Meg
Well-known Member
WARNING: You are about to read a really long essay that does not care if it offends you!
I will be revising this as I see fit. now without further ado:
Why It's Not Just About the Games
The reboot got me thinking. Why is it that people seem to allow those above them to disrespect them and take advantage of them? Why are companies allowed to laugh at their fans and disregard their complaints? It’s because gamers let them. Why? I have asked this before and got responses along the lines of “because I don’t care what a company acts like. If a game is good I’ll by it.” That same way of thinking can be applied to other problems in the games industry as well. For instance, online passes and day one DLC (some of which is locked on the disc) makes playing complete games harder, but gamers take it because they want their game even if it means paying full price for an unfinished product. I have to ask why.
If you buy DLC because you want the complete game, even if it bothers you, then you are encouraging companies to keep doing it. If hardly anyone bought DLC then companies wouldn’t do it anymore. Gamers would get their complete game without having to pay more for it. By buying a game made by a disrespectful developer you are encouraging the attitude. Developers are only going to push gamers as far as they can go and take as much as they can. You are only as good to them as your money. In any other aspect of life people would not stand being disrespected and cheated. Right?
I don’t think so. At first I thought the problem existed within gaming culture and gamer mentality, but after looking at the situation more closely (or really more broadly) I found that the “I want my game regardless of how I get it” mentality is not just exclusive to gamers.
Look at it this way, there are two sides: developers and gamers. The developers are the ones that make and release the games into the world. They have control over what gets put into a game. They are the higher power. Gamers are the consumers. Gamers buy the product at the price the developer decides. If they want to play the game then they have to buy it. They are the lower power.
Throughout history there is a cycle of “the higher power” slowing but surely abusing the lower power which causes tension. At first many on the lower end won’t think it’s that bad and the higher power tightens its grip. Eventually more and more people of the lower power get angry enough at their situation and rebel.
For example, the American Revolution was started because the colonies were being taxed heavily. That may seem like a poor reason to start a war, but look at it this way: the colonies were largely ignored by England for years. Then when they were at war with Spain they started taxing the colonies for money. Many colonists thought this was unfair considering they were hardly members of England anyway (they didn’t even have representation in Parliament). While many colonists were opposed to war there were enough in support of it that a war broke out. Was this war caused by a bunch of trigger happy idiots, or by people who only saw a bad situation getting worse and decided to act on it sooner rather than later?
Let’s look at another example. The first wave of American feminism was centered around women gaining the right to vote. Women had been silenced for years, with Freud’s theories dominating psychology. Eventually women (alongside some men) had enough and fought for their right. They eventually won and things were looking good for American women. They proved themselves during WWII that they could hold their own in the work force. Then WWII ended and women were pushed back in to the home. Throughout the fifties and sixties women went about their task of being a housewife all the while silently wanting more. In 1963 The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published. This book shattered “the problem that has no name” and jump started the second wave of American feminism. The National Organization for Women was founded a few years later.
Now you are probably wondering what all this has to do with video games. Allow me to explain. In both of these cases a higher power was abusing a lower power. Eventually the lower power had enough and rebelled. Now apply this to the current state of the video game industry. Developers, the higher power, are ripping off gamers, the lower power, with DLC all the while disrespecting them. Some gamers are already beginning to rebel. I, for one, no longer by games at full price and will not be buying games made by rude and ignorant development teams. A minority of gamers are also following in similar ways.
While it is a minority right now, more will be sure to follow as things get worse (and they will get worse). Or will they? Will gamers realize that this is not a simple case of greedy developers and hypersensitive gamers, but another part of the cycle that has been going on for years? If gamers do not step up now then it will get worse. Either gamers step up and stop supporting what the developers are doing in time for the developers to backpedal and stop abusing gamers wallets, or the industry continues downhill and eventually breaks completely.
So, why are gamers okay with the way they are being treated? Is it just part of the cycle, or is there more to it? Look at it this way, economic problems are known to take a toll on a person, especially men. It is considered masculine to be able to support yourself and your family. With more and more people losing their job in this global economic crap-pot the pressure is especially put on men. Women can have a job if they want one. Men are expected to have one. Gamers are made up of mostly men.
