DoveAlexa said:
Kameburger said:
As a game industry recruiter in Tokyo, I've seen first hand how these companies have shocked and essentially changed the entire industry for the worst. I could write a big long book about the chaos the sub-industry of "social games" has caused and this guy would certainly make a strong appearance in chapter 1.
Oh man, you can't just drop a huge story like that and not elaborate! Normal gamers like me are dying to see real evidence that the social games thing has in fact done us a disservice. I really want to know how things have changed. Tell meeeeee.
I suppose the qualifier that was left out would be "in my opinion," but never the less I could definitely see the desire gamers to know how this effects us. The truth is that it is not social games themselves that are inherently bad, its the process of monetizing them that becomes particularly dicey. The short version is your nostalgia, because of the success of "Social Games" will now be exploited to the shallowest extent.
Lets take for example Matsuda-san, the new head of Square Enix, comes out and says current business models are unsustainable and in need of reform [http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/05/square-enix-president-yosuke-matsuda-feels-the-company-must-reform-with-urgency/], what he means is that basically as many of you know, AAA development is too expensive and does not yield the kind of results unless you hit a home run. Actually what is implied here is that Square Enix, in order to justify their AAA dev teams, they need to start pumping out games that turn a profit. And if you want to thinking about the game that yielded Square great profits this year, you need look no further then Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. Now probably this game cost literally next to nothing to make, and yet they charge a ridiculous amount for pixel sprites of your favorite characters that you don't even get to choose (Also if you transfer them between devices you get the same number but they are all randomized). You could argue that this was an experiment, but now how much do you think the companies mobile departments have grown?
Now this is just one example, but now you have to look at the GREE bubble that collapsed last year, when their primary system of monetization, The complete Gotcha system was outlawed in Japan. Complete Gotcha, which already sounds like it's trying to steal your wallet, is a system by which you pay for a chance to role the dice for an item you might want. Whatever item you get is random, but if you want lets say, a green hat for your avatar, you can pay 100 yen (roughly 1 dollar) and get a hat, but you have no assurance that it'll be what you want, but you still payed. Essentially you're gambling for something that you may not get but instead of occasionally taking the house, like you might rarely do in vegas, you're literally just handing over Money for simple sprites that you won't even permanently keep and to top it all off which is the most important part of the system, it would be billed straight to your phone bill instead of requiring a credit card. So children with smartphones in Japan, which is a lot more then it sounds, started running up thousands of dollars in monthly credit card bills. People were pissed, the phone companies got overwhelmed dealing with all the claims, and it was outlawed, 2 years into its run.
GREE, during that time went from around 300 people to 3000 people worldwide, and built offices all around the world. Following the ban on their system, and realizing that their games were not properly localized for foreign audiences, GREE began closing offices and sacking staff or pushing them out. Now lets forget that now hundreds of game industry developers were sacked, now they are walking around attached to the stigma of being involved with the type of gaming that could least be called art in the entire industry and talented people who were offered money they would be stupid to turn down, are having trouble finding work.
Where it effects each and every one of us as gamers, is that now, every major gaming company on the planet is asking themselves not how can we create better content, but asking now, how they can squeeze another dollar not only at the purchase of one game to the next, but at every point in between as well. It's the kind of stuff the Jim Sterling was born to rant on.
I hope that makes sense, cause its late and I'm very tired... but I hate to miss a good rant.
