Posted April 17, 2015
low rated
IMO, 2014 was a disaster of a year for new video games. As far as I know, there were no good original games (not including expansions) made in 2014, and I didn't buy any video games in 2014 (again, excluding expansions and DLCs)
Always hoping this year will be better, however I'm not expecting it. And surprisingly, DRM isn't even near the top of my list of why I can't find good new video games anymore.
While we all hate DRM, for me, I avoid supporting companies that put DRM and other crap in their products as a matter of principle rather than practice. A comparison of DRM in principle versus DRM in practice:
DRM in principle:
-No refunds or reselling
-End-user has no rights and your service may be discontinued at any time for any reason (or no reason)
-Publisher reserves the right to screw up your machine, including breaking your DVD drive, damaging your solid-state drive, snooping on your computer and Internet communications (despite the fact that people in the U.S. are supposed to have the right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution, big government and big corporations all too often collaborate and make "exceptions" to anti-snooping laws when the snooping is done in the name of "protecting the nation"/enforcing copyrights/insert some other lame unconstitutional reason here). Bottom line: The U.S. has become as corrupt as a third-world nation - it's just better at hiding it than the third-world nations.
-Buying products with DRM is just rewarding and encouraging it
DRM in practice:
-Buy games on Steam at 80% discount or save money on bundles
-Steam has an offline mode, so you aren't locked out of your library if you lose your internet connection for a day.
-Not really that much of a problem in practice since 95% of PC game developers, their uncles, and their dogs publish on Steam.
So... what's really ruining video games?
----------------
#1: Competitive/PvP/E-Sports
The main reasons for video games IMO:
-Entertainment without other people being able to barge into your game and turn it upside down or grief it.
-Rest and relaxation - it's your time off after a day's work.
-Exploring virtual worlds.
With those principles in mind: I absolutely HATE PvP/competitive games/e-sports.
PvP in a nutshell:
-Cheaters/griefers. Except that they only get tossed out of the game if they're detected or reported.
-Toxic communities.
-No rest or relaxation; play to win rather than play to enjoy
-No exploration, instead just competing on the same set of maps.
I can't begin to describe how many potentially good games I've been denied because they were PvP focused. Roughly 80% I browse through new game releases and immediately click the "Next" button when I see "PvP oriented" or similar.
Does every FPS/TPS need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
Does every strategy game need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
---------------------
#2: Dark/gritty/gory/horror/zombies
Ever since 2008, it's almost like every premium game has been rated ESRB M (Mature 17+). While I'm old enough that the age limits aren't a problem for me, I consider dark/gritty/horror to be largely distasteful and unoriginal.
-It's disrespectful to my computer's CPU and video card. Every virtual blood splat and/or other gory effect is unneeded extra work for my CPU and video card.
-It's disrespectful to the end-user. I find dark/gritty/gory/horror to be distasteful, and I would rather be able to see my character's surroundings instead of aesthetically unflattering digital blood and gore everywhere.
Around 6 years ago, I refused to buy or support anything rated Mature or above. With every new year, the number of new premium games rated ESRB T or below kept decreasing and almost every new premium game was rated ESRB M. I had no choice but to re-evaluate my content standards - my new rule is "ESRB T or below is highly preferred, ESRB M rated games will be evaluated and previewed individually". (It doesn't help that the ESRB has been very inconsistent with their ratings in the last 8 years).
Even with my newer and more permissive content standards, premium games in recent years have had a nasty habit of pushing the limits of what's acceptable.
I'm tired of dark/gritty.
I'm tired of zombies/vampires/werewolves/horror.
I'm tired of unnecessary distasteful virtual gore.
I'm tired of the same old crap year-in, year-out.
When does it stop?
Am I the only person who has a sense of decency remaining?
---------------------
#3: Centralized Online.
MMOs. I used to like them, then I learned that I hated MMOs over several years. Every MMO that I've spent money on, I regretted it later. So I stopped buying MMOs and switched to freemium MMOs. Those turned out to be money-grubbing crap as well, so I quit MMOs.
Even the centralized online non-massive online games have been crap recently as well.
Here's what I hate about centralized online games:
-Publisher/developer always controls the game balance and content. This means that you are constantly at the mercy of the nerf bat. If the servers go down, you can't play.
-No mods, character editing, or manual saves. If you screw up, the result of your mistake gets written into your save file on the remote server - there's no way to reload your game and do things differently.
-Grinding and farming / game as work instead of enjoyment. There's a toxic mentality in a lot of online games that people should have to "work for their rewards" in a GAME. I'm a productive member of society with a full-time job, why the hell should I have to #*%&ing put in effort to "earn rewards" in a GAME (that's supposed to be my TIME OFF after a day's work)??? Just give me a singleplayer offline game with console commands or a save file editor, if I want an in-game item and have no time to "earn" it, I will just enter a console command or edit my save file.
-Centralized online = subscription fees and money-grubbing.
The main problem: there's way too much online in modern video games. It's always this online, that online, whatever garbage online. Some scummy publishers even go as far as to add microtransaction advantages in otherwise offline games.
tl;dr; I've had enough of this "every video game online" crap, just give me a solo game already!