When people are faced with economic problems they can get desperate, even if it is subconscious. Because men feel pressure to have a job, but either can’t get one, or have one but it is low paying they can be subconsciously affected. During the Great Depression many people were frightened and desperate, but they still had their integrity. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback, a book that brilliantly portrays what the people of the Mid West had to go through features characters that were set on working for money. When the main characters, the Joad family, reached California looking for work they were met with hostility from the locals. They found refuge in a camp made up of people like them, those who were kicked off their land. They had access to food and shelter, but decided to leave because they wanted to work for those things, not have them handed to them.
In today’s world many people feel more entitled. (Like the people who threw a fit because they couldn’t get a 42” door buster TV at Best Buy for $199 on Black Friday.) People do not want to work anymore. They want the “shiny thing” like a TV or a video game to be handed to them and so long as they get “the shiny thing” they don’t care how they get it or how they are treated by the people giving it to them.
Quite simply, people have lost integrity and self-respect. They lost their pride as well, but the good kind of pride that comes from working for something and standing up for yourself. Instead people now have a pride that makes them feel entitled to want they want and no longer care about how they are treated.
In the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand one character explains to another that (in the book’s world) Atlas, the Greek titan who holds up the world, is shaking, bleeding, and knees buckling as he struggles to hold the weight of the world. The character then proceeds to say that he would advise Atlas to shrug.
I believe that is what is happening. The world goes in cycles: “Atlas” holds up the world until it becomes too heavy, then he shrugs. The world falls apart and you have things like women being oppressed and more recently gamers’ wallets being abused. Then when he regains his strength Atlas picks the world back up again and you have things like the second and now third wave of feminism was well as the American Revolution.
Metaphors aside, the world is in the part of its cycle were things fall apart and decay. However, it is society that is decaying. While it is possible to stop the games industry from getting worse, the only way it can be done is if enough gamers say no to the way they are being treated. Don’t buy DLC, don’t buy an unfinished game at full price, and don’t let a development team disrespect you. We are all people and we can either stand together and stop the games industry from getting worse, and in doing so protect the things we are all about in the first place: the games, or we can shrug our shoulders and not care. The choice is yours, but keep in mind that there have been many instances of a higher power taking advantage of a lower power until it becomes too extreme to handle and the lower power rebels. History likes to repeat itself. Why let the situation get worse before it gets better? Stand up now and prevent things from getting worse.
I will be revising this as I see fit. now without further ado:
Why It's Not Just About the Games
The reboot got me thinking. Why is it that people seem to allow those above them to disrespect them and take advantage of them? Why are companies allowed to laugh at their fans and disregard their complaints? It’s because gamers let them. Why? I have asked this before and got responses along the lines of “because I don’t care what a company acts like. If a game is good I’ll by it.” That same way of thinking can be applied to other problems in the games industry as well. For instance, online passes and day one DLC (some of which is locked on the disc) makes playing complete games harder, but gamers take it because they want their game even if it means paying full price for an unfinished product. I have to ask why.
If you buy DLC because you want the complete game, even if it bothers you, then you are encouraging companies to keep doing it. If hardly anyone bought DLC then companies wouldn’t do it anymore. Gamers would get their complete game without having to pay more for it. By buying a game made by a disrespectful developer you are encouraging the attitude. Developers are only going to push gamers as far as they can go and take as much as they can. You are only as good to them as your money. In any other aspect of life people would not stand being disrespected and cheated. Right?
I don’t think so. At first I thought the problem existed within gaming culture and gamer mentality, but after looking at the situation more closely (or really more broadly) I found that the “I want my game regardless of how I get it” mentality is not just exclusive to gamers.
Look at it this way, there are two sides: developers and gamers. The developers are the ones that make and release the games into the world. They have control over what gets put into a game. They are the higher power. Gamers are the consumers. Gamers buy the product at the price the developer decides. If they want to play the game then they have to buy it. They are the lower power.
Throughout history there is a cycle of “the higher power” slowing but surely abusing the lower power which causes tension. At first many on the lower end won’t think it’s that bad and the higher power tightens its grip. Eventually more and more people of the lower power get angry enough at their situation and rebel.
For example, the American Revolution was started because the colonies were being taxed heavily. That may seem like a poor reason to start a war, but look at it this way: the colonies were largely ignored by England for years. Then when they were at war with Spain they started taxing the colonies for money. Many colonists thought this was unfair considering they were hardly members of England anyway (they didn’t even have representation in Parliament). While many colonists were opposed to war there were enough in support of it that a war broke out. Was this war caused by a bunch of trigger happy idiots, or by people who only saw a bad situation getting worse and decided to act on it sooner rather than later?
