FTFY
Seriously, does anyone really remember how gaming actually was back in the day? You say companies used to make games with the entire content in there already? Of course they did...you know why? BECAUSE THERE WASN'T MUCH CONTENT TO BEGIN WITH COMPARED TO WHAT WE HAVE NOW. Y'all need to get off my lawn; I've been playing video games since before most of today's gamers were born.
I still vividly remember playing sports games that had
no franchise or career modes,
no ability to trade players (or the function was way too simplistic),
no ability to create your own players, and
no throwback jerseys. Wanna update your rosters for the new season? Gotta pay full price for next year's edition, because there aren't enough create-a-player spots to throw in every rookie that just got drafted, and you can't edit existing players' attributes either! Michael Jordan? Who's that? We got ROSTER PLAYER SG instead! Today we have motherfucking NBA 2K12, containing
all of those options, including the official Jordan.
I remember going through countless racing games that only let you pick from a few generic no-name cars and race on bland, repetitive tracks that were barely distinguishable from one another. Today? Need for Speed: Shift 2 lets you pick from dozens of
real cars and race on
realistic tracks! Don't like the look of your stock car? Don't just change the paint job, THROW SOME D'S ON THAT BITCH. And that's all available with a normal purchase, no DLC or anything. Oh yeah, and this game was published by big bad
EA.
Find achievements annoying? We didn't have objectives that challenged us to play the game in different ways back then...we just had the high score. We played for A FUCKING NUMBER, and there were very few ways to get to that number. Today, not only will a game suggest trying to complete a mission without firing a bullet, it will let me show off a badge as proof that I did it.
Did someone say Killer Instinct? A fighting game that let you pick from only 10 characters and limited your opponents to whoever was in the room with you? And how much did that cartridge cost again? Meanwhile, Super Street Fighter IV is available on Steam for $40 and comes with 35 characters and the ability to play online without having to pay extra.
Super Mario 64 was fun, right? Running around with 360 degrees of freedom, exploring different worlds and such. I enjoyed that too...that's why I couldn't help but feel blown away when I picked up Just Cause 2 this year, packed with so much detail and gameplay abilities in a ridiculously huge world, things that were simply not possible in the '90s. Even if I paid full price for JC2 it probably still would have cost me less than what I spent for Super Mario 64, yet it offered so much more. I wasn't forced to buy the DLC for it either but did anyway because it was all on sale, and it turns out the game is just as fun without those extras (maybe even more so, since I can't just pick up ammo for the extra guns like I do for the normal ones).
What about first person shooters, today's most popular genre? Without the modding community, Doom was originally just a very basic game with few weapons and everyone essentially playing the same character in multiplayer. Today? Team Fortress 2 with it's 9 distinct player classes, many game modes, maps, and weapons, and it's all available
for free...and if you really want a premium account, simply buy one item from the store
for as little as 49 cents.
Seriously, what the hell are we raging about now? A FUCKING PAINTBALL MODE??? A completely cosmetic option that does nothing except change the color of blood and bullet marks? You mean to tell me that HD graphics, new missions and a new engine aren't enough to make up for losing the forgettable ability to throw fucking colored dots on the wall??? That MIGHT have added value to a game after playing for hours on the same tiny maps against the same three people on a blurry 13" CRT with splitscreen, but
it certainly wasn't a selling point for the original game and shouldn't be treated like one now.
Look, I know some of these sales tactics today seem kinda shady and are rightly deserving of scrutiny and criticism, but can we at least have a realistic look at how things actually are instead of coming off as whining for the sake of whining? Just because
some publishers are doing these things to
some games doesn't mean it's happening to
every game or that it's a guarantee that it will. All these slippery slope arguments and "OMG EVERYTHING'S GOING TO SHIT NOW" circlejerking being thrown around do nothing more than overshadow the legitimate gripes and cause them to lose credibility; it's the same immature bullshit pollluting movie and music discussions.
And remember,
you don't have to buy and play every single game that comes out, so stop talking as if you're being forced to. The entire video game market doesn't revolve around a few franchises or companies...ironically it probably did back in "the good old days" but this hasn't been the case for years.
I just had to finally get all this off my chest. I'm not here to excuse bad behavior within the industry (like I said, some shit deserves to be called out), but the silly exaggerations go too far sometimes and I just wanna balance the discussion before it goes full retard. Video games are meant for enjoyment and entertainment, and there are more things to enjoy than ever, so let's enjoy them.
Topic: The Gaming Postwhoring Thread (Read 1004134 times)