As consumers
Let me start by saying thank you. I’ve been a subscriber since I could read, and I convinced my mother to sell her Apple Mac for a Pentium III so I could play Baldur’s Gate. You guys have always been my go-to.
This has been bothering me for some time now, and something has to be said. Let me preface this with the fact I understand there is a time to complain. However, it seems to me that comment sections and forum threads have become full of entitled kids and man-children that seem to love to have a cry about everything.
As consumers, our vote and biggest say is our cash. Yet the trend seems to be to make our own minds up about what a game or product should be, purchase it under a false presumption, and then proceed to moan and review bomb. The culture on Twitch, YouTube, and the like has convinced us it’s OK to be entitled, vitriol-spewing douchebags looking for the next bandwagon to jump on. Stop. Do your research, form an opinion, and then use your purchasing power to make a point.
In the day and age of anti-loot box, anti-microtransactions, and anti-paid-for-DLC, it astounds me that these ‘opinions’ seem to totally contradict sales. And you expect a publisher to care that you’re upset when they hit target!? Appreciate and enjoy the things that work for you. That’s why we game. Support the companies that embrace your ideals and if you don’t like something, keep your cash in your wallet.
It still pains me to think about Titanfall 2. The critically acclaimed campaign with ultra-smooth gameplay that gave us free DLC, only to have no player base because we’re all hypocrites. Before you cry, look in the mirror. You’re likely more part of the problem than you realize. Jarryd Phil: The nature of online discourse is certainly broken. There’s an ugly relish with which the next target for outrage is pounced upon, and distressingly little thought ever given to the individual developers affected.
And yet, I still feel it’s too simple and neat to dismiss everyone who complains as ‘entitled’ or ‘whiny’. The industry has changed a lot over the last decade. We once laughed at Oblivion’s horse armor for being such a cash grab. Now, horse armor would be celebrated for not being pay-to-win.
Some are angry that gaming isn’t just for them anymore—that publishers have found a new, more mainstream audience. But it isn’t all gatekeepers raging against the dying of the light. AAA games demand more of your money and time, and that isn’t for everyone’s benefit.
There are no easy answers here. My advice would be to ignore the people trying to whip you up into an outrage— don’t get me started on the idea that your only worth in the player-creator relationship is as a ‘consumer’. Don’t be afraid to have a voice, but use it to praise the things you love, not just condemn the things that you don’t.