Let’s look at another example. The first wave of American feminism was centered around women gaining the right to vote. Women had been silenced for years, with Freud’s theories dominating psychology. Eventually women (alongside some men) had enough and fought for their right. They eventually won and things were looking good for American women. They proved themselves during WWII that they could hold their own in the work force. Then WWII ended and women were pushed back in to the home. Throughout the fifties and sixties women went about their task of being a housewife all the while silently wanting more. In 1963 The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published. This book shattered “the problem that has no name” and jump started the second wave of American feminism. The National Organization for Women was founded a few years later.
Now you are probably wondering what all this has to do with video games. Allow me to explain. In both of these cases a higher power was abusing a lower power. Eventually the lower power had enough and rebelled. Now apply this to the current state of the video game industry. Developers, the higher power, are ripping off gamers, the lower power, with DLC all the while disrespecting them. Some gamers are already beginning to rebel. I, for one, no longer by games at full price and will not be buying games made by rude and ignorant development teams. A minority of gamers are also following in similar ways.
While it is a minority right now, more will be sure to follow as things get worse (and they will get worse). Or will they? Will gamers realize that this is not a simple case of greedy developers and hypersensitive gamers, but another part of the cycle that has been going on for years? If gamers do not step up now then it will get worse. Either gamers step up and stop supporting what the developers are doing in time for the developers to backpedal and stop abusing gamers wallets, or the industry continues downhill and eventually breaks completely.
So, why are gamers okay with the way they are being treated? Is it just part of the cycle, or is there more to it? Look at it this way, economic problems are known to take a toll on a person, especially men. It is considered masculine to be able to support yourself and your family. With more and more people losing their job in this global economic crap-pot the pressure is especially put on men. Women can have a job if they want one. Men are expected to have one. Gamers are made up of mostly men.
When people are faced with economic problems they can get desperate, even if it is subconscious. Because men feel pressure to have a job, but either can’t get one, or have one but it is low paying they can be subconsciously affected. During the Great Depression many people were frightened and desperate, but they still had their integrity. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback, a book that brilliantly portrays what the people of the Mid West had to go through features characters that were set on working for money. When the main characters, the Joad family, reached California looking for work they were met with hostility from the locals. They found refuge in a camp made up of people like them, those who were kicked off their land. They had access to food and shelter, but decided to leave because they wanted to work for those things, not have them handed to them.
In today’s world many people feel more entitled. (Like the people who threw a fit because they couldn’t get a 42” door buster TV at Best Buy for $199 on Black Friday.) People do not want to work anymore. They want the “shiny thing” like a TV or a video game to be handed to them and so long as they get “the shiny thing” they don’t care how they get it or how they are treated by the people giving it to them.
Quite simply, people have lost integrity and self-respect. They lost their pride as well, but the good kind of pride that comes from working for something and standing up for yourself. Instead people now have a pride that makes them feel entitled to want they want and no longer care about how they are treated.
In the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand one character explains to another that (in the book’s world) Atlas, the Greek titan who holds up the world, is shaking, bleeding, and knees buckling as he struggles to hold the weight of the world. The character then proceeds to say that he would advise Atlas to shrug.
I believe that is what is happening. The world goes in cycles: “Atlas” holds up the world until it becomes too heavy, then he shrugs. The world falls apart and you have things like women being oppressed and more recently gamers’ wallets being abused. Then when he regains his strength Atlas picks the world back up again and you have things like the second and now third wave of feminism was well as the American Revolution.
Metaphors aside, the world is in the part of its cycle were things fall apart and decay. However, it is society that is decaying. While it is possible to stop the games industry from getting worse, the only way it can be done is if enough gamers say no to the way they are being treated. Don’t buy DLC, don’t buy an unfinished game at full price, and don’t let a development team disrespect you. We are all people and we can either stand together and stop the games industry from getting worse, and in doing so protect the things we are all about in the first place: the games, or we can shrug our shoulders and not care. The choice is yours, but keep in mind that there have been many instances of a higher power taking advantage of a lower power until it becomes too extreme to handle and the lower power rebels. History likes to repeat itself. Why let the situation get worse before it gets better? Stand up now and prevent things from getting worse.
And what does "Aha" mean?
