Crosmando: Whenever someone is complaining about the state of video games, a common mantra is always "vote with your wallet", ie if you want good video games to get made, only buy those games you think are worthy of your wallet, and the market will correct itself. But the emergence of microtransactions, lootboxes etc as an extremely profitable business strategy and so on seems to have thrown this out of the window.
So you spent $60 on a game you feel is a really quality product made with love, but for your 1 purchase literally hundreds or thousands of people spend even more money on microtransactions in games like Fortnite, Apex Legends or various phone games. These type of games are basically designed as addictive gambling schemes to get kids to spend vast amounts of money on their parents credit cards. In the East the same thing is happening with "gacha" games. From the point of view of supply and demand, publishers and developers are going to look at the billions being made by games like Fortnite and conclude that this type of game is the future.
"Vote with your wallet" implies a kind of equality in prices, but with microtransactions every game can now be turned into an almost unlimited source of revenue, 1 person is generally only going to buy the same game once, while someone can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars in 1 title with microtransactions. If it continues, almost all of gaming will end up being dominated by microtransactions in future decades.
Sadly, I see the whole "vote with your wallet" and promoting/boycotting a company on principle as noble if mostly useless efforts(and there are
better alternatives, which I will list in a minute). As you said, many gamers who "fanboy" a series/company will often outpace the ones who choose not to buy for one reason or another(same with movies/music/etc), and the microttransactions/multitudes of cosmetic DLCs, and lootboxes make a good amount of money for many companies(and as such they gravitate towards such schemes more and more).
There is hope, however. Many gamers will eventually get sick of such "genres"/mechanics styles, and the pendulum will switch back in time. Until then, we have indie companies/a few AA devs/kickstarter devs/etc to fill the niche.
As for better alternatives to voting with one's wallet: One can promote/soapbox for a game/game company's vile practices via the big platforms(youtube/twitter/facebook/etc) or via smaller forums and sites. Word of mouth can eventually lead to pressure put on companies to change(or action being taken like with some gov't banning game lootboxes).
One can also fund kickstarters for companies/games they like(as with most media). This gives the gamer with taste something to play/indulge in while the masses eat up the latest fortApexOverNite.
rtcvb32: I don't pay more than $20 for any single game. I don't pay micro-transactions, and i've spent less than $10 on games in the last 3 years.
I'm voting with my wallet.
People need to realize, digital goods are fleeting. Fornight, if you spend $1000 on items, and the server shuts down... where is your $1000 in goods? It's poof!
At least with CD's, DVD's or games you can play offline, you can still play those on your own time. Online? Makes no sense to me.
1. How have you managed to keep up your gaming backlog by only spending $10 total in 3 years? 0.o
2. The same could be said with DLC for console titles(storyline....once it's DL'd it's fine, but if you lose your console/it gets damaged you can lose your data....especially if you can't get another console to recover your account on. Also true if the console's serves ever shut down and you need to re-dl that DLC data/patches). I wonder: Should archives exist/be made for DLC(story/etc) & patches for(good) AAA console titles? :\
dudalb: Mobile games follow Sturgeons Law:90% of anything is crap.
Similar could be said for 50% of all Wii/etc titles(shovelware/etc) & some irl stuff as well.
KiNgBrAdLeY7: I always vote with my wallet. Requires lots of patience and a healthy pinch of determination, but i am always up for it...
Diablo missing Expansion and soundtrack? No, thank you.
Warcraft 2 being locked in Battlenet edition, missing original version and soundtrack? No, thank you.
Old policies and principles being axed? Wallet trimmed and axed, in retrospect.
Imo, if a game IP holder says GOG can't post some content then it's not GOG's decision & they shouldn't be penalized for it. Plus, some of the content is(legally in some areas) available via mod/etc sites for DL/install(such as Quake 1/2's music).
As for other principles(I assume you mean of GOG) being axed....well some were caused by IP holder pressures, and again are not up to GOG(unless they want to stop selling that IP holder's games and/or stop assciating with that company entirely....and i'm guessing GOG wants to be able to bring more classic games to the service and not less[within reason])
I support you sticking by your guns, though.
