The Video Game Critic

I'm honestly at the point now where I just may turn to purchasing only independent games on PC through places like Humble Bundle and GOG because of the way things are these days. Even Nintendo, who used to be a marquee value friendly company, is turning to pay per play online with mandatory Google Play/App Store app to even use some of the online features like chat and lobbies. Throw in pay-to-unlock figurines and they've become nearly as bad as the rest.

If you're keeping up with the industry, here are some of the great things going on now and have taken focus on some of the recent trailers and announcements lately:

- Mandatory pay to play online via PSN/Live/Nintendo Network
- Back catalog "subscription" services in addition, with PSNow/Xbox Game Pass/EA Access
- Console specific marketing 'exclusives' such as betas and features (PS4 with Red Dead, Call of Duty, among others)
- Retailer specific marketing 'exclusives' (Call of Duty "Pro" Edition - Only at Gamestop)
- Pay to "enjoy", where its nearly impossible acquiring new/cool items unless you pay (Overwatch/Grand Theft Auto Online)
- Gambling "gacha" mechanisms to hooked "whales" to lose money on superficial items (heavy mobile like Fire Embled Heroes, EA/MLB Sports "packs", many others)
- "Season/Deluxe pass" content that splits the user base with different maps/characters (Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Call of Duty WWII)
- Plastic consumer clutter that may or may not unlock in-game items (Amiibos, special edition figurines, trinkets, cases, etc)
- Super duper versions of the games you bought on newer consoles in the same generation (PS4, XBox Scorpio)
- Extraneous crap that ties in to you buying or using other things to get the "full experience" (4K, VR, Smartphone apps)

These are just off the top of my head. There's probably dozens of variations, or completely new marketing techniques based off the ones I've already mentioned. If there's a will for these public multibillion dollar companies to make a profit exploiting consumers, there's a way thats for sure.

This year may just be my last stand in the matter. I'm rocking a Linux distro, and can probably play independent games where 99% of this crap doesn't exist. The way the developers expend their resources on making a pure game or wasting their development time trying to find ways to go whale hunting, is an opportunity lost for a better game that you're paying money for. As the phrase goes with opportunity costs - there is no "free lunch", regardless of whether or not you avoid the above items, it still affects you one way or another, and whether you want it to or not. And I for one am completed sick and tired of it.

Commit to retro gaming, just buy a Genesis or SNES (or both) and goold old cartridges...

I just stopped a PS3/WiiU. None of the new stuff interests me. I am really leaning toward STEAM for the cool indie stuff coming out and catching up on older PC games. Seems like the best option anymore. They do flash sales and you get stuff for dirt cheap, while consoles never seem to price much down.

Persona 5. and anything else by Atlus.

This seems to be the answer to a lot of questions lately.

Get a Wii, hack it with the Homebrew channel, put roms of all your favorite games on there with their emulators, and enjoy everything up to and including the vast and under-appreciated Wii library. I can't imagine myself ever needing more than this.

I'm seriously considering PC and Steam after I've had 5 years out of my PS4.

Other than that there is 40 odd years of retro games I can indulge in.

I live near a Family Video (I'm surprised those are still around), so I just go there if I'm uncertain about a game and don't want to waste 60 bucks to find out.

Crummylion wrote:I live near a Family Video (I'm surprised those are still around), so I just go there if I'm uncertain about a game and don't want to waste 60 bucks to find out.

We got a few of them in Michigan. No Blockbusters though. I think the last one of those in Michigan closed about 5 years ago. Indiana? Ohio?

Tron wrote:

Crummylion wrote:I live near a Family Video (I'm surprised those are still around), so I just go there if I'm uncertain about a game and don't want to waste 60 bucks to find out.

We got a few of them in Michigan. No Blockbusters though. I think the last one of those in Michigan closed about 5 years ago. Indiana? Ohio?

I believe that there is still a Blockbuster operating somewhere in Indiana. Not sure how though, but I was glad to hear about it. Fort Wayne has a couple of Family Videos still too. I'm not sure what my father-in- law would do if they went out of business. I remember years ago finding a hidden gem, Obscure, at a Family Video in Toledo Back when I was in college.

Blockbuster had franchises; about 50 stayed open after the corporate stores closed. Their website lists them.

Family Video owns their own buildings; they rent out space to eating establishments & other shops people might visit when looking for an activity for the night. Don't think of them as a video distributor; think of them as a real estate developer w/a great scheme for getting complimentary businesses together.