox reports news, and that's the biggest problem in my book.

Oh, you post was about the gamergate thing. Two groups flinging mud at each other, I really just prefer to stay out of that thing.

You post just read as a more general let them do what they want, like does argument for ending net neutrality.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Season Passes
Early Access
Microtransactions
Free to Play
Misleading trailers
Online only DRM
Game journalism corruption
Day One DLC

Now this is just cruel. How am i supposed to decide when this list is so packed with terrible practices?

 

[thedailylunatic]

I clicked "corruption" but what I really wanted to click was "Social Justice Warriors."

It pains me to think that people like Leigh Alexander are paid to be in the games industry, despite not really liking video games (she's admitted this) and totally loathing the people who play them (she wrote a bloody article saying that "Gamers are Dead").

Runners up are Online DRM and Day 1 DLC. That said, I'll gladly empty my wallet and wait for days for DRM to sync if it means that Gawker Media goes bankrupt.

 

[Nazulu]

The horror, the horror

It's too hard to pick the worst. They've all had evil scum abuse the idea. I'll add my own option and just say corruption and sheep don't mix well. It's very baaaaaaaaaaadd

 

[Dissentient]

None of the above.
The worst thing about gaming industry is AAA publishers that are too afraid of doing anything new. Most of new games are almost exactly the same as old ones in terms of gameplay and narrative. New ideas are few and far between. For example, Shadow of Mordor's nemesis system is a good mechanic, but aside from it, the game is pretty much reskinned Arkham City. I don't get why publishers are so scared to do anything differently.

 

[Eleanor Varrot]

There's so many problems, but I voted for game journalism corruption

Yes the always online DRM for xbox one was horrible, but certain games journalists were strongly advocating for it, telling us we were stupid to resist it, how we were "holding back the future" and "ruining games for everyone" by opposing it.

Yes, microtransations are terrible and can ruin games but again, games journalists were writing about how GLAD they were that microtransactions were coming to games and how we should accept them.

corrupt games journalism is what allows all these things to take root in games and makes people defend anti-consumer moves.

 

[Dr.CritSpam]

I'd have to say corruption right now. But the Escapist is actually doing a pretty good job with that whole thing. I'm really digging the transparency.