-----------------
Rant over.
Always hoping this year will be better, however I'm not expecting it. And surprisingly, DRM isn't even near the top of my list of why I can't find good new video games anymore.
While we all hate DRM, for me, I avoid supporting companies that put DRM and other crap in their products as a matter of principle rather than practice. A comparison of DRM in principle versus DRM in practice:
DRM in principle:
-No refunds or reselling
-End-user has no rights and your service may be discontinued at any time for any reason (or no reason)
-Publisher reserves the right to screw up your machine, including breaking your DVD drive, damaging your solid-state drive, snooping on your computer and Internet communications (despite the fact that people in the U.S. are supposed to have the right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution, big government and big corporations all too often collaborate and make "exceptions" to anti-snooping laws when the snooping is done in the name of "protecting the nation"/enforcing copyrights/insert some other lame unconstitutional reason here). Bottom line: The U.S. has become as corrupt as a third-world nation - it's just better at hiding it than the third-world nations.
-Buying products with DRM is just rewarding and encouraging it
DRM in practice:
-Buy games on Steam at 80% discount or save money on bundles
-Steam has an offline mode, so you aren't locked out of your library if you lose your internet connection for a day.
-Not really that much of a problem in practice since 95% of PC game developers, their uncles, and their dogs publish on Steam.
So... what's really ruining video games?
----------------
#1: Competitive/PvP/E-Sports
The main reasons for video games IMO:
-Entertainment without other people being able to barge into your game and turn it upside down or grief it.
-Rest and relaxation - it's your time off after a day's work.
-Exploring virtual worlds.
With those principles in mind: I absolutely HATE PvP/competitive games/e-sports.
PvP in a nutshell:
-Cheaters/griefers. Except that they only get tossed out of the game if they're detected or reported.
-Toxic communities.
-No rest or relaxation; play to win rather than play to enjoy
-No exploration, instead just competing on the same set of maps.
I can't begin to describe how many potentially good games I've been denied because they were PvP focused. Roughly 80% I browse through new game releases and immediately click the "Next" button when I see "PvP oriented" or similar.
Does every FPS/TPS need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
Does every strategy game need to be PvP oriented? no. Yet the vast majority of them are.
---------------------
#2: Dark/gritty/gory/horror/zombies
Ever since 2008, it's almost like every premium game has been rated ESRB M (Mature 17+). While I'm old enough that the age limits aren't a problem for me, I consider dark/gritty/horror to be largely distasteful and unoriginal.
-It's disrespectful to my computer's CPU and video card. Every virtual blood splat and/or other gory effect is unneeded extra work for my CPU and video card.
-It's disrespectful to the end-user. I find dark/gritty/gory/horror to be distasteful, and I would rather be able to see my character's surroundings instead of aesthetically unflattering digital blood and gore everywhere.
Around 6 years ago, I refused to buy or support anything rated Mature or above. With every new year, the number of new premium games rated ESRB T or below kept decreasing and almost every new premium game was rated ESRB M. I had no choice but to re-evaluate my content standards - my new rule is "ESRB T or below is highly preferred, ESRB M rated games will be evaluated and previewed individually". (It doesn't help that the ESRB has been very inconsistent with their ratings in the last 8 years).
Even with my newer and more permissive content standards, premium games in recent years have had a nasty habit of pushing the limits of what's acceptable.
I'm tired of dark/gritty.
I'm tired of zombies/vampires/werewolves/horror.
I'm tired of unnecessary distasteful virtual gore.
I'm tired of the same old crap year-in, year-out.
When does it stop?
Am I the only person who has a sense of decency remaining?
---------------------
#3: Centralized Online.
MMOs. I used to like them, then I learned that I hated MMOs over several years. Every MMO that I've spent money on, I regretted it later. So I stopped buying MMOs and switched to freemium MMOs. Those turned out to be money-grubbing crap as well, so I quit MMOs.
Even the centralized online non-massive online games have been crap recently as well.
Here's what I hate about centralized online games:
-Publisher/developer always controls the game balance and content. This means that you are constantly at the mercy of the nerf bat. If the servers go down, you can't play.
-No mods, character editing, or manual saves. If you screw up, the result of your mistake gets written into your save file on the remote server - there's no way to reload your game and do things differently.
-Grinding and farming / game as work instead of enjoyment. There's a toxic mentality in a lot of online games that people should have to "work for their rewards" in a GAME. I'm a productive member of society with a full-time job, why the hell should I have to #*%&ing put in effort to "earn rewards" in a GAME (that's supposed to be my TIME OFF after a day's work)??? Just give me a singleplayer offline game with console commands or a save file editor, if I want an in-game item and have no time to "earn" it, I will just enter a console command or edit my save file.
-Centralized online = subscription fees and money-grubbing.
The main problem: there's way too much online in modern video games. It's always this online, that online, whatever garbage online. Some scummy publishers even go as far as to add microtransaction advantages in otherwise offline games.
tl;dr; I've had enough of this "every video game online" crap, just give me a solo game already!
-----------------
Rant